Spring 2022

Enrollment in a FREN-UA 4-6 pts course taught in French is required for all students. This course must be taken for a letter grade.

Language Course Requirements and Placement- NYU Paris 

Other students should refer to the NYU French Department's webpage here: http://french.as.nyu.edu/object/language.placement (under the heading language placement) for information about placement based on Exams. Please note that students that have some experience in the language but do not have a AP/IB/SAT test score or prior university course work in the language must take the NYU's Online Placement Examination to determine placement.

Presentation and systematic practice of basic structures and vocabulary of oral French through dialogues, pattern drills, and exercises. Correct pronunciation, sound placement, and intonation are stressed. For students with little or no command of French. Completes the equivalent of one year's elementary course. Textbook: Alors? 

Intensive Elementary French - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: FREN-UA 10 or FREN-UA 1-2. Open to students who have completed the equivalent of a year's elementary level and to others on assignment by placement test. Completes the equivalent of a year's intermediate level in one semester.

A continuation of FREN-UA 10, this course is designed to provide students that have already studied one year of French (or the equivalent thereof) with the remainder of the fundamentals of the French language and to give those students that have mastered the basics of French vocabulary, culture, pronunciation, and grammar the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the French language and the cultures for which it is a vehicle. Conducted in French.

Intensive Intermediate French - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: FREN-UA 11-12 or FREN-UA 20. Open to students who have completed the equivalent of a year's intermediate level and to others who have passed the proficiency examination but who wish to review their French in order to take advanced courses in language, literature, and civilization.

This course is designed to give those of you who have already begun to deepen your understanding of the French language and French and francophone cultures the opportunity to complete your fifth semester of French by mastering a fuller range of vocabulary, structures, pronunciation, and cultural information. This class will thus prepare you to tackle the classes at the advanced level and eventually to delve into more specialized literature and civilization courses. 

French Grammar and Composition - Sample Syllabus

 Prerequisite: FREN-UA 30, or assignment by placement test, or approval of the director.

Assumes a mastery of the fundamental structures of French. May be taken concurrently with FREN-UA9105. Helps the student to develop vocabulary, to improve pronunciation, and to learn new idiomatic expressions. Introduction to corrective phonetics and emphasis on understanding contemporary French through a study of authentic documents; radio and television interviews, advertisements, spontaneous oral productions, etc.

Spoken Contemporary French - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: FREN-UA 30 or assignment by placement test

This course provides advanced French language students the opportunity to improve their pronunciation through a detailed analysis of the sound systems of both French and English.

French Phonetics - Sample Syllabus coming soon

Prerequisite: FREN-UA 30 or assignment by placement test.

Use of drama and theatre techniques to help students overcome inhibitions in their oral use of language. Exercises and activities are designed to improve pronunciation, intonation, expression, and body language. Students work in collaboration with the professor, trained in the experimental methods of the French director Jacques Lecocq. This semester's focus will be to analyze and reenact excerpts from Molière’s plays.  

Acting French - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: FREN-UA 30, FREN-UA 105, or permission of the instructor.

Designed for students who wish to become familiar with the specialized language used in French business. Emphasis is on oral and written communication and the acquisition of a business and commercial vocabulary dealing with the varied activities of a commercial firm: advertising, transportation, banking, etc. Group work in simulated business situations and exposure to "authentic" spoken materials are stressed. Qualified students have the option of taking the Exam of the Chamber of French Commerce at the end of the course. 

Business French - Sample Syllabus

Students may work in a variety of realms such as drawing, painting, photography and/or folding. Students have the opportunity to create alongside the professor in her art studio, to develop a cohesive body of work over the course of the semester.  The course includes visits to museums to explore the wide range of subjects and materials available to contemporary artists, and concludes with an exhibit of student work at the end of the semester.

Conducted in English.

Introduction to Interdisciplinary Art Practice - Sample syllabus

This course aims to understand and appreciate the creativity and dynamism of the Parisian art scene today through an exploration of contemporary art in the capital. The course will focus on the diversity of resources provided by the city, with special attention to new artistic practices and loci of production, as well as the multiple actors involved, from artists themselves to private galleries to art critics and museum curators. Reference to major avant-garde art movements of the past such as dada, geometrical abstraction, surrealism and expressionism will also be made in order to better situate today’s artistic concerns.

