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General Description:
The College's Spring Humanities Program in Paris provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to devote themselves intensively to the humanities at the University of Chicago's Center in Paris. This is a broadly conceived program, designed not for students from specific majors, but for all students, regardless of major, with an interest in the humanities and a desire to pursue this interest in the capital of France, a city rich in cultural resources and artistic traditions. The central element of the Program is a series of three courses in various humanistic subjects, each compressed into approximately three weeks and taught in succession (but not as a sequence) by Chicago faculty. These courses are normally subject-based and each is usable in its respective major. At the same time, all three are intended for the generalist and thus have no prerequisite other than the general education humanities sequence. Program participants also take a French language course, which runs at a normal pace through the quarter and is designed to help students connect with French (and Parisian) culture. Apart from classroom work, the Spring Humanities Program offers a series of excursions to sites of artistic and historic interest within and in the vicinity of Paris. Indeed Paris itself, with its wealth of museums, libraries, and theaters, its lively art and literary scene, its rich traditions of creation and critique, plays a central role in the Program and students will be expected to make full use of its cultural resources.
Center in Paris:
Headquarters for all of the College's programs in Paris is the University of Chicago's Center in Paris. The Center in Paris builds upon the University's long association with various Parisian institutions, as well as its eminence, recognized by the French government, in interdisciplinary scholarship related to France. It acts as a gathering place for undergraduates, graduate researchers, and alumni as well as a site for lectures, conferences, and receptions. For participants in the various programs sponsored by the College in Paris, the Center, with its classrooms, offices, computers, language lab, and (modest) library, provides an administrative and instructional home as well as a supportive environment. Its location, in a "new," academically-oriented neighborhood in the thirteenth arrondissement, places it within easy walking distance of the relocated Bibliothèque Nationale (Bibliothèque François Mitterand) and just across the street from the new home of the Université Denis Diderot.
Housing:
As a participant in the Spring Paris Humanities Program you will live in one of the residence halls of the Cité Internationale Universitaire, a campus-like assemblage of houses for international students. In addition to its various national residences, the Cité comprises a library, restaurant (with adjoining cafeteria), and several sports and exercise facilities. Located at the southern edge of Paris (in the fourteenth arrondissement), the Cité offers easy access, by metro and bus, to all of Paris.
Credits:
You receive one credit for each of the four courses offered through this program. If one of the humanities courses falls within your major subject, you may use this course in your major without special petition. The use of these courses in related or interdisciplinary majors is also frequently possible, though for this you will have to submit a specific petition to the appropriate program chair. Certainly you may use any of these courses, including the French language course, as a free elective. Course titles, units of credit, and grades are placed on your Chicago transcript.
Registration and Tuition:
You remain registered full-time in the College and pay regular College tuition, the Spring Paris program fee and the non-refundable study abroad administrative fee required of all participants in Chicago's programs abroad. For precise figures, see Study Abroad Program Fees.
Financial Aid:
Students retain their financial aid eligibility. However, two expenses--the study abroad administrative fee and the round-trip airfare to Paris --are not underwritten by College Financial Aid. On the other hand, since students cannot be expected to work part-time while in Paris, the self-help component of their financial aid package does not include a term-time employment factor.
Eligibility:
The Spring Humanities Program in Paris is designed for undergraduates in good standing who are beyond their first year in the College. While the Program stipulates no minimum grade-point average, you should present a transcript demonstrating that you are a serious student who will make the most of this opportunity. There are no prerequisite courses for this program other than the general education humanities sequence (two or three courses). At the same time, your experience of this program will likely be enhanced if you have taken humanities courses (literature, art, music, philosophy, etc.) beyond the general education sequence. While you are not required to have studied French before embarking upon this program (because the humanities courses are taught in English), you will find that some prior knowledge of French, even at the most elementary level, will be helpful to you as you make your way through Paris.
Application:
Applications are available on the study abroad website. To apply to the Paris Humanities program, a student submits a general study abroad application electronically, then downloads the supplementary application specific to this program and submits it on paper, normally in mid-winter quarter of the previous academic year.
A student accepting an offer of admission is expected to secure his or her place with a $500 non-refundable study abroad administrative fee. (To begin the application process, click on the Study Abroad General Application.)
Further Information:
If you would like to discuss the Paris Humanities Program and the possibility of participating in it, you are invited to contact Sarah Walter (Harper 207A; 834-3753).
Statements contained on this site are subject to change without notice.
