IFE

News and Notes

Séverine Choquet — 2010-09-01T11:20:04Z

My first Byline, from Paris

If enrollment in the Paris Field Study and Internship Program is any indication, future journalists are also training as global citizens. IFE's response to this trend: while perfecting French and figuring out France, why not also work in one's future field? Le Monde, Reuters TV News, Marie-Claire Magazine, the media center of the Ministry of the Interior, these are some of the organizations US journalism students have used not only to hone their trade but also to expand their view of the world. Leona, at the time a student at the renowned Medill School of Journalism, went to work two years ago at Reuters TV where she was able to "go out regularly in the field to film and write stories" and in the process "learned tons!". After returning to finish her degree she came back to France to work first for BusinessWeek and then as a stringer for France 24 TV and TéléLibre.fr, an internet-based network of (ferociously) independent TV journalists. Upholding IFE's reputation more than honorably, Leona's fine work (see it here) has opened the door for another student – by chance also from Medill – who will be an intern with TéléLibre.fr this Fall.

In one of the clearest examples of global-mindedness, Mirabelle, a student of languages and media, will this Fall take her zeal for cross-cultural breadth to Reporters Without Borders, where she will participate in the work of this journalists' NGO in favor of international press freedom. Also this Fall, Maki, previously a journalism intern in Washington and Manilla, will represent IFE at Reuters, where she will surely "learn tons".

A City's Footprint

Environmental Studies majors who lack French skills must surely be green – this time with envy – at what their French-speaking classmates are able to get into in France, through IFE's Field Study and Internship programs. As the collective sense of urgency on ecological questions grows, from Obama's election or France's General Assizes on the Environment to the Copenhagen summit, it is reflected in the concerns of IFE's students. Increasing numbers of ecologists and sustainable developers come to Paris or Strasbourg to work on these important questions.

If an earlier form of environmental mindedness in France was the shocked realization that while plants are green, agriculture is most often not (with IFE ecologists involved in agri-pollution issues), current preoccupations include sustainable living through urban alternatives, and IFE students are present on this front as well. Tabitha joined the strategic planning office for energy and climate of the French Ministry for Ecology, where she contributed to a study of renewable energy in urban areas. Obviously a hot topic; Cathy, working at the Paris Studio for Urban Planning and Change, put her economics and urban studies to work analyzing the cost-benefit of fiscal and other public incentives to increase the energy performance of Paris dwellings, using a unique base of detailed thermographic data for all of Paris, street-by-street. (In a follow-up experience, she worked on renewing neglected urban areas using sustainable principles for a project sponsored by the Ministry of Ecology's office for urban and regional planning.)

Ariel took a different, more literal approach to the greening of cities by working with an Inter-disciplinary collective for urban development and social architecture ("Atelier d'Architecture Autogérée) who specialize in developing "eco-responsible" neighborhoods often structured around shared vegetable gardens, cooperative greenspaces and the like, one of Ariel's passionate interests. Her work focused on a community garden in east Paris which received special recognition under the prestigious "European Prize for Urban Public Space".

A sure sign of greener times, Laura was asked by the Commercial Services department of the US Embassy to produce market studies for green industries in France, in order to meet new and increasing demand for this information by foreign direct investors. France, recently commended in two international reports for its EU-leading performance in greenhouse gas reduction, is a thriving place for environmental policy students of all shades, with possible placements – besides government ministries – in think tanks, not-for-profits, urban planning outfits, NGO's, or public agencies such as the newly created national Agency for the Environment and Energy Conservation.

Update from Lima: Street-level media with High-Schoolers

In a previous issue of this letter, we reported on the post-IFE projects of "Frances K" (Frances Kvietok, IFE Spring 09, Swarthmore College '10), focused on minority education in Peru. With her BA in hand, she is back at it, this time in the Lima metropolitan area, working with a group of which she is one of the founders: Documenta.pe!, "a group of young people interested in expanding the use of media within communities that have not had acces to this right". This summer, "guided by a belief in the democratization of media as a medium of expression and social justice", the group spent June and July working with secondary school students from the Juan Valer Sandoval public school of Villa Maria del Triunfo, in the outskirts of Lima.

The group ran workshops involving the creation of stories, film production and editing. "We also ran workshops for teachers interested in creatively incorporating media production into their classrooms." Interested readers of this letter can follow the workshops and view the films and documentaries produced in the group's blog: http://documentape.blogspot.com/.

Begun by Peruvian, Ecuadorian and American students in the United States, documenta.pe!, which now includes university students from Lima as well, has launched an appeal for volunteers: "The school where we work is now equipped with cameras and editing software. Currently we are looking for volunteers to continue the second workshop in Juan Valer Sandoval, as well as summer workshops." Those interested need not have film background, but some experience with urban youth wouldn't hurt. (Contact: documenta.pe@gmail.com).

An American on Board (IFE'S Board)

IFE is proud and pleased to announce that Lisa Gasbarrone, Professor of French at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, as well as Director of International Studies at F&M, has agreed to serve as member of IFE's Conseil d'Administration or Board of Directors. As a not-for-profit association under French law, IFE is required to operate with a board of directors and has chosen to make an asset of this necessity by constituting a college of professors and practitioners who are committed to IFE's core mission. Current board chair is Stéphane Courtois, well-known contemporary historian (senior scientist at CNRS), and members include Pascal Delisle, economics professor and cultural attaché to the French Embassy in WDC; Isabelle Denise, Director of Legal Services at the Human Rights League (LDH); Gilles Ferragu, professor of history at the University of Paris Nanterre; Lucie Fougeron, member of the think tank La Fondation pour l'Innovation Politique; Rachel Lauthelier-Mourrier, professor of literature at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris; Stanislas Maillard, journalist at the Ministry of Education; Jessica Monsell, legal translator and former student of IFE's MA program; and Lindsay Turlan, also an IFE MA graduate and Commissioner at the French-American Foundation.

Professor Gasbarrone is the first American academic to join the board, and brings to IFE not only a thorough knowledge of its programs but more importantly a wealth of experience in international education. Lisa is serving her second stint as F&M's director of international studies, designing and leading seminars in this field, and has long been a fervent advocate of study abroad. Her own academic background includes a year of study at Paris' prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure between an MA and PhD from Princeton University. She brings valuable breadth as well, with research interests in narrative, folktales and fairy tales in French literature, French literature more generally with a special focus on Victor Hugo, the history and literature of Quebec, and the expression of sacred space in both French and Quebeçois literature. Lisa has also served as chair of the Women's Studies Department at Franklin & Marshall. IFE warmly welcomes Lisa on board!

News and Notes

Séverine Choquet — 2010-05-12T08:30:31Z

Books in a Bind?: Paris Book Fair Highlights Industry's Health and Fears

One of the big dates each year in the Paris season is the Paris Book Fair in March, and with three current students plunged into book world internships, IFE paid a bit more attention this year to the goings-on. As usual, nearly two hundred thousand visitors made their way past a thousand or more publishers' stalls testifying to the continued existence in France of a healthy readership and a large number of small, independent publishers. Some of the largest houses, however, were conspicuous by their absence, protesting the high cost of space and calling for a more innovative, "interactive" event.

Like publishers everywhere, French actors are concerned about the book's fate in a digital age, and IFE student Alexandra Lewis, working as a children's book manuscript reader for the publisher Pocket Jeunesse, has been conducting research on the future of the book and of its publishers in the face of new technologies. It's not by chance that Alexandra discovered her topic working for a children's publisher; if the Book Fair is still thronged, it's the next generation or two that worry publishers, who are busy developing multimedia enhancements to their stories.

