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I wish more people had the
chance to study at AUP. I was lucky enough to study there
from 2002 to 2006, double-majoring in French Studies and
History and Social Sciences. Some say undergraduate students
should focus on professional marketability and focus their
study on fields they want to work in. What could one ever do
with degrees in French Studies and History and Social
Sciences?
Independent by nature, I
followed my own mind and heart, taking courses that
genuinely interested me: French language and literature,
anthropology, psychoanalysis, cinema, and history to name a
few. All of them courses with little practical value – or so
the more vocational-minded say. But I’ve managed quite well
for myself since graduating. As a professional polyglot, I
have had the opportunity to collaborate with innovative
companies and talented people over the last four years. I’ve
translated for major international bodies. I’ve adapted film
scripts and novels. I’ve served as Guest Creative Editor for
SOON Magazine. I’ve designed creative identities for
start-up companies. I even co-founded a creative studio
combining vision and verb alongside fellow AUPer, Christian
Lundgren:
www.udfrance.com.
The French major at AUP was and
remains underrated. The program is about more than written
and oral fluency in French. It is about building bridges,
not only between the Francophone world and other cultures
but between Cultures and Peoples. All of the upper-level
French courses I took at AUP could be cross-referenced with
communications, comparative literature, international
affairs, business, philosophy or psychology. What makes the
Department unique is that professors teach language through
content analysis. French majors at AUP do not study language
for the sake of studying language. Instead, French was our
method of exchange, our linguistic looking glass, and our
analytical tool. Fluency was not an end in and of itself. To
me, the French major fostered broad-based knowledge,
linguistic competence, and the freedom of inquiry. So much
for pigeon-holing the French major into classes on grammar
and literary critique!
As for the History and Social
Sciences Department, I’m convinced few in the world offer
such an insightful and interdisciplinary look at mankind and
the societies it has built over the centuries. The
individual and the collective: the two ingredients that form
the World as we know it. Me and you. Us and them. The
History and Social Sciences major fosters awareness of the
interplay between inner and outer, between past and present.
History, sociology, psychology or anthropology – all
seemingly distinct academic fields – become pieces in one
puzzle of humanity. For me, the intellectual questions that
the program raised stretch beyond the academic field and
stoke minds to make connections in the world that transcend
space and time. Interdisciplinary scholarship is where AUP
faculty excel, and not only in this department. It is
across-the-board.
AUP alumni form a diverse group
of people. Self-motivated, passionate, eclectic,
forerunning, innovative, global, interdisciplinary… AUP is
an institution of higher learning with a different output.
AUP is a revealer of intellectual, professional, and
creative possibility but it leaves students with the
conviction that they can create their own possibilities in
life.
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