Conducted in English.

Topics in Visual Art & Culture: Art in Contemporary Culture - Sample Syllabus

Note: Students are advised to leave space open in their schedule immediately (before/after) this course in order to allow travel time to and from museum visits which constitute an integral part of the class program.

This course examines medieval art and architecture of France through an exploration of the monuments and moments that define our understanding of the period. The course moves from the Early Christian Church to late Gothic to help students gain an understanding of medieval France through an analysis of monuments in their historic and cultural contexts. From the portals of Notre-Dame of Paris to the collections of the Musée de Cluny, we will seek to decode the symbolic language of medieval sculpture and architecture. Pairing texts and monuments, we will consider the writings of authors such as the Abbot Suger as we inspect his church of Saint-Denis, or as we study liturgical objects in the collections of the Louvre. Throughout the course we will consider how visual art during the Middles Ages helped shape cultural identity and express the political and religious agendas of the age. The course ends with a study of E.E. Viollet-le-Duc’s work during the 19th century, together with his legacy and role in constructing our notions of medieval art and architecture.  Taught in English.

The Glory of Medieval France: Museums and Monuments in Paris and the Region - Sample Syllabus

For students seeking to gain Art History Major Credit this course bears a prerequisite of History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Students taking this course for elective credit are permitted to enroll without this prerequisite.

Beginning by considering how impressionism refined and redirected the artistic aims of 19th-century realism, follows the development of progressive art to the brink of cubism and pure abstraction in the first years of the 20th century. Following impressionism and post-impressionism, close attention is paid to symbolism, aestheticism, art nouveau, the Arts and Crafts movement, fauvism, and expressionism. The aesthetic aims of these movements are analyzed in tandem with the social and cultural conditions that generated them.

Impressionism to Post-Impressionism - Sample Syllabus

Registration priority for CORE courses will be given to NYU College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) students. Other students will be able to register as space remains available. Please pay close attention to course notes displayed in Albert.

French films and French culture, examined by situating the films in their social, historical, and philosophical context. Topics include the relationship between the Avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century (futurism, cubism, expressionism, surrealism) and the cinematographic Avant-garde (Buñuel, L’Herbier, Cocteau), the echoes of classical French theatre (Marivaux, Beaumarchais, Musset) in the cinema of Renoir, the troubled period of the German Occupation and the work of filmmakers who deliberately chose to stay in France to continue their calling (Clouzot, Carné), and the influence of the existentialist circles of Saint Germain des Prés (Sartre, Camus) on the Nouvelle Vague.

Expressive Cultures: Film - Sample Syllabus

In this course we focus on four contemporary novels in which the world of the character, the narrator, or the author, is read through the lens of a literary classic. In each case, the reading and rewriting of the primary text involves temporal and spatial displacements (from the 18th to the 20th century, from Europe to the Caribbean and to the South Pacific) that generate shifting perspectives and a constant reshuffling of center and periphery. Between a reverential affiliation to the past and a creative misreading and rewriting of it, these intertextual encounters with « great » Western literary works insistently raise the questions of identity, originality, and “writing back”. Exploring these questions will therefore also involve drawing on comparative, translation, and postcolonial studies.

Studies in Prose Genres: Post-Colonial Readings of Classic Texts - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite of FREN-UA 30 or FREN-UA 9030

Focuses on the historical and institutional bases of European integration in order to provide students an understanding of the European Union and how it works, its impact on everyday policies of the member states as well as the life of European citizens, and the kind of world actor the EU is or might become.  Focuses as well on current-day concerns and in particular the on-going sense of crisis that has rocked the Union for the past several years.

France and the European Union: Europe in Crisis - Sample Syllabus

This course investigates the history, the structure and the inner logic and working of European integration from the end of the Second World War to present day. It will provide students with an overview of the political institutions, the member states and the current developments of the European Union while focusing on the paramount role played by France throughout the years. 

France and the European Union - Sample Syllabus

Enrollment by permission only. Application required. 

This 4 credit course includes a weekly seminar and two full days and one half day (Monday-Friday) for their internship.  Internship placements are made by EUSA, an organization partnering with NYU.