In bookshops it can seem as if French society talks to itself through books, and when you're at the Fair there's a good chance you'll see some well-known faces who have recently published their side of some conversation. This year it might have been former PM Lionel Jospin, or filmmaker Luc Besson among others. Some of the conversations can get pretty hot, and IFE student Ramsay Leimenstoll, working as an assistant to the director of press relations at the major publisher Gallimard, is focusing her research on the feud that broke into public view, in newspapers and books, between Shoah filmmaker Claude Lanzmann and author Yannick Haenel over the latter's book about Jan Karski, the so-called "man who tried to stop the Holocaust single-handedly". Questions raised – and maybe even answered – by her research include: what should be the relationship between literature and "truth"?; does Haenel's work open new paths for Shoah literature after the last witness has passed away?

Another investigation involving truth and literature is being carried out by IFE student Sarah McDonough, whose job interviewing authors for the online review of books Parutions.com has led to her into the sub-field of autofiction, and her research tries to set some perimeters to the definition of this so-called new genre which roams, Proust-like, the boundary lands between autobiography and fiction. Three stimulating investigations with one conclusion in common: keep reading!

Face Off: Burqas, Niqabs and the Women Who Want Them Banned

The IFE guest lecture for the month of March was delivered by a panel of three young women active in the not-for-profit organization Ni Putes Ni Soumises (NPNS — "neither sluts nor submissive"). They presented to students the work of this organization that rapidly acquired visibility as it began giving voice to women from various cultural milieus who want to put at end to submissive cultural practices but not at the price of renouncing where they come from. NPNS's founder, Fadela Amara, surprised more than a few when she accepted a ministerial post in the Sarkozy administration, but in any case the current leadership at NPNS is fully behind the government initiative to ban all face-obscuring veils.

In a forceful presentation the panel identified veils total or partial with a set of cultural practices that oppress and confine women, and contribute to a climate of violence against women. As they made clear, NPNS is not a think tank or a circle of philosophers but an activist organization giving voice and support to women facing cultural as well as socio-economic hurdles. If the niceties of cultural identity are to weigh in the debate it will be in terms of self-expression or empowerment, not as one of the many identity shibboleths thrown at them by the left, by the right, or by traditionalists behind them. NPNS is as a result also a profitable milieu for IFE students to redraw the social-political lines on their mental map of France, like intern Kathryn Peake as she accompanies NPNS teams on visits to high schools. As for constitutional niceties surrounding the ban of a garment, that's a good subject for other IFE students, at other placements.

Vote Where You Are Planted or How Participatory Is Your Democracy?

As IFE spreads its activities to Strasbourg France it finds its areas of engagement spreading as well. Latest example is IFE student Alex Branham's placement as an assistant to the city hall liaison officer for Strasbourg's Council of Foreign Residents. Alex, a student in IFE's Strasbourg Field Study and Internship program, offered in conjunction with BCA, is a political science major enjoying a ringside seat on a municipal political entity which is also at the confluence of several major issues in French society. The first breach of sovereignty in electoral politics occurred in 2003 when the European Commission gave EU citizens residing in another EU member country the right to vote in local and European parliamentary elections.

In France voices have been raised for some time in favor of allowing legal foreign residents to vote in local elections, but with anti-immigration sentiment hanging over a portion of the political landscape this innovation will have to wait. In the meantime nearly two dozen cities in France including Strasbourg have organized councils of foreign residents. In Strasbourg the Council may seize the mayor with the results of its deliberations on any issue. It's power is consultative, but supporters of the initiative are working to increase the Council's influence within that constraint.

This stimulating placement is made even more so by Alsace's position as a border region, adding intensity to the electoral sovereignty issue, and by the strength of the far right end of the political spectrum in Alsace, making immigration the inevitable background debate to the activities of the Council. Alex has chosen to focus his research on a third set of political stakes: growing voter absenteeism as recorded particularly in economically depressed areas and (partially co-extensive) areas of strong immigrant populations. Even if Strasbourg's Council of Foreign Residents has only consultative power, its constituents come from many of these low-turnout neighborhoods. The Council's challenge? Increase participation of all sorts in order that voices are heard.

Back in Paris, taking an investigative rather than activist approach to the problem of voter absenteeism, IFE student Gabriel Cortès is conducting research into the record low turnout at recent French regional elections as an associate at CEVIPOF, a well-known political research institute.

Two Former Students Show Where IFE May Lead

Sophia Accord, student at IFE in 2001 and intern with the fine arts division of the Ministry of Culture, has just received her doctorate in the Sociology of Art from the University of Exeter, UK. Her independent field study project at IFE: "Towards the Democratization of Contemporary Art in France?" Her doctoral thesis: "Beyond the Code: The role of practical action, embodied cognition, and tacit knowledge in curating contemporary art". Between the two, she continued to conduct research in Paris, and she writes recently: "As you can see, my career unfolded thanks to IFE, merci!"

Kara Murphy, student at IFE in 2005 and intern at SOS Racisme, is now in law school at Northwestern University, aiming at a career in public interest law. She writes: "my IFE semester definitely influenced what I am doing now; I am going to law school because I would like to be an immigration lawyer, and my internship at SOS Racisme played a big part in sparking my interest in immigration issues. So many thanks to IFE staff for such a wonderful experience!"

News and Notes

Séverine Choquet — 2009-12-03T15:29:31Z

Mother Tongues

Personal stories may lie at the root of students' academic choices, and this can be even more true at IFE's Field Study and Internship Program where intellectual pursuits are not bounded by the walls of academe or even by those of academic departments. Two recent stories of students who found a calling in their mothers' native language and culture:

In the introduction to his independent field research project on how WWII has been presented in French schoolbooks, Philip S. writes "When I was five years old I visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial in Hawaii with my Russian-born mother. At the end of the exhibit we watched a film entitled "The Second World War". I was both totally absorbed and confused by the battle scenes, first-hand accounts and long narration of the war in the Pacific accompanied by a short sequence on the war in Europe, and at the end I turned to my mother to ask 'who won the war?'. Furious at a presentation of WWII so given over to the role of the US, my mother responded, in a loud voice and to the great shock of the other visitors, 'the Soviet Union won the War!'". Working as an associate researcher at the History Center at Sciences Po in Paris, Philip was able to pursue his lifelong interest not only in the War but also in how perceptions and versions of the conflict vary from participating country to country. He concludes his paper entitled "Who Won the War?: Teaching history to young people", with the hope that one day France will be able to answer his title question uninfluenced either by amnesia or obsession, the two extremes which Philip discovered in his research as structuring the teaching of WWII over the last half century.

Frances K was born in New York City and raised in Lima by her Peruvian mother and American father. Transcultural and transnational education was not only her personal lot but has also become her intellectual passion, as an education and anthropology major focusing on intercultural education. Before enrolling in IFE's Field Study program, Frances had experience working in education in indigenous communities in Mexico and Peru and, during the school year, tutoring and providing support services to Mexican immigrant communities in the US. The Field Study program offered Frances the chance to gather both experience and research opportunities toward her goal of a senior thesis that will take an ethnographic approach to educational policy, by working with AFEV (a French not-for-profit organization that puts university student volunteers to work providing school support for a wide range of pupils). Here Frances was able to focus on the education of children of newly-arrived immigrants, writing a lengthy analysis of AFEV's methods in this area based on both theory and field observation and interviews. The summer following her stint in Paris found Frances back in Peru, in Cusco, working among the Quechua-speaking population and conducting research for her thesis on educating the children of Latin America's indigenous populations, and continuing to build expertise on this vital question.

Is Everything Culture?

