French & Francophone Studies
French & Francophone Studies
510.430.2212
french@mills.edu
The French and Francophone Studies Program at Mills offers a dynamic, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary approach to language, culture, and literature. This transnational perspective recognizes the equal importance of the cultural and intellectual traditions emanating from France and its close neighbors, and from La Francophonie: the French-speaking diaspora outside of Europe, especially in the Caribbean, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Our program is also unique in its emphasis on the study abroad experience as an integral part of understanding the richness and complexity of French and Francophone cultures.
Our program conducts the first two years of language study exclusively in French. This emphasis integrates an early exposure to the cultural and literary aspects of French and Francophone peoples with the acquisition of active linguistic skills. From the beginning, students are introduced to a variety of audiovisual and written documents representative of the French-speaking world, and as early as the second year, they are immersed in the serious study of literatures written in French.
Our advanced-level courses (also taught in French) expose students to a wide range of critical approaches to literature such as psychoanalysis, deconstruction, post-colonialism, gender, and diaspora theory. We seek to engage students in current intellectual debates on identity, cultural representation, and transnational feminism. Examples of such courses include Orientalism in the Novel and Francophone Women's Writing from Martinique, Haiti, and Guadeloupe. In addition to courses taught in French, we offer a number of interdisciplinary courses taught in English that can be taken as electives or as part the program’s minor. The transnational emphasis of the program is reflected in the title of the minor, transcultural Francophone studies.
Students who wish to major in French and Francophone studies are encouraged to pursue the individualized major option. Interested students should see a French and Francophone studies faculty member to declare this major option. An example of the courses that might constitute an individualized major in French and transcultural Francophone studies is available in the individualized major section of the catalog.
Whether a student chooses to minor or to purse an individualized major, the small size of the French and Francophone Studies Program enables us to develop a close working relationship with our students at all levels, and gives our program flexibility to accommodate individual needs. At the same time, we believe that the Mills experience should be complemented by study abroad in a French-speaking country of the student’s choice. Therefore, students in French and Francophone studies are encouraged to spend at least one semester in a Mills-affiliated study abroad program in one of the following locations: Belgium, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Morocco, Quebec, Senegal, and Switzerland, as well as several locations in France. Students who declare an individualized college major in French with an approved plan of study are eligible for a Germaine Thompson Scholarship, which supports the cost of travel.
While the minor in French and Francophone studies can usually be completed by taking courses only at Mills, we also encourage students electing to minor in our program to study abroad for a semester.
In addition to study abroad, students at an advanced level may also take advantage of cross-registration in the Department of French at UC Berkeley to enroll in courses complementing those offered in our program.
Many French and Francophone studies majors and minors have gone on to graduate school and have pursued successful careers in a wide range of fields both in the United States and abroad. These fields include law, international nonprofit organizations, education, and publishing.
Program Goals:
- Possess an advanced level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French.
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature.
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents.
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own.
Students who wish to major in French and Francophone Studies are encouraged to pursue the individualized major option.
Minor
FREN 001: Elementary French I (4 Credits)
Intensive introduction to the basic skills of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing, with the aim of progressing toward an active command of the language and an early familiarization with French and Francophone cultures. Oral communication is stressed from the very beginning, and French is the exclusive language of the class.
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Language Other than English
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Introduced)
- level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Introduced)
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Introduced)
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not US centered, Eurocentric, sexist or racist.
- Cross cultural sensitivity is develop trough a full language immersion course
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Introduced)
- Students will not only learn about French culture but also about the great variaty of the Francophone cultures found in 5 continents!
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Introduced)
- Communicate effectively at a basic level in French.
- "Use proper syntax in written and oral work. Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the first semester level "
- Level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Introduced)
- "By the end of the semester students are able to engage in basic articulated conversations, write small paragraphs, and be able to to speak in present, past, and future tenses. They could be rated as novice high/intermediate low, in the ACTFL classification. Students reinforce and further their knowledge of their own language and culture through study of French and the introduction to Francophone cultures."
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Introduced)
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
FREN 002: Elementary French II (4 Credits)
Intensive introduction to the basic skills of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing, with the aim of progressing toward an active command of the language and an early familiarization with French and Francophone cultures. Oral communication is stressed from the very beginning, and French is the exclusive language of the class.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 001
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Language Other than English
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Introduced)
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Introduced)
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Introduced)
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Introduced)
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through a total immersion in language and culture
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not US centered.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Introduced)
- Students will not only learn about French culture but also about the great variaty of the Francophone cultures found in 5 continents!
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Introduced)
- Full language immersion course with the outcome of effective communication in French ( early intermediate stage ).
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Introduced)
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work. Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the second semester level
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Introduced)
- use of level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work
FREN 003: Intermediate French III (4 Credits)
Review and expansion of linguistic skills, combined with an introduction to the reading of literary and cultural texts.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 002
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Written and Oral Communication II
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Practiced)
- Integrate vocabulary into written and spoken work
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Practiced)
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Practiced)
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through a total immersion in language and culture
- students will develop cultural and linguistic competency at an intermediate level.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Student will gain an intermediate understanding of Francophone literature and culture through the language
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will examine short literary and cultural texts from French-speaking countries
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will write 3 short essays (with 3 revisions) on topics related to Francophone literature and culture
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced)
- Students will write short essays, read and analyse short literary texts, speak exclusively in French, make short presentations, and listen to music to improve their aural skills
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced)
- Use proper syntax in oral and written work.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced)
- Students will write short reflection essays on their experiences of learning a language other than English
Written & Oral Comm II
- Students will develop skills in writing, digital presentation, and oral communication, as complementary and equal parts of college-level communication and literacy. (Practiced)
- Students write or speak in an understandable, organized, and logical fashion to explain their ideas or support a conclusion.
- Students will be able to move easily and fluently between different rhetorical expectations and formal registers. (Practiced)
- Students will write and create presentations at the lower intermediate level. These assignments include short essays on francophone culture, presentations on important francophone authors, power point presentations on a favorite musician or artist
- Students will develop and refine their own voice and sense of style. (Practiced)
- Students will learn to express themselves in a language other than English by moving away from literal translations and anglicisms in their work
- Students will practice and refine different forms of communication that are appropriate for the multiple contexts and disciplines that they engage with. (Practiced)
- Write prose that is well-organized around a definable purpose at the lower intermediate level. Learn how to present their ideas in French with confidence and ease.
- Students will understand thoroughly the relationship between form and content, (Practiced)
- Use appropriate grammar, vocabulary, syntax according to the French tradition of essay writing
- Students will understand the role of drafting, revising, presenting, and receiving, processing and using feedback as important parts of the writing process. (Practiced)
- Students write drafts, revise, exchange ideas and have a forum to present some of their work. They receive feedback from the instructor and from their peers as important parts of the writing experience.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Practiced)
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through a total immersion in language and culture
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Practiced)
- Student will gain an intermediate understanding of Francophone literature and culture through the language
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Practiced)
- Students will examine short literary and cultural texts from French-speaking countries
Written Communication I (ENG1)
- Produce essays and other forms of writing free from sentence level error and identify where to get further information about such errors (e.g., how to use a handbook) (Practiced)
- Students will write three essays focusing on grammar and syntax at a beginning intermediate level
- Write clearly organized essays with the following characteristics: effective paragraphing, thesis development, transitions, use and interpretation of evidence, evidence of larger structure and organization. (Practiced)
- students will learn the art of essay writing in French and use this knowledge in essays and reflection papers
- Use draft and revision processes, demonstrate understanding of different stages of the writing process, and engage in editing and revision of peer essays. (Practiced)
- Students will correct and revise their written work according to a composition correction code. They will also peer edit papers in French to develop critical reading and writing skills
FREN 004: Intermediate French IV (4 Credits)
Review and expansion of linguistic skills, combined with an introduction to the reading of literary and cultural texts.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 003
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Written and Oral Communication II
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Written Communication
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Practiced)
- Use proper syntax at the upper intermediate level in written French. Read cultural and literary texts to develop aural skills.
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Practiced)
- identify key elements and trends in Francophone literature, history and culture
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Practiced)
- Students understand the complex nature of identity in a postcolonial francophone context and are able to identity francophone intellectual traditions at an advanced intermediate level
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Demonstrate cross-cultural sensitivity through a total immersion in language and culture
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students read literary texts from francophone traditions (short stories, screen plays, theatre) at an advanced intermediate level . They learn how to unpack western biases about francophone cultures through language and literature
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Total immersion in the literary and cultural traditions of the French-speaking world
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will examine short literary and cultural texts from French-speaking countries
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced)
- Students will write short essays, read and analyze excerpts from literary texts, speak exclusively in French, make short presentation, and listen to French music to practice their aural skills
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced)
- Use proper syntax in aural and written work
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced)
- Students will write short essays on their experiences of learning a languages other than English
Written & Oral Comm II
- Students will develop skills in writing, digital presentation, and oral communication, as complementary and equal parts of college-level communication and literacy. (Practiced)
- Students write or speak in an understandable, organized, and logical fashion to explain their ideas or support a conclusion. They perform at an advanced intermediate level of proficiency
- Students will be able to move easily and fluently between different rhetorical expectations and formal registers. (Practiced)
- Students practice close readings of literary texts that demonstrate: attention to cultural signifiers, narrative structure, themes, tropes. while practicing diction and pronunciation. They apply these skills in written communication at an advanced intermediate level
- Students will develop and refine their own voice and sense of style. (Practiced)
- Students will learn to express themselves in a language other than English by moving away from literal translations and anglicisms in their work
- Students will practice and refine different forms of communication that are appropriate for the multiple contexts and disciplines that they engage with. (Practiced)
- Write clearly organized essays with the following characteristics at the advanced intermediate level: effective paragraphing, thesis development, transitions, use and interpretation of evidence, evidence of larger structure and organization.
- Students will understand thoroughly the relationship between form and content, (Practiced)
- Demonstrate familiarity with a variety of rhetorical forms and how these forms are used in French essay writing and francophone cultural contexts
- Students will understand the role of drafting, revising, presenting, and receiving, processing and using feedback as important parts of the writing process. (Practiced)
- Students will correct and revise their written work according to a composition correction code. They will also peer edit papers in French to develop critical reading and writing skills
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Practiced)
- Demonstrate cross-cultural sensitivity through a total immersion experience at the higher intermediate level
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Practiced)
- Read short excerpts from decolonial francophone texts with regard to racism and anti-racism
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Practiced)
- Students will read excerpts from Francophone literary texts written by writers of color
Written Communication II
- A. Demonstrate familiarity with a variety of rhetorical forms and how these forms are used in specific academic disciplines, cultural contexts, and institutions outside the academy (Practiced)
- Students will learn the fundamentals of grammar at an advanced intermediate level as well as colloquial everyday French
- C. Write essays that incorporate examples from other writers, demonstrate critical thinking and interpretation about the ideas of other writers, and use correct documentation for these examples (Practiced)
- Students will write several short essays over the semester on a topic based on one of the literary or cultural readings. They will do a textual analysis of short stories, poetry and plays.
- D. Use draft and revision processes, demonstrate understanding of different stages of the writing process, and engage in editing and revision of peer essays (Practiced)
- students will revise each essay and reflection paper using a composition correction code. They will also engage in peer editing to enhance their linguistic and critical thinking skills.
- E. Write in a style that is both personally expressive and compatible with the specific discipline or context of the project (Practiced)
- Students will develop their own expressive style in French through written communication, oral presentations and rigorous grammar exercises.
FREN 100: Advanced Grammar, Translation and Writing (3-4 Credits)
The course combines the study of French grammar at an advanced level with active practice through translation and creative writing exercises in a range of literary genres. Particular attention will be given to questions of style and levels of language, as well as the systematic differences between French and English usage.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 004
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Written and Oral Communication II
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Mastered)
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- This is a full language immersion class. By functioning at an advance level in a LOTE students are de facto reflecting on their value systems. They are not only understanding the fact their value systems are not universal, they also, and most importantly, experience it.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will examine literary, historical, and cultural texts from French-speaking countries. They will closely study the syntax and stylistic of these texts, and use them as model and structure to improve their own writing in French
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Introduced)
- Student will gain an advanced understanding of Francophone literature and culture through the language.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student will improve their oral and written communication to reach a low to mid advance level in the ACTFL classification. They will apply advanced grammar and syntax structures learn in this course to their oral and written discourses.
- Student will read literary production and be able to analyse them in depth, they will write 5 short papers, apply grammar to their writing and do complexe advance grammar exercise. Students will also be introduced to beginning translation and interpretation techniques. Finally students will apply the grammatical and rhetorical structures they learn in class to their oral communication (presentations and in class discussions)
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Through their advance study of French grammar student will establish connexion with their own language and improve their knowledge of English grammar. They will be able to establish patterns of grammatical similarities and recognize and understand the differences. They will also understand the deep relationship between linguistic, psychology and cultural structures.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced)
- By reading texts from the reach tradition of francophone literature, students will compare their systems of values and culture with not only Francophone texts but they will also compare literary production among and within the francophone literature.
Written & Oral Comm II
- Students will be able to move easily and fluently between different rhetorical expectations and formal registers. (Practiced)
- Students write or speak in French in an understandable, organized, and logical fashion to explain their ideas or support a conclusion. They perform at an advanced level of proficiency. They are able to recognize the difference of registers in texts and they start being able "to play" with the different register of French language.
- Students demonstrate the ability to narrate and describe with detail in all major time frames with good control of aspect. Their writing exhibits a variety of cohesive devices in texts up to several paragraphs in length. There is good control of the most frequently used French syntactic structures and a range of general vocabulary. Most often, thoughts are expressed clearly and supported by some elaboration.
- Students will develop and refine their own voice and sense of style. (Practiced)
- Students will learn to express themselves in a language other than English by moving away from literal translations and anglicisms in their work. By the study of different texts from different genre in French they will be able to develop a style of their own.
- Students will understand thoroughly the relationship between form and content, (Practiced)
- Demonstrate familiarity with a variety of rhetorical forms and how these forms are used in French essay writing and francophone cultural contexts
- Students will understand the role of drafting, revising, presenting, and receiving, processing and using feedback as important parts of the writing process. (Practiced)
- Each of the 5 short essays student will be asked to produce will go through at least one drafting and correcting process.