The seminar portion of the course explores many different aspects of your internship site. The goal is to finish the semester with an in-depth understanding of the company or organization, including its approach, its policies, and the context in which it operates. We will also discuss more generally the state of the contemporary workplace and ourselves as workers. Finally, you will use the seminar to reflect critically and analytically on the internship experience and as a way to refine your own personal and professional goals.

Experiential Learning Seminar - Sample Syllabus

This course allows students to discover “Theater of the absurd”, a theoretical and practical approach to theater born of the complex historical, literary, and philosophical context of the Second World War. We will analyze the characteristics of this type of theater which continues to influence avant-garde themes and esthetics. Students will perform excerpts from selected works with a focus on the absurdity of situations, de-structuring language, and corporal expression. The approach of the course is intellectual, physical and creative. Theater outings and projections will be included.  The principal works studied include: Ubu Roi d’Alfred Jarry, La Cantatrice Chauved’Eugène Ionesco et Huis Clos de Jean-Paul Sartre.

Experimental Theatre Workshop - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite of FREN-UA 30 or FREN-UA 9030

Focuses on the historical and institutional bases of European integration in order to provide students an understanding of the European Union and how it works, its impact on everyday policies of the member states as well as the life of European citizens, and the kind of world actor the EU is or might become.  Focuses as well on current-day concerns and in particular the on-going sense of crisis that has rocked the Union for the past several years.

France and the European Union: Europe in Crisis - Sample Syllabus

An exploration of the historical and on-going contact between France and the Muslim world, including, most notably, the important Muslim population living in France today. The course examines the historical links between France and its colonial possessions in North and West Africa and the Middle East, the place of Islamic religious practice in a traditionally Catholic, and officially secular, France, and the frictions generated by newly politicized forms of Islam. Also considered is the ‘crisis’ of the banlieue, or French suburbs, and the cultural, generational, and religious tensions in evidence there.

France & Islam - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite of FREN-UA 30 or FREN-UA 9030

An introduction to the problems of gender as they have been expressed in France. Beginning with an historical overview, we consider the category of ‘woman’ as it was defined from the Revolution to the founding of French feminism at the end of the 19th century. The second part of the course is devoted to an exploration of gender as a political issue during the past 20 years, through consideration of such topics as parité, prostitution, colonialism, post-colonialism, and queer studies.

Gender & Sexuality in France - Sample Syllabus

In this course we focus on four contemporary novels in which the world of the character, the narrator, or the author, is read through the lens of a literary classic. In each case, the reading and rewriting of the primary text involves temporal and spatial displacements (from the 18th to the 20th century, from Europe to the Caribbean and to the South Pacific) that generate shifting perspectives and a constant reshuffling of center and periphery. Between a reverential affiliation to the past and a creative misreading and rewriting of it, these intertextual encounters with « great » Western literary works insistently raise the questions of identity, originality, and “writing back”. Exploring these questions will therefore also involve drawing on comparative, translation, and postcolonial studies.

Studies in Prose Genres: Post-Colonial Readings of Classic Texts - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite of FREN-UA 30 or FREN-UA 9030

The course explores how literature and cinema from 1945 to the present have covered the topic of the "Années noires" ("the Dark years"), or the period of German occupation in France.  Figured against the backdrop of the events of World War II and the Occupation, the course examines the complexity of questions of identity, memory, and narrative in relation to this complex moment in French history.  Includes texts by Sartre, Vercors, Modiano, Perec, Duras.  Films include Les Jeux Interdits (René Clément), Lacombe Lucien (Louis Malle), Night & Fog (Alain Resnais).  In addition students are invited to participate in an overnight trip to visit important WWII memorial sites in France.

The German Occupation in French Literature and Cinema - Sample Syllabus

Enrollment by permission only. Application required. 

This 4 credit course includes a weekly seminar and two full days and one half day (Monday-Friday) for their internship.  Internship placements are made by EUSA, an organization partnering with NYU.

The seminar portion of the course explores many different aspects of your internship site. The goal is to finish the semester with an in-depth understanding of the company or organization, including its approach, its policies, and the context in which it operates. We will also discuss more generally the state of the contemporary workplace and ourselves as workers. Finally, you will use the seminar to reflect critically and analytically on the internship experience and as a way to refine your own personal and professional goals.

