Paris Fall Seminar

The Program and Seminar Director

The Paris Fall Seminar program, offered every fall, is a faculty-led program designed to offer students an opportunity to study in Paris, even if they have little or no French language skills. The program is hosted by the Skidmore in Paris program, which has been offered since 1980. The Seminar Director position is filled by a different Skidmore professor each year, and past directors have come from the departments of Philosophy, History, Foreign Langauges & Literatures, and English.

The Seminar Director for the fall 2012 program is John B. Anzalone, Professor of French and Class of 1948 Chair for Excellence in Teaching, who teaches Nineteenth Century French Literature, French Cinema and Translation Studies in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Skidmore College.

Participants enroll in a total of four courses: a beginning or low-intermediate French language course, a course on French culture, society or history related to the topic of the seminar, and two additional courses that are taught by the Seminar Director. The Seminar Director's courses will focus on topics in his/her own academic discipline. There is no French language requirement for the Paris Fall Seminar − all courses, except the French language course, are taught in English.

How do we look to the French? How do they look to us?? Study in Paris in the fall of 2012 and begin to answer these questions within the context of Frenc-American cross-cultural media studies, looking specifically at the Cinema and the comic strip. The program will explore how each national form has been strengthened and invigorated by contact with the other culture. Visits to Lyon, the place where cinema was born, and Brussels, the European Capital of the comic strip, will be part of the seminar. There will also be guest lecturers by film-makers and comic strip artists and authors. No prior French is required to participate in the Paris Fall Seminar, but you will acquire an excellent foundation in the language on the program.

The Skidmore Center 

Staffed by our Resident Director and staff, the program center is located in the heart of Paris, in the 3rd arrondisement, close to the Centre Georges Pompidou, the well-known and vast complex for the arts and culture.

The Skidmore Center serves as a home base for our students while they are in Paris. It houses classrooms for program courses, computer facilities, Skidmore’s administrative offices, and a small resource library. The Resident Director and staff are available throughout the program to provide whatever support and assistance our students might need. Skidmore aims to use only French in the program center, maximizing the linguistic benefit of the program and integration into French culture.