FREN 101: Introduction to French Literature (3 Credits)
Introduction to major themes, genres, and works of the French literary tradition from the Middle Ages to the present. Together with the authors widely recognized as part of the canon, the course emphasizes the distinct contribution of women writers throughout the long history of French literature.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 004
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Practiced)
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Practiced)
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature. (Introduced)
- Students engage in advanced readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents. (Introduced)
- Integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into the student's mastery of the discipline
- Integrate postcolonial French and Francophone literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Practiced)
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will: -Supports response to readings with specific and relevant examples/evidence -Appreciate depth and breadth of the problem -Demonstrate open and fair-mindedness toward information and ideas -Identify and evaluate relevant significant points of view -Examine relevant points of view fairly, empathetically -Include in their analysis information that opposes as well as supports the argued position -Distinguish between information and inferences drawn from that information
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students will base their understanding of information or idea on a synthesis of evidence from various sources; supports inferences about causal consequences with evidence that has been evaluated from disparate viewpoints, and analyzes implications that demonstrates some awareness of ambiguity
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Introduced, Practiced)
- The course will survey literary production in French over 800 hundred years and student will be able to follow the evolution of thought, and the transformation and circulation of idea in this time frame. Mainly students will be able to recognize et define different episteme in the different historical periods. Student will be able to understand the influence of past systems of knowledge on present day French culture and intellectual tradition
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Student written work will demonstrate their understanding of the critical, historical, cultural, and economic conditions that have shaped the French literature canon.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will abide by the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students will create a collaborative and rich learning community by engaging their peers in their presentations and by participating actively in class discussions. Once a semester, willing students will have the possibility to participate to mini debate/discussion with students of French from other classes.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Students will contrast their value systems and ways of understanding the world with the ways presented in French sources,. They will also understand, through the survey of French Literature, how value systems are formed and how ways of understanding the world and framing reality is subjective to place and time.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- The common thread of this survey course is the notion of "foreign" and the creation of national identity(ies) studied through the lens of French literature. The representation of the "stranger" and "the foreign" will be analyzed and confronted with the the self-representation of these "strangers" when available (in French). The representation of the "Muslim Other" will be specifically develop and confronted with historical and cultural reality. Literary production by women, a minority in the French literary scene, will be especially considered.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of the evolution of French culture and history from the Middle Age until present time.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of the literary production in France from the Middle Age until present time, special attention will be given to female authors.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will read original primary sources from the Middle Ages to present day. Students will write six short papers, and will engage in close reading analysis in French. They will also build two annotated bibliographies using sources in French. Student will also prepare two formal presentations, and present them in French in class. Depending on students, the level of proficiency at the end of this course should range from Mid Intermediate to Mid advance ( ACTFL classification). Student will be informally evaluated with a MOPI (Mock Oral Proficiency Interview) at the beginning and at the end of the course to measure progresses.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student will acquire appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures that they will apply to their essays. Student will also develop facility of oral communication and eloquence in French and demonstrate the capacity to formally present in a well organized and articulated fashion on a topic relative to course content.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
FREN 102: Introduction to Francophone Literature (3 Credits)
Introduction to the major movements of the Francophone literary tradition, including Négritude, Créolité, Indianité, post-colonialism, diaspora, and feminism. While focusing on the transnational scope of Francophone literary studies, this course highlights the literatures of North and West Africa, the Caribbean, Vietnam, and Québec. Authors include Aimé Césaire, Kim Lefèvre, Mehdi Charef, Anne Hébert, among others.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 004
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Race, Gender & Power, Written and Oral Communication II
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Practiced)
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Practiced)
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature. (Introduced)
- Students engage in advanced readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents. (Introduced)
- Integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into the student's mastery of the discipline
- Integrate postcolonial French and Francophone literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Practiced)
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the way they are taught to examine gender, race and power in the West and an ability to contrast this understanding with the understandings of these categories in a French-speaking context
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to analyze literary and cultural production and intellectual work from French-speaking Africa, Asia and the Caribbean
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of Francophone literatures and cultures from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will be introduced to Francophone postcolonial and feminist theory. They will read literary and cultural texts from a critical perspective
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced)
- Students will write five short essays (with revisions) on each assigned reading in French. They will do all the readings in French and create one oral presentation on a chosen topic
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced)
- Students will articulate their written and oral thoughts exclusively in French and avoid anglicisms in all assignments
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced)
- Students will examine their prior misperceptions and stereotypes related to French-speaking countries and learn to understand non-western cultures from a more informed insider perspective
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an advanced intermediate understanding of how race and gender are socially constructed and how they intersect with questions of power, ethnicity, religion, nationality and citizenship.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced)
- Students will be introduced to theories of intersectionality in a Francophone context
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced)
- Students will be introduced to literary and cultural texts written by authors from the global south with a special emphasis on women writers and de-colonial theorists
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will engage with intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities by learning how knowledge is created by and in the social, gendered and racial "margins"
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced)
- Students will engage in comparative cross-cultural analyses and recognize their own locations of privilege
Written & Oral Comm II
- Students will develop skills in writing, digital presentation, and oral communication, as complementary and equal parts of college-level communication and literacy. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to present a particular aspect of Francophone literature and culture in their written and oral assignments and will create powerpoint presentations for group and individual cultural projects
- Students will develop and refine their own voice and sense of style. (Practiced)
- Students will work intensively on their written and oral skills to develop their own voice and sense of style in French through appropriate vocabulary, sentence structures, organization of their ideas, communicative proficiency in French
- Students will practice and refine different forms of communication that are appropriate for the multiple contexts and disciplines that they engage with. (Practiced)
- Students will be introduced to the different critical methodologies used to read literature and culture. They will begin to apply these critical approaches to literary texts at an advanced intermediate level
- Students will understand the role of drafting, revising, presenting, and receiving, processing and using feedback as important parts of the writing process. (Practiced)
- Students will write five short papers that will be graded according to a composition correction code. They will use the code and feedback provided by the instructor to revise their essays
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Practiced)
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Practiced)
- Students grasp the notion of multiple histories, especially from subaltern perspectives as reflected in class material.
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Practiced)
- Students engage in informed cross-cultural analysis that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Practiced)
- Students are familiar with cultural studies models of resistance to oppression and discrimination.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Practiced)
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary texts.
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Practiced)
- Students engage in informed readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
FREN 143: Popular Tales: a Cross-Cultural Comparison (3 Credits)
This course will be an introduction to the rich oral tradition of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and French popular folktales in 17th– and 18th–century France. Important aspects of the courses include orality, written transcriptions and adaptations, and cross-cultural influences. Our approach will be comparative, psychoanalytic, feminist, multi-ethic, and anthropological.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 100
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Historical Perspectives, Multicultural Perspectives
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Mastered)
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Mastered)
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students engage in advanced readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into the student's mastery of the discipline
- Integrate postcolonial French and Francophone literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Mastered)
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will: -Supports response to readings with specific and relevant examples/evidence -Appreciate depth and breadth of the problem -Demonstrate open and fair-mindedness toward information and ideas -Identify and evaluate relevant significant points of view -Examine relevant points of view fairly, empathetically -Include in their analysis information that opposes as well as supports the argued position -Distinguish between information and inferences drawn from that information
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will base their understanding of information or idea on a synthesis of evidence from various sources( different versions of the same popular tale for instance); supports inferences about causal consequences with evidence that has been evaluated from disparate viewpoints, and analyzes implications that demonstrates some awareness of ambiguity.
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Students are able to identify and discuss multiple causes to changes in history (specifically in the XVII and XVIII centuries) based on texts read for the class.
- Students should be able to recognize the emergence of a new genre in French literature and history "les contes" (tales) and they should be able to extensively develop on the impact of this new and modern genre in later history.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will learn to approach popular tales through different perspectives, may them be be folkloristic, comparatist, structuralist, anthropologic ou psychoanalytic. They will reflect on these perspectives and consider how they apply to their thoughts and ideas. They will consider these perspectives in their own works, and see how they "place" their reflexions on popular tales within the frame of these school of thoughts. They will confront or/and fortify their understanding of popular tales with these critical perceptives.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will abide by the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will give two "formal" presentations to the class. The presentations will be anonymously reviewed by students and professor according to pre-established rubrics, one of these rubrics is "ability to engage the group into an intellectual and critical discussion". Once a semester students will also have the possibility to participate to a discussion-debate with students from other French classes willing to participate.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student will study the origin of Folktales and realize that the Disney version is far from being universal, and is a distortion of ancestral and polymorph tales.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students will read and analyse the 1001 nights. They will study their rich Indo-Persian origin and they will compare the French adaptation by Galland to some of the original stories. They will also learn to recognize the part of pure invention, translation and adaptation in these stories. Student will also "track" different versions of French folktales and establish links with other folktales in Europe and Russia.
- Students will explore the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and nation as they occur in Popular tales. Students will consider histories of these intersections. Students will consider the difference and similarity of gender in literary production specifically in the Eastern and Western tales productions. Specific attention will be given to the dominantly female production of popular tales in France, and the development of a feminine genre. Students will also consider the cross-influence of the Eastern and Western tradition in the production of these popular tales.
- Using literary production of popular tales and the travel logs of "orientalist" such as Galland and Petis de la Croix, students will recognize the interaction between French an "Middle Easterners" in the XVII and XVIII centuries and how these interactions led to later colonial developments
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will learn of -the "French" folktales (written mostly by women, with the exception of Perrault) and their origins. -the Indo-Persian tales and their translation by Antoine Galland, and their origins -the Turkish tales, and their translation by Petis de la Croix and Galland, and their origins. Students will also learn the classification of the folktales and the cultural difference among different versions.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will study in depth the literary production relative to short stories in France from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Students will also study the context (historical, political, literary, and artistic) around the creation of these texts.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will read original primary sources from the sixteenth to the eighteen century (not the modern French version for sixteenth century sources). Students will write two long research papers and build two annotated bibliographies using primary sources in French. Student will also prepare two formal presentations (conference type), and present them in French in class. Depending on students, the level of proficiency at the end of this course should range from Intermediate high to advance high ( ACTFL classification). Student will be informally evaluated with a MOPI (Mock Oral Proficiency Interview) at the beginning and at the end of the course to measure progresses.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student will acquire and develop appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures that they will apply to their essays. Student will also develop facility of oral communication and eloquence in French and demonstrate the capacity to formally present in a well organized and articulated fashion on a topic relative to course content.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will reflect on the presentation of popular tales in the US and in their own culture and will contract these with the first written version of these tales in French (for example students will think about the Sleeping Beauty version carried by Disney, and contrast it with the darker French version by Perrault and the even darker one by Basile). Students will then reflect on the notion and the meaning of "happy ending" in different cultures.
General Education Goals:
Historical Perspectives
- Evaluate past events and trends from political, economic, artistic, cultural, philosophical, and social perspectives (Practiced)
- Students are able to identify and discuss multiple causes to changes in history (specifically in the XVII and XVIII centuries) based on texts read for the class.
- Recognize both differences and similarities between past eras and the present (Practiced)
- Students should be able to define "modernity" in terms of pre- and post French Enlightenment history. Students should be able to recognize the emergence of a new genre in French literature and history "les contes" (tales) and they should be able to extensively develop on the impact of this new and modern genre in later history.
- Ability to see differences and similarities in gender roles past and present. Ability to recognize the emerging influence of women writer and their pedagogical impact on later period.
- Use critical tools to assess historical source materials (Practiced)
- Use of historical dictionaries and encyclopedia , such as Berthelot's "Bibliotheque orientale" (Oriental Encyclopedia) , Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary and The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert.
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Introduced, Practiced)
- Ability to consider culture and cultural identities as dynamic. Considering literary work and their influence in later cultural development, students will begin to demonstrate differences and similarities that involve the presentation and formation of culture. Thorough close reading of literary production student will understand how a concept such as "Orientalism" was created.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Introduced, Practiced)
- Explore the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and nation as they occur in literary texts. Consider histories of these intersections. Consider the difference and similarity of gender in literary production specifically in the Eastern and Western tales production and the cross-influence of the Eastern and Western tradition.
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Introduced, Practiced)
- Using literary production student will recognize the interaction between French an Middle Easterner in the XVII and XVIII centuries and how this interaction led to later colonial developments
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Introduced, Practiced)
- Consider how texts (specifically 1001 nights) are grounded in and/or expand beyond national boundaries. Consider the adaptation of a text in another culture and how this adaptation becomes the text of reference for later period .
FREN 144: De-colonizing Algeria: Algerian Women Writers and Filmmakers (4 Credits)
This course introduces students to the rich literary and cinematic production of francophone Algerian women. Topics discussed include the violence of coloniality, fractured silences in Franco-Algerian history, immigration and migration, women and war (Algerian war of independence [1954-62] and the “black” decade of the civil war [1990s]), banlieue writing from the disfavored Parisian outer cities, memory and re-membering, war and sexuality, among others.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 100
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Race, Gender & Power
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Mastered)
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels.
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Mastered)
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history.
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist.
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students engage in advanced readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into the student's mastery of the discipline.
- Integrate postcolonial French and Francophone literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline.
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Mastered)
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions.
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will read, study, and analyze primary and secondary written sources and cinematic images. In a written assignment, they will evaluate a primary written source for evidence of authorial bias and explain how the author's point of view impacts the reliability of her evidence and conclusions. In a written assignment, students will also critically analyze literary texts from multiple points of view to critically evaluate the contributions of Algerian women writers and filmmakers to the ongoing debates on de-coloniality in Algeria
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Mastered)
- Students will build on their previous knowledge of de-colonial Francophone theory to examine its applicability in the context of Algeria. They will be expected to incorporate postcolonial theory, historical narratives and transnational feminist theory in their written and oral assignments
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will examine the impact of French colonial history on Algeria and Algeria's response to the coloniality of power. They will use this methodology to analyze women's literature and cinema in written assignments and creative projects that link gender, war and history..
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will analyze the ways in which gender, race and coloniality are socially constructed and related to other structures of power. This understanding will be informed by postcolonial theory, Algerian feminist theory and literary analysis.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Mastered)
- Students will abide by the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Mastered)
- Students will form discussion groups to discuss the literature and films. They will also organize peer editing groups.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how they are taught to understand non-western cultural systems in the West and an ability to contrast this understanding with understandings of culture and identity in North Africa
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Mastered)
- Students will examine Algerian women's writings and cinematic production from a postcolonial perspective. They will use an anti-colonial lens to analyze questions of Islamophobia in western contexts and the marginalization of Arab-Muslim communities in hegemonic constructions of the "Other."
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- This courses focuses exclusively on Algerian women writers and filmmakers in Algeria and the diaspora, specifically France.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the creative contributions of Algerian women writers and filmmakers from the post-independence period to the current day
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will write 5 short essays, read and analyze theoretical and literary texts, speak exclusively in French, do one presentation on an assigned reading, watch and critique films, and do a creative project on Algerian women's cultural traditions.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Mastered)
- Students will write critical papers in French at an advanced level of proficiency. They will avoid anglicisms in their papers to construct a well-articulated argument.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Mastered)
- Students will explore the intricacies of Algerian women's writings and cinema and contrast it with their previous biases and misinformation about North Africa gleaned from colonial and western texts.
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race and gender are socially constructed through the processes of colonialism, post-colonialism and nationalism.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate the ability to critically analyze the intersections between race, gender, identity and other categories of difference in their readings of texts and written papers
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate a familiarity with examples of how marginalized groups in Algeria have challenged state and colonial power through social movements, cultural production, literature, scholarly critique and alternative histories.
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate a familiarity with theoretical and literary perspectives on the coloniality of power in Algeria developed by women writers and filmmakers and be able to contrast this perspective with the ways in which patriarchy and the nation state represent themselves.
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Mastered)
- Students will be able to define and use the concept of intersectionality in their written and oral assignments.
