Summer 2012 Courses at The American University of Paris - France

Uses the unsurpassed richness of the art museums of Paris as the principal teaching resource. The history of Western Art is studied through the close examination of a limited selection of major works in a variety of media. The works chosen illuminate the political, social and religious contexts of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque and Rococo periods, and the modern epoch.

Fee: Course fee will be charged for museum entrance costs, to be announced.

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the multifaceted and dynamic character of Islamic art by focusing on the highest achievements of the major dynasties. The time frame will span over one thousand years and, geographically, will cover lands from the western Mediterranean to the Indian subcontinent. Lectures will concentrate on the most representative monuments and works of art from each period. After examining the distinguishing features of the art and architecture of the principal dynasties, their salient characteristics and their greatest contributions to Islamic art as a whole, it should become evident that the field is both full of striking diversity and overall unity.

Provides a basic understanding of camera controls, optics, film, exposure and their influences on the final picture. Primarily hands-on, the course also features slide lectures, discussions, and critiques to explore photography's many genres. Equipment requirement: a 35 mm camera with a lens capable of manually setting the shutter speeds, apertures, and focus.

Fee: 117 euros

Note: Students must budget for the purchase of extra film and paper.

Provides a basic understanding of camera controls, optics, film, exposure and their influences on the final picture. Primarily hands-on, the course also features slide lectures, discussions, and critiques to explore photography's many genres. Equipment requirement: a 35 mm camera with a lens capable of manually setting the shutter speeds, apertures, and focus.

Fee: 117 euros

Note: Students must budget for the purchase of extra film and paper.

Paris and its surroundings will be used as the model for this introductory painting class. This exceptional setting has inspired artists for centuries, and students will work outside as well as study the wealth of images of Paris to develop their artistic possibilities and choose a direction for themselves. Initially, basic drawing and painting techniques will be taught with an emphasis on how to convey space, light, and volume to capture the beauty of the city. Progressively, students will be encouraged to paint in a more personal and expressive manner. Oil paint is recommended, but other media are welcome.

Fee: 48 euros

Note: Students must budget for the purchase of some art supplies.

Introduces the basics of financial accounting and reporting for corporations. Studies how to measure and record accounting data and prepare financial statements. Emphasizes the effects of transactions on the financial condition of a company and explores the technical aspects of the principles underlying published financial statements.

Introduces marketing concepts and their use in contemporary management. Considers how individuals and firms process information to make decisions, and how firms determine and meet customer demands and needs. Through lectures, discussions, case studies, and written analyses, the course examines the marketing function from a strategic and functional point of view. Considers marketing in the US and in an international context.

Provides conceptual tools for the personal and professional development of future business graduates. Explores the responsibilities of managers and those engaged in business from a deontological and consequentialist perspective. Discusses the roles and responsibilities of organizations as corporate citizens. Learning methods include the use of case studies, individual reflective thinking and group discussions.

Prerequisite: BA 2020

Focuses on identifying and solving managerial problems that occur in the production and the delivery of goods and services. Studies project management, job design, capacity and layout planning, forecasting, inventory and quality control. Includes a mixture of mathematical models and case studies that help illustrate practical applications of the concepts.

Prerequisite: BA 2020 and MA 1020

Examines works of modernist fiction writers Faulkner, Joyce, Proust, Kafka, Hemingway, Nabokov. Studies works of a second literary revolution that included Hammett, Greene, Highsmith, Himes. Other readings are Babel, Carver, Carter, Sciascia, and Daeninckx. Also studies the relationship between the best crime fiction and innovative crime films such as The Killing, Chinatown, Le Samouraï, Prizzi's Honor, and Pulp Fiction.

Introduces Web publishing. Students will learn the basics of HTML and the use of at least one HTML editor. Site publishing including file structures, image and sound files will be covered.

The course outlines different types, practices, and principles of public relations. It looks at some key frameworks and developments in PR theory and practice, offering a straightforward combination of theory and case studies. In an increasingly global context, it is also imperative to take into account the international and intercultural perspectives of PR.

Prerequisite: CM 2051 and EN 2020

Studies rhetoric as a historical phenomenon and as a practical reality. Considers how words and images are used to convince and persuade individuals of positions, arguments or actions to undertake, with particular attention to advertising, politics and culture. Studies the use of reason, emotion, and commonplaces, and compares visual and verbal techniques of persuasion.