For some years IFE has included in its preparatory curriculum some instruction on the role of the State in culture and the importance of cultural policy in French society. Part of culture is memory, and this year France remembers that fifty years ago the newly formed Fifth Republic of France instituted a Ministry of Culture, etablishing in modern administrative form the art-supporting role the State has played in France since the Rennaissance. The writer André Malraux served as the first Minister, defining the Ministry's role as "making accessible to the greatest number of citizens the great cultural achievements of mankind and particularly those of France, ensuring a broad dissemination of French cultural heritage and encouraging the creation of art and of artistic sensibilities". Under President Mitterand's flamboyant Minister of Culture Jack Lang, in the 1980's, official recognition and support shifted to include pop culture, world culture, and just about everything, as in Lang's favorite dictum: "Everything is culture". (Wags would say that Lang's ambition was to be Minister of Everything.)

In Paris to chair a 50-year birthday seminar organized by the Ministry, Israeli historian and francophile Eli Barnavi took issue with this statement in an interview in Le Monde: "if everything is culture then nothing is culture and there is no need for a Ministry of Culture", and indeed there is talk in government circles of doing away with this ministry. But Barnavi also disagrees with Time Magazine that French cultural influence is in decline because of State support for culture, arguing instead for a reinforced State role but along Malrauxist lines, "culture cultivée", and Malraux' forgotten program of culture as education. "Cultural diversity is a fact not a value", says Barnavi, who has some experience with diversity as advisor to the Museum of Europe in Brussels, where the attempt to portray a European civilization across a mosaic of cultures is, according to Barnavi, proving to be difficult. "We're still a long way off." Back at IFE, the Field Study program not only teaches its student-interns the role of the State in a living French culture, but also places art historians and culture specialists along the front lines of public and philanthropic support for contemporary art as well as the art market: The Cartier Foundation, the Pompidou Center, the Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery, and others. In fact, the instructor of cultural policy at IFE, Jérôme Poggi, is the founder of an art gallery and an agency ("Objet de Production") that looks for commissions for contemporary artists.

Twenty Years Out

With an ardent belief in the theories of Christopher Columbus, IFE is certain that IFE alums have not fallen off the edge of the world, but rather that they are somewhere on its round and wonderful surface... but where? Doing what? As increasing numbers of post-dot-e-d-u email addresses are identified, a wealth of fascinating detail emerges : Rotary or Fulbright scholarships awarded to study urban poverty in the Maghreb, AIDS prevention in India,...; continued graduate studies in France...; international marriages leading to career and family in Denmark, France, England,...; museum curators at the Whitney, the Cartier Foundation and others, French teachers in NYC, English teachers in Ankara or Seoul, law professors, a banker in Ecuador, an ACLU regional executive director, a mid-level manager in WDC spending her free time setting up virtual international exchanges between high schools, a program officer for an NGO getting medical supplies into Haiti, a reporter back in France after a journalism internship with IFE, and many others. Tenured posts, executive positions, some of the information arrives to the sound of the beating wings of time; in fact the first full year of operation was 1990, almost twenty years ago! To mark this occasion and to motivate the continued effort to contact lost alumni, IFE hopes to mount some sort of virtual reunion, or at least a detailed profile on-line, of the 12 students who enrolled in the Spring session 1990 and the 14 Fall session students of that year. IFE + 20 years = ?? ... Answers hopefully in upcoming issues of this Letter.

News and Notes

Séverine Choquet — 2009-08-24T07:27:38Z

Paris Graffiti Exhibit Spells IFE

On July 7 the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art opened a major exhibition entitled "Born in the Streets – Graffiti", devoting the entire exhibition space of the Foundation to it as well as the gardens and the exterior facade of the Foundation's striking building on the Boulevard Raspail. While tracing the contours of this complex movement, the show also highlights contemporary work, including invitations extended to nearly a dozen contemporary "writers" to create temporary works both within the gallery space as well as on the facade.

Several students of IFE's Paris Field Study and Internship Program have had a hand in the development of the Cartier's graffiti exhibition. Above all, Leanne Sacremone, who was an IFE Field Study intern at the Pompidou Center in 1990 and now curator at the Cartier Foundation, has been a driving force behind the realization of this sweeping and technically challenging show.

Along the way she enlisted the help first of Nanaho K., a student at Brown University and IFE Field Study intern, who last Fall contributed not only logistically, with the many aspects of the detailed exhibition arrangements, but also reflectively with a field study paper on the multiple aspects of the question on exhibiting works of graffiti art in all of its aesthetic, ethical, technical and legal ambiguity.

More recently Leanne turned to Meredith R., a graduate of Vassar College who in 2005 had been a Field Study intern at Prada and returned recently to Paris to enroll directly in a Master's program in Art History at the University of Paris IV. Meredith began working as a intern at the Cartier in April to help with the final stages of mounting this ambitious and unique exhibition.

IFE Field Partner Report: Human Rights League finds France wrong on rights

A number of past and present IFE Field Study interns interested in various questions of human rights, immigration and related topics have had the good fortune to intern with the legal services department of France's leading watchdog group, the Human Rights League (La Ligue des Droits de l'Homme). The department head is, in addition, a member of the IFE Board of Overseers. So it is with a bit of insider's pride that IFE calls attention to the critical role played by the LDH in human rights protection in France, as seen in their recently issued 2009 Annual Report (covered in depth by the daily newspaper Liberation, April 9, 2009).

The LDH chose to focus this year's report on the theme of "generalized surveillance", prompted by the government's proposed generalized police information file on individuals ("EDVIGE") and the immense outcry it provoked, forcing the government back to the drawing board. The bad news is that all the warning signs are flashing: detentions for questioning have skyrocketed; social workers report increasing police pressure to cooperate; policing culture has been invaded by a preoccupation with quantitative results; and new technological means are being pressed into service to collect information without provoking citizen ire.

The good news is that citizen ire is nonetheless being provoked. LDH's president notes that "this has been a year of citizen reawakening... Civil society has never been so active as now." The report finds that a "society of surveillance" and a "society of solidarity" are developing simultaneously in France. Foreign visitors to France are often bemused or irked or both by the culture of strikes, stoppages and social protest they observe. But human rights are a crucial topic in France today, and not only in France, and observers may well be glad to see some good old French citizen non-passivity stirring to life.

"...Once They've Seen Paree"

It's not quite true that you could walk across Paris on the heads of former IFE Field Study interns who have elected to return to the City of Lights either for a season or permanently, but the number of such decisions is increasing.

Recent re-Parisians include Nicole S. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, a Field Study intern in the Spring of 2007 with AIDS education and prevention group Cyber-CRIPS (a not-for-profit focused on working with youth and where Nicole was highly appreciated), returned this summer with IFE's help to work with Act Up Paris, where she pitched in on preparations for the 20th anniversary celebration of this lively organization as well as for the Solidays festival.

Lisa J., a student with IFE's Goucher College Paris Program in the Fall of 2009, returned to Paris this summer with IFE's help to work with the on-line literary review Parutions.com including interviews and reviews in preparation for the opening of the Fall 2009 literary season.

Claudia M., Vassar College '08 and Field Study intern in Spring 2007 with the international relations think tank IRIS, has landed with IFE's help a post as long-term intern with Luis Vuitton in the "intellectual property" department. Claudia will be helping hunt down fraudulent uses of the famous monogram.

Alexandria H, a UCLA post-grad and Field Study intern this past Spring with the food services firm SSP, has with IFE's backing signed a six-month prolongation of her internship as a marketing assistant with SSP, with the company expressing interest in hiring Alexandria full-time in this capacity at the end of the period.