FREN 145: The Francophone Levant and the Ottoman Empire (0.25-1.25 Credits)
This course examines the history of the French presence in the Levant, a region covering in its historical sense, the eastern Mediterranean basin. The course presents the French historical, political, cultural, and emotional attachment to this region and studies the French Levantines, a minority population living at the cross roads of different cultural and linguistic influences. We will engage in discussions on diaspora, “hybrid” identities, transnationalism, multilinguism, and cross-culturalism
Prerequisite(s): FREN 102 or FREN 101
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English
Instructor Consent Required: Y
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will read, study, and analyze primary and secondary written sources and some iconographic and cinematographic sources. In written assignments and discussions students will also critically analyze Francophone theoretical texts on identity and multilingualism from multiple points of view to critically evaluate the contributions of Francophone writers on this topic. Students will also analyse historical information (sometime contradictory) from different perspectives and points of views (for instance from Turkish, French, or Lebanese perspective), and reflect on the making of history.
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will analyse historical information (sometime contradictory) from different perspectives and points of views (for instance from Turkish, French, or Lebanese perspective), and reflect on the making of history.
- Students will base their understanding of information or idea on a synthesis of evidence from various sources; supports inferences about causal consequences with evidence that has been evaluated from disparate viewpoints, and analyzes implications that demonstrates some awareness of ambiguity
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Students will examine the impact of French presence in the Levant and it implication in political history. Student will also examine the literary and cultural production of the Levantins since the sixteenth century, they will recognize the intellectual contribution of Levantin writers and will engage on discussions on diaspora, “hybrid” identities, transnationalism, multilinguism, and cross-culturalism.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding and knowledge of theories around the question of hybrid cultural identity, multilingualism, and de-colonialism. They will reflect on these theories and consider how they apply to their thoughts and principles. They will consider these theories in their own works, and see how they "place" their reflexions within the frame of these theories and school of thoughts. Students will also consider "creative" works and testimonies of different authors on the question of hybrid identities and multilingualism. They will confront or/and fortify their own idea and experience with the ones express in these texts.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will document their sources, use propre syntax and formatting, and adhere to the rules of responsible scholarship.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students will give two "formal" presentations to the class. The presentation will be anonymously reviewed by students and professor according to pre-established rubrics, one of these rubrics is "ability to engage the group into an intellectual and critical discussion". Once a semester students will also be asked to participate to a mini presentation-debate with students from other classes willing to participate.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will approach the history of the Levant and the Middle East from the perspectives of Francophone writers from the region. Students will compare the points of views of these writers, their approach and understanding of historical events with the common perception on this events in The US.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will analyse the history of the levant and the Middle East from the perspective of its Francophone minority. Students will analyse literary production from the Francophone Levant, as well as wider cultural productions. They will understand how these productions may be influence by the dominent culture of the Levant and the Middle East. Students will try to define the part of western and non-westyern way of thoughts and expression in these productions.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student will demonstrate knowledge of the the populations of the Ottoman Empire and present day Turkey. The course will concentrate on French speaking minorities of the Ottoman Empire and the Levant, but students will also acquire knowledge of the dominant culture, religion and languages of the Levant. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the interactions, over five centuries, between these populations.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to analyze cultural identity theory through scholarly work and literature, from diasporic perspectives in France and in Francophone-Levantin contexts. They will be able to identify how these perspectives differ from dominant perspectives in the US. Students will also demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the theoretical contributions of major Francophone intellectuals from France and the Levant.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will read original primary sources from Frencophone-Levantin authors. Students will write two long research papers and build two annotated bibliographies using primary sources in French. Student will also prepare two formal presentations (conference type), and present them in French in class. Depending on students, the level of proficiency at the end of this course should range from Intermediate high to advance high ( ACTFL classification). Student will be informally evaluated with a MOPI (Mock Oral Proficiency Interview) at the beginning and at the end of the course to measure progresses.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student will acquire and develop appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures that they will apply to their essays. They will also acquire specific vocabulary and notions relative to the study of the Levant and Ottoman Empire. Student will also develop facility of oral communication and eloquence in French and demonstrate the capacity to formally present in a well organized and articulated fashion on a topic relative to course content.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced)
- Students will explore the point of view of Levantin intellectuals and writers on historical, political, and economical events that arose in the Levant and the Middle-East, and contrast it with their previous knowledge and biases (?) gleaned from US centered information.
FREN 146: Contemporary French and Francophone Theory (0.25-1.25 Credits)
This course examines key concepts in French and Francophone theory, such as deconstruction, feminist thought, cultural theory, postcolonialism, de-colonial resistance, the theory of emotions, and the poetics of Relation. Readings focus on Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Pierre Bourdieu, Abdelkébir Khatibi, Hélène Cixous, Edouard Glissant, Assia Djebar, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, among others.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 100
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Race, Gender & Power
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will read, study, and analyze primary and secondary written sources and cinematic images. In a written assignment, they will evaluate a primary written source for evidence of authorial bias and explain how the author's point of view impacts the reliability of her/his evidence and conclusions. In a written assignment, students will also critically analyze contemporary French and Francophone theoretical texts from multiple points of view to critically evaluate the contributions of major French and Francophone intellectuals
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will build on their previous knowledge of contemporary French and Francophone theory to examine its applicability in the context of intellectual thought. They will be expected to incorporate postcolonial theory, historical narratives, the theory of emotions, psychoanalytical theory and transnational feminist theory in their written and oral assignments
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Students will examine the impact of French canonical theory on contemporary Francophone thought and francophonie's response to the coloniality of power. They will use this methodology to analyze critical texts from a transcultural theoretical perspective
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the process and politics of criticism in literary works as well as in their own work. They will consider how their work enters an existing discourse around the politics of French and Francophone de-colonial feminist theory.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the process and politics of criticism in literary works as well as in their own work. They will consider how their work enters an existing discourse around the politics of French and Francophone de-colonial feminist theory.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will abide by the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will organize a mini-symposium on the synergies between French and Francophone theory and praxis
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how they are taught to understand non-western cultural and theoretical systems in the West and an ability to contrast this understanding with understandings of contemporary francophone intellectual thought from the Caribbean, Africa and France.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will examine contemporary French and Francophone theory from postcolonial , feminist and historical perspectives. They will use an anti-colonial lens to analyze questions of identity and the construction/deconstruction of the self, systems of power and control, feminist subjectivity, theories of sexuality and queerness, de-colonial resistance theory from a transcultural perspective
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of contemporary critical thought from France, the Caribbean and Africa
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the theoretical contributions of major French and Francophone intellectuals from France, the Caribbean and Africa
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced)
- Students will write 5 short essays, read and analyze theoretical and literary texts, speak exclusively in French, create one presentation on an assigned reading, and participate in discussions sessions on contemporary French and Francophone theory
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced)
- Students will write critical papers in French at an advanced level of proficiency. They will avoid anglicisms in their papers to construct a well-articulated argument.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced)
- Students will explore the intricacies of contemporary French and Francophone theory and contrast it with their previous biases and misinformation about this rich intellectual tradition
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race and gender are socially constructed in intellectual thought through the processes of history, colonialism, post-colonialism and nationalism.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate the ability to critically analyze the intersections between race, gender, identity and other categories of difference in their readings of texts and written papers
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate a familiarity with examples of how marginalized groups in francophone communities have challenged state and colonial power through social movements, cultural production, literature, scholarly critique and alternative histories.
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate a familiarity with the theoretical perspectives of francophone intellectuals on the coloniality of power canonical french theory and be able to contrast this perspective with the ways in which patriarchy and coloniality represent themselves.
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to critically and respectfully discuss and write about French and Francophone theory and its intersections with race, gender, sexuality and power.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate a knowledge of postcolonial theory, transnational feminist theory, de-colonial resistance theory, and queer theory.
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how marginalized groups have used postcolonial and transnational feminist theory to contest racism and discrimination
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Practiced)
- Students will learn contemporary theories related to multiculturalism in the French and Francophone contexts
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Practiced)
- Students will deploy the necessary theoretical tools to examine the contributions of marginalized groups to the production of critical thought
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to contemporary French and Francophone intellectual thought
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an awareness of how feminist thought and postcolonial theory inform theories of race, class, national origin and transnational feminist solidarities
- Demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with queer theory, feminist theory and postcolonial theory
FREN 147: Dangerous Crossings:War and Migration in Francophone African and Middle Eastern Literature (4 Credits)
This course focuses on two defining tropes in contemporary francophone literature from Africa and the Middle East – war and migration. We will examine the politics of “clandestine” migration from Africa to Europe, the creation of economic refugees, and the impact of war and displacement on migrating communities through literature and film.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 100
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Race, Gender & Power
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Historical Perspectives, Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas on theories of war and migration and use this theoretical framework to analyse literary and cultural texts.
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- students will discuss war and migration from multiple perspectives including postcolonial theory, transnational feminist thought, migration theory, cultural studies theory and de-colonial thought
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Students will use de-colonial resistance theory to examine French colonialism in Africa and the Middle East and examine the ways in which literature and cultural production engender anti-war and social justice narratives
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the process and politics of criticism in literary works as well as in their own work. They will consider how their work enters an existing discourse around theories of war and migration in the Francophone context..
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will document their sources, use propre syntax and formatting, and adhere to the rules of responsible scholarship.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will organize a mini-colloquium on peace activism and migrant rights through an interdisciplinary perspective.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how different sexual/textual politics in French and Francophone contexts developed and changed Euro-American literary theory and criticism
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to analyze cross-cultural theories of the body through cultural production, scholarly work, literature, art from diasporic perspectives in France and in Francophone contexts outside France. They will be able to identify how these perspectives differ from dominant perspectives in the US.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of literature and cultural production from francophone Africa and the Middle East
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of postcolonial and transnational feminist theory and postcolonial French and Francophone literature.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced)
- Students will write short essays, read and analyse literary texts, speak exclusively in French, create oral presentations, and watch films to improve their aural skills
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced)
- Students will use proper syntax in oral and written work.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced)
- Students will explore the intricacies of francophone writings and cinema on war and migration and contrast it with their previous biases and misinformation about francophone Africa and the Middle East gleaned from colonial and western texts.
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race and gender are socially constructed through the processes of colonialism, post-colonialism and nationalism.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate the ability to critically analyze the intersections between race, gender, identity and other categories of difference in their readings of texts and written papers
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate a familiarity with examples of how marginalized groups in francophone Africa and the Middle East have challenged state and colonial power through social movements, cultural production, literature, scholarly critique and alternative histories.
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate a familiarity with theoretical and literary perspectives on the coloniality of power in francophone Africa and the Middle East and be able to contrast this perspective with the ways in which patriarchy and the nation state represent themselves in instances of war and migration
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced)
- Students will be able to define and use the concept of intersectionality in their written and oral assignments.
General Education Goals:
Historical Perspectives
- Evaluate past events and trends from political, economic, artistic, cultural, philosophical, and social perspectives (Practiced)
- Students will examine the historical conditions of war and migration and the creation of economic refugees through francophone history, literature, music and cinema
- Critique existing analyses of earlier eras (Practiced)
- Students will use postcolonial theory to deconstruct French colonialism and neo-imperialism in francophone Africa and the Middle East
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Practiced)
- Students examine the intersections between colonialism and nationalism through the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality and culture
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Practiced)
- Students will use de-colonial theory to examine anti-colonial/anti-racist resistance in literature, cinema and popular culture.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of postcolonial, de-colonial and transnational feminist theory with regard to the concept of multiculturalism
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to anti-war activism and migration in the context of francophone Africa and the Middle East
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an awareness of the intersections between colonialism, gender and war together with the solidarity coalitions and peace activism initiated by women
- Demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate a practiced familiarity with theories of postcolonial and transnational feminist theory.
- Analyze current and past social issues pertaining to gender (Practiced)
- Students will analyze the impact of war and migration on communities of women through historical and cultural analysis.
FREN 155: Reading Otherness in the French Enlightenment (3 Credits)
This course focuses on the perception and construction of Otherness (gendered, racialized, and sexual) in the political and philosophical discourses of the 17th and 18th centuries. In addition to reading canonical writers, such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau, we will also examine how the movement manifests itself in less “philosophical” forms, including Moliere's Les Femmes savantes, Les Contes de Perrault and Olympe de Gouges’s L’Esclavage des noirs. Perspectives include cultural anthropology, critical race theory, feminism, the philosophy of education and political theory.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 101 or FREN 102
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Historical Perspectives
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Mastered)
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Mastered)
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students engage in advanced readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into the student's mastery of the discipline
- Integrate postcolonial French and Francophone literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Mastered)
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will engage in close reading of the literary production of the French Enlightenments. They will study, and analyze primary and secondary written sources.. In a written assignment, students will critically analyze literary texts from multiple points of view to critically evaluate the reading of minority groups during the Enlightenments. Students will actively engage in class discussion and will be encouraged to challenge respectfully the views of the studied authors, and also each others understanding of the texts.
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will consider ideas and values of the French enlightenments from the perceptives of women, and minority groups. They will reflect on how the "non dominant" group received the values of the enlightenments and how they participated in the enrichments of these values, and how they developed their own views and understanding of these values.
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Via close readings of texts from the Enlightenments and a consideration of their later reception, students will explore historical and current perspectives and consider how these perspectives have been (or not) grounded and influenced by the ideas and values of the Enlightenments.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Student will learn to recognize the influence of the spirit of the Enlightenment in contemporary western ideals and values, students will recognized these ideals and values are not universals. Students will confront their belief and ideas with the values of the Enlightenment and they will critically approach the concepts brought by the Enlightenment in their papers.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will abide by the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will create a collaborative and rich learning community by engaging their peers in their presentations and by participating actively in class discussions. Once a semester, willing students will have the possibility to participate to mini debate/discussion with students from other classes.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Mastered)
- Student will be introduced to the history of the French enlightenments and their influence on the fathers of the US constitution. They will also study how the French enlightenments influenced the later development in France and they will compare how two countries (France and the US) adopted different views and concepts from the Enlightenments.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will study the representation, in philosophical texts (male dominated), of "otherness" and underrepresented groups such as the: "Disabled", Women, Children, "Oriental", "Muslim other", and "Slaves". Students will compare these representations with the ones found in the works of female writers and philosophers. Students will also compare the representation of the "Oriental" and "despotic regime" with the reflexion/views these "Orientals" and "despotic regimes" have on themselves. Students will learn to recognize the part of projection and creation of an image from the historical facts. Student will understand and recognize the formation of long lasting images and their weigh in later historical, social and political developments.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Student will be exposed to literary production of the enlightenments. Not only male dominated productions: students will study the influence of women in the French enlightenments , and their literary, scientific and pedagogical invaluable contributions. They will also study texts relative to or produced by minority groups in the Enlightenments.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students will read primary sources from the enlightenments thinkers, or from previous period authors who led to the French enlightenments. They will read not only the classical French Enlightenments canon (Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau), but they will also read French scientists productions (Madame du Chatelet) and texts from the "mother" of French feminism (Olympe de Gouges). The reading load of the class is quite extensive. Class discussions and reading summaries will support students understanding of the texts.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Mastered)
- This is a literature class taught all in French. The texts studied are classical French texts, written in literary French of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Students in this course are able to understand these texts, and to analyse them. They discuss them in class using articulated arguments and they write 4 research papers in French. Each reading requires students to write a response paper and questions for class discussions.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Mastered)
- Students will write critical papers in French at an advanced level of proficiency. They will avoid anglicisms in their papers to construct a well-articulated argument.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Mastered)
- Student will reflect on the influence of the French Enlightenments thinkers in the political, and intellectual development of the USA.
