Start of the New Undergraduate Study Abroad Semester

The new students participating in the Arcadia Study Abroad Program at the American Graduate School in Paris have started their second week of classes. There are eight students, coming from the U.S., Paraguay, and China. All are enrolled in universities in the U.S., including Denison University, St Anselm College, Bryn Athyn College of the New Church, and Arcadia University. They are spending fifteen weeks in Paris taking courses in international relations, history and law as well as French courses with the world-renowned language school Alliance Française, which is the partner institution of the American Graduate School in Paris and Arcadia University for French language courses (more information on this program.)

Students were welcomed into the program with four days of pre-semester orientation activities including a safety and security/academic orientation followed by a welcome dinner at a typical French bistro, as well as a walking tour and a visit to the Eiffel Tower and Musée du Quai Branly.

The walking tour consisted of a walk through the Latin Quarter, catching a view of the old houses of the Mouffetard Market Street and places where important writers such as Honoré de Balzac, James Joyce, Victor Hugo, George Orwell, and Ernest Hemingway, lived or set their stories. Located just next to the Eiffel Tower, the Musée du Quai Branly showcases indigenous art, civilizations and cultures of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. This orientation weekend gave students the opportunity to better acquaint themselves with each other and Paris before delving into the coursework.

During the course of the semester, students will participate in two AGS-led trips outside of Paris: a four-day cultural excursion to Nice on the beautiful Côte d'Azur in the South of France, and a two-day cultural/political visit to Strasbourg, where students will visit the Council of Europe and explore the German-influenced city. In addition, they will participate in a number of excursions embedded in the coursework throughout the semester. Dr. Yates, who teaches the core course on History, Politics, and Diplomacy of France and the European Union, explains:

"I have found that the students like getting out of the classroom to "experience" what we discuss in class. One of the trips that I offer every semester is a visit to the Roman antiquities of Paris. In Roman times this city was called 'Lutetia,' and there are several vestiges of the Empire which we can visit, including an amphitheater (where I talk about gladiators), a thermal bath, and an archaeological crypt under the pavement of the Ile-de-la-Cité (where I talk about the nautical guild that ran the docks along the Seine). What is interesting about this time period is that we have almost no written records, so most of what we know of the Gallo-Roman inhabitants is the work of modern archaeologists. This is a growing body of knowledge. Ironically, we know more about the Roman past today than at any previous time in history. And as new discoveries are made, my lectures about antiquity actually get updated. It's like Will Rogers said, 'History ain't what it used to be!'

Another trip that I really enjoy is for the class on French History, Government, and Diplomacy, when I take students up north of Paris to the Saint-Denis Basilica. There, almost all the kings and queens of France are buried, from the time of the Merovingians, through the Carolingians, Capetians, Valois and Bourbons. All in one place! For an overview of more than one thousand years of French political history, there is really nothing better than to 'experience' the physical presence, 'see' the evolving art of sepulchral tombs, and 'feel' the cold stone. I enjoy teaching the class about Napoleon while standing in front of his tomb at the Invalides, or talking about how to do reasearch while meandering down the giant halls of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, or reflecting on the role of cultural patrimony while visiting the plundered treasures of the empire that have been hoarded in the rooms of the Louvre. From my own experience of exploring other cities, I know that it takes a guide to bring the lifeless buidlings to life, to make the old stones sing. Each time I take students they ask questions that challenge me to go back and do more research, and each year I am learning more about this city where I have lived for almost twenty years. But do you know what is best about all of this? It is getting to know the students, and learning from them."