School News AGS

Oct 23-26, the group of undergraduate students who are studying at AGS in Paris this Fall through the Arcadia / AGS study abroad program took a four-day cultural trip the Nice and Monaco on the Riviera (Côte d'Azur).
They stayed in the "Vieux Nice" historical part of the city with its narrow and picturesque streets, and visited many of the emblematic sites of the area, including the famous Promenade des Anglais waterfront avenue, the Cours Saleya flower market, St Nicolas Cathedral, the Parc du Chateau, and the Baie des Anges with its spectacular view on the bay.
They also stepped outside of the French territory for a one-day side trip to the principality of Monaco, where they visited the harbor, the carnival, and the maritime museum.
And of course, they enjoyed the fine food from Provence, including the original Salade Nicoise from Nice.
This trip was an instructive and fun way for the students to discover and explore a new facet of France, where the South offers a very different experience than that of Paris.

Thank you Alyssa Barilotti for sharing your pictures with us!

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Alyssa Barilotti, one of the undergraduate students in the AGS/Arcadia Study Abroad in Paris program, tells us about her experience volunteering at UNESCO:

"On Tuesday October 7th I had the pleasure of volunteering at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO. UNESCO aspires to find peace among humanity by mobilizing for education, building intercultural acceptance and understanding through preservation of culture and heritage, as well as protecting the freedom of expression. On this past Monday and Tuesday specifically, UNESCO was celebrating teachers throughout the world on World Teachers' Day, which is recognized on October 5th. UNESCO orchestrated an amazing two day conference and concert for teachers, offering forums and different workshops that could congratulate, celebrate, and better our teachers! I was very lucky to be able to volunteer at the concert for the teachers and other invited guests at the close of the festivities. It was an awesome experience, and I met great people while learning so much about this United Nations Organization.

Here at the American Graduate School in Paris, there are always ways to find volunteering opportunities that are interesting and support a wide range of passions! This program sends emails of any and all volunteering opportunities when they arise, making it simple to get in contact with the organization and get involved. As well, they are always informed about different lectures and speeches that could be of interest to us International Studies or International Relations majors, and make sure we have the information to get to these awesome events. AGS offers you a chance to flawlessly step out of the classroom, and into real world experiences that are interesting and relevant to International Relations."

More on the Arcadia/AGS Study Abroad in Paris program

(Photo: Matthias Ripp - Flickr)

AGS is proud to announce a new institutional partnership with HERA France, an NGO dedicated to helping women who have been victims of violence, exploitation, or trafficking, by providing them with training and mentoring as a path to autonomy.

As part of this new partnership, HERA France will provide two semester-long internships every year to AGS students enrolled in the Master's program in International Relations and Diplomacy, as well as shorter-term internships to all of the students enrolled in the NGO Management courses at AGS. This will be a unique opportunity for AGS students from around the world to gain firsthand experience in the NGO field in Paris.

In addition, HERA speakers will regularly participate in AGS's NGO courses as well as in the school's conferences and other academic activities. This will be a way to both support AGS's mission of educating principled leaders of tomorrow and world citizens with a strong sense of civic engagement, and to support HERA's mission through competent contributions to the organization's endeavours.

A branch of the long-established nonprofit UK organization HERA - Entrepreneurs Against Trafficking, HERA France was founded in 2013 by Chiara Condi, a graduate of Harvard University, Sciences Po Paris, and the London School of Economics with extensive experience in humanitarian aid. It works in close relationship with other institutions and associations dedicated to breaking the cycle of violence. The organization was connected with AGS by one of AGS's alumni, Christine Brownfield, who now works at HERA France. 

More on HERA France

As part of its International Relations and Diplomacy graduate programs, AGS is now offering a course on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, co-taught by two of our professors of International Affairs—one born and raised in Israel and one born and raised in Iran.

The two professors, Joav Toker and Mariam Habibi, decided to teach this course in tandem to help students disentangle the two sets of narratives—Jewish and Arab—that prevail in the region and better comprehend the multiplicity of perspectives. To emphasize the difference of perceptions, Habibi and Toker will each present observations and analyses based on their respective cultural backgrounds, as well as their anticipative perceptions of “the other side” and of the international community. This switching variety of perspectives will provide more insight into the complexity of this conflict.

Habibi was born in Tehran and educated in the UK and France. She obtained her Ph.D. in History at Sciences Po in Paris and has taught courses on the Middle East at the American Graduate School in Paris and at several universities, including the Paris branches of Columbia and NYU.

“Being raised in Iran, the discourse that I heard throughout my childhood about this conflict was very similar to that of the Arabs,” she explains.

Toker is a journalist of international affairs. Born in Israel, he did his graduate studies at Columbia University in New York before moving to Paris, where he has resided for the past 20 years, serving as European correspondent for the Israeli National Television as well as covering Middle Eastern affairs for European media, notably the French TV5 Monde.

This innovative approach was developed to give AGS students, who are the diplomats of tomorrow, a more comprehensive and balanced way of looking at this conflict than what is often found in national media.