These are some recent additions to the ranks of IFE alums who turn their work experience in France – with some IFE support and their own French networks developed as interns – into a follow-on sojourn in France, short medium or long term. Once a student at IFE, always a student at IFE !

Veranda or Vantage Point?

A recent paper on improving contact and familiarity with local cultures in study abroad programs (Anthony Ogden: "The View from the Veranda: Understanding today's colonial student"; Frontiers, Vol XV, Fall/Winter 2007-8) demonstrates at least in the case of IFE that it is possible to be ahead of the curve without realizing there is a curve.

As the article underlines, much study abroad faces the difficulties inherent in the "veranda", a colonial image used to describe the position of an outside actor setting up shop in a particular culture for the purpose of meeting goals exogenous to that culture. A second problem crops up as programs seek to provide greater contact: when is "experience" learning?

Born and raised as a French not-for-profit organization, IFE's advantage for two decades has been its field context, where there is no house and no veranda. Another advantage in the current climate is 22 years experience using the work place as both vantage point and field experience to produce valid learning outcomes, including but not limited to cultural learning.

The current debate focuses on suggestions and ideas for greater involvement with which IFE is in full agreement, because it has seen them work! These include recognizing and explicitly speaking to students about their risk-averse predilection for only comfortable experience; taking preparation seriously even when "colonial" students don't see the need; thinking creatively about involving students locally; constructing a broad and deep "contact zone", working with students to examine and if need be change the demands they bring to their education abroad, and other similar avenues explored by IFE in its ongoing search to foster meaningful inter-cultural learning.

5. The Goucher College Paris Program

Rozennig Chatal — 2009-05-19T09:53:00Z

For French majors...

For double majors in French and... Sociology, or Theater, or English, or Computer Science, or Peace Studies, or any other field taught at Goucher College...

For any French-speaking Goucher student...

Whatever your academic focus, the Goucher Paris Program is a chance to learn alot about what's going on in France and Europe today, through both coursework and contact with society, while improving your French language skills tremendously.

You can even chose to work in/on an area of specific interest, as part of the program.

Goucher College chose IFE, a French educational organization, to operate this program because of its track record in providing students innovative opportunities and programs for getting inside France today.

The small size of the student group ensures individual attention and a high level of participation in classroom discussion and debate.

How exactly does the program work?

The Goucher College Paris Program is a tightly-constructed, integrated approach to getting to know France today. Students become conversant with contemporary French and European issues, while perfecting French language skills.

This is accomplished through five principal program elements:

Orientation / Préparation

Cours de Langue Française de la Sorbonne

Paris - France – Paris: Discovering a nation via its capital

Part-time Internship

Language and Methodology Seminar / Internship Report

(In addition students are encouraged to participate in activities sponsored by a French student organization for language and cultural exchange, to attend the monthly IFE guest lecture program, and to make use of monthly suggestions for outings, exhibitions, etc.)

Orientation / Preparation The first two and one-half weeks of the program are devoted to a series of activities both inside and outside the classroom designed not only to introduce students to life in Paris and its many advantages but also to provide the keys to a basic understanding of French society needed to undertake an internship. Activities include lectures and lecture-visits on Paris; guided visits to Paris neighborhoods; one-day trip outside of Paris; various excursions in Paris ; encounter with French students; seminars on current affairs, and other activities.

Cours de Langue Française de la Sorbonne Students are assigned to the appropriate class level based on the results of a diagnostic exam. Language courses focus on grammar, expression, phonetics, and literary awareness in classes taught by professors of French as a second language in the University of Paris system. Classes are held at various sites around the Latin Quarter. A student's grade is assessed on the basis of a final examination following the traditional French two-part model: an oral exam and a written one. (Read more)

Paris-France-Paris : Discovering a nation via its capital This course is constructed as a series of investigations of Paris – and of its relations with the surrounding cities and the rest of France – from various vantage points. Taking the city as its framework, the course highlights the main questions facing French society, and their roots. The course is presented as a journey of discovery through a series of significant Parisian "spaces" (including a large number of class meetings which take the form of lecture-visits in and around Paris), with lecture material emphasizing the specificities which make a particular space special or important and discussing the culture represented by a space. (Read more)

Part-time internship Each student is assigned a part-time internship (four mornings per week), the purpose of which is language improvement and deepened understanding of French society through contact and conversation with various actors. In light of this goal, placement is primarily in educational and not-for-profit milieus. The internship will be completed by a formal report (see below).

A part-time internship is well suited for certain milieus and is less feasible in certain others, such as government ministries, scientific laboratories, or museums. A part-time internship in general favors administrative tasks, daily or short term assignments, observation (e.g. participation in meetings), and personal contact. On the other hand, a part-time internship can serve as excellent preparation for a full-time, more mission-driven, field-specific, consultancy-type internship like the placements that form the core of the Paris Field Study and Internship Program. The part-time internship component is described in more detail in the placement form of the application packet.

Language and Methodology Seminar / Internship Report The Seminar is led by a professor of French as a Foreign Language ("FLE") and meets weekly for 1h30min, with a twofold purpose. On one hand the Seminar provides students additional work on phonetics, pronunciation and spoken French in general, while on the other hand it serves to advise and assist students in the preparation of the Internship Report, a 20 page document in French describing the host organization, the missions assigned to the student intern, the work accomplished, and a critical analysis of the whole including lessons learned, etc. As such, the Seminar consists of both collective exercizes and individual tutorial sessions.

TO APPLY

The first step is to notify the Office of International Studies that you are interested in applying to the Paris program. All completed applications are to be filed with the OIS. The Goucher College Paris Program application contains five forms. You may download each form separately as a PDF file. The files contain text fields and other fields that may be completed on-screen online, but please note that unfinished files cannot be saved or stored. The easiest method is likely to prepare answers in separate text documents and then copy and paste into text fields in IFE application files.

These are the links to the five forms:

The Application Form
The Language Recommendation Form
The General Recommendation Form
The Placement Form
The Housing Form

All questions concerning the application process may be addressed to the OIS and/or to IFE.

For all information concerning...cdonhaus@goucher.edu

The Goucher College Paris Program page on the GC website

News and Notes

Séverine Choquet — 2009-04-21T08:57:55Z

Look This Way Please, Madame Minister!

"Hey Will, we need a photo-portrait of the Minister; grab your camera and run upstairs!" Well, it probably didn't happen just like that, but in any case as part of his duties with the photography bureau of the Communications Department of the French Ministry of the Interior, Will Napier, photojournalism major at Goucher College, was called upon to photograph Michèle Alliot-Marie, or "MAM", Minister of the Interior. During the shoot they fell into conversation, Ms. Alliot-Marie being quite curious about this new rather exotic recruit to the Ministry's staff. Since then he has regularly been assigned to photograph the Minister with international visitors. More recently, Will was on assignment in Strasbourg for the NATO meetings, far from the plush carpets and 17th century panelling of State reception halls. Covering the events at street level required dodging his share of projectiles and passing clouds of tear gas, until he was assigned to photograph President Sarkozy welcoming President Obama to France – from the tower of the Strasbourg cathedral, where he shared space with a contingent of snipers! After all, they all work for the same Ministry...

Swimming in Think Tanks (and research centers)

Spring semester 2009 in IFE's Paris Field Study and Internship Program is characterized by a surprising number of students who chose to be placed in research institutes. Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, even a classicist are all working as research associates with well known institutes in their chosen field. Several came to IFE having already chosen a theme for their undergraduate education, to culminate in a senior thesis. For these students IFE represents an opportunity to acquire a comparative slant in a hands-on way, while also integrating international study directly into their core undergraduate academic project.