Experiential Learning Seminar - Sample Syllabus

It would be a misnomer to assume that technology is something we “use.” Rather, there is something quite non-technical about technology, which has an intrinsically social nature: technology socializes, it canalizes creative powers, and subjects us to mechanical and material manipulation. What is the relationship between techniques and technologies and their respective effects (ethical, cultural, aesthetic) on the category of the human? This course attempts to grapple with these questions through the development of a critical heuristic to help us map the topoi of the socio-eco-techno system. Drawing on mediology, ethics, and the French school of the anthropology of techniques, we explore such topoi in terms as both “deep” historical sediment and also futurology with a view to illuminating how our values are negotiated and transformed in relation to the technological. Conducted in English.

What Is Technology? - Sample Syllabus

Lift your eyes as you walk down any street in Paris and you'll soon see a building adorned with the tricolore and the words Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. Turn a corner and in the distance you'll see the Arc de Triomphe built to the glory of Napoleon's army or the Eiffel tower erected for the centennial of the fall of the Bastille. Even the metro stops, Concorde, Nation, République, Austerlitz, Iéna, echo with the memory of the years of the French Revolution and the First Empire.

But what historic reality does all this evoke? What led some French people to overthrow their age old Monarchy, turn their backs on the Church and launch into a new era of Republican government? What caused others to resist such changes with all their might? And why did the experiment end within 10 years, giving way to military dictatorship and an Empire which spread French rule across Europe. This semester we shall explore these issues and others pertaining to the Age of the French Revolution & Napoleon through lectures, readings, discussions and site visits in and around the city of Paris.

The French Revolution & Napoleon - Sample Syllabus

This course proposes an introduction to French history, politics ,and society from the French Revolution to the present.  Attention is paid to the successive crises that have challenged France's stature, its national identity, and its republican model. Topics include the gradual consolidation of democratic political and social systems following the Revolution, and the continuities and contestations of that legacy as reflected in the rise of France as an imperial power, the Dreyfus Affair, two World Wars, and the loss of empire.

Topics in French History: Modern France from the Revolution to the Present - Sample Syllabus

Registration priority for Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC) courses offered at NYU Paris will be given to NYU MCC majors. Other students will be able to register as space remains available. Please pay close attention to course notes displayed in Albert.

This course examines fashion both from its diffusion in a globalized society, and as a form of communication and culture. We will examine how fashion has been valued through social sciences – history and sociology on the one hand, and economy on the other hand, from its production to its consumption. The course will address fashion in terms of issues of consumerism and sustainability in a post industrialized society. Conducted in English.

Fashion and Power - Sample Syllabus

Registration priority for Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC) courses offered at NYU Paris will be given to NYU MCC majors. Other students will be able to register as space remains available. Please pay close attention to course notes displayed in Albert.

This course introduces students to the basic structures and practices of media in Europe and their relationship to everyday social life. It pays special attention to the common models and idioms of media in Europe, with an emphasis on national and regional variations. Specific case studies highlight current trends in the production, distribution, consumption, and regulation of media. Topics may include: national or regional idioms in a range of media genres, from entertainment, to advertising and publicity, to news and information; legal norms regarding content and freedom of expression; pirate and independent media; and innovations and emerging practices in digital media. Conducted in English.

Global Media Seminar: France and Europe - Sample Syllabus

The aim of the Collegium is to provide music students with a variety of experiences which reflect Paris's unique musical history and culture. The course has two strands: a series of weekly lectures and/or concerts to acquaint students with French music and culture, and guided projects to ensure each student's contact with Parisian peers, institutions, or mentors in their chosen area.

Collegium & Program Seminar - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: Music History I, or success in placement exam

The history of musical styles in the baroque and classical periods. 

Music History II: Baroque and Classical - Sample syllabus

Prerequisite: MPATC-UE 1077, Music History III, or success in placement exam

Evolution of contemporary compositional techniques traced from impressionism to the latest avant-garde experiments. 

Music History IV: Twentieth Century Music - Sample syllabus

Prerequisite: MPATC-UE 35 Music Theory I. Corequisite: MPATC-UE9007 Aural Comp in Music II

Further projects in diatonic tonality and an introduction to simple forms.