Prerequisite: CM 2051 and EN 2020

This course examines depictions of women in film, television, fashion, and other media.  The course considers how gender is constructed and mediated in many different texts, including Star Trek, magazine covers, Bend It Like Beckham, Harry Potter, Juno, and Project Runway, among others.  It considers current debates around postfeminist representations of women, a public fascination with girls, and the global fashion and film industries. 

Prerequisite: CM 2051 or equivalent

Note: This course is cross-listed with FM 3000

Focuses on the role played by relative market prices in our society and on the forces of market supply and demand in determining these prices. Since the actions of consumers and firms underlie supply and demand, the course studies in detail the behavior of these two groups.

Examines the determinants of the levels of national income, employment, rates of interest, and prices. Studies in detail the instruments of monetary and fiscal policy, highlighting the domestic and international repercussions of their implementation.

Deals with the mechanisms of international trade and finance. Topics covered include the theory of trade, commercial policy, the international monetary system, the balance of payments adjustments process, regional economic integration, and the role of international organizations in international economic relations.

Prerequisite: EC 2010, EC 2020

Studies the economic functions and structures of financial asset markets, financial intermediaries, and money. It also presents the role of the central bank in macroeconomic performance of open economies.

Prerequisite: EC 2010, EC 2020

Emphasizes the stages required to produce a polished, articulate essay by practicing the necessary components of excellent academic writing: sharpening critical thinking skills, organizing ideas, choosing appropriate and dynamic words, varying prose style, editing, refining, and proofreading. Although this course carries 4 credits, it does not fulfill the University's English requirement.

Prerequisite: EN 0095 or by placement.

Taught through thematically-linked works of literature from the Ancient world to the present day. Stresses expository writing, accurate expression, and logical organization of ideas in academic writing. Recent themes include: Childhood, Friendship from Aristotle to Derrida, Social Organization and Alienation, Monstrosity, and Music and Literature. This course satisfies only 4 credits of the University's English requirement.

Prerequisite: EN 1000 or by placement.

A series of topic-centered coursesrefining the skills of academic essaywriting, studying a wide range of ideasas expressed in diverse literary genresand periods. Introduces the analysis ofliterary texts and gives training in thewriting of critical essays and researchpapers. Recent topics include: Utopiaand Anti-Utopia, City as Metaphor,Portraits of Women, Culture Conflict,and Labyrinths.

Prerequisite: EN 1010 or by placement.

Courses will be developed from time to time which examine various aspects of film studies, focusing on different problems, phenomena, practices and personalities. These are taught by permanent or visiting faculty, and will be generally specific to their specialization.

Note: This course is crosslisted with CM 4000.

This course is intended to help students acquire the basic elements of spoken and written French. Students will learn how to express themselves in everyday life situations. This course will use the students' encounter with a different country, language and its impact on their definition of who they are. The students' basic needs for linguistic and cultural information will be the main focus of this course. In class, work will be supplemented by multimedia activities and real-life situations in the city of Paris. Taught in French.

This course opens students to discussions on their experience in Paris. Cultural and historical aspects of the French "différence" are introduced. Students learn to express opinions, beliefs, doubts, and emotions and are shown various language registers (formal/informal vocabulary and structures) and intonations. Examples are taken from real-life situations, film, television, newspaper articles, etc... The four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are reinforced and special emphasis is placed on pronunciation. Taught in French.

Prerequisite: FR 1025 or by placement.

Ce cours se propose de développer etd’approfondir les connaissances del’apprenant. Il lui permet d’atteindre leniveau d’ « utilisateur indépendant » telque défini par le Cadre européencommun de référence mis en oeuvrepar le Conseil de l’Europe (Niveau B1).L’apprentissage se fait à l’aide dedocuments authentiques (écrits, orauxet visuels) et de visites servant de baseà la réflexion, à la consolidation et auréemploi des acquis socioculturels etlinguistiques. Taught in French.

Ce cours aura comme principal objectif d’améliorer la compréhension et l’expression orales des étudiant(e)s à travers l’écoute et l’étude de documents authentiques issus de différents médias (télévision, radio, films, interviews etc.) Les étudiant(e)s seront amené(e)s à analyser et à synthétiser des dialogues qui seront extraits des supports utilisés en classe, afin d’en comprendre les mécanismes et la structure pour parvenir à les imiter et à se les approprier. Ce cours aura également pour objectif de faire prendre conscience aux étudiant(e)s des particularités de la prise de parole dans une conversation française, afin de les aider à mieux s’intégrer à la vie sociale française et à en devenir des acteurs.

