French Studies

Coordinator: Principal Lecturer in Language and Culture Studies Karen Humphreys and Borden W. Painter, Jr., ’58/H’95 Professor of European History Kathleen Kete ∙∙

The minor in French studies has at its heart a travel-abroad experience in France, because living abroad is so centrally important to the understanding of another culture. This minor gives students the opportunity to integrate their study-abroad experience with courses taken at Trinity both before and after their study abroad. Students who participate in the Paris Program are strongly encouraged to pursue this minor as are those who have taken a freshman seminar on Paris.

Course requirements:

The minor consists of six courses distributed as follows:

• At least two courses must be taken at the Trinity home campus.
• At least two courses taken as part of the Paris Program or other approved study abroad-programs in France on French topics or language.
• At least one French course above FREN 202 or PARI 202 taken at the Trinity home campus.
• A capstone course that must be completed after the return from study abroad and will allow students to integrate their experience abroad with their academic program at Trinity. Ordinarily, this course will originate in LACS. Other courses may substitute with the approval of the coordinators of the Minor.

Courses must be drawn from at least three categories of inquiry. Courses taught during the 2012-2013 school year that will count for the French studies minor within these three categories include:

The arts

• AHIS 252. 18th–Century Art and Architecture
• AHIS 258. History of the Decorative Arts
• AHIS 261. 19th–Century Painting and Sculpture
• AHIS 281. 20th–Century Avant Garde
• FREN 320/LACS 333. French Cinema
• PARI 251. Paris through Its Art and Architecture: Renaissance to the Belle Époque
• PARI 278. Exotic Fare: Spice Routes, Garden History, and the Development of Food Culture in France 1500-1900
• PARI 352. Seminar: Major Figures/Topics in French Art
• PARI 356. Paris: A Museum City or a City of Museums?
• PARI 281. Music at Versailles

History, politics, and thought

• FREN 305. Modern Culture and Civilization
• FYSM 113. Paris je t’aime
• PARI 237. Understanding Contemporary Paris: Urban and Global Processes
• PARI 328. Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams: The founding Fathers in Paris 1776-1789
• HIST 395. History of the Alps
• PHIL 327. Merleau-Ponty
• POLS 339. Contemporary and Post Modern Thought

Language and literature

• FREN 325/LACS 325. Americans in Paris/Parisians in America (*Note that this course fulfills the capstone requirement)
• FREN 355. Reading the Streets of Paris
• FREN 355. The World of Marcel Proust
• PARI 302. French Language and Culture: Paris Theatre Literature and Performance

In their senior year, students will enroll in FREN 401 and write an interdisciplinary paper integrating the knowledge acquired in their French language and literature courses with that acquired in at least one of the other areas of inquiry being counted toward the minor. Majors in French may not take this minor.