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French
Descriptions
and sample syllabi from some of my upper-level French courses:
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French Conversation & Phonetics
This course emphasizes conversation practice, vocabulary
expansion, and the study of phonetics to improve pronunciation and
intonation. Class discussion, poetry readings, review of certain
grammar points, and French composition are also included. Students
can earn an "S" competency in this class by presenting
an oral exposé (en français).
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Business
French
This
course is designed for those students interested in international
business or who intend to work professionally in French-speaking
countries. Particular attention is given to the many technical,
cultural, and practical aspects of the francophone business world--from
banking, the stock market, and advertising to writing a French CV
and managing various kinds of business correspondence.
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French
Topics - La Chanson française
First offered in the spring of 2004, this course examines the evolution of French popular music and songwriters from the post-Second World War era (Piaf, Trenet, et al.) to the present (Indochine, Zazie, et al.). Studied as a form of oral literature, the lyrics of these songs reflect both the values of their time as well as the timeless themes of love, death, prejudice, exoticism, patriotism, etc.
- French Topics - Le Fantastique et la SF
Taught for the first time in the fall of 2005, this course focuses on two of the most popular genres of speculative fiction in France: le "fantastique" (horror) and la science-fiction (SF). For the former, we study short stories by authors such as Gautier, Mérimée, and Maupassant; for the latter, we study novels by Verne, Rosny, Barjavel, and Boulle.
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French Seminar - L'Amour et la Mort
The most advanced course offered in French (and required of all senior French majors), the French Seminar's topic changes each year. Offered in the spring of 2002 and 2006, I focused on the dual themes of love and death in French literature from the Middle Ages to the 20th century in authors such as Marie de France, Ronsard, Racine, Prévost, Balzac, Cocteau, Beauvoir, and Duras.
Science
Fiction
Descriptions
and sample syllabi from my courses on science fiction:
- First-Year
Seminar
In
this Frosh survey course, students examine representative SF stories
from a variety of historical periods--from "space opera"
and futuristic utopias to women-only worlds and cyberpunk. Short movie
clips accompany most of the readings. Highly interdisciplinary and
thematic in nature, this course focuses on topics such as global apocalypse,
genetics and biotechnology, alien encounters, robots and cyborgs,
computers, virtual reality, and time travel, among others.
- Honor
Scholar Seminar
As a literature of speculation and "thought experiment,"
SF has a long tradition of raising fundamental questions about how
we define ourselves, our reality, and our possible futures. Through
a selection of readings from Jules Verne to post-cyberpunk, this course
addresses a variety of recurring philosophical and social themes in
SF--technology and human values, gender and identity, alienation and
the "other," cybernetics and artificial intelligence, etc.--and
how they reflect certain evolutionary currents in today's world and
(perhaps) the world of tomorrow.
Winter
Term in Paris
During
the month of January, I often take a group of DePauw students to Paris,
France. We stay in a small hotel in the Latin Quarter, and each day
we visit museums, monuments, art galleries, the opera, and other cultural
sites of the city. We also take day-trips to Versailles and Chartres.
All students are required to attend a one-week intensive orientation
on campus before our departure. I have posted here some group photos
of DePauw students who participated in the WT in Paris program in 1997-2001:
1997
(in front of Versailles)
1999
(in front of Notre Dame)
2001
(in front of the Louvre)
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