Phillip, a student at Swarthmore College, came to IFE a budding expert in how textbooks in history portray WWII and is working at the Centre d'Histoire, a research center at Sciences Po, analysing French middle school textbooks since 1945.Surprisingly, this topic has attracted little attention among French historiographers, and Phillip's first task has been combing French archives as far away as Lyons to collect the textbooks themselves. Caryne, a history major from The College of William and Mary and a student of colonialization, is a research associate at the Musée Social or CEDIAS, the major archives of social movements in France where she is writing about the Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931, a subject of rich documentation at CEDIAS. Nathan, a history major at Wesleyan University is dovetailing his undergraduate theme in Islamic studies with his research internship at the Institute for the Study of the Islamic World (IISMM), specializing in the memory of the Algerian War in both France and Algeria. Others are in research centers in economics (typology of welfare states), international relations (torture during the Algerian War), sociology (Catholic and Muslim youth in France), European affairs (European public opinion), and classical studies (archaic Greek lyric poetry, at the Center for Comparative Study of Ancient Societies – Centre Gernet).

Whether or not pursuing an overall undergraduate theme at IFE, or discovering a senior thesis topic, researcher interns are clearly more involved with their subject than would be possible in even the best-stocked library back home: participating in research seminars, preparing colloquia, cataloguing holdings, interacting with other researchers in their field (on a daily informal basis as well as through interviews for their research), accessing specialized archives, etc.

Back to the Big Bang: First stop Paris

Imagine a triangle whose corners are a research campus on the wooded bluffs above the Yvette River south of Paris, Europe's Kourou astroport between the Guyanese jungle and the Atlantic Ocean, and a small college in the upper midwest of the US. Jillian Scudder, physics major from Macalester College and student in IFE's Paris Field Study and Internship Program, got her work if not her name in the news recently, as the French daily, Libération, reported on launch preparations for "Planck, a jewel of a space telescope, waiting in a white room at the Kourou station for launch in mid-April. Beyond observing fossil radiation, Planck will be testing some of the latest theories and ideas circulating in astrophysics, in particular concerning the mysterious dark matter and even more enigmatic dark energy." Working last Fall as an associate researcher at the renowned Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS) at the Orsay science campus (University of Paris – South), Jillian was given the task of writing the program that will scrutinize the space telescope's observation of the very young universe (fossil radiation) for telltale signs of the existence of an undetectable or "dark" form of energy. Very likely the Ariane rocket launch of the Planck will be followed on a few computer screens in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

"Why Study French?: A world of answers

Most of us not lucky enough to be raised bilingual have had to struggle through language classes, learning to speak French or Spanish or other languages the hard way, and prey to schoolroom doubts about the utility of language requirements ("when will I ever use this?"). The lead essay in the March 21 literary supplement to Le Monde provides – in the case of French – a ringing response by looking at the number of currently published authors whose mother tongue is not French but who have chosen (of their own free will!) to write their works in what the French refer to as the "language of Molière". The list includes natives of Argentina (Hector Biancotti, Sylvia Baron Supervielle), Cuba (Eduardo Manet), Greece (Vassilis Alexakis), Slovenia (Brina Svit), Russia (Andreï Makine), Germany (Anne Weber), Japan (Aki Shimazaki), Sweden (Bjorn Larsson), Denmark (Pia Petersen), Italy (Carlo Iansiti), Romania (Andrei Vieru), China (Ying Chen), Afghanistan (Atiq Rahimi), Guinea (Tierno Monembo), Turkish Kurdistan (Seymus Dagtekin), and even the United States (Jonathan Littel, David Grossvogel). And this is just a partial list. French literary adoptees have won some of the top literary prizes including the Goncourt (Littell, Rahimi), the Renaudot (Monembo) or the French Academy (Dagtekin).

"Why do you write in French?" The list of responses is as long as the list of those queried. "The book started coming out in French"..."the subject is taboo in my language"..."my language is too rigid; if I want to say "woman" I have to write "little sister" ..."I like the power to invent one's existence in another language"... "I feel freer in French"... "it helps me keep a healthy distance from my work"... and other reasons still. Morroccan writer Fouad Laroui, who lives in the Netherlands and composes his poems in Dutch and his novels in French, recalls feeling invited into the universality of a language spoken by Persians and Hurons alike; "why not I?".

There is of course the stereotype of the ardent defender of the French language, fretting over English entries into the vocabulary of Molière or the slowly shrinking map of the Francophone world. But the literary sensibility of French culture seems at closer look to be not quite so chauvinistic. While writers from many countries are pulled into French by something stronger than themselves, a recent IFE intern and literature major at Brown University, Caitlin, discovered the French love of American literature when she interviewed and analysed the works of American authors who sell more books translated into French than they do in English, producing a research work entitled "They Love me in Paris".

List of former IFE students

Séverine Choquet — 2009-02-26T10:26:48Z

The Paris Field Study and Internship Program

- Fall 2009

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
Sarah Baker	Depauw University	French	Obesity in France: Normative vs cognitive influences on behavior
Jake Berzoff-Cohen	Vassar College	Sociology	A feasibility study of the use of "class action suits" against discrimination in France
Margaret Besser	Macalaster College	French and Francophone Studies	La Revue Littéraire and McSweeney's Quarterly: A comparative study of two literary magazines
Remy Canario	Vassar College	International Studies	Change and Renewal in Chinese armed forces
Gabriela Chambi	Macalaster College	Political Science and Human Rights	Skin Lightening: Practices and Identity
Yana Chernyak	Franklin and Marshall College	French and Political Science	Comparative Health Care Policy Analysis between France and the United States
Youngin Chung	Swarthmore College	Art History and Psychology	Change in contemporary art institutions in France: A study of an exhibit of comic book art
Andrea Cornejo	Swarthmore College	Political Science	International Support for the Bolivarian Movement: The case of FAL
Molly Griffin	Providence College	Marketing	The Theory of Marketing Mix: History and Application in the Meeting Industry
Alice Hines	Brown University	Comparative Literature and French	Liberty, Prodigality, Femininity: The image of women in the French press for women
Caitlin Jennings	Brown University	English	Freedom of the Press in the Digital Era
Catherine Lin	Northwestern University	Economics and Geography	Using Thermographic Data to Determine Cost Effectiveness of Stimulus Policies for Green Building Conversion.
Ann Murray	Swarthmore College	Mathematics and Economics	Professional Training Programs in the US and Europe
Jennifer Ourand	Goucher College	Peace Studies and French	The French Principle of a Secular Society
Jonathan Schien	University of Illinois	Political Science	The Smart Grid in France: A market study of intelligent electricity distribution
Lyssa Searcy	Carleton College	Sociology/anthropology, French and Francophone Studies	Teaching the Islamic World: A comparative look at France and the United States
Molly Shaw	Trinity College	International Studies	The many Strands of the Socialist Party: Towards a coherent and unified ideology
Sarah Smith	Northwestern University	French and Political Science	Barak Obama and Europe: A new translatantic partnership or "Bushism" without Bush
Vazquez Julia	Independante	Art History	Metholodologies for Managing Knowledge: Practices at the Louvre Museum