General Education Goals:
Historical Perspectives
- Evaluate past events and trends from political, economic, artistic, cultural, philosophical, and social perspectives (Mastered)
- Students are able to identify and discuss multiple causes to changes in history based on texts read for the class.
- Recognize both differences and similarities between past eras and the present (Mastered)
- Students should be able to define "modernity" in terms of pre- and post French Enlightenment history and they should be able to extensively develop on the impact of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution and later history.
- Ability to see differences and similarities in gender roles past and present
- Critique existing analyses of earlier eras (Practiced)
- Students demonstrate their understanding of concepts such as "Enlightenment" and their understanding of the historical context behind its usage. Students will understand how past eras are interpreted and labeled and why the various interpretations developed when they did.
- Use critical tools to assess historical source materials (Practiced)
- Use of historical dictionaries and encyclopedia , such as Pierre Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary and The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert.
FREN 162: Aesthetics of the Body in Literature (3 Credits)
The different representations of the human body through significant literary movements in Francophone literature: the decadent period and its subversion of sexual/social categories, Surrealism, the women's movement and the inscription of the body within the parameters of "l'ècriture fèminine," psychoanalytic interpretations of the female body with special emphasis on women writers' responses to Freud, the representation of the postcolonial body and diasporic fragmentation, the body and violence in diasporic contexts
Prerequisite(s): FREN 100
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Race, Gender & Power
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Mastered)
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Mastered)
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students engage in advanced readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into the student's mastery of the discipline
- Integrate postcolonial French and Francophone literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Mastered)
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an advanced understanding of feminist, postcolonial, psychoanalytic, queer and diaspora theory in its relation to the body, the female body in particular
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the process and politics of criticism in literary works as well as in their own work. They will consider how their work enters an existing discourse around the politics of the body in contemporary French and Francophone literature and literary criticism..
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Mastered)
- Students will participate in class discussions in an ethical and responsible manner. They will document all their sources using footnotes, annotated bibliographies and they will follow the rules of responsible scholarship.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how different sexual/textual politics in French and Francophone contexts developed and changed Euro-American literary theory and criticism
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to analyze cross-cultural theories of the body through cultural production, scholarly work, literature, art from diasporic perspectives in France and in Francophone contexts outside France. They will be able to identify how these perspectives differ from dominant perspectives in the US.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge on the social, political and cultural constructions of the body in postcolonial and transnational feminist French and Francophone contexts
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of postcolonial and transnational feminist theory and postcolonial French and Francophone literature.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate advanced proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and comprehension skills. They will write 5 short essays, create one oral presentation in French, read integral literary and cultural texts in French and speak exclusively in French
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Mastered)
- Students will use proper grammar and syntax in written and oral assignments and avoid the use of anglicisms and direct translations from English to French in their work
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Mastered)
- Students will critically reflect on the representation of the body in non-western/non-US contexts and learn how these representations differ from US perspectives
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race, gender and power are socially constructed in art, literature and through the processes of colonialism and nationalism
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Mastered)
- Students will analyze the politics of the body using intersectionality theory.
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate how marginalized diasporic/postcolonial bodies have engaged in struggles against colonialism, orientalism, nationalism and liminal representation through postcolonial and transnational feminist theory, cultural production and scholarly work.
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to critically and respectfully discuss and write about the aesthetics of the body and its intersections with race, gender, sexuality and power.
FREN 168: Francophone Women's Writing from Martinique, Haiti, and Guadeloupe (3 Credits)
A gendered interrogation of major aspects of Caribbean identity through the writings of women authors from Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti. Major topics for discussion and analysis: the impact of colonialism and neo-colonialism in the "creation" of Caribbean identity, mixed-race identification, sexuality, indigenous systems of religious affirmation such as Voudun, exile and the formation of diasporic communities (African and South Asian), immigration, Crèolitè and linguistic empowerment, political repression, and the "state" of women's writing.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 101 or FREN 102
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Race, Gender & Power, Written and Oral Communication II
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Mastered)
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Mastered)
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students engage in advanced readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into the student's mastery of the discipline
- Integrate postcolonial French and Francophone literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Mastered)
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Mastered)
- Students will use complex postcolonial theory in the critical analysis of literary texts. They will demonstrate an understanding of how gender, race and power structures operate in a non-western context
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will use the theories of leading francophone Caribbean feminists and critical race theorists to analyze the literature from the region
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students examine the writings of francophone Caribbean women writers from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti and their diasporas
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate a superior engagement with francophone Caribbean women's writing through the analysis of literary and cultural texts.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate advanced proficiency in written and oral communications skills in French through critical essays, readings of integral texts, oral presentations and group discussions.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced, Mastered)
- This is an advanced French course. Students will be able to articulate their ideas in French without resorting to anglicisms and direct translations of their ideas from English into French. They will demonstrate the ability to think, speak, write and read exclusively in French
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of theoretical and literary perspectives from non-western locations and use this knowledge to question the way they are taught to understand gender, race, sexuality, and power in the west.
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race, gender and power are socially constructed through processes of colonialism, state repression, globalization, exile and diaspora.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race, gender and power intersect with sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, citizenship and naitonality
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an advanced knowledge of how marginalized communities in the french-speaking Caribbean have engaged in struggles against colonialism, departmentalization, forced exile, and racialization through literature, art, film, and popular culture
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Mastered)
- Students will have an advanced knowledge of transnational Caribbean feminisms and postcolonial theory from the global south and contrast these theories with the limitations of western/ colonial feminism
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Mastered)
- Students will have an advanced knowledge of intersectionality and examine their own social locations of privilege in terms of geography, gender, cultural domination and the politics of Empire.
Written & Oral Comm II
- Students will develop skills in writing, digital presentation, and oral communication, as complementary and equal parts of college-level communication and literacy. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will write five papers at an advanced level of proficiency, create powerpoint presentations for individual and group projects and presentations, actively speak and read in French. They will read novels, short stories and poetry (no extracts).
- Students will be able to move easily and fluently between different rhetorical expectations and formal registers. (Mastered)
- Students will learn how to present themselves using postcolonial theory and Caribbean feminist discours. They will learn the disciplinary norms and expectations by practicing to write and present their ideas orally in ways characteristic of the writing done by and the presentations given in the discipline of French and Francophone studies
- Students will develop and refine their own voice and sense of style. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate their ability to present their ideas clearly and with a minimum of grammatical errors in oral and written assignments. They will develop and refine their particular writing style in their papers.
- Students will practice and refine different forms of communication that are appropriate for the multiple contexts and disciplines that they engage with. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate the ability to read texts with complexity using postcolonial and transnational Caribbean feminist theory to express their ideas in writing
- Students will understand thoroughly the relationship between form and content, (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate familiarity and grasp of the relation between style and grammar.
- Students will understand the role of drafting, revising, presenting, and receiving, processing and using feedback as important parts of the writing process. (Mastered)
- Students will understand the importance of revising each paper that is graded according to an essay correction code. They will revise these papers for a better grade using feedback received from the instructor.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Mastered)
- Use complex postcolonial theory in written and oral form
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Mastered)
- Apply theories of race, gender, postcoloniality, diaspora and culture to the literary analysis of Caribbean women's literature
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Mastered)
- Ability to engage in sensitive cross-cultural analysis from a non-Eurocentric perspective
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Mastered)
- Apply theories of decolonization and Caribbean feminist thought to the literary and cultural study of texts
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Mastered)
- Use contemporary postcolonial theory in oral and written assignments
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Mastered)
- Use concepts found in postcolonial and de-colonial theory in all written and oral work
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Mastered)
- Apply theories of transnational Caribbean feminism to all written and oral work
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Mastered)
- Use contemporary postcolonial feminist theory in the critical examination of texts
- Demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender (Mastered)
- Apply theories of contemporary Caribbean feminist theory to all written and oral work
- Analyze current and past social issues pertaining to gender (Mastered)
- Use cross-cultural critiques of colonial feminist engagements with "Third World" women
- Demonstrate familiarity with the history and effects of feminist thought (Mastered)
- Engage in woman-centered readings of texts through a postcolonial feminist perspective
FREN 170: Debunking Orientalist Stereotypes: Asian Writings in French (3 Credits)
A critical examination of the representation of "Asia" in the French colonial imaginary and the ways in which francophone Asian writers from China, India, Mauritius and the Caribbean contest these stereotypes in their postcolonial writings. Topics covered include Asian engagements with francophonie and language, war, diaspora, exile, immigration, colonial mythologies, and the structural violence of coloniality. Authors include François Chen, Gao Xingjian, Khal Torabully, Ananda Devi, K. Madavane, and Laure Moutoussamy, among others
Prerequisite(s): FREN 100
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English, Race, Gender & Power
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Mastered)
- level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Mastered)
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students engage in advanced readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into the student's mastery of the discipline
- Integrate postcolonial French and Francophone literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Mastered)
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the way that they are taught to understand paradigms of alterity in the West and an ability to contrast this understanding with postcolonial deliberations on race, gender and power in a transnational Asian context.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to analyze cultural and literary production, intellectual work and de-colonial projects from a non-western national context that includes, India, China, Mauritius and the Caribbean (and their diasporas)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of literature written by francophone Asian writers and francophone postcolonial theory.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Mastered)
- "The course is taught exclusively in French at a higher intermediate/advanced level of proficiency. Assignments include written papers, one oral presentation, group activities, reading novels, poetry and short stories and active class participation."
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Mastered)
- Students will engage with francophone literary and postcolonial theory at an advanced level without using anglicisms and direct translations from English to French.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Mastered)
- Students will debunk their preconceived notions of Asian writings in French by reading literary and critical works by Asian authors themselves.
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race, gender and power are socially constructed through processes of colonialism, migration/immigration, history, nationalism.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will engage with theories of intersectionality in their analysis of literary and cultural texts
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how marginalized Asian writers (women writers in particular) have engaged in struggles against colonialism, forced assimilation, war and migration through literature, cinema, scholarly work and the politics of francophonie
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will engage with postcolonial and feminist theory articulated by marginalized Asian writers within the canon of French and Francophone Studies and obtain an insider perspective on de-colonial struggle and resistance to French coloniality
FREN 180: Special Topics in French & Francophone Literature (3 Credits)
This course provides students with an overall framework to study certain themes that are relevant to a deeper understanding of the complexity and diversity of French and Francophone literatures and cultures. Topics include: Exile, Migration and Immigration in Francophone Africal literature, among others. May be repeated for credit when topics differ.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 100
FREN 191: Senior Thesis (3 Credits)
An independent research project, which focuses on a topic selected in consultation with the major advisor. Normally completed in conjunction with a regularly scheduled advanced literature course.
Note(s): Open only to undergraduates who are writing their senior thesis in French
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess the appropriate level of proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing French. (Mastered)
- Integrate level specific vocabulary into written and spoken work.
- Use proper syntax in written and oral work.
- Acquire the appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures according to the specific levels
- Possess general knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone history, cultures and literature. (Mastered)
- Identify key elements and trends in French and Francophone culture and history
- Demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not Eurocentric, sexist or racist
- Possess advanced knowledge and critical expertise in at least one area of French and Francophone culture and literature. (Mastered)
- Students engage in advanced readings and interpretations of "subaltern" literatures from a non Eurocentric and anti-racist perspective.
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Possess adequate grounding in critical theory and the ability to apply it to the analysis of literary and cultural documents. (Mastered)
- Integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into the student's mastery of the discipline
- Integrate postcolonial French and Francophone literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Mastered)
- Ability to understand and apply in writing concepts related to the notion of identity in French and Francophone intellectual traditions
- By examining literary works and their influences on later cultural development, students will be able to highlight differences and similarities in the different presentations and formations of culture.
- Students understand the complex nature of identity and are able to identify the multiple cultural, social, religious, and intellectual constructions of identity in theory and literature.
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Mastered)
- Students will compare and contrast colonial and postcolonial literary and theoretical texts
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Mastered)
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity. They will use contemporary French theory, Francophone de-colonial theory, feminist theory, among other methodologies
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Mastered)
- Students will examine the relationship between colonialism and postcolonialsm in the context of French and Francophone literature, culture and history
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Mastered)
- Students will adhere to the rules of responsible scholarship, document their sources with adequate footnotes and a detailed annotated bibliography.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Mastered)
- Students engage in advanced cross-cultural analysis of literature, history and culture that reflects multicultural sensitivity.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Mastered)
- Students will integrate canonical French literary theory, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline. In the Francophone context, they will integrate Francophone postcolonial and feminist theory, literary analysis, history, and culture into their mastery of the discipline.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an advanced knowledge of a particular literary period in France. In the francophone context, they will demonstrate advanced knowledge of selected French-speaking countries, with a special emphasis on francophone Africa and the Caribbean
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate advanced knowledge of French theory and Francophone postcolonial and feminist theory
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate advanced proficiency in French at the level of reading, writing, speaking. They will analyze key concepts in contemporary theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Mastered)
- Students will write their thesis in French without using anglicisms, awkward syntax resulting from direct translations from English. They will have learned to read, write, speak and think in French at the thesis level
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Mastered)
- Students analyze key concepts in multicultural theory and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary and historical texts. They will also read contemporary critical theory from the Anglophone world (special emphasis on postcolonial theory) for a cross-cultural comparative understanding
FREN 192: Senior Thesis (4 Credits)
An independent research project, which focuses on a topic selected in consultation with the major advisor. Normally completed in conjunction with a regularly scheduled advanced literature course.
LET 054: MASTEWORKS GERMAN LITERATURE (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 070: THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 080: Special Topics (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 101: Library Resources and Methods (2 Credits)
An introduction to information literacy and cross-disciplinary research practices. This course emphasizes critical engagement with information sources and technologies, including considerations of power, access, and justice. Over the course of the term, students will develop and apply information literacy skills that anchor and advance liberal arts education and lifelong learning.
LET 102: MEXICAN WOMEN WRITERS (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 110: Introduction to Literary Criticism (3 Credits)
An introduction to the most important contemporary schools of literary criticism: New Criticism; Structuralism and Post-structuralism; Marxism, New Historicism, and Post-colonialism; and Psychoanalytic, Feminist, and Gender Criticism. Primary aim is to provide an understanding of the concepts and methodologies characteristic of each school, and to enable students to apply those theoretical approaches to their own reading and critical practice.
Prerequisite(s): ENG 001
LET 111: Women, Gender and Cultural Production in the Global South (3-4 Credits)
This course examines the intersections between race, class, gender, sexuality, power and resistance in the framing of cultural production from the global south. We will study the intellectual roots of woman-centered cultural systems and the relationship between culture, identity, and social change. Major topics include social justice theatre, the women of Negritude, South Asian women film directors and diaspora cinema, the role of documentaries in social critique, testimonial literature as subaltern history, border poetics, and feminist eco-criticism.
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Race, Gender & Power
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will critically examine literary and cultural texts through the perspectives of postcolonial theory, transnational feminist theory and critical cultural studies theory. They will apply theoretical concepts to the analysis of literature, music, art and testimonial narratives.
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- This course is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural in its focus. The students will examine issues from postcolonial, transnational, feminist, and race theory perspectives.
