We have more Paris Stories to read and write.  Come join us – we’d love to see you in our fall courses!

English 371:  American Writers in Paris, Wednesdays, 6 – 8:50pm

“Writing in Paris is one of the oldest American customs.” – Van Wyck Brooks

Paris has long held a fascination for American writers.  As the world’s cultural capital, the city has been the setting for self-discovery, cross-cultural contact, and artistic innovation for American writers ranging from Thomas Jefferson in the 18th century to Langston Hughes and Gertrude Stein in the 20th century.  This course is an exploration and discovery of American writers who found the city, in one way or another, a powerful source of inspiration.  We will read letters and documents, poetry and fiction of colonial Americans, 19th-century travelers, and 20th-century adventurers, all with an eye toward understanding how the Paris/America cultural exchange shaped American self-understanding and literary expression.  We will keep reading journals, as so many of our writers did while in Paris, and coursework will include two exams, a final research project, and Pecha Kucha class presentations.  For more information, please contact Prof. Dykstra at ndykstra@hope.edu.  

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830

IDS 172.03:  Defining Nations: Paris, T/TH, 12:00- 1:20pm

This course was co-developed interdisciplinarily by Lauren Janes, Natalie Dykstra, Pauline Remy, and Chuck Green. To be taught in Fall 2018 by Lauren Janes, it is part of the IDS Cultural Heritage curriculum.  The course engages students using history, philosophy, and literature to discuss questions of the development of national identities – their creation, reshaping, and limits – with a primary focus on Paris. The opening unit on the Enlightenment and French Revolution involves students “playing” the elaborate role-playing curriculum Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791. The second unit will examine Americans who wrote from Paris, with an emphasis on understanding how their experience in the city influenced their experience and understanding of American identity. We will look especially at the experience of African Americans in Paris, from Frederick Douglas to Ta-Nehisi Coates.  The final unit will examine anti-colonial, black nationalist, and anti-racism movements that centered on Paris in the twentieth century. Through the works of these Caribbean, African, and French writers and philosophers we will further examine the role of race in the definition of Frenchness and in post-colonial national identities. For more information, contact Dr. Janes at janes@hope.edu.

Paris rally in support of the victims of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting, 11 January 2015 at the Place de la Republique. Photo by Olivier Ortelpha.

First-Year Seminar:  Paris ~ Shaping a City and Defining Nations

Co-created by Lauren Janes and Heidi Kraus with significant contributions from Marissa Doshi, Pauline Remy, and Chuck Green, this FYS course will be taught in Fall 2018 by Lauren Janes. Students will think about identity and nationalism by examining Paris from interdisciplinary perspectives. As a way to orient students to college learning, we will highlight key aspects of Parisian and French national life, such as the French Revolution, the 19th-century reshaping of the city, and the global diversity of twenty-first century Paris. Students will reflect on their own identity as citizens of a country and a global community, and connect this to their pursuit of the liberal arts.  For more information, contact Dr. Janes at janes@hope.edu.  

Communication 151:  Media and Society. This half-semester course fulfills the college’s SS requirement and has a GLI flag. Dr. Marissa Doshi will teach two sections of the course in Fall 2018. This course explores the impact of media in society, and students are introduced to the format and function of different types of contemporary media, specifically social media.  In this new revised version of Comm 151, Dr. Heidi Kraus will teach two classes on the topic of activist street art in Paris. The course will also explore contemporary social media discourses about religious pluralism, free speech, and Eurocentrism in French society. For more information, contact Marissa Doshi at doshi@hope.edu.