- Spring 2009

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
Ghyslaine Archer	Bard University	Sociology and Dance	The French taboo on ethnic identification
Tsvetina Chankova	Vassar College	International Studies	The Media and the Economic Crisis of 2008-2009: An explosive relationship
Lenore Dukes	The College of William and Mary	Sociology and French Studies	The Question of Diversity in France as seen by the French Human Rights League
Caryne Eskridge	The College of William and Mary	History	The 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris: Apogee of French colonialism
Alexandria Harmon	Independante	Sociology	Positioning a Brand: Case study of Bonne Journée, a brand of SSP
Elizabeth Husson	Vassar College	Political Science and French Studies	Torture During the Algerian War: The breaking point
Danielle Jaegers	Depauw University	French Studies and Computer Science	Change and Development in the Open Source Computing Market in France
Katerina Kontogouri	Swarthmore College	Economics and Political Science	Welfare State Models: The Scandinavian model
Frances Kvietok	Swarthmore College	Sociology, Education and Anthropology	How AFEV Students Provide School Support to Recently Arrived Immigrant Children
Nathan Marvin	Wesleyan University	History	History, Memory, and Politics: The Algerian war from both sides of the Mediterranean
William Napier	Goucher College	Photojournalism	Differences and Similarities in Photographic Treatment of Current Events by the Ministry of the Interior and Le Monde (daily newspaper)
Chloé Nelson	Macalester College	French Studies and Art History	New Sources of Art Commissions in France
Madeleine Phinney	Smith College	Art History	Felix Gonzales-Torres, the Artist and his Work: Between space and temporality
Rebecca Roseman	Vassar College	Culinary Anthropology	The Cult of Excellence at the Plaza Athénée, Paris
Leah Schwartzman	Smith College	Classics	Grace and the Graces in Pindare and Bachylide
David Seitz	Macalester College	Political Science and Gender & Sexuality Studies	Twenty Years of Act'Up Paris: What is queer policy?
Philip Skorokhodov	Swarthmore College	History	Who Won the War: Primary education and history textbooks in France since WWII
Shasha Zou	Northwestern University	Political Science and International Studies	Green Party and Public Opinion in Europe

- Fall 2008

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
Ryan Bosch	University of Texas	Biology and French Studies	Free trade and socio-cultural preferences
Rose Friedman	Macalester College	History	The work of this museum in an international and anglophone context
Nanaho Kamei	Brown University	Art History, Architecture and French Studies	How to exhibit graffiti art?
Besjona Kreka	Macalester College	Economics and French Studies	Transatlantic approaches to the economic crisis: divergent or convergent?
Alicia Nystrom	Macalester College	Art History	The bronze and wax sculptures of Degas on the art market
Pratiksha Rao	Northwestern University	Economics and French Studies	An analysis of eco-tourism in developing countries
Jillian Scudder	Macalester College	Physics and Astronomy	Planck and the Sachs-Wolfe effect: a new problem for measuring dark energy?
Nika Taubinsky	Brown University	Urban studies	When religious institutions commission works of art
Shumpei Tse	Swarthmore College	Economics	Differences in the use of electronic payment means between France and China
Suzanne Winter	Swarthmore College	Biology and Literature	AIDS and the community: personal histories

- Spring 2008

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
ADAMS Margot	Swarthmore College	Psychology and Political Science	Access to Health Care by Foreign Residents and Illegal Aliens in France and Europe
BAER Elizabeth	Macalester College	International Studies and Religion	Research and Society: Disseminating the results of Islamic studies and Muslim area studies
BARLOW Allegra	Bard College	French Studies	Paris: Victim of its success?
BECKMAN Molly	Goucher College	Psychology	African Women Confronting AIDS: Difficulties and successes
DE ANGELIS Adeline	Swarthmore College	Francophone Studies	Between Universal Feminism and French Republicanism: Internationalizing women's movements
DUVALL Marina	Macalester College	English Literature	Anorexia and the Fashion Industry
GUYOT-BENDER Camille	Independant	Psychology and Social Work	The Business of Humanitarian Activity
HENDERSON Whitney	Providence College	French and Social Work	Immigration Policies and Access to Citizenship in France, Yesterday and Today
KHALIL Jessica	UIUC	International Studies and Business	New French Green Building Codes: A first step towards sustainability
LIU Leona	Northwestern University	Journalism and International Studies	The "CNN Effect": The media and the Ingrid Bettancourt affair
MCKENNA Caitlin	Brown University	Comparative Literature	They Love Me in Paris: American fiction in France
PORTILLA Daniel	Macalester College	Economics and French	The Future of Electronic Money
SOLOMON Nola	Vassar college	English	Sustainability in the Meeting Industry
TURNER Annika	Franklin & Marshall College	French and History	The American Presidential Election and its Effect on US-European Relations

- Fall 2007

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
ASHLEY-ROLLMAN Caitlin	Brown University	Mechanical Engineering	Computer Program for Automatic Calculation and Optimization of Auto Engine Drive Belts
BHASIN Aparna	Macalester College	Economics and French	Microfinance as a Tool against Poverty and Social Exclusion: A comparison of France and Bosnia
CABRAL Lisa	Swarthmore College	Economics and Public Policy	Who Gains and What?: Effect of French FDI on employment in France and host country
CHATO Jennifer	Northwestern University	Sociology and International Studies	Specific Aspects of Historical Patterns of Asian Immigration into France
DUENAS Isabella	UIUC	International Studies and Pre-Law	Immigration Policy in France: Family reunification and the Hortefeux law
GANS Sofia	Vassar College	French and Art History	What Price for Art?
GREENE Kevin	Northwestern University	Industrial Engineering and Management	Simplified Functioning of Electronic Payment: Reality or appearance?
HALLAS BUTTON Alexandra	Northwestern University	Mathematics for the Social Sciences and Economics	Financing Problems Specific to SMEs: What are they and how best to respond?
LEVENSON Geddes	Brown University	Studio Arts	Sophie Calle: Art between reality and fiction
OKAMOTO Katharine	Brown University	Environmental Studies and Journalism	Ecosystems and Sustainable Development in the Framework of the Agenda 21
PARK Hayoung	Brown University	Architecture and Economics	Artificial Islands: Why, how?
PERELMAN ALLISON	Brown University	French and Art History	An Evaluation of the New Audio-guides of the Louvre Museum
RAFF Anna Amelia	Vassar College	French and Psychology	Using Behavioral and Cognitive Theory with Bipolar Patients Suffering from Extreme Anxiety
RODNYANSKY Seva	Northwestern University	Mathematics for the Social Sciences Economics	The Meeting Industry and Sustainable Development
RUCKLE Kimberly	Goucher College	French	The French School System and Students in Difficulty: Social exclusion or integration through schooling
SALIM Isra	Macalester College	French, Economics and Political Science	Nicolas Sarkozy, Media Phenomenon: The effects of the mediatization of politics
STEWART Stephanie	Independent	Economics	Opportunities for American Firms arising from the 2007 Estates General for the Environment
VERGARA Ariana	Northwestern University	International Studies and French	AIDS NGOs Confront Problems in Latin American Communities
YOUNG Kinear	Independant	International Studies	Decline in French Visitors to the American Center since 2001: A symptom of the decline in US preeminence for hosting foreign students?
ZACNY Stephen	Depauw University	Mathematics and French	Evaluating French Priority School District Policies: The case study of Guy Moquet Middle School