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Students will engage in an exploration of how colonial systems of power and cultural dominance also created subversive strategies of resistance in different cultural spheres. They will demonstrate an understanding of the dialectical relationship between the coloniality of power and de-colonial resistance in cultural forms.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will engage with current discourses on cultural studies in the Americas and use this knowledge to further their own understanding of cultural studies as an interdisciplinary, multi-lingual and cross-cultural discipline. They will use this knowledge in the analysis of literary and cultural texts in this class and other classes as well.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will adhere to the rules of responsible scholarship by participating in discussions respectfully, documenting their sources through footnotes and bibliographies, and using academic sources in their papers and presentations.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will create final cultural projects related to the course and present them to the community.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the way that they are taught to understand cultural studies in the West and an ability to contrast this understanding with understandings of cultural theory and representation from the global south
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to analyze cultural and literary production and intellectual work from a global south perspective and identify how these perspectives differ from dominant US perspectives.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of cultural production in Francophone and Anglophone locations in the Caribbean, Africa and India
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of global south cultural studies theory in the fields of literature, music, cinema, art, subaltern history, social justice theatre and feminist eco-critique.
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race, gender and power are socially constructed through processes of colonialism,nationalism and postcolonialism
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of intersectionality theory and its applicability to cultural studies theory
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have engaged in de-colonial struggles through cultural production, social movements, political resistance, scholarly and creative work, and the development of transnational solidarities
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate a familiarity with the theoretical aspects of cultural production from the global south and be able to contrast this knowledge with the ways in which these cultures are mis-represented in dominant discourses on race, identity, culture and power.
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced)
- Students will use intersectionality theory in their written and oral assignments.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Practiced, Mastered)
- Analyze cultural texts from different ethnic traditions in the global South
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Practiced, Mastered)
- Apply theoretical concepts of cultural studies to the analysis of historical and literary texts
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Practiced, Mastered)
- Use cross-cultural analysis and comparative approaches to cultural dynamics between different groups
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Practiced, Mastered)
- Analyze and apply critical race and resistance theory in written assignments, presentations, and discussions
- Engage in sensitive and culturally informed comparative analysis
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Practiced, Mastered)
- Analyze and apply critical race and resistance theory in written assignments, presentations, and discussions
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Practiced, Mastered)
- Read and critique literature, testimonial narratives, cultural studies and postcolonial theory, and transnational feminism in both written and oral work
LET 112: ANCT MYTH:GREEK, ROMAN (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 114: Framing Violence in Popular Tales (3-4 Credits)
Short stories have been an important literary and cultural tradition in France since 1690. These stories are far from being mere fairy tales; they unveil the violence of the Early Modern period while revealing the horrors of social and domestic violence. This course has two goals: the first one is to present the nature, extent and causes of domestic, social, and every day violence in absolute and “despotic” regimes of the early modern times. The second one is to “read” violence and the emotions linked to it in popular tale narratives. Course can be taken for French credits.
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will: -Supports response to readings with specific and relevant examples/evidence -Appreciate depth and breadth of the problem -Demonstrate open and fair-mindedness toward information and ideas -Identify and evaluate relevant significant points of view -Examine relevant points of view fairly, empathetically -Include in their analysis information that opposes as well as supports the argued position -Distinguish between information and inferences drawn from that information
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will base their understanding of information or idea on a synthesis of evidence from various sources (different versions on the same popular tale); supports inferences about causal consequences with evidence that has been evaluated from disparate viewpoints, and analyzes implications that demonstrates some awareness of ambiguity.
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students are able to identify and discuss multiple causes of violence in Early Modern Europe based on texts read for the class, and compare them with contemporary violence.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will learn to approach popular tales through different perspectives, may them be be folkloristic, comparatist, structuralist, anthropologic ou psychoanalytic. They will reflect on these perspectives and consider how they apply to their thoughts and ideas. They will consider these perspectives in their own works, and see how they "place" their reflexions on popular tales within the frame of these school of thoughts. They will confront or/and fortify their understanding of popular tales with these critical perceptives.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will abide by the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will give two "formal" presentations to the class. The presentations will be anonymously reviewed by students and professor according to pre-established rubrics, one of these rubrics is "ability to engage the group into an intellectual and critical discussion". Once a semester students will also be asked to participate to a mini presentation-debate with students from other classes willing to participate.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student will study various popular tales from early modern Europe and will come to realize that the Disney versions of these tales is far from being universal, and is a distortion of ancestral and polymorph tales.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will learn to read the violence contained in -"French" folktales (written down mostly by women with the exception of Perrault), -"German" folktales (Grimm's brothers version), -Indo-Persian tales and their translation by Antoine Galland, -Turkish tales, and their translation by Petis de la Croix. Students will compare different versions of the same tale and their treatment of violence.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will study the French translation-adaptation of the 1001 night by Antoine Galland and the translation-adaptation of the 1001 day by Petis de la Croix. They will compare the French translation with their originals (when available in English and translated by Arabic, Turkish or Persian translators). Students will learn to differentiate between the "projected" and imagined violence in the French translations, and the more historical and genuine situation relative to violence in the Ottoman and Safavids Empires.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will have a in-depth understanding and knowledge of popular tales from early modern Europe. Students will also study the context (historical, political, literary, and artistic) around the creation of these texts. They will be able to recognize acts of violence behind the stories and get a in depth picture of violence in interpersonal relations in early modern Europe.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will read original primary sources from the sixteenth to the eighteen century as well as secondary contemporary sources. Students will write two long research papers and build two annotated bibliographies using primary sources in French. Depending on students, the level of proficiency at the end of this course should range from Intermediate high to advance high ( ACTFL classification). Students will have to opportunity to participate in small group discussion in French.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student will acquire and develop appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures that they will apply to their essays. Student will also develop facility of oral communication and eloquence in French and demonstrate the capacity to formally present in a well organized and articulated fashion on a topic relative to course content.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will reflect on the presentation of popular tales in the US and in their own culture and will contract these visions with the first written version of these tales in French (for example students will think about the Sleeping Beauty version carried by Disney, and contrast it with the much more violent French version by Perrault and the even more violent one by Basile). Students will reflect on the persecution of violence, and the notion and the meaning of "happy ending" in different cultures.
LET 115: African and Caribbean Literatures (3-4 Credits)
A study of oral traditions, prison writing, testimonial literature, de-colonial resistance, colonial education and de-colonial pedagogy, woman-centered traditions and rituals, women and war, as expressed in selected African and Caribbean texts.
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Race, Gender & Power
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will read postcolonial and transnational feminist theory and apply these theories in their written work
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will engage in cross-cultural, comparative and interdisciplinary critical thinking using postcolonial and transnational feminist perspectives.
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Students will critically examine colonial history and colonial literature and will contrast these with contemporary Postcolonial Studies and transformative justice approaches in literature.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will use contemporary critical theory both to discuss and analyse questions of identity, exile and displacement, de-colonial resistance and solidarity, and cultural retention.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will explore the politics and impact of race-theory on postcolonial literature, and will consider their own ethical and social justice responsibilities as emerging theorists.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will participate in discussion groups, peer learning and writing projects.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Mastered)
- Ability to engage in sensitive cross-cultural analysis from a non-Eurocentric perspective
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Apply theories of decolonization to the literary and cultural study of texts
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Use contemporary Anglophone and Francophone postcolonial theory in oral and written assignments
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Apply theories of critical and creative resistance found in postcolonial and de-colonial theory to all written and oral work
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced)
- Apply theories of transnational feminism to all written and oral work
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced)
- Use contemporary postcolonial feminist theory in the critical examination of texts
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced)
- Use postcolonial feminist thought to deconstruct colonial feminist engagements with "Third World" women
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Mastered)
- Engage in woman-centered readings of texts through a postcolonial and transnational lens
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced)
- Students will engage with de-colonial pedagogy, critical race theory and transnational feminist theory.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Mastered)
- Use complex Anglophone and Francophone postcolonial theory in written and oral work.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Mastered)
- Apply theories of race, gender, postcoloniality, diaspora and culture to the literary analysis of texts
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Mastered)
- Ability to engage in sensitive cross-cultural analysis from a non-Eurocentric perspective
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Mastered)
- Apply theories of decolonization to the literary and cultural study of texts
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Mastered)
- Use contemporary Anglophone and Francophone postcolonial theory in oral and written assignments
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Mastered)
- Apply theories of critical and creative resistance found in postcolonial and de-colonial theory to all written and oral work
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Mastered)
- Apply theories of transnational feminism to all written and oral work
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Mastered)
- Use contemporary postcolonial feminist theory in the critical examination of texts
- Demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender (Mastered)
- Apply theories of transnational and postcolonial feminism in all written and oral work
- Analyze current and past social issues pertaining to gender (Mastered)
- Use postcolonial feminist thought to deconstruct colonial feminist engagements with "Third World" women
- Demonstrate familiarity with the history and effects of feminist thought (Mastered)
- Engage in woman-centered reading of texts through a postcolonial and transnational lens
LET 119: HAND,COMPUTER: TWO DESIGNS (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 125: THE ROMANTIC REVOLUTION (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 128: Reading Otherness in the French Enlightenment (3-4 Credits)
This course will focus on the perception and construction of gendered, racialized, and sexualized Otherness in the political and philosophical discourses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In addition to reading canonical Enlightenment philosophers, we will also examine how the movement manifests itself in less philosophical forms . Perspectives include political philosophy, cultural anthropology, race theory, feminism, and the philosophy of education. Course taught in English, French originals, and additional discussions in French will be available for French speaking students.
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will engage in close reading of the literary production of the French Enlightenments. They will study, and analyze primary and secondary written sources.. In a written assignment, students will critically analyze literary texts from multiple points of view to critically evaluate the reading of minority groups during the Enlightenments. Students will actively engage in class discussion and will be encouraged to challenge respectfully the views of the studied authors, and also each others understanding of the texts.
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will consider ideas and values of the French enlightenments from the perceptives of women, and minority groups. They will reflect on how the "non dominant" group received the values of the enlightenments and how they participated in the enrichments of these values, and how they developed their own views and understanding of these values.
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Via close readings of texts from the Enlightenments and a consideration of their later reception, students will explore historical and current perspectives and consider how these perspectives have been (or not) grounded and influenced by the ideas and values of the Enlightenments.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Student will learn to recognize the influence of the spirit of the Enlightenment in contemporary western ideals and values, students will recognized these ideals and values are not universals. Students will confront their belief and ideas with the values of the Enlightenment and they will critically approach the concepts brought by the Enlightenment in their papers.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will abide by the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will create a collaborative and rich learning community by engaging their peers in their presentations and by participating actively in class discussions. Once a semester, willing students will have the possibility to participate to mini debate/discussion with students from other classes.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Student will be introduced to the history of the French enlightenments and their influence on the fathers of the US constitution. They will also study how the French enlightenments influenced the later intellectual, political, and sociological developments in France and they will compare how two countries (France and the US) adopted different views and concepts from the Enlightenments.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students will study the representation, in philosophical texts (male dominated), of "otherness" and underrepresented groups such as the: "Disabled", Women, Children, "Oriental", "Muslim other", and "Slaves". Students will compare these representations with the ones found in the works of female writers and philosophers. Students will also compare the representation of the "Oriental" and "despotic regimes" with the reflexion/views these "Orientals" and "despotic regimes" have on themselves. Students will learn to recognize the part of projection and creation of an image from the historical facts. Student will understand and recognize the formation of long lasting images and their weigh in later historical, social and political developments.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Student will be expose to literary production of the enlightenments. Not only male dominated productions: students will study the influence of women in the French enlightenments, and their literary, scientific and pedagogical invaluable contribution. They will also study text relative to or produced by minority groups in the Enlightenments.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will read primary source from the enlightenments thinkers, or from previous period authors who led to the French enlightenments. They will read not only the classical French Enlightenments canon (Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau), but they will also read from French scientist (Madame du Chatelet) and the "mother" of French feminism (Olympe de Gouges). The reading load of the class is quite extensive. Class discussions and reading summaries will support students understanding of the texts.
LET 129: Introduction to the History of Emotions in Early Modern Europe. (3-4 Credits)
This course has two main goals: First it will present emotions as cultural and social practices that change over time. Students will start by studying emotions in their European historical context. Then they will learn how the history of emotions has framed the colonial gaze and Europe's "emotional" categorizations of Otherness. Students will be presented with texts describing the emotional experiences of Westerns when faced with the “Other”. Fear, angry polemic, eager curiosity, a whole emotional rhetoric depicting the “Other” shaped writings on these encounters.
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will learn how to do close reading analysis and literary commentaries. They will be presented with current trends in the theory of the history of emotions , and be asked to respectfully challenge these theories and each others understanding of them. They will also have to think critically in order to understand and recognize that emotions are not universal and "timeless".
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- The course covers principally Western Europe but also explores emotions created and exhibited through Europe’s interactions in North America and other societies globally during the period. It also explores the difference in emotional responses toward "Others" among europeans. Emotions and how they vary in intensity will be studied from different european perspectives.
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Emotions such as love, hate, fear, anger, sadness, or joy are very often considered constant and common to humans in all times and places. However, there has been significant variation in how emotions have been expressed, regulated and promoted in different periods and cultures. This course will look at emotions as cultural and social practices that change over time. Past societies were not always operating with the six core emotions established by modern psychologists (Paul Ekman). For instance some emotions are unique to a time and other have meanings quite distinct from one period to another.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the theory of emotions. They will consider how their work enters an existing discourse around the theory of emotions and current research in the field of the history of emotions.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will abide by the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will create a collaborative and rich learning community by engaging their peers in their presentations and by participating actively in class discussions. Once a semester, willing students will have the possibility to participate to mini debate/discussion with students from other classes.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- This course will look at emotions as cultural and social practices that change over time. It covers principally Western Europe but also explores emotions created and exhibited through Europe’s interactions in North America and other societies globally during the period. It also explores the difference in emotional responses toward "Others" among europeans. Emotions and how they vary in intensity will be studied from different european perspectives, and student will compare with the expression of emotions in their own culture.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- This course will introduce the idea that the history of emotions has framed the colonial gaze and Europe's "emotional" categorizations of Otherness. Student will be presented with texts from different european traditions describing the emotional experiences of the authors when faced with the “Other”, specially with the so-called "Muslim other". Students will analyse the weigh of denomination, and the productions of emotions certain denominations create (e.g. "Muslim Other"). Students will compare the emotional experience expressed when Europeans enter in contact with the "Other" with the experience these Others have when in contact with Europeans. Special attention will be given to the analysis of cross-cultural emotional experience between Europeans and Middle Easterners.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- This course covers principally Western Europe but also explores emotions created and exhibited through Europe’s interactions in North America and other societies globally during the period. It also explores the difference in emotional responses toward "Others" among europeans.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Student will study expression of love, hate, fear, anger, sadness, and joy in early modern European literary productions, they will also explore how these emotions are represented in artistic European productions.
LET 131: Cultures and Identities in the Americas and the Caribbean (3-4 Credits)
Intellectual, social, and political factors will be considered in this critical examination of selected periods and aspects in the cultural formation of Hispanic peoples, from pre-Columbian America and early Spain to present-day cultural developments in Latin America and Hispanic communities in the United States. Theoretical grounding for the analysis of cultural production will also be provided.