Des visites culturelles (musée, cinéma, théâtre, assister à l’enregistrement d’une émission de radio…) ou des rencontres avec des artisans (boulanger, fromager, chocolatier…) ou tout simplement des promenades à visée historique ou culturelle seront organisées par le professeur selon les intérêts des étudiant(e)s.

Prerequisite: FR 2035 or by placement.

Continues History 1001, from the Renaissance and the Reformation through commercialism, Absolutism, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the industrial and social revolutions of the 19th century to nationalism and socialism in the contemporary Western world.

Introduces the Italian language with emphasis upon speaking, basic grammatical structure, with a particular focus on culture. Videos, CDs, plus a field trip to Venice, make this class an enjoyable challenge.

A General Education course designed for students majoring in subjects not requiring math skills, and those who dislike math. Projects are developed from a range of everyday situations: banking, the stock market, gambling, and even art. Meeting alternately in the classroom and the computer lab to develop mathematical models, students will develop quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

MA1005 is not open to students who have taken MA1010 or above.

A General Education course designed for students majoring in subjects not requiring math skills, and those who dislike math. Projects are developed from a range of everyday situations: banking, the stock market, gambling, and even art. Meeting alternately in the classroom and the computer lab to develop mathematical models, students will develop quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

MA1005 is not open to students who have taken MA1010 or above.

Introduces the tools of statistical analysis. Combines theory with extensive data collection and computer-assisted laboratory work. Develops an attitude of mind accepting uncertainty and variability as part of problem analysis and decision-making. Topics include: exploratory data analysis and data transformation, hypothesis-testing and the analysis of variance, simple and multiple regression with residual and influence analyses.

Prerequisite: MA 1001 or by placement

Introduces differential and integral calculus. Develops the concepts of calculus as applied to polynomials, logarithmic, and exponential functions. Topics include: limits, derivatives, techniques of differentiation, applications to extrema and graphing; the definite integral; the fundamental theorem of calculus, applications; logarithmic and exponential functions, growth and decay; partial derivatives. Appropriate for students in the biological, management, computer and social sciences.

Prerequisite: MA 1002 or by placement.

This course analyses the basic setting, structure and dynamics of world politics with emphasis on current global problems, practices and processes. In doing so, it introduces the major theoretical approaches to international politics, and uses theory as a methodological tool for analyzing sources of change and causes of conflict and/or cooperation in the global arena.

This course examines the nature of knowledge claims in political science: how we know what we know and how certain we are. Research schools, the nature of description and explanation in political science, and basis issues of quantitative analysis will form the core elements of this course, while substantive themes may vary each year.

This course provides an in-depth analysis of European Union (EU) law. The student will study the historical development of the EU, the institutions which create its laws and conduct its legislative process, and the general principles of EU law. It will then focus upon substantive policy areas and conclude by analyzing EU progress toward a common foreign and security policy.

Prerequisite: Any 2000-level course in Political Science or Junior Standing.

Focuses on causes and consequences of European military conflicts and the historical transformations resulting from peace settlements. Examines the European Wars of Religion, the Napoleonic wars, the Franco-Prussian War, the Treaty of Portsmouth, the Paris Peace Conference and the Versailles Treaty as well as World War Two and the Yalta Conference. The approach is interdisciplinary, combining history and political science.

Prerequisite: Any 2000-level course in Political Science or Junior Standing.

Personality addresses central psychological questions on how persons think, feel and act. This course provides students with a solid foundation in the basics of theory and research in personality psychology. Students will be introduced to classic and contemporary perspectives in the field, continuing controversies and debates and the rationale and techniques for personality assessment. PY1000 is recommended as a prerequisite.

Covers topics of basic observational astronomy and introduces topics of modern astrophysics. Topics include earth-based astronomy, the telescope, the solar system, and planetary motion. Studies the properties of the atom and of light and discusses the new space observatories before considering astrophysics: the birth, evolution, and death of stars, galaxy formation, and evidence for the expansion of the universe.

Must take lab A or B.

Prerequisite: General Education Math  (MA 1005 or equivalent)

This is a conceptual physics course for non-scientists. It discusses the principles of physics involved in the production, distribution and consumption of energy using various types of fuel. It also considers the environmental issues related to the use of fossil fuels from a scientific viewpoint. Renewable sources of energy and the economic and political implications of their development as well as ways of conserving energy are also discussed.

