Summer Courses

Topics change each semester- see the current Academic Schedule for current course descriptions.

A series of topic-centered courses refining the skills of academic essay writing, studying a wide range of ideas as expressed in diverse literary genres and periods. Introduces the analysis of literary texts and gives training in the writing of critical essays and research papers. Recent topics include: Utopia and Anti-Utopia, City as Metaphor, Portraits of Women, Culture Conflict, and Labyrinths.

This workshop gives students the opportunity to explore through reading, research and writing assignments an array of creative nonfiction forms, including memoir, travel writing, food and nature writing, and social essays. Assignments help students strengthen their ability to create the self as character, a first-person narrator who leads the reader into the world of personal experiences and research. The course explores narrative structure, description, characterization, dialogue, and tension, all key elements in making writing spirited and appealing. The workshop also includes guest speakers and field exercises in Paris. May be taken twice for credit.

Emphasizing the basic linguistic structures and verb tenses, this course has been structured for true beginners of French. Using visual stimuli (advertisements, comics, photographs, etc.), students will learn to identify and describe places, people and things as well as more abstract spatial, temporal (hour, day, season), and emotional (feelings, thoughts and opinions) ideas. Readings from short texts and everyday encounters (Métro, bank, stores, markets and cafés, etc.) will further help students to quickly become self-sufficient through basic language skills.

Only visiting summer students should register in this course. To ensure that participants are placed in the appropriate level, all visiting students in the Immersion Program take an online placement test.
The course has an extra course fee of 100 euros.