Note(s): Check course schedule for availability. Consent of instructor needed for first-year students.
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Race, Gender & Power
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Possess a relevant level of linguistic proficiency in Spanish. (Practiced)
- Majors in Spanish write reports in an understandable, organized and clear Spanish. They demonstrate writing and reading skills in the Spanish language. For other students, demonstrating a general knowledge of Spanish is desirable, but not required
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Identifie via exams fundamental periods, aspects, topics, and issues inherent in the cultural reality of Hispanic peoples
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Learn how to analyze Hispanic/Latino culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Ability to describe relevant traits that define the identity of Spanish-speaking and indigenous communities in the Americas and the Caribbean in particular historical, literary, artistic and cultural manifestations.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the history and reality of Hispanic/Latino peoples. Demonstrate understanding and knowledge of indigenous communities in Latin America as well as cultural minorities in Iberia for a transcultural/diaporic analysis.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Report, write, and discuss the diversity of Hispanic/Latino/Latinamerican indigenous cultures, demonstrating an understanding and knowledge of their artistic, cultural, literary and social contributions
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Study texts that offer a deconstruction of traditional power structures, learning key tools for an understanding of race, gender, class and identity.
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Show familiarity with social movements and artistic expressions in the Americas and the Caribbean, analyzing and comparing social-historical-cultural events and issues related to national identity formations.
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced)
- Ability to engage in cross and transcultural analysis, demonstrating an awareness and understanding of the social realities of the Hispanic/Latino and Indigenous people of the Americas.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Introduced, Practiced)
- Discuss readings and give well-organized presentations that demonstrate an understanding of the Hispanic cultures; relate self and culture to the Hispanic culture in the U.S. and globally.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Introduced)
- Analyze texts related to the Hispanic culture and write responses that demonstrate an ability to examine aspects, topics and issues inherent in the cultural reality of the Hispanic peoples.
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Introduced)
- Examine, orally and in writing, historical periods in particular contexts, and adapt familiar frameworks for new uses.
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Introduced)
- Analyze and compare social-historical-cultural events and issues related to national identity formations in Spain and Latin America.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Introduced)
- Demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the history and reality of the Hispanic peoples.
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Introduced, Practiced)
- Report, write, and discuss the diversity of the Hispanic culture and combines fields of study and personal perspective on course content to illuminate and deepen analysis and interpretation of information.
LET 142: French and Francophone Women Writers (3-4 Credits)
A study of major French and Francophone fictional and theoretical texts.. Focuses on the issues involved in the psychosexual and historical construction of gender and gender roles as reflected in the theory and practice of l'écriture féminine and literature.
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Race, Gender & Power
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will use critical literary, postcolonial, transnational feminist theory to analyze literary texts
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will examine issues from an inclusive global south perspective and engage with questions of colonization and racialization.
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Students will engage in an exploration of colonial representations of the "other" and contrast this will critical race theory and de-colonial thought
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will understand how French and Francophone women writers have used literature, feminist theory and culture to engage in questions of de-colonization, anti-racist-anti-patriarchal discourse, human rights issues, identity, de-centering dominant paradigms of French-ness, queerness
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will follow the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will present their ideas in an open forum by creating presentations, participating in group discussion and actively engaging with the material through a theoretical lens
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the way they are taught to examine gender, race and sexuality in the west and an ability to contrast this understanding with postcolonial framings in a transnational feminist context
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to analyze cultural and literary texts, feminist theory and postcolonial theory from France, North and West Africa and the french-speaking Caribbean. They will be able to identify how these perspectives differ from hegemonic perspectives in the US
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of Francophone women's writings from Africa, the Caribbean and the diaspora
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an advanced understanding of Caribbean and African postcolonial and feminist theory
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate the ability to identify the role colonialism, racism, colonial feminism and the history of empire play in the writings of 20th century French women writers and how these tropes are contested and subverted by Francophone women writers from Africa and the Caribbean
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how the social constructions of race, gender and power shape French and Francophone women's writing.
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with examples of how marginalized women writers have challenged colonial and state power through literature and cultural production
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will develop an understanding of postcolonial and transnational feminist theory in the analysis of francophone and canonical French texts.
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will engage with theories of intersectionality, critical race theory and transnational feminism to critically examine texts about racial, gender and sexual difference
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Mastered)
- Use feminist and postcolonial Francophone feminist theory in all assignments
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Mastered)
- Apply theories of race, gender, postcoloniality, diaspora and culture to the literary analysis of texts
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Mastered)
- Ability to engage in sensitive cross-cultural analysis from a non-Eurocentric and gendered perspective
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Mastered)
- Apply theories of decolonization in contemporary Francophone feminist theory to all written and oral assignments
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Mastered)
- Use contemporary French and Francophone postcolonial theory in oral and written work
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Mastered)
- Apply theories of critical and creative dissidence found in postcolonial and de-colonial theory to all work
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Mastered)
- Apply theories of transnational feminism to all written and oral assignments
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Mastered)
- Use contemporary Francophone and French postcolonial feminist theory in the critical examination of texts
- Demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender (Mastered)
- Apply theories of transnational and postcolonial feminist theory to all written and oral assignments
- Analyze current and past social issues pertaining to gender (Mastered)
- Use postcolonial feminist thought to deconstruct essentialist feminist engagements with women of color
- Demonstrate familiarity with the history and effects of feminist thought (Mastered)
- Engage in woman-centered readings of texts through a gendered perspective
LET 149: Post-Colonial Conditions: Contemporary Women's Writings from Africa (3-4 Credits)
Exploration of contemporary social issues in Africa through the work of contemporary women writers from Francophone and Anglophone traditions, including Ken Bugul (Senegal), Flora Nwapa (Nigeria), Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana), Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt), Bessie Head (Botswana), Farida Karodia (South Africa), and Calixthe Beyala (Cameroon/France). Issues include women's education, women and nation building, female sexuality, spirituality, exile and expatriate writing, indigenous African feminisms, and changing gender roles. Students will also be introduced to post-colonial theory.
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Race, Gender & Power
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will use contemporary critical literary, postcolonial and transnational African feminist theory in the reading of texts
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will use theories of intersectionality in all assignments - postcolonial, transnational, global south feminism, for example
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will examine the role of coloniality in the construction of identity and develop an understanding of how African women writes use literature and cultural production (film, art) to "write back".
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will understand how women writers from Africa have used literature and culture to engage in questions of de-colonization, anti-racist-anti-patriarchal discourse, human rights issues.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will follow the rules of responsible scholarship in their work and document their sources with attention.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will present their ideas through presentations, group discussion and theoretical engagement with the material
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the way that they are taught to examine gender, power and race in a western context and an ability to contrast this understanding with the intersections of race, gender and power structures in African feminist contexts
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an ability to analyze cultural and literary production, feminist movements in Africa, and scholarly work from a de-colonial perspective. They will be able to identify how these perspectives differ from dominant perspectives in the US.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of the cultural, intellectual and literary production of African women writers from Algeria, Egypt, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Cameroon and the diaspora
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of transnational and postcolonial feminist theories from Africa and apply this knowledge to the critical analysis of literary texts
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race, gender and sexuality are socially constructed through colonialism, neo-colonialism, state oppression, exile and diaspora and use this knowledge to analyze literature.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race, power and gender intersect with sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, geography, citizenship and nationality as reflected in women's literature
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate how marginalized women writers have engaged in struggles against colonialism, state despotism, migration, poverty, and censorship through literary and cultural production
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will engage with postcolonial and transnational feminist theory from Africa and use this knowledge to interrogate their own preconceived ideas on African feminism
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate the ability to critically discuss and write about social justice issues dealing with racial, sexual, gender, and class difference as highlighted in women's literature
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Mastered)
- Use complex postcolonial African feminist and postcolonial theory in written and oral work
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Mastered)
- Apply theories of race, transnational feminism, diaspora and culture to the literary analysis of texts
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Mastered)
- Ability to engage in sensitive cross-cultural analysis from a non-Western perspective
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Mastered)
- Apply theories of African decolonization and feminism to the literary and cultural study of texts
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Mastered)
- Use contemporary postcolonial and African feminist theory in all oral and written assignments
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Mastered)
- Apply theories of critical and creative resistance found in postcolonial and de-colonial theory to all texts
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Mastered)
- Apply theories of transnational feminist thought to all written and oral work
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Mastered)
- Use contemporary African feminist theory in the critical analysis of texts
- Demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender (Mastered)
- Apply theories of transnational and postcolonial African feminism in all written and oral work
- Analyze current and past social issues pertaining to gender (Mastered)
- Use postcolonial African feminist thought to deconstruct Western stereotypes of African women and their social realities
- Demonstrate familiarity with the history and effects of feminist thought (Mastered)
- Engage in woman-centered readings of texts through a postcolonial and transnational lens
LET 150: Gender, Diaspora and Social Issues in Indian Women's Literature and Cinema (3-4 Credits)
A literary, theoretical, and cinematic exploration of how South Asian diasporic communities in Britain, East and South Africa, and the Anglophone Caribbean reconfigure themselves around "migrating" notions of race, class, gender, and nationhood. Issues discussed will include the tension between assimilation and cultural resistance, immigration and its impact on shifting gender ideologies, exile and historical rupture, and hybridized forms of cultural and literary production resulting from the inevitable "clash of cultures."
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Race, Gender & Power
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender
Program Goals:
French and Francophone Studies Program Goals
- Possess an understanding and appreciation of issues of cultural identity and difference, and some experience of exposure to a culture other than their own. (Mastered)
- Course is crosslisted with WGSS 150
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will critically examine literary and cinematic texts using postcolonial theory, transnational feminist theory and cultural studies theory. They will apply theoretical concepts to the analysis of cinema and literature
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- This course is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural in focus. The students will examine social and gender issues from postcolonial, feminist and diaspora theory perspectives
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Through discussions, papers and presentations students will examine the social and political contexts of Indian women's writing and cinema through the lens of postcolonial theory, transnational feminist thought, critical race theory, and cultural studies theory.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will examine key questions in postcolonial and transnational feminist theory and their applicability to diasporic identity, queer citizenship, anti-war activism, environmental justice, immigration and migration, indigenous identity, the gendering of poverty in urban spaces, among other social issues
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will adhere to the rules of responsible scholarship by participating in discussions respectfully, documenting their sources through footnotes and bibliographies, and using academic sources in their papers and presentation
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will create one oral presentation in which they will share their ideas with the class
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how they are taught to understand literature and cultural production in the West and the ability to contrast this understanding with a critical examination of postcolonial theory and feminist representation from India and the diaspora
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze literary/intellectual work from an Indian/Indian diasporic perspective and identify how these perspectives differ from dominant US perspectives
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of literary and cinematic production in francophone and anglophone locations in India and the diaspora
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of Indian literary and cultural production from India, Britain, Canada, Mauritius and the Caribbean
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how race, gender and power are socially constructed through processes of colonialism, nationalism, diaspora and postcolonialism
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of intersectionality theory and its applicability to postcolonial and diasporic feminist contexts
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways in which marginalized communities in India and diaspora have resisted the coloniality of power in feminist literature, postcolonial feminist theory and cinema
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized feminist communities in India and the diaspora have engaged in de-colonial struggles, social movements, political resistance, scholarly and creative work, and the development of diasporic solidarities
- Students will use intersectionality theory in their written and oral assignments
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the theoretical aspects of feminist literary and cinematic production from India and the diaspora and be able to contrast this knowledge with they ways in which they understand their own social location. They will understand the significance of social privilege and positionality and communicate this understanding respectfully in their written and oral work.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Practiced)
- Students will consider cultural and literary production as dynamic and examine the inherent complexities in these systems of thoughtd
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Practiced)
- Students will engage in intersectional theory to examine the history of racial and ethnic formations in national and transnational contexts
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Practiced)
- Students will examine the works of Indian and Indian diasporic women's literary and cultural production and recognize cross-cultural systems of difference and comparison
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Practiced)
- Students will analyze the work of Indian and Indian diasporic women writers and filmmakers in a comparative context to determine how they deal with issues of racism, discrimination and marginalization
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Practiced)
- Students will use transnational postcolonial feminist theory in their analysis of literary and cinematic texts
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Practiced)
- Students will produce written work and create presentations that analyze the artistic and literary contributions of marginalized women's groups in India and the diaspora
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Practiced)
- Students will analyze the cultural and literary production of women authors and filmmakers from India and the diaspora
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Practiced)
- Students will analyze key concepts in transnational South Asian feminist thought
- Demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender (Practiced)
- Students will analyze and discuss the work of leading feminist scholars from India and the diaspora
- Analyze current and past social issues pertaining to gender (Practiced)
- Students will examine the history of South Asian feminist literary and cultural production from India and the diaspora
- Demonstrate familiarity with the history and effects of feminist thought (Practiced)
- Students will apply postcolonial and transnational feminist theory to the analysis of texts and films from India and the diaspora
LET 155: Reading War in Post-Colonial Literature from Africa and the Middle East (3 Credits)
This course will focus on representations of war in post-colonial novels from Nigeria, Algeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Lebanon, and Iraq. We will explore the historical contexts of war in literature, creative resistance to military and political oppression, the link between trauma and memory, women's efforts to "wage peace," and war and sexuality in novels by Assia Djebar, Nuruddin Farah, Buchi Emecheta, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Nuha Al-Radi, and Boris Diop, among others.
LET 157: THE 18TH CENTURY NOVEL (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 160: THE 19TH C FRENCH NOVEL (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 161: Latin American Women Writers in Translation (3 Credits)
A study of major autobiographical and fictional texts written by Latin American women in the 19th and 20th centuries. Focuses on issues of identities, transatlantic networks and transnational feminism. Critical readings will include recent theoretical approaches to literature by women in Latin America.
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Race, Gender & Power
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Show familiarity with major canonical and non-canonical literary works. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students analyze content and structure of literary works and visual materials (films, documentaries, photographs, paintings) within appropriate historical and social contexts relating to gender and literary genres.
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students describe significant traits that characterize a specific literary text or other related materials within diverse Hispanic cultural contexts.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Reading and studying the works by Latin American women artists and writers opens many avenues as a way of understanding the world and making universal links.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Engage in woman-centered readings of a variety of texts and visual materials (films, documentaries, photographs, paintings) through a transnational, postcolonial and feminist lens. Use Latin American artistic and feminist theories in all written and oral work.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students learn about Latin American Women artists and writers. They read and discuss works by well-known figures as well as study testimonial literature by marginalized women in Latin America.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students identify specific achievements made by Latin American women in Literature and the Visual Arts.
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced)
- Students demonstrate awareness and understanding of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the ways that historically women challenged racism and discrimination.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced)
- Analyze content and structural features of specific texts using appropriate theories of gender. Students will demonstrate their understanding of how dynamic social forces are related to the construction of gender identity, race and status in Latin American texts that represent different historical periods.
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced)
- Students develop critical thinking strategies reading/examining not only the original works by women artists and writers, but by reading criticism, in particular related to marginalized women's communities.
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students develop their critical strategies thanks to readings of criticism and class discussions. They compare and contrast canonical and marginalized works by Latin American women artists and writers.
