2023 courses tba!
2022 courses
ANTH 3750: Food and Culture
Instructor: Dr. Suzanne Falgout 
The fundamental challenge of any culture is to provide food for its members. In the traditional past, this was based upon the environmental resources that were locally available. The methods used, the amount and organization of labor, and the foods produced have varied throughout history. Each system of production also had a significant effects on other elements of culture—the size of population it can support, the relationships among its people, its kinship and marriage practices, its form of governance, the shape of its religious beliefs and practices, etc.
Today’s Euro American markets seem to have an endless supply of food. Our modern methods of production and of communication and transportation have resulted in the globalization of food resources. We can obtain foods grown in different climates, in distant locations, and even in man-made or artificial environments. And, today, we can enjoy cuisine from around the world.
But, each system of food production has had it own benefits and drawbacks for the peoples it supported. Today, we have concerns about the amount of energy (either human or mechanized) our form production and distribution of food requires. Relevant to this, we also worry about the requirement for immigrants and/or the looming threat of increased automation. We question the sustainability of the current globalized food system, and the possibility of limits to the number of people who can be fed. There are also issues involving the health consequences of our contemporary food system—the increased portion sizes, fats, salts, and sugars in modern diets have contributed to the prevalence of diseases not common in earlier times. Meanwhile, the sharp inequalities in food access for ethnic minorities in America and Europe are also found in other nations around the world. What are the environmental and health consequences of the expansion of lands put under agricultural production, both locally and globally? Also, what have been the effects of the use of modern herbicides and pesticides?
Our Glories of France course will take advantage of the many resources available to us in the Languedoc-Roussillion region, through various program-sponsored and class trips. We will visit farmers markets, grocery stores, restaurants, vineyards, wine makers, cheese producers, artisanal bakers and chocolate makers, Slow Food advocates, and etc. We will also examine the differences in local food thinking and practices from those in the United States.
ENGL 2090: Surrealist Poetry-Reading Beyond the Rational
This course, designed for non-majors, will serve as an introduction to the literary movement of Surrealism, which began in Paris in 1924 with the publication of André Breton’s “Manifesto of Surrealism.” Heavily influenced by Dadaism, surrealist texts subvert linear methods of reasoning, and can create the space for students to think of poetry as much more than just a roundabout way of telling a story or a riddle to be solved and paraphrased. Surrealism provides students unfamiliar with poetry the opportunity to think in an entirely new way, and to see poetry as a space for linguistic play. This course will also challenge the idea of surrealism as a movement primarily for and by white men; we will spend time on the writing of Aimé Cesaire (including his work on colonialism), and we will read Mary Ann Caws’ recent surrealist anthology, which highlights the work of women in the movement. Because we will be taking a field trip to Paris, students will also have the opportunity to see surrealism in the visual arts at the Dali Museum in Montmartre.
Surrealism is a mode of writing that is uniquely accessible for anyone, so this course will focus not only on reading poetry, but also on writing it. We will use surrealist methods like the exquisite corpse and automatic writing so students can experience firsthand how surrealist poets activated their imaginations and got in touch with the subconscious.
Texts:
André Breton/Manifesto of Surrealism
André Breton and Phillippe Soupault/The Magnetic Fields
Aimé Cesaire/Lost Body
The Milk Bowl of Feathers: Essential Surrealist Writings, ed. Mary Ann Caws
Supplemental text:
A Book of Surrealist Games, compiled by Alastair Brotchie and ed. Mel Gooding
ENGL 2238: Fiction of the Lost Generation
Coined by Gertrude Stein, the term “lost generation” describes those writers and artists who came of age during World War I, many of whom moved to Paris after the war. In this course, we will take a look at the work of some of those authors, including Stein herself as well as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Djuna Barnes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. We will look at the shifting social mores of the time, and compare the generational divide of the 1920’s with the generational divide many young people feel today.
Designed for non-majors, this course will focus on basic techniques for approaching fictional works, including plot, character, setting, and style. We will also look at the goals of the Modernist literary movement to which these authors belonged, and discuss how these texts reflect a larger loss of faith in institutions and a societal sense of alienation and despair after the war.
Possible texts include:
The Sun Also Rises/Ernest Hemingway
A Moveable Feast/Ernest Hemingway
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas/Gertrude Stein
QED/Gertrude Stein
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man/James Joyce
Nightwood/Djuna Barnes
This Side of Paradise/F. Scott Fitzgerald
HIST 2991/4991: Special Topics: France and the Mediterranean 
Instructor: Dr. Andrea Mosterman (2022 Academic Director of Glories of France)
This course explores France’s historic relationship with the larger Mediterranean world. Whether it concerns food, music, religion, architecture, or politics, the country’s location on the Mediterranean has shaped France in general and southern France in particular from Roman times until the present. While we will study the historic influence of the Mediterranean on France in general, we will pay special attention to the ways in which it affected Montpellier’s culture, economy, and growth. This course combines lectures with visits to historic sites and museums that explore or exemplify this history.
HUMS 2090/4090: Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration in France
Instructor: Dr. Masse Ndiaye 
This course will explore the ways in which the question of race and ethnicity is shaping the discourse on integration and identity in French society. This course will examine how Islam as well as North African ethnicity are being dealt with as French society is increasingly exposed to multicultural diversity. We examine the evolution of immigration policies in France from the age of empire to the post-colonial period. We will explore the relationship between the emergence of newly formed identities in French society and the spread and prevalence of extreme right nationalistic sentiment. Furthermore, we will try to understand how the emergence of the concept of “blackness” in French society affects the old practices of assimilation that ignored race-related questions. When possible, this course will compare France and the United States on race and identity politics. Using novels from both immigrants and first-generation French intellectuals whose writings reflect their journey on the questions of race and identity, this course will examine the question of integration from various perspectives. As part of a large immigration hub in Southern France, Montpellier is an ideal site for students to explore and experience how the French society is negotiating these transformations.
FREN 1001: Basic French I 
The first in a sequence of courses developing all four language skills: speaking, reading, writing, and listening Cultural materials from magazines, films, music, and from electronic ancillaries are used to enhance the process of language acquisition.
Instructor: Pascal Jacob
FREN 1002: Basic French II
Prerequisite: FREN 1001 or consent of department. A continuation of FREN 1001.
Instructor: Pascal Jacob