CAPLA Abroad - France
Paris, France
Summer 2023 Dates: May 22 - June 23| Please do not purchase plane tickets until you have received instructions from Study Abroad.
Paris: empire + colony* | diasporas + assemblies
The vibrancy and diversity of the city of Paris is a microcosm of France and its overseas departments and territories (DOM TOM). The peoples, lands and resources of the DOM TOM remain entangled with France as vestiges of former colonies, as do now-independent formerly colonies such as Algeria and Senegal. These regions have all provided France with a wealth of resources, materials, and cultural practices that are inseparable from what constitutes France and French culture today. However, while the world has long celebrated French culture, from cuisine to couture, art, architecture and public spaces of assembly, rarely do we interrogate from where they originate and how they came to be, nor do we question these from both aesthetic and ethical perspectives—particularly vis-à-vis colony.
This six-credit summer program dives deeply into these burning and timely questions.
* The striking out of the word colony above is a double gesture: towards 1) Jacques Derrida, a French citizen of Jewish-Algerian origin, who developed an idea of writing sous ratture, meaning under erasure or strike-out, that simultaneously makes evident what is erased and its erasure and 2) the important forum of lively debate and cultural exchange in Paris, La Colonie (2016-2020), founded by Kader Attia, a French Algerian artist.
CAPLA Abroad - France is open to all CAPLA students who have completed at least the third year of their undergraduate program (BArch, BLA, SBE, BADAP) or are enrolled in a graduate program. Third-year undergraduate and above (including graduate) Art students and SCCT students will also be accepted.