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced)
- Students taking this class develop an excellent awareness towards Latin American women history and social perspectives that help them to understand Latinx US communities.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students define culture and cultural identities in terms of shifting social and historical parameters of collective practices and ideological systems.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students demonstrate a general knowledge of culture and cultural identities in terms of the history of racial and ethnic formations.
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students demonstrate awareness and understanding of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the ways that historically women challenged racism and discrimination.
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify critical concepts for a meaningful description of artistic and intellectual representations of marginalized groups in diverse Latin American, Spanish, and U.S. Latino texts.
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify specific achievements made by Hispanic women to Spanish, Latin American and US Latino culture.
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify significant racial, ethnic, class, and national differences, as well as commonalities across boundaries, in Hispanic texts pertaining to women's experience.
- Demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students analyze content and structural features of specific texts using appropriate theories of gender.
- Analyze current and past social issues pertaining to gender (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate their understanding of how dynamic social forces are related to the construction of gender identity and status in Hispanic texts that represent different historical periods.
- Demonstrate familiarity with the history and effects of feminist thought (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding with the history and effects through contemporary hispanic history and culture of feminist ideas.
LET 162: U.S. Latino Literature and Culture (3 Credits)
A study of U.S. Latino literature and culture with special emphasis on the 20th century. Works by Chicano, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban, Dominican, and other authors writing in the U.S. will be analyzed. By examining works of fiction, poetry, theater, and popular culture, attention will be given to gender, class, and ethnicity in the representations of the experience of U.S. Latinos. The course will introduce critical concepts for the study of Latino/a literature and culture.
Note(s): Offered fall or spring. Check course schedule for availability.
Meets the following Core requirements: Race, Gender & Power
Core Goals:
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify specific literary works within appropriate historical and social contexts relating to gender. They discuss culture and cultural identities in terms of shifting social and historical parameters of collective practices and ideological systems.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students analyze significant racial, ethnic, gender, class, and origin differences and experiences, as well as commonalities across boundaries in Texts pertaining to the US Latina(o) experience. Engage in woman-centered readings of texts through a gendered perspective.
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students show familiarity with the social movements, civic engagement and political-artistic expressions of Chicanas/Chicanos, Mexican-Americans, Nuyoricans, Cuban-Americans, and other US Latino communities.
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary and intellectual accomplishments of the US Latina(o) communities and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience.
LET 166: National Literatures of Latin America (3 Credits)
The literary expression of a particular region through a variety of authors, genres, and periods, concentrating on literary accounts of historical events, sociopolitical developments, and the phenomena of mass media and transculturation since the 1930's. Areas of study include the Caribbean (Cuba and Puerto Rico), Mexico, and the Cono Sur (Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile).
Note(s): Offered fall or spring. Check course schedule for availability.
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Historical Perspectives, Multicultural Perspectives
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Show familiarity with major canonical and non-canonical literary works. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students identify specific literary works within appropriate historical and social contexts relating to gender and literary genres.
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students describe cultural traits that characterize the diverse identity of Hispanic peoples in particular literary texts.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Demonstrate understanding of Latin American culture, cultural identities, literature and history, in the chosen country of study, as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Study a country (e.g. Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico) and define culture and cultural identities in terms of shifting social and historical parameters of national identity formation. Students demonstrate their understanding of the diverse cultural traits that characterize Hispanic and indigenous peoples in the Americas.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students show familiarity with major canonical and non canonical artistic and literary works. Students analyze content and structure of literary works and visual materials (films, documentaries, photographs, paintings) within appropriate and social contexts.
General Education Goals:
Historical Perspectives
- Evaluate past events and trends from political, economic, artistic, cultural, philosophical, and social perspectives (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students demonstrate their understanding of the importance of how dynamic social forces and perspectives have impacted Latin American literary movements at different points from the 1900's through the present.
- Recognize both differences and similarities between past eras and the present (Introduced)
- Students identify fundamental differences and features of continuity in the development of specific literary approaches characterizing Latin American letters from the early 1900's to the present.
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students define culture and cultural identities in terms of shifting social and historical parameters of collective practices and ideological systems.
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Introduced)
- Students identify relevant practices, traditions, and institutions that have had a significant function in the interaction, modification, and/or preservation of value systems pertaining to different ethnic groups in modern and contemporary Latin America.
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Introduced)
- Students identify critical concepts for a meaningful description of literary and intellectual representations of marginalized groups in diverse Latin American national and international contexts.
LET 168: Women in Cinema: Latin America, Spain and U.S. Latinas (3 Credits)
Analysis and discussion of films about women and gender issues in the cinema of Latin America, Spain and U.S. Latinas. Topics include gender roles, the woman as "Other," the construction of the female subject, women in/and relations of power, traditional and canonical representations of women's social practices, and the role of cinema in women's practices of resistance and critical opposition.
Note(s): Offered fall or spring. Check course schedule for availability.
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Show familiarity with major canonical and non-canonical literary works. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students analyze content and structural features of specific films within appropriate historical and social contexts relating to gender and cinematic genres.
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students describe significant traits that characterize a specific film within diverse Hispanic cultural contexts.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify and analyze critical concepts for a meaningful description of artistic and intellectual representations of marginalized groups in diverse Spanish, Latin American, and U.S. Latino Cinematography.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students describe significant traits that characterize a specific film within diverse Hispanic cultural contexts.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify significant racial, ethnic, class, and national differences, as well as commonalities across boundaries, in Hispanic films pertaining to women's experience.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students define culture and cultural identities in terms of shifting social and historical parameters of collective practices and ideological systems.
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify relevant practices, traditions, and institutions that have had a significant function in the interaction, modification, and/or preservation of value systems pertaining to different ethnic groups in modern and contemporary Spain and Latin America.
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify critical concepts for a meaningful description of artistic and intellectual representations of marginalized groups in diverse Latin American, Spanish, and U.S. Latino cinematography.
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify specific achievements made by Hispanic women to Spanish and Latin American culture.
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Introduced)
- Students identify significant racial, ethnic, class, and national differences, as well as commonalities across boundaries, in Hispanic films pertaining to women's experience.
- Analyze current and past social issues pertaining to gender (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students will demonstrate their understanding of how dynamic social forces are related to the construction of gender identity and status in Hispanic films that represent different historical periods.
LET 169: Hispanic Cinema (3 Credits)
Structural and historical analysis of major exponents in contemporary Hispanic film, including the cinema of Latin America, Spain, and U.S. Spanish-speaking communities. Drawing from both formal and sociocultural models of description, the course examines the film production of well-known directors. A grounding in film theory is concurrently provided and developed throughout the semester. Films in original language with English subtitles.
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Show familiarity with major canonical and non-canonical literary works. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students analyze content and structural features of specific films within appropriate historical and social contexts relating to gender and cinematic genres.
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students describe significant traits that characterize a specific film within particular Hispanic cultural contexts.
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
- Students analyze Hispanic/Latino culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify critical concepts for a meaningful description of artistic and intellectual representations of marginalized groups in diverse Iberian, Latin American and U.S. Latino cinematographies.
- Students have a total immersion, via films and documentaries, in the cultural traditions of the Hispanic-speaking world.
- Students demonstrate cross cultural sensitivity through an informed comparative cultural analysis that is not US centered.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Students identify relevant practices, traditions, and institutions that have had a significant function in the interaction, modification, and/or preservation of value systems pertaining to different ethnic groups in modern and contemporary Latin America and Iberia.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students describe significant traits that characterize a specific film within Hispanic Cultural Contexts.
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Introduced)
- Students define culture and cultural identities in terms of shifting social and historical parameters of collective practices and ideological systems.
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Introduced)
- Students identify relevant practices, traditions, and institutions that have had a significant function in the interaction, modification, and/or preservation of value systems pertaining to different ethnic groups in modern and contemporary Spain and Latin America.
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Introduced)
- Students identify critical concepts for a meaningful description of artistic and intellectual representations of marginalized groups in diverse Latin American, Spanish, and U.S. Latino cinematographies.
LET 170: Business French and Cultural Praxis (0.25-1.25 Credits)
This course examines the key features of business practice, business etiquette, the business environment and business people in France. The French business culture is presented in the context of political, economical, sociological, historical and legal influences, and it is compared to two North African countries: Morocco and Algeria as well as to the business culture praxis in the USA. This course is especially designed for business students, international studies students and students who want to get an experience of working in a French speaking environment.
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, International Perspectives, Language Other than English
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Historical Perspectives, Multicultural Perspectives
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will: -Supports response to readings with specific and relevant examples/evidence -Appreciate depth and breadth of the problem -Demonstrate open and fair-mindedness toward information and ideas -Identify and evaluate relevant significant points of view -Examine relevant points of view fairly, empathetically -Include in their analysis information that opposes as well as supports the argued position -Distinguish between information and inferences drawn from that information.
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will base their understanding of information or idea on a synthesis of evidence from various sources (different approach and opinion on a business case that almost failed for lack of cultural understanding, such as Euro Disney for instance); supports inferences about causal consequences with evidence that has been evaluated from disparate viewpoints, and analyzes implications that demonstrates some awareness of ambiguity.
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Students will understand how past events shaped the French Business praxis. They will understand the weight and importance of French colonial history in shaping modern business patterns in France and in French speaking North Africa. Students will acquire knowlegde on French political, social, and economical history and its strong influence in contemporary events and cultural and business praxis.
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will examine different perspectives on Business praxis through the lens of economical, sociology, political, cultural and anthropological theory, and will consider how these perspectives differ or complement each other..
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
- Students will abide by the rules of responsible scholarship and document their sources.
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
- Students will give two "formal" presentations to the class. The presentation will be anonymously reviewed by students and professor according to pre-established rubrics, one of these rubrics is "ability to engage the group into an intellectual and critical discussion". Once a semester students will also be asked to participate to a mini presentation-debate with students from other classes willing to participate.
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student apply post colonial theory and current theory in multiculturalism to the "French" case and use these theories in comparing the case of France with the USA.
- Student will consider responses to racism and other forms of discrimination in the French business culture, and compare them with the situation in the USA to recognize differences and similarities in these patterns.
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
- Students will analyse the Business practices in "French speaking" North Africa and will evaluated the "weight" of French colonialism in these practices. Students will analyse the influence of North Africa in French economical and social context, they will also examine the influence of North Africa in the evolution of culture in France in the last five decades.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
- Based on business cases, critical texts, and sociological articles, student work will consider the dynamic formulations of culture and cultural identities and how they influence the business praxis in French and Francophone context. They will then compare with and reflex on the weight of social and cultural practices in the US business praxis.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the contributions of major French and Francophone intellectuals, politician, economists, and journalists from France, and North Africa. Students will also demonstrate knowledge of successful businesses and business models in these countries and be able to analyse the reasons for this success.
Language Other than English
- Students will demonstrate basic competencies in three modes of communication in a language other than English: interpersonal skills (negotiation of meanings), interpretive skills (appropriate oral, written and cultural interpretations) and presentation skills (creation of oral and written messages for different purposes). (Practiced, Mastered)
- For Students who decide to take the class for French credits: Students will read and study business cases, business reports and all other material necessary for the class in French, they will be able to browse the news in French and provide, every week, press releases ( in French) on economical and business culture topics. Students will write a long research papers and build an annotated bibliographies using primary sources in French. Student will also be prepared to actively participate in small group discussions conducted in French. Finally Students will be ask to build an extended CV in French and write three motivation/cover, or application letters in French.
- Students will develop the ability to articulate thought in a language other than English and reflect on differences between that language and English. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student will acquire and develop appropriate stylistic and rhetoric structures that they will apply to their essays. Student will also develop facility of oral communication and eloquence in French and demonstrate the capacity to formally present in a well organized and articulated fashion on a topic relative to course content.
- Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview. (Practiced, Mastered)
- By studying French and French speaking North African Business Praxis, Students will be able to compare them with their own, and question/ challenge their model and business culture practices.
General Education Goals:
Historical Perspectives
- Evaluate past events and trends from political, economic, artistic, cultural, philosophical, and social perspectives (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students are able to identify and discuss multiple causes to changes in history based on texts read for the class.
- Students identify and discuss multiple causes to changes in French economy and business practices based on course readings that focus on the history of economy, and social and political changes since mercantilism in the seventeenth century until present day praxis
- Recognize both differences and similarities between past eras and the present (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Understand how past events shaped the French Business praxis. Understand the weight and importance of French colonial history in shaping modern business patterns. Understand French political and economical history and its strong influence in current days.
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Student work will consider the dynamic formulations of culture and cultural identities and how they influence the business praxis in French and Francophone context.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Introduced, Practiced)
- Apply theories of race, gender, postcoloniality, diaspora and culture to the analysis of business practices
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Introduced)
- Ability to engage in sensitive cross-cultural analysis from a non-Eurocentric and gendered perspective.
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Introduced)
- Student will consider responses to racism and other forms of discrimination in the French business culture.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Introduced)
- Students will engage with past and current perspectives regarding multiculturalism.
- Student apply post colonial theory and current theory in multiculturalism to the "French" case and use these theories in comparing the case of France with the USA.
LET 171: Fantastical Writings: 20th-Century Latin American and U.S. Latino(a) Fiction (3 Credits)
The focus emphasizes short narrative texts which designate "uncanny," "abnormal," and/or "extraordinary" experiences as a challenge to some of the fundamental assumptions underpinning realist fiction, and as a way to engage in critical consideration of philosophical, literary, and other humanistic questions. Topics include the nature of reality, being and existence, time and space, death, humor, the power of words and imagination, and the limits of human knowledge.
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Show familiarity with major canonical and non-canonical literary works. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students analyze content and structural features of specific short stories within appropriate literary contexts related to fantastical writings.
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Acquire a relevant knowledge of the Latin American and U.S. Latinos Literary traditions
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students describe significant traits that characterize a specific short story within particular Latin American and U.S. Latino canonical and non-canonical contexts.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students identify relevant literary practices that have had a significant function in Latin American and U.S. Latino(a) fantastical writing trends.
LET 175: GERMAN SHORT STORY (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 180: Special Topics in Literature (3 Credits)
Exploration of themes and/or topics not offered as part of the regular curriculum. Course content to be determined by the instructor. May be repeated for credit when topics differ.
LET 180A: Special Topics (0.25-1.25 Credits)
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Historical Perspectives, Multicultural Perspectives
LET 180B: Special Topics (0.25-1.25 Credits)
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Historical Perspectives, Multicultural Perspectives
LET 180C: Special Topics (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 180D: Special Topics (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 180E: Special Topics (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 180S: From Modern Romance to Being Mortal: Bestsellers, Ideology and Power (3-4 Credits)
How do bestsellers reveal the mechanics of ideology and power? What and how can we learn from bestselling books? Are they examples of propaganda and social control? How are they able to question systemic power and how do they lull their readers into complacency? With a keen eye on the representation and construction of race, gender, and other aspects of subjectivity, we will study a wide variety of texts as we work towards strengthening critical thinking and academic writing skills.
Meets the following Core requirements: Critical Analysis, Race, Gender & Power, Written and Oral Communication II
Meets the following Gen Ed requirements: Multicultural Perspectives, Women and Gender, Written Communication
Core Goals:
Critical Analysis
- Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will engage in close readings of texts, discourses, and commonly held assumptions.
- Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will consider the production and the reception of texts; identify salient issues specific to the texts including those involving form and content, and will consider multiple perspectives in their analyses
- Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
- Via close readings of texts and a consideration of their reception and aesthetics, students will explore historical and current perspectives and consider the formation of discplines
- Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
- Students will become familiar with the process and politics of criticism in exemplary works as well as in their own work.
- Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will consider how their work enters on-going conversations and as such must adhere to ethical standards. Students will become familiar with the relationships between representation and power
- Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will share their work.
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will analyze texts to better understand how these forms work as social methods to produce categories and concepts of race, gender, etc.The power and privilege to disseminate, create, and resist such categories will receive much consideration
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will consider how intersectionality plays a large role in representational politics. Close readings, discussions, and assignments will provide the means to practice this consideration.
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced)
- Students will consider how the texts demonstrate that historically marginalized groups have resisted oppressive and violent representation and formation via scholarship, artistic production, social media and other expressions, as well as through grassroots resistance and social movements.
- Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will consider how specific scholars have discussed representational politics, and will contrast these ideas with other scholarly and more mainstream or dominant views.
- Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced)
- Students will understand the significance of social location and its relation to persuasive and respectful styles of communication.
Written & Oral Comm II
- Students will develop skills in writing, digital presentation, and oral communication, as complementary and equal parts of college-level communication and literacy. (Practiced, Mastered)
- This course focuses on the development of academic writing skills via drafts and revisions; it requires oral presentations that use a document camera and presentation software.
- Students will be able to move easily and fluently between different rhetorical expectations and formal registers. (Practiced)
- Students will engage in oral presentations that demonstrate competence in academic performance; their written work will include both formal and informal styles to better understand the differences between these styles.
- Students will develop and refine their own voice and sense of style. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will practice writing in a style that is clear and that retains their distinctive voice. Students will develop oral communication skills by participating in various forms of discussion and presentations.
- Students will practice and refine different forms of communication that are appropriate for the multiple contexts and disciplines that they engage with. (Practiced)
- Students will consider matters of audience and the art of persuasion in their written and oral work.Students' work will aim to be persuasive to a variety of audiences, including a hypothetical, disagreeable read
- Students will understand thoroughly the relationship between form and content, (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will become familiar with the style of the academic essay. Their essays will require textual evidence and analysis, appropriate citation, and clear presentation
- Students will understand the role of drafting, revising, presenting, and receiving, processing and using feedback as important parts of the writing process. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will engage with writing as a process of transformation that emerges step-by-step from first thoughts, drafting, revising, and considering feedback
General Education Goals:
Multicultural Perspectives
- Demonstrate understanding of culture and cultural identities as dynamic rather than fixed categories, and describe the diverse ways in which they are produced, transformed, and maintained (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will explore the dynamic representation and construction of culture in the texts and in their reception
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of racial and ethnic formation and stratification in national and transnational contexts, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will consider these formations as the appear in these texts, their marketing, and their reception
- Describe how two or more ethnic groups have interacted in different historical contexts, and be able to discuss the dynamics of that relationship (Practiced)
- Students will compare various texts; consider racial/ethnic dynamics at play in the production and reception of the texts.
- Demonstrate an understanding of processes of group formation and describe how marginalized groups have used diverse strategies to challenge racism and discrimination (Practiced)
- Students will consider critical responses to the texts vis-a-vis challenging racism.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history of and current debates surrounding the concept of multiculturalism, particularly with regard to racism and anti-racism (Practiced)
- Students will consider how historical and current debates regarding multiculturalism, racism, and anti-racism are relevant to a study of the works on the reading list.
- Deploy the necessary critical tools to reflect on the artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of marginalized groups-both nationally and internationally-and to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will aim to write clear and persuasive essays; class discussion and oral presentations are required.
Women and Gender
- Demonstrate an awareness of the distinctive contributions of women to culture or history or science (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will consider women and gender as aspects in cultural contributions
- Demonstrate awareness of the impact of race, class, national origin, and other significant differences as well as the commonalties in women's experience (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will consider intersectionality in their analysis of texts and course themes.
- Demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with theories of gender as relevant to texts and themes.
- Analyze current and past social issues pertaining to gender (Practiced)
- Gender will be a consistently addressed issue in our analyses of the texts.
- Demonstrate familiarity with the history and effects of feminist thought (Practiced)
- Students will research and consider feminist thought
Written Communication II
- A. Demonstrate familiarity with a variety of rhetorical forms and how these forms are used in specific academic disciplines, cultural contexts, and institutions outside the academy (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will read a variety of texts and produce a variety of work.
- B. Write clearly organized essays with the following characteristics: effective paragraphing, thesis development, transitions, use and interpretation of evidence, evidence of larger structure and organization (Practiced, Mastered)
- Student work will be scored according to a rubric that includes these criteria.
- C. Write essays that incorporate examples from other writers, demonstrate critical thinking and interpretation about the ideas of other writers, and use correct documentation for these examples (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will cite work and analyze this work.
- D. Use draft and revision processes, demonstrate understanding of different stages of the writing process, and engage in editing and revision of peer essays (Practiced, Mastered)
- Essay assignments will require drafting and revising.
- E. Write in a style that is both personally expressive and compatible with the specific discipline or context of the project (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will write coherent, signature work.
- Produce essays and other forms of writing free from sentence level error and identify where to get further information about such errors (e.g., how to use a handbook) (Practiced, Mastered)
- A rubric including these criteria will serve to score student essays. Students will learn to find resources to address any writing weaknesses.
- Be familiar with and able to use the tools and resources of an academic library in addition to Internet resources (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students will use library and internet resources.
- Be competent in the use of the citation style appropriate to a discipline (Practiced, Mastered)
- MLA citation will be required on essays.
LET 183: Advanced Seminar in Literature (3 Credits)
In-depth examination of and critical inquiry into a specific subject through shared readings, discussion, and written assignments. Course content to be determined by the instructor. May be repeated for credit when topics differ.
LET 191: Senior Thesis (4 Credits)
An independent research project that focuses on a topic selected in consultation with the major advisor.
Meets the following Core requirements: International Perspectives, Race, Gender & Power, Written and Oral Communication II
Core Goals:
International Perspectives
- Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Mastered)
- Students will engage in comparative cross-cultural analyses of topics related to de-colonial resistance, identity, social engagement, the politics of power from an international perspective
- Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Mastered)
- Students will choose a topic related to Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean, non-Western diasporic spaces using sources by global south scholars. They will contrast these perspective with dominant US perspectives on race, identity, social location, immigration, among other topics.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Mastered)
- Students will focus on writers, film makers, cultural theorists, scholars from outside of the US.
Race, Gender & Power
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate how race and gender are socially constructed and subjected to the processes of colonialism, postcolonialism, nationalism, neo-colonialism.
- Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Mastered)
- Students will engage with intersectional theory in their theses through an interdisciplinary, comparative and cross-cultural lens.
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Mastered)
- Students will demonstrate familiarity with resistance movements, artistic movements, literature, cinema, cultural theory, intellectual work from de-colonial global south perspectives
Written & Oral Comm II
- Students will develop skills in writing, digital presentation, and oral communication, as complementary and equal parts of college-level communication and literacy. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students demonstrate excellent research and writing skills and use references and criticism (according to their theme) with care and precision. They keep a balanced thesis.
- Students will be able to move easily and fluently between different rhetorical expectations and formal registers. (Practiced, Mastered)
- Students use references and literary terms only when necessary, not to impress the reader. Use them only when they are part of the argument and the critical mode of work.
- Students will understand the role of drafting, revising, presenting, and receiving, processing and using feedback as important parts of the writing process. (Practiced, Mastered)
- it is essential for students to draft, revise, present and process. Students works closely with the thesis advisor or advisors.
LET 211: Women, Gender and Cultural Production in the Global South (3-4 Credits)
This course examines the intersections between race, class, gender, sexuality, power and resistance in the framing of cultural production from the global south. We will study the intellectual roots of woman-centered cultural systems and the relationship between culture, identity, and social change. Major topics include social justice theatre, the women of Negritude, South Asian women film directors and diaspora cinema, the role of documentaries in social critique,, testimonial literature as subaltern history, border poetics, and feminist eco-criticism.
LET 212: ANCT MYTH:GREEK, ROMAN (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 215: African and Caribbean Literatures (3-4 Credits)
A study of oral traditions, prison writing, testimonial literature, de-colonial resistance, colonial education and de-colonial pedagogy, woman-centered traditions and rituals, women and war, as expressed in selected African and Caribbean texts.
LET 225: THE ROMANTIC REVOLUTION (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 231: Cultures and Identities in the Americas and the Caribbean (4 Credits)
Intellectual, social, and political factors will be considered in this critical examination of selected periods and aspects in the cultural formation of Hispanic peoples, from pre-Columbian America and early Spain to present-day cultural developments in Latin America, the Caribbean and Hispanic communities in the United States. Theoretical grounding for the analysis of cultural production will also be provided.
Note(s): Check course schedule for availability. Consent of instructor needed for first-year students.
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Demonstrate orally and in writing an understanding and knowledge of the Hispanic culture; background statement reflects awareness of issues' interaction with history and culture.
LET 242: French and Francophone Women Writers (3-4 Credits)
A study of major French and Francophone fictional and theoretical texts written by women in the 19th and 20th centuries. Focuses on the issues involved in the psychosexual and historical construction of gender and gender roles as reflected in the theory and practice of l'écriture féminine.
LET 249: Post-Colonial Conditions: Contemporary Women's Writings from Africa (3-4 Credits)
Exploration of contemporary social issues in Africa through the work of contemporary women writers from Francophone and Anglophone traditions, including Ken Bugul (Senegal), Flora Nwapa (Nigeria), Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana), Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt), Bessie Head (Botswana), Farida Karodia (South Africa), and Calixthe Beyala (Cameroon/France). Issues include women's education, women and nation building, female sexuality, spirituality, exile and expatriate writing, indigenous African feminisms, and changing gender roles. Students will also be introduced to post-colonial theory.
LET 255: Reading War in Post-Colonial Literature from Africa and the Middle East (4 Credits)
This course will focus on representations of war in post-colonial novels from Nigeria, Algeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Lebanon, and Iraq. We will explore the historical contexts of war in literature, creative resistance to military and political oppression, the link between trauma and memory, women's efforts to "wage peace," and war and sexuality in novels by Assia Djebar, Nuruddin Farah, Buchi Emecheta, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Nuha Al-Radi, and Boris Diop, among others.
LET 260: The 19TH C FRENCH NOVEL (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 261: Latin American Women Writers in Translation (4 Credits)
A study of major autobiographical and fictional texts written by Latin American women in the 19th and 20th centuries. Focuses on issues of identities, transatlantic networks and transnational feminism. Critical readings will include recent theoretical approaches to literature by women in Latin America.
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Show familiarity with major canonical and non-canonical literary works. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students analyze content and structure of literary works and visual materials (films, documentaries, photographs, paintings) within appropriate historical and social contexts relating to gender and literary genres.
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students describe significant traits that characterize a specific literary text or other related materials within diverse Hispanic cultural contexts.
LET 262: U.S. Latino Literature and Culture (4 Credits)
A study of U.S. Latino literature and culture with special emphasis on the 20th century. Works by Chicano, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban, Dominican, and other authors writing in the U.S. will be analyzed. By examining works of fiction, poetry, theater, and popular culture, attention will be given to gender, class, and ethnicity in the representations of the experience of U.S. Latinos. The course will introduce critical concepts for the study of Latino/a literature and culture.
Note(s): Offered fall or spring. Check course schedule for availability.
LET 265: NATL LITERATURES LATIN AMERICA (0.25-1.25 Credits)
LET 266: National Literatures of Latin America (4 Credits)
The literary expression of a particular region through a variety of authors, genres, and periods, concentrating on literary accounts of historical events, sociopolitical developments, and the phenomena of mass media and transculturation since the 1930's. Areas of study include the Caribbean (Cuba and Puerto Rico), Mexico, and the Cono Sur (Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile).
Note(s): Offered fall or spring. Check course schedule for availability.
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Show familiarity with major canonical and non-canonical literary works. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students identify specific literary works within appropriate historical and social contexts relating to gender and literary genres.
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students describe cultural traits that characterize the diverse identity of Hispanic peoples in particular literary texts.
LET 268: Women in Cinema: Latin America, Spain and U.S. Latinas (4 Credits)
Analysis and discussion of films about women and gender issues in the cinema of Latin America, Spain and U.S. Latinas. Topics include gender roles, the woman as "Other," the construction of the female subject, women in/and relations of power, traditional and canonical representations of women's social practices, and the role of cinema in women's practices of resistance and critical opposition.
Note(s): Offered fall or spring. Check course schedule for availability.
LET 269: Hispanic Cinema (4 Credits)
Structural and historical analysis of major exponents in contemporary Hispanic film, including the cinema of Latin America, Spain, and U.S. Spanish-speaking communities. Drawing from both formal and sociocultural models of description, the course examines the film production of well-known directors. A grounding in film theory is concurrently provided and developed throughout the semester. Films in original language with English subtitles.
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Show familiarity with major canonical and non-canonical literary works. (Introduced, Practiced)
- Students analyze content and structural features of specific films within appropriate historical and social contexts relating to gender and cinematic genres.
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students describe significant traits that characterize a specific film within particular Hispanic cultural contexts.
LET 271: Fantastical Writings: 20th-Century Latin American and U.S. Latino(a) Fiction (4 Credits)
The focus emphasizes short narrative texts which designate "uncanny," "abnormal," and/or "extraordinary" experiences as a challenge to some of the fundamental assumptions underpinning realist fiction, and as a way to engage in critical consideration of philosophical, literary, and other humanistic questions. Topics include the nature of reality, being and existence, time and space, death, humor, the power of words and imagination, and the limits of human knowledge.
Program Goals:
Spanish & Spanish-Amer Studies Program Goals
- Show familiarity with major canonical and non-canonical literary works. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students show correct use of literary criticism and identify specific literary works within appropriate historical and social contexts.
- Value intrinsic differences that characterize diverse Hispanic communities, peoples and cultures. (Introduced, Practiced, Mastered)
- Students learn how to analyze culture and cultural identities in Hispanic literature as dynamic rather than fixed categories.
LET 296: Independent Study (0.5-1 Credits)
LET 299: Thesis in Progress (0 Credits)
Faculty
Audrey Calefas-Strebelle
Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies
Germaine Thompson Professorship in French Studies
Mills Hall Room 328, 510.430.2215, mailto:acalefasstrebelle@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Sixteenth to 18th centuries French literature with a strong interest in other periods, Orientalism 16th–18th centuries, Franco-Ottoman relationship 16th–18th centuries, cultural history and anthropology, changing awareness of motherhood and childhood 16th–18th centuries, folks tales 16th–18th centuries
Brinda Mehta
Professor of French and Francophone Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Program Head of French and Francophone Studies
Mills Hall Room 326, 510.430.2212, mehta@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Nineteenth-century French literature, psychoanalysis and feminist critical theories, Caribbean and African francophone literatures
Jessie Singer
Assistant Adjunct Professor
Mills Hall 334, 510.430.2207, jsinger@mills.edu
Staff
Nikole Wilson-Ripsom
Faculty Administrative Assitant
Mills Hall Room 340, 510.430.2080, nwilsonripsom@mills.edu