2007 Intensive Study Abroad at the Paris Research Center
May Intersession

This year students campus-wide will benefit from unique opportunities for week-long intensive study abroad. These innovative programs for intensive study abroad in Paris were expressly created to provide in-depth on-site international experiences. They include: 7 activity-rich days in Paris with meetings at the Paris Research Center, classes given on-site at the cultural, historical and political institutions you are studying, 6 nights in hotels, numerous group meals, site visits, cultural activities and UF credit.

• Download the 2007 Program Brochure
• Download the 2007 Academic Advisement Sheet

Programs Offered May Intersession 2007

Weeklong programs (May 6-11, 2007)

• International Women’s Activism in Paris: Challenges and Empowerment (Course Number TBA, 2 Credits), Professor Agnes Leslie
• Public Relations and Strategic Communication Management in Europe (PUR 4932, 2 Credits), Professor Juan-Carlos Molleda
• Commodities to Cafes: Agricultural and Food Markets in France
  (AEB 4931, 2 Credits), Professor James Sterns

Two-week programs (May 6-18, 2007)

• French in the City: Interaction and Variation
  (Course Number TBA, 3 Credits), Professor Helene Blondeau
• The Architecture of Paris: Experiments of Place
  (ARC 3291, 3 Credits), Professor Nancy Clark
• Evidence of Paris through Drawing and Digital Media
  (Course Number TBA, 3 Credits), Professors Lauren Garber & Katerie Gladdys  
• A Writer's Tour of Paris for the Five Senses
  (IDH 3931, 2 Credits), Professor Vikram Rangala

Course Descriptions

Weeklong programs (May 6-11, 2007)

International Women’s Activism in Paris: Challenges and Empowerment
(Course Number TBA, 2 Credits)
Professor Agnes Leslie

This one-week course in Paris will focus on women in international organizations based in Paris, examine women’s struggles and successes and investigate how women through the international organizations overcome these challenges. Paris hosted the first International Women's Rights Congress in 1878 and continues to be the central site for global women’s empowerment and activism.  This course will highlight international organizations based in Paris and include site visits to these places of women’s empowerment. The course will also spotlight women in politics including female ambassadors, female activists, female artist/producers who promote the cause of gender equity, and UNESCO personnel engaged in women’s empowerment.

Public Relations and Strategic Communication Management in Europe
(PUR 4932, 2 Credits)
Professor Juan-Carlos Molleda

This course is designed to introduce students to the European perspective of public relations and strategic communication management.  One goal of the course is to help students become knowledgeable of the history, current status, and trends of the profession and practice in Europe.  The introduction of contextual or environmental aspects that influence the profession and its practices in various established and emerging European markets will be introduced and analyzed, such as cultural idiosyncrasies and traditions, religion, political and legal systems, socioeconomic conditions, media infrastructure and professionalism, and levels and types of activism.  Another goal of the course is to discuss the opportunities the field offers to upcoming professionals, especially in government, transnational businesses, non-governmental organizations, and global public relations firms.  The weeklong study materials are placed into context by attending company tours and presentations of global strategic communication agencies with European networks of offices and services.

Commodities to Cafes: Agricultural and Food Markets in France
(AEB 4931, 2 Credits)
Professor James Sterns

Through an intensive six-day program, students in this course will be presented with an overview of the agricultural and food marketing system of France. Discussions, presentations and assigned reading materials will review the French approach to supply chain management (i.e., les filieres), food quality signaling in French foods, the tradition of fresh markets in France, European grocery retailing, and international agricultural trade. Students will be introduced to a wide range of perspectives about food marketing, and how French agricultural producers and food processors are able to meet the strident, quality-focused demands of their customers. The course will require students to compare French and U.S. systems of market coordination, as well as examine in depth various French differentiating strategies like the Appellation d’Origine Controlee (AOC) system, Label Rouge, Certification de Conformite, and Agriculture Biologique (AB) – the French/EU organic label.

Time in Paris will be balanced across types of activities so that cultural events, tours and visits will be incorporated into the overall program. Students should anticipate a very demanding experience that will require them to be open-minded, flexible, curious, hard working and sleep deprived!