- Spring 2007

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
BASS Patricia	Macalester College	Geography and sociology	Public housing in the presidential elections 2007
BUCKINGHAM Alissa	Macalester College	French Studies and Economics	The effects of globalization on the construction of the new feminine ideal
DULAC Elizabeth	Smith College	Mechanical Engineering and French	Comparative study of two different bridges designed by the Marc Imram Firm
GALVIN Michael	Macalester College	Humanities, Media and French	The role of intellectuals in the 2007 elections
GRANDISON Claire	Vassar College	Hispanic Studies	Impunity in Latin America and the role of NGO's like FAL
HADDAD Shathel	Macalester College	French and Informatics	Digital Identity on the Internet
HADDIX Buck	Goucher College	International Relations	Profile of a Statesman – Nicolas Sarkozy
KIM Hayoung	Harvard University	Economics	Collection, coherence and credibility of data on humanitarian disasters
LEMAIRE-LOZIER Suzanne	Goucher College	Sociology and Social Justice	Homelessness in France and in the USA
LORD Farley	Birmingham Southern College	Environmental Studies and French	Tourism between economic and ecological objectives
MARTINUZZI Claudia	Vassar College	International Studies	European Union and the WTO: a compromise? Case study of the Doha Round
OLLENBURGER Katherine	Macalester College	Economics and International Studies	Economic integration of transitional countries into the EU as reflected in institions and in FDI
RICKARDS Whitney	Goucher College	French and Dance	Impact of CND help on visiting dance companies
STAGG Nicole	Goucher College	Humanities, Media and French	An analysis of the impact and effectiveness of Cyber-CRIPS activities in information and education
TONELLI Anna	Goucher College	Peace studies	Restrictive immigration policies in France
WALSTAD Alexis	Macalester College	Humanities, Media and French	The role of the Internet in the campaign of Segolène Royal

- Fall 2006

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
AULD Lauren	Depauw University
BARBERICH Sophie	Independant
CAPI Margarita	Vassar College
CHOPYAK Elena	Swarthmore College
ESAN Atinuke	Vassar College
FENN Amanda	Depauw University
GRAVENOR Stephanie	Northwestern University
PELSUE Brendan	Brown University
REINL Morgaine	Macalester College
RYAN Clare	Macalester College
SCOPPETTONE Sam	Bard College
SOLOMON Harris	Vassar College
VENKATACHALAM Anand	Wesleyan University
ZUMBA Theresa	Carleton College

- Spring 2006

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
DAY Kathleen	Wesleyan University
FERENCE Jonathan	Swarthmore College
GRUBBS Caroline	Swarthmore College
HOUSHOLDER Catherine	Smith College
HUART Anne	Independant
JAMES Leslie	Smith College
KEELER Christopher	Wesleyan University
LIU Bella	Swarthmore College
MACKENZIE Katherine	Smith College
MCCLURE Marceline	Franklin & Marshall College

- Fall 2005

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
ACHTENBERG Benjamin	Macalester College
ALESIO Kyle	Wesleyan University
BIENIEWSKI Monica	Northwestern University
DUCKER Gregory	Carleton College
FINE Victoria	Northwestern University
HOLLAND Laurel	Harvard College
KELLEY Caitlin	Northwestern University
LOBEL Gilana	Independant
MESSINA Jane	Independant
NADLER Reena	Swarthmere College
NEGISHI Kay	Harvard College
SADDAWI-KONEFKA Susan	Northwestern University
SIPE Darrah	Wesleyan University
STEELMAN Taylor	UNC Chapel Hill
VLAICU Alecsandra	Vassar College

- Spring 2005

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
ANDAM Baaba	Smith College
BAILEY Elizabeth	Harvard College
EHRENS Nicole	Goucher College
GIBSON Christie	Brown University
GOOCH Anne	Northwestern University
HERLIHY Caitlin	Wesleyan University
HUDSON Margaret	Swarthmore College
JOHNSON Anders	Harvard College
JOHNSON Andrea	Macalaster College
KOWALOFF Abigail	Independant
MASON Anna	Vassar College
MAYROSE Andrea	Harvard College
MCCREA Hannah	Northwestern University
MURPHY Kara	Northwestern University
RUDOFF Macie	Depauw University
SESSIONS Amber	Independant
SILVER Jessica	Goucher College
STRONG Josephine	Depauw University
WERTHEIM Laura	Macalaster College

- Fall 2004

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
BOUNDY Mara	Trinity College
CARLSSON Kelli	Independant
DUBAS Kira	Northwestern University
INGERSOLL Katharine	Vassar College
KUEHN Lindsay	Northwestern University
MASSARD Louis	Northwestern University
MCNEIL Elisabeth	Macalester College

- Spring 2004

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
HEWITT Caroline	Vassar College
MCGOVERN Kathleen	Goucher College
MONCTON Kathryn	Carleton College
NATARAJAN Jyothi	Swarthmore College
PERKINS Frances	Brown University
RANKIN Johanna	UNC Chapel Hill
TIKTIN Laura	Wesleyan University
WELLS Nicola	Swarthmore College
YANG Seo Yun	Harvard College

- Fall 2003

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
GROSSMAN Daniel	Northwestern University
HEIFETZ Alexandra	Northwestern University
LANCASTER Camilla	Vassar College
RAPPAPORT-HANKINS Clarissa	Swarthmore College
SPECTOR David	Independant
SUGRUE Elisabeth	Depauw University
WARTHIN Ian	Vassar College

- Spring 2003

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
ARLINGHAUS Meghan	Goucher College
DOMZAL Bethany	Xavier University
ECKEL Sandrah	Vassar College
GOLDSTEIN Isaac	Trinity College
HOMANN Jacqueline	Brown University
JAGTIANI Akarsha	Franklin & Marshall College
KUROBE Tara	Brown University
MACKENDRICK Meghan	Brown University
MAYER Tammy	Goucher College
MOY Richard	Vassar College
ROZEN Joel	Brown University
SHASHOUA Eric	Brown University
STEVENS Chelsea	Rhodes Univiversity

- Fall 2002

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project
BOBONIS Katia	Swarthmore College
BONNELL Wilburn	Vassar College
DORELIEN Audrey	Swarthmore College
FROST Abigail	Swarthmore College
Gonzalez Violeta	Carleton College
GOSSELIN Philippe	Wesleyan University
KAMARA Yarri	Independant
KARVOUNIS Kiki	UNC Chapel Hill
KOZAK Honza	Macalester College
LEITNER Elizabeth	Carleton College
NIESSNER Justin	UNCW
RENFRO COOPER	Carleton College
RITGER Pamela	Carleton College

- Spring 2002

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

The Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program

- Spring 2009

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- Fall 2008

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- Spring 2008

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

IFE Part-time Internship Program

- 2009

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2008

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2007

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2006

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2005

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2004

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2003

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2002

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2001

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2000

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 1999

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

The Goucher College Fall Paris Program

- 2008

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2007

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2006

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2005

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

Middlebury College Masters in French with Internship

- 2005-2006

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2004-2005

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2003-2004

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2002-2003

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2001-2002

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 2000-2001

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

- 1999-2001

Name	University	Field Study	Research Project

5. List of former IFE students

Rozennig Chatal — 2009-02-26T10:24:50Z

A list of IFE's former students, presented by program and session, showing their home university and their field of internship/research.

IFE will provide contact information to former students interested in contacting their IFE classmates.

IFE will also make information available to inquiring students desiring to speak with an IFE “veteran” from a particular school or in a particular field, pending permission of the alumnus in question.

