Program overview |
This course is led by Jillian Lerner & Nikki Georgopulos, Faculty of Arts
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About the course
This immersive summer course takes students to study nineteenth-century visual culture in the museums and built environment of Paris. Offered in English, this hybrid seminar will combine online preparation with two weeks of intensive field study in Paris. To lay the thematic and methodological foundations for study abroad, the course will begin with one week of remote engagement with recorded lectures, readings, and zoom seminars. Participants will then convene in Paris for two weeks of experiential learning centered on museum visits, workshops, walking tours, and research in French collections. Subsequently, students will have another two weeks to complete their assignments; they may choose to continue traveling or return home as the remaining coursework can be done independently and submitted online.
Our exploration of nineteenth-century art and cultural history will focus on changing patterns of spectatorship, visual attraction, and display. Visits to Parisian museums, archives, and historical sites will enable first-hand examination of photography, print, painting, sculpture, decorative arts, waxworks, and displays of mechanical ingenuity. Evaluating histories of colonization, capitalist spectacle, and visions of Paris as the "capital of modernity," we will also consider critical and creative practices of resistance and repair. We will interrogate imperialist claims and elite privileges, observing how these are manifest in past and present visual practices, cityscapes, and rituals of art tourism.
Program eligibility
General Global Seminar requirements
To participate in a Global Seminar, students must:
- Be in good standing in their faculty (as defined by home faculty)
- In the year leading up to the Global Seminar, have full-time student status (as defined by home faculty)
- Have completed 2nd year requirements before the start of the program (i.e. 3rd or 4th year standing)
- Have at least a 70% academic average in your last full-time academic session before applying
- Maintain a 70% academic average leading up to the program
- Meet any program-specific requirements listed below including pre-requisites before participating
Program Specific requirements
- 3 credits of ARTH strongly encouraged. ARTH majors will be given priority.
Final selection will be made by the lead faculty program directors. Space in the program may be limited.
Students who wish to participate in the summer after graduating may be eligible on a case-by-case basis.
Experience and conditions in the Field
The learning environment will be variable, ranging from museums and archives to parks, markets, and streets. Our itinerary will involve a lot of walking, standing on hard surfaces, navigating crowded urban spaces, and riding public transportation (mostly an underground subway system). These conditions favour able-bodied students who do not have difficulties with mobility or agoraphobia. The teaching team is eager to partner with prospective students to identify needs and provide extra support, resources, alternatives, or flexibility that would reduce barriers to participation.
Regrettably, many of the Parian sites and cultural institutions we will visit, and the Paris metro system, are not wheel-chair accessible, which constrains our ability to accommodate related accessibility needs.
Participants do not need French language competency to participate in the course; we will provide instruction in English, and bilingual members of the cohort will support necessary communications.
Accommodations
Hostel-style accommodation while abroad. Students should expect to share rooms with 1, 2 or more students.
Program fees and costs
Approximate fees: $3575
*The final fee depends on the number of students in the seminar. All Global Seminars only run if there is a minimum number of students enrolled.
Program fees include:
- Accommodation
- Program-related travel in-country; (e.g. buses)
- Excursions and entrance fees
- Some group meals
- On-site guest lectures
Not Included:
- Go Global Fee
- Flights
- UBC tuition for credits
- Visa/country entrance fees
- Health or travel insurance
- Most meals
- Personal spending money*
* Some examples of personal costs included: mobile communication, personal transportation that is not related to the learning outcomes of the program, additional meals that are not already identified as part of the Program Fee, immunizations, Visas, etc.
Cultural Experience in France Grant (CEFG) for Arts students
This program is now supported by the Cultural Experience in France Grant for Arts students
Up to 13 Faculty of Arts students accepted to this program will have 75% of their program fee covered plus receive a $1000 award that can be used towards the flight or other travel costs.
Up to 7 Arts students accepted into this program, who demonstrate financial need, will have 100% of their program fee covered plus receive a $1600 award that can be used towards the flight or other travel costs.
Eligible Arts students applying to the program will automatically be considered for the funding. No additional application is required.
Basic eligibility for the Cultural Experience in France Grant will be the following:
- Accepted into this program
- UBC Vancouver Faculty Arts degree student (BA, BMus, etc.)
- Have a minimum GPA of 70% in the top 24 credits of the previous academic year with no failed or incomplete courses in the assessed period.
- Current full-time students (min 9 credits per term) in 2023-24 Academic Year
- Depending on the number of eligible candidates, priority may be given to students in a French major or minor
To be eligible for the 100% funding, there is this additional criteria:
- Students must have demonstrated financial need
- Priority will be given to students who meet the definition of eligibility for financial aid (having non-repayable loans and bursaries), as defined and determined by Enrolment Services
- Other students will have the opportunity to provide a written statement and budget to demonstrate un-met financial need
Students accepted to this program who are not eligible for the Cultural Experience in France Grant will receive the $1000 Go Global Award.