Course Description:
This course will take students on a tour of modern France, making stops at major cultural sites, from the rooftops of the Paris Opera to the Reims Cathedral, at museums like the MUCEM in Marseille or the Grand Palais, amongst others, and at specific moments in the nation’s history (of contention, controversy but also of celebration) that helped shape contemporary French culture. In addition to virtual tours of renowned cultural locations, offering students a chance to travel without leaving their seats, the focus of this course will be on French media (newspapers, radio, TV) pop culture (cinema, art festivals, music), and literature (the festival of “bande dessinée” in Angouleme, the prix Goncourt). Students will analyze and discuss these social and cultural components of modern France while developing their interpretative and interpersonal communication skills through cultural exploration and group discussion.

SPECIAL NOTE: The canvas course site along with the first week of lessons has been made available to students enrolled in French 303 and 405. Students registered for 405 have been sent invitations to join the 303 canvas course site. Please contact your instructor (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) if you are having any difficulty accessing course content.
NB: To access the Canvas course site, you will need to log in with your NetId and password. Please remember to regularly check your Rutgers email for notifications regarding this course.

Format:
This course will be taught both synchronously and asynchronously: we will meet twice a week on Zoom (TTh 5PM-6 :40PM), and two additional class sessions will be made available for students to take at their convenience. This course will be taught entirely in French.

Course materials:
A Canvas site will be available at the beginning of the summer session will all required readings and links to visual content.

Assignments:
In addition to weekly creative assignments, each Wednesday students will submit a short, improvised (no notes) VoiceThread presentation and interact with others through this platform. Students will submit three 3-5 page reaction papers and will present one of these reaction papers to the group during week 6. The bi-weekly Zoom meetings will of course be a vital space for student participation.

To alleviate the strain of Zoom fatigue, students are welcome to write their assignments by hand, and submit photos (as .pdf files) of their assignments to the instructor. Audio resources (songs, interviews, radio, etc.) will be available as alternatives to visual documents whenever possible.