Two-week programs (May 6-18, 2007)

French in the City: Interaction and Variation
(Course Number TBA, 3 Credits)
Professor Helene Blondeau

This course in French sociolinguistics focuses on interaction and variation in contemporary French.  Using classical case studies in French sociolinguistics, the course invites students to observe the use of the language in its social context, with Paris as their laboratory. Distinguished French linguists adopting the sociolinguistic perspective will offer some of the lectures. Each lecture will be complemented by visits of unique collections, fieldwork experiments, and hands-on activities. Students will do their own observations, and develop their analytical skills in situ.  The first part of the course will focus on interaction. Within this perspective the course will cover topics concerning the addressee forms, and the negotiation in public place in contemporary French. For example, after a lecture, the students will design an experiment, and observe how spoken French is used in public places like libraries, museums or bakeries. Students will also examine how people interact and negotiate in cafés and public markets. The second part of the course will address the notion of variation, and will cover topics concerning the various dimensions constraining the use of the language: region, social class, age, and gender. Using different types of data unavailable in the US the course will provide the students with the opportunity to observe variation in contemporary spoken French. Course will be taught in French. Pre-requisite: Intermediate French.

The Architecture of Paris: Experiments of Place
(ARC 3291, 3 Credits)
Professor Nancy Clark

Paris is a uniquely layered landscape of historical and modern architectural monuments.  Historic structures include the Louvre Palace, the Viaduct Daumesnil, the Eiffel Tower, and Labrouste’s Bibliotheque Nationale.  The late 20th century has added the modern grands projets including Parc and Cite des Sciences at La Villette, the Institute du Monde Arabe, the Bibliotheque de France, and the new design proposals for Les Halles as well as lesser known but equally important projects that have emerged out of PAN (new architecture programme), a critical component to understanding the modern fabric of the city.  This course will examine the architecture of the city of Paris as a layered artifact, constructed out of the collective social, political and economic influences embedded in its history, with a specific emphasis on Paris’ modern city image. Students will participate in several guided tours of the city and building interiors; meet with prominent Parisian architects who will discuss their work and ideas about the city; and take part in daily discussion sessions.  Course participants will be responsible for keeping a journal in which they will study and record Paris based on their own city theme.

Evidence of Paris through Drawing and Digital Media
(Course Number TBA, 3 Credits)
Professors Lauren Garber & Katerie Gladdys  

Ground truth is the evidence that one uncovers/discovers by visiting, examining, collecting and recording sensorial data of geographical location or place.  Physical engagement with a place through immersion and observation becomes a catalyst for developing a methodology for knowing and making. One place that has a history of employing this methodology for understanding place is Paris, the archetype of the pedestrian city where boundaries between interior and exterior spaces are blurred.  Modern day Paris was designed to happen “in public on the street and among society”—the markets, the cafes, the Champs Elysées, the courtyard of the Louvre and countless other places. (Solnit, 200).  Movement through public space is a lifestyle embedded in the psyche of those who inhabit Paris.

The landscape of Paris has been the muse for many great artists who found inspiration in its collection of stories, its ability to be a memory of itself, and for its rich, diverse culture. In this course, students will investigate the old and the new city, weaving the past and the present through the physicality of walking, experiencing, reflecting in the tradition of the flâneur.  As practitioners of the city, students will relate image data with known artifacts on the ground and interpret their topographical narratives into artworks. Students will use a variety of approaches to both drawing media and digital devices as resources to collect and construct images.

A Writer's Tour of Paris for the Five Senses
(IDH 3931, 2 Credits)
Professor Vikram Rangala

Travel sharpens the senses and travelers note details large and small which they would pass over at home. Writers attend with similar ardor to the details that matter to the stories they wish to tell. This course will use this heightened sensory awareness to help student-travelers, with notebook and pen always at the ready, to note the details which they alone are fit to record. We will write, speak, and amuse ourselves in and around Paris seeking stimulation and over-stimulation to one sense at a time. And we will consider how great writers, mainly American and French, have written about such stimulation. Likely locations include several musées and jardins, the gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny, a jazz club, a parfumerie, a marché (which we will browse on empty stomachs if possible) and Montmartre. You will learn and practice fundamental writing principles which apply across genres. At the end you will write an essay on what you took in.

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