Must take lab A or B.

Prerequisite: General Education Math  (MA 1005 or equivalent)

The course will explore the ways in which notion of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural diversity’ are mobilized by individuals and groups today, in particular as it relates to: a) the production, distribution and consumption of cultural goods and services and b) the discourses and practices of ‘heritage’, ‘collective memory’ and ‘identity’. How do these processes interact with globalization? How is the idea of ‘culture’ itself used to act out tensions between sameness and difference, unity and diversity, cohesion and dispersion, containment and subversion? As cultural theorists, government officials, international organizations, city managers and local politicians, cultural entrepreneurs, NGO activists and artists all deploy their own, often divergent, readings, what issues of access, agency and power come to the fore? How do different actors articulate different beliefs and strategies in regard to ‘culture’?.

This course will review some of the standard concerns of current studies about the politics and economics of media. These include the current practices of State and commercial institutions, and specifically current practices of media production, distribution, marketing, audience analysis/measurement, protectionist policies, regulations, and censorship. However, this course begins with the assumption that the present context poses new questions about the politics and economics of a “new media” environment–about the transition from a period dominated by broadcast media to a period often described now as dominated by “media convergence,” “economies of interactivity,” “surveillance societies,” “user-generated content,” “do-it-yourself-” and “entrepreneurial citizenship,” “creative industries,” “convergence culture,” “social networking,” “commercial nationalism,” “neoliberalism,” and “globalization.” The course also will address how a rapidly growing discussion about “governmentality,” “cultural economies,” “cultural citizenship,” “actor-networks,” and “media space” have shifted the study of the politics and economics of media. The course will begin by focusing attention on the politics and economics of television in the current context, and then will examine how that TV’s transformation has involved (in various national contexts) a variety of other media–old media such as cinema, print journalism, and telephony, as well as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and web sites for commercial and State institutions and for non-profit, file-sharing, sometimes illegal associations.

The NGO practicum will be based this June in Fez, Morocco during the Fez Festival of Sacred Music. Students will work with the NGO Fès-Saiss helping to develop the association’s Internet presence and creating text, visual and video content about the festival. Students will also be involved in developing content for the intellectual forum of the festival, namely The Fes Forum, entitled “Giving a Soul To Globalization”. The ability to speak French or Arabic is a definite advantage but not necessary. This course has an extra course fee.

In this class, we will explore the manner in which people in France and the United States think about and interact with their foods. In so doing we will critically examine: the historical development of nutrition and gastronomic discourses in these countries, their contemporary manifestations (in media and advertising, governmental institutions and guidelines, food production and consumption) and their role in the formation of individual, national, gender and class identities. In so doing, we will critically explore, from a cross-cultural perspective, the concepts (such as health and taste), practices (such as cooking or dieting), places (such as school cafeterias or vineyards) and people (such as nutritional scientists or restaurant chefs) involved in the elaboration, maintenance and reformulation of these discourses. Among the most important goals of this class are: to further develop students' ability to think critically about modern processes and contemporary identities using a range of theoretical approaches; to bring students to an understanding of France and the United States that goes beyond well encrusted clichés; and, to allow students to develop a new appreciation for their foods and a more profound understanding of their relationship to them. The class will include a one-week "terroir and taste" fieldtrip to the Jura Mountains. Note: the tasting of cheese, meat products and wine is an integral part of the Jura trip. This course has an extra course fee.

This course acquaints students with theory and research on collaboration, with particular emphasis on the relationship between collaboration and communication in situations of cultural and ethnic conflict. It begins with a focus on what sorts of problems and conflicts are best suited to collaborative interventions, and then sets out the essential features of a high-quality collaborative process and the various communicative acts that are essential to creating and maintaining such a process, which students practice in a simulation of a variety of cross cultural contexts.

This will be a joint AUP/NYU course and will be co-taught by a world authority on alternative media and an expert on the history of propaganda in the USA. It will compare attempts to control information and public awareness through propaganda and the establishment of a hegemony of ideas in the USA in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries with similar processes in other contexts including Russia, France and South America. The course will also include a segment examining issues of gender and in particular how hegemonic discourses of masculinity have arisen and the attempts to subvert them. The course will discuss a variety of media, film, radio, posters and the new media of the World Wide Web.