The Paris Field Study and Internship Program
(The Major Program)

The Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program

IFE Part-time Internship Program

The Goucher College Fall Paris Program

Middlebury College Masters in French with Internship

The Paris Field Study and Internship Program
(The Major Program)

		- F 2009	- S 2009
- F 2008	- S 2008	- F 2007	- S 2007
- F 2006	- S 2006	- F 2005	- S 2005
- F 2004	- S 2004	- F 2003	- S 2003
- F 2002	- S 2002	- F 2001	- S 2001
- F2000	- S 2000	- F 1999	- S 1999
- F 1998	- S 1998	- F 1997	- S 1997
- F 1996	- S 1996	- F 1995	- S 1995
- F 1994	- S 1994	- F 1993	- S 1993
- F 1992	- S 1992	- F 1991	- S 1991
- F 1990	- S 1990	- F 1989	- S 1989
- F 1988	- S 1988	- F 1987	- S 1987

The Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program

- S 2008

IFE Part-time Internship Program

		- 2008	- 2007
- 2006	- 2005	- 2004	- 2003
- 2002	- 2001	- 2000	- 1999

The Goucher College Fall Paris Program

- 2008

- 2007

- 2006

- 2005

Middlebury College Masters in French with Internship

- 2005-2006	- 2004-2005
- 2003-2004	- 2002-2003
- 2001-2002	- 2000-2001
- 1999-2000

COURSES

Séverine Choquet — 2008-05-22T08:42:29Z

Three courses are taught in the preparatory period on various aspects of French society, with several cross-section or transversal themes common to all three as a response to the specificities and opportunities presented by the Strasbourg context. These themes include a French regional point of view and the accessibility of the local-scale, both quite different from a Paris-based experience Another theme is the European dimension involving institutional presence, the so-called Europe of regions, Alsace's past as a bi-national region, etc. All three courses are required elements in the program.

The three courses are scheduled sequentially instead of concurrently. Each course involves lecture-seminar sessions in the morning, followed by workshop sessions in the first part of the afternoon, featuring press reviews, discussion and debate, oral presentations by students, and the like. The professor who leads the workshop remains the same across the entire schedule of three courses. The second part of the afternoon is divided among site visits, documentary films, and free time.

Course I

A Political History of France: Transformations in the state and political life since Napoleon This course is designed to provide students with several important keys to understanding France today, chief among them being the development of the French notion of the State as well as changes in this central concept over time. Taking a historical and political approach, the course demonstrates how the notion of the State has structured and continues to structure French political life and French society, even as it is undergoing transformation as a result of pressure from new forms of integration, from Europe, from forced changes in the French model of the welfare State, etc.

Course II

France in Europe and the World This course provides students with fundamental keys to understanding France today in terms of its colonial past, its real and perceived role on the world stage, and the several versions of the question of decline that currently color the French outlook. Its successful adaptation in the face of the upheavals of the 20th century, its transformation into an industrial power, and its leadership role in establishing a peaceful Europe have, in turn, led to further challenges and questions of French identity. These include the question of nation and European community, the notion of State in a modern context, and others. Domestic and foreign policies overlap and interact. This course uses France's place in Europe and the world to lead students to an understanding of the new political and social makeup of France that is slowly emerging, a source of both doubt and hope.

Course III

French Society: Problems and prospects The key to understanding contemporary French society that is provided to students by this course lies in grasping the paradox between the democratic ideal that is at the foundation of all the institutions of modern, post-revolutionary France on one hand and, on the other, the current crisis of those institutions – and even of deep societal values – which is provoked by the pressures of global economic liberalism and the transformations taking place in Europe and in its Union. Through this course students become familiar with the effects these pressures are having on the specific institutionalized relations that exist between French citizens and culture, work, education, immigration, and other facets of life and society.

During the 12-week internship period student interns follow a course on globalization, meeting once weekly at the end of the day.

Course IV

Globalization: Myth and reality from a European perspective This course will draw on the foundations that students acquired during the preparatory session as a standpoint from which to broaden and deepen the examination of the world, and France and Europe's place in it, keeping in mind the interplay among local, regional (EU), and global levels as well as the place of the nation-state. The course is structured along three main types of regards or focal lengths: an overall approach to globalization that studies the many different ways to divide – or join together – the world space; a closer look at the major elements of this space as seen from Europe; and finally a closer look at local/global interactions using European cases, including from Alsace. Concomitantly, a European humanist perspective is used to analyze from an ethics-and-justice point of view some of the important specific facets of globalization such as culture and identity; immigration, delocalization and work; interdependence and clivage; free trade and economic imbalance; agriculture; international civil society and governance; and others.

STRUCTURE, SUPPORT, CONTACT, ADVISING, ENSURING SUCCESS

Far from being an isolated experience as arranged by an agency, the Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program is a fully-structured academic program.

The preparatory courses are taught at BCA's Strasbourg Center. Housing is arranged through by the Center, and the Center's staff are ready to help with the practical details of daily life, as well as advice, tips, places to go and things to do, etc.

IFE's Paris-based staff members organize and participate in the initial orientation meeting, and thereafter are regularly present in Strasbourg including for individual meetings concerning placement or any other aspect of the program. In between visits, IFE staff are in close contact by email with students in the program. An IFE staff member accompanies student interns on an initial contact meeting with prospective host organizations, during the preparatory session. An IFE staff member also conducts an on-site evaluation of each placement 4-6 weeks after the internship has begun, which involves a three-way meeting among intern, on-the-job supervisor, and IFE staff, to ensure that all parties are satisfied and to address any difficulties arising.

Each student intern also meet regularly with their research advisor to identify a topic, develop an approach to it and an outline, identify possible sources of information, and write the paper. Each student intern also presents to a “jury” of IFE staff and advisors an oral of summary of the work in progress one month before the end of the program, and benefits from ensuing discussion and comment.

With BCA staff available day-to-day, IFE staff involved in all academic and internship aspects, making frequent visits to IFE, and contact as often as desired with their research advisor, students in the Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program enjoy an ideal combination of support and independence as they accomplish great things!

3. The Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program

Séverine Choquet — 2008-05-22T07:45:15Z

- a field-study / internship program that uses Strasbourg as a gateway into both France and Europe.

- thorough classroom preparation / full-time, task-oriented internship / guided field research

The Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program

features personalized placement strategy, individual follow-up, a small student group.

tailors foreign study to every student's educational and professional goals, in all disciplines.

makes full use of Strasbourg as a border city, an EU center, and a seat of local/regional public bodies (political, social, urban planning...).

is offered in both Spring and Fall semesters, by the IFE-BCA partnership.

Outcomes:

- fluent French
- European insider abilities and knowledge
- increased self-confidence and poise
- deeper understanding of one's own culture
- the beginnings of an international professional network
- something to show: significant work and research accomplished in France, in French

How the program works

There are four tightly-linked parts to the 18-week BCA-IFE Strasbourg semester:

1. PREPARATION
Students spend the first five weeks in an integrated, inter-disciplinary preparatory program, taught at BCA's Strasbourg Center. The three, 3-credit courses – combining lecture-seminars with workshops – provide necessary keys for understanding France and the European context. Once on-the-job, students attend a weekly seminar on critical approaches to globalisation. (More on course content...)

2. PLACEMENT AND INTERNSHIP
Students in the Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program are placed in internships that reflect their own goals (academic, career) for this opportunity. (More on placement...)

3. RESEARCH
The best way to solidify what's learned in the work place is to write about it. Student interns work with an advisor to research and write an independent study project on a topic arising from their work and useful to their host organization. (More on research project...)

4. ACCOMPANIMENT
The Strasbourg Field Study and Internship program is a challenging semester of international study. As such, it is fully-structured to provide all the guidance, support and accompaniment students need to succeed. (More on accompaniment...)

A NOTE ON LANGUAGE: All courses are taught in French (by professors accustomed to communicating clearly in French to non-Francophone students). Students are required to speak French at all times when on BCA premises, both during the preparatory session and afterwards.

A program jointly-operated by BCA and IFE

BCA is one of the nation's oldest independent international educational organizations, with nearly a half-century of commitment to the values of peace and justice through education for international understanding and global citizenship.

BCA chose IFE, a French educational organization, as a partner to develop this program because of its track record in providing students innovative opportunities and programs for getting inside France today.

IFE is a trusted field-level partner to a number of institutions, specializing in hybrid learning outcomes focused on social science understanding, cultural learning and rapid linguistic progress.