This course explores the interconnectivity between the rapid evolution of media outlets and content, the contemporary ‘banalization’ of terrorist and other types of violence and their fallout over issues related to social justice. The course examines forms of social confrontation and the way these confrontations are channeled on a grand scale through mass media. Students interrogate the political, economic, cultural, and psychological implications, as well as the component of “spectatorship,” related to the growing, constant sharing of violence over public platforms and political agendas. Through the study and comparison of different cases of social controversies students learn to probe their relevance to some larger, technological and globalized frames of analysis, and also to examine the adjustments political institutions, social bodies and media actors have practiced when faced with these forms of protest in moments of crisis. 

This course examines how French cinema has become an artistic vehicle to raise social issues and push for social justice and activism. The course begins with the impact that World War II had on cinema, as films were a strategy to express opposition to Nazi Germany, a way to raise awareness, and subsequently a way to remember the horror. It will then turn to Mai 68 as a cultural movement that started as a workers’ and students’ revolt to show how cinema has portrayed a desire for social justice and activism. The course will then focus on burning issues, exploring how the banlieue is portrayed in French cinema today underscoring the importance of postcolonial issues and their filmic calls for activism. It will culminate in an examination of how feminism and LGBTQ questions are at the center of social activism, and how this art is absorbing the cultural revolution that is now taking place in the aftermath of the MeToo and Time’s Up movements. 

One of the oldest traditions in France has been la contestation: a word that can be translated as questioning, entering into a dispute, confronting, protesting or simply contesting. French history has consequently borne the imprint of this long and lively history. More often than not these movements have been led by the youth, for whom protest is a means to bring about change and right what they view as wrong. This course aims to journey through a number of such movements and investigate what was being contested, what was being proposed in its place, and what was achieved as a result. From the 19th century, where the youth often paid with their lives for their ideals, to the 20thand 21st centuries, which have experienced unprecedented levels of contestation, it examines the thinkers and intellectuals who gave and continue to give the youth the tools to question the status quo on issues such as consequences of globalization, ecological concerns, unemployment at home, and wars beyond their borders leading to major waves of migration. 

This interdisciplinary course will examine the socioeconomic and political disenfranchisement experienced by residents of the “other France” – a France comprised of working-class citizens often of immigrant origin and from France’s former colonies. It will introduce students to urban sociology by requiring that they focus on the particular problems experienced by social actors who live in economically and socially disfavored parts of Paris. Topics covered include urban sociological theories, de-facto segregation, poverty, crime, schooling, public policy, national identity, the negotiation of bi-culturality, and the French secularizing mission. Students will investigate these topics from a variety of sources, ranging from documentary film and photo-journalism to literary and cinematic expressions. Via these sources, they will become familiar with a vibrant urban “vernacular” culture that contests issues pertaining to citizen-ship, racialization and representation. 

This course is designed to engage students in a multi-disciplinary, experiential research project on migration issues through a series of set themes related to collective action. It will critically address concepts of integration, community, ethnicity, citizenship, asylum and migrants’ rights by putting them to the test through social and political mobilizations. As such, it will allow students to explore migrants’ diverse experiences as they interact with societies, cultures, and institutions with a strong emphasis on the role played by activism, such as associations for the defense of migrants’ rights, aid and support institutions, as well as local organizations. The course relies on meetings with social actors and collection of first-hand data. Research papers deal with collective action motivated by positions and identities related to migration, ethnicity, religion, anti-racism, nationalism and diversity. The focus on migration and identity is particularly relevant to developing research skills and service-learning opportunities for students.