Music Theory II - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: Music Theory III, or success in placement exam

Introduction to the materials and organizing principles of 20th-century music, including extended chromaticism, modes, atonality, and jazz. 

Music Theory IV: 20th Century - Sample syllabus

Prerequisite: MPATC-UE 6 Aural Comprehension in Music I. Corequisite: MPATC-UE 9036 Music Theory II.

Continued training in elementary musicianship skills.

Aural Comprehension in Music II - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: MPATC-UE 8, Aural Comprehension III, or success in placement exam

Continued training in intermediate musicianship skills. 

Aural Comprehension in Music IV - Sample syllabus

Prerequisite: Keyboard Skills I, or success in placement exam

Development of functional keyboard skills for music majors. Emphasized skills: technique, score reading, melodic harmonization, transposition, popular chord reading, & harmonization. 

Keyboard Skills II - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: Keyboard Skills III, or success in placement exam

Development of functional keyboard skills for music majors. Emphasized skills: technique, score reading, melodic harmonization, transposition, popular chord reading, & harmonization.

Keyboard Skills IV - Sample Syllabus

No prerequisite. Private lessons are restricted to Music Majors only. Students may only register for one private lesson per semester. Visiting students who are Music majors should email Maura Fenotti at maura.fenotti@nyu.edu to request permission to enroll.

One hour per week. (Includes Classical and Jazz styles).

No prerequisite. Private lessons are restricted to Music Majors only. Students may only register for one private lesson per semester. Visiting students who are Music majors should email Maura Fenotti at maura.fenotti@nyu.edu to request permission to enroll.

One hour per week. (Includes all string orchestral instruments and guitar, classical and jazz styles).

No prerequisite. Private lessons are restricted to Music Majors only. Students may only register for one private lesson per semester. Visiting students who are Music majors should email Maura Fenotti at maura.fenotti@nyu.edu to request permission to enroll.

Composition in all forms and styles including electronic. Electronic laboratory by assignment. One hour per week. (Includes traditional, music theatre, film scoring and jazz).

No prerequisite. Private lessons are restricted to Music Majors only. Students may only register for one private lesson per semester. Visiting students who are Music majors should email Maura Fenotti at maura.fenotti@nyu.edu to request permission to enroll.

One hour per week. (Includes classical, music theatre and jazz styles).

Prior introduction to logic or linguistics is welcome, but not mandatory.

Examines various philosophical and psychological approaches to language and meaning, as well as their consequences for traditional philosophical problems in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Discusses primarily 20th-century authors, including Russell, Wittgenstein, and Quine.

Philosophy of Language - Sample Syllabus

Provides an overview of important developments in French philosophy from the 16th century to the 1940s and 1950s. Beginning with the epistemological and metaphysical debates that followed the rediscovery of Ancient philosophy and the Copernican revolution in the sciences, we will consider Montaigne’s skepticism, Descartes’ attempts at securing our knowledge of the soul, God, and the external world, and Condillac’s empiricist critique of Descartes’ theory of knowledge. We will then focus on major developments in French political philosophy in the 18th and 19th centuries, closely intertwined with political events in France at the time, including such figures as Rousseau, Proudhon, and Tocqueville. Finally, we will look at two of the major movements in French philosophy in the first half of the 20th century: Henri Bergson’s attempts to understand the temporal duration conscious beings inhabit, and Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir’s distinctive development of existentialism, a philosophy that grapples with the radical consequences of human freedom. Conducted in English.

History of French Philosophy - Sample Syllabus

This course investigates the history, the structure and the inner logic and working of European integration from the end of the Second World War to present day. It will provide students with an overview of the political institutions, the member states and the current developments of the European Union while focusing on the paramount role played by France throughout the years. 

France and the European Union - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite of FREN-UA 30 or FREN-UA 9030

Focuses on the historical and institutional bases of European integration in order to provide students an understanding of the European Union and how it works, its impact on everyday policies of the member states as well as the life of European citizens, and the kind of world actor the EU is or might become.  Focuses as well on current-day concerns and in particular the on-going sense of crisis that has rocked the Union for the past several years.

France and the European Union: Europe in Crisis - Sample Syllabus