“The course is not about presenting the conflict as black and white and enhancing the gap between the two narratives,”

Habibi explains. “On the contrary, what we would like is to bridge that gap and to open the way for exploration of possible solutions that would transcend the dialectic of one side being right and the other being wrong. For whether each narrative is true or not does not matter, because it is thought, felt to be true.”

The complementarity of the two professors lies not only in their cultural backgrounds but also in their different professional approaches, Toker being a journalist and Habibi a historian. The course will use the two approaches to examine the various factors that have shaped the conflict and analyze how history has been interpreted and reinterpreted over the years. It will look at both the wars and the peace talks through the prism of each adversary as well as through the prism of the international community. It will use class discussions along with news and film analyses and will culminate in a conflict resolution simulation.

“What students will be learning in class goes well beyond this particular conflict,” says Toker.  “The dialectic of competing perspectives, the subtleties of the notion of identity, the long-term consequences of former imperialism and colonialism all have their analogies in other regions. This course will not only help our students to decipher what is one of the most complex conflicts in history, it also will provide them with tools to better understand the world.”

This course can be taken as part of the Certificate program in Middle Eastern Studies or as part of the US-accredited Master of International Relations and Diplomacy, conducted by the American Graduate School in Paris in partnership with Arcadia University, Pennsylvania (http://www.arcadia.edu).

"AGS is at the forefront when it comes to offering programming to understand the conflict in the Middle East,” said Dr. Warren Haffar, dean of International Affairs at Arcadia University. “With its faculty and guest lecturers, this new course is an incredible addition to an already strong program, one that aims to provide students with firsthand training in international relations and diplomacy."

The first edition of this course runs from September to December 2014. Single sessions are open for auditing on request.

(Photo credit: The White House)

The group of undergraduate students doing the Arcadia/AGS study abroad program in Paris this semester have started their fourth week of classes with an excursion to the Basilica of Saint-Denis, a large Medieval Gothic church that is the necropolis to nearly all of the Kings of France from the 5th to the 19th Century.

This 15-week program, conducted at AGS in partnership with the College of Global Studies at Arcadia, alternates classroom study of French language and international relations, with site visits to see and experience firsthand what is taught in the classroom. Previous visits have included such places as the Louvre, the Arènes de Lutèce, the Catacombs, and the Pompidou Museum of Modern Art. The students have also taken advantage of one of the weekends to do a side trip to Barcelona.

Alyssa Barilotti, a student from Arcadia University who is spending her semester in Paris through this program, says: "My experience while studying abroad in the AGS program has been nothing but absolutely wonderful. In my opinion, the greatest thing about studying abroad in a city that is as rich in culture, history, and cheese as Paris is, is that it is completely accessible at all times. Every day that I step out of the metro, I find a different shop with food, a different building with amazing historical significance, or just a kind person in the gardens with a really interesting story. Paris truly allows you the freedom to explore safely, and whole-heartedly. Whether you are into classical music or modern art, not only can you find copious amounts of material in Paris, you can also find an amazing blend of any kind of combination you can think of. From museums, to churches, to music festivals, there is always something to do! AGS only adds to such wonderful city. With amazing professors who are not only interested in their subject material, but in your learning experience, they make sure to incorporate the history and culture around them to enhance your time abroad. The staff encourages integrative learning and offers a wide range of subject material that covers everyone's interests. You are truly taken care of here, from traveling plans to the logistics of studying abroad, there is always someone there for you."

Thank you Alyssa for sharing the photos below:

More information on this program

On September 13, all AGS students, new and continuing, graduate and undergraduate, were invited to spend the day in the charming town of Antony near Paris, at the annual Wine and Cheese Festival (Foire aux Fromages et aux Vins). This is a festive event where everyone can enjoy tastings of all kinds, cooking lessons, games, music and dance in honor of French 'produits du terroir'.

This day trip is organized every year by the AGS Graduate Student Association to celebrate the start of the Fall semester. It is a nice way to introduce the new students to the tasty wonders of the country that they will get to call home for the next few months or years.

Thank you Andy Lowe for sharing these pictures with us:

Seven undergraduate students hailing from Arcadia University and a variety of other universities and backgrounds in the US have started the adventure of study abroad in Paris last weekend. They came for a semester or, for some of them, for a full year to study International Relations and French language and culture in the US-accredited program hosted at the American Graduate School in Paris in partnership with Arcadia's College of Global Studies, leading provider of study abroad programs across the globe.

After orientation meetings and a welcome dinner at a traditional French restaurant in the latin quarter, they spent the weekend exploring what is going to be their home city for the next few months. They visited culturally rich sites such as the Musée Rodin with its famous gardens, and the Conciergerie and Sainte Chapelle overlooking the Seine River. They also had the opportunity to get settled in their new housing before starting their classes on Monday, whether they chose the option of the student residence or that of a homestay with a French family for an even fuller immersion.

The students had already had a good introduction to Paris when they started their classes this week. Mornings are busy with French classes at the AGS's partner institution Alliance Française Paris-Ile de France, and afternoons are devoted to the classes at AGS to study a range of International Relations topics such as the History, Politics and Diplomacy of the European Union; Politics in Francophone Africa; Current Issues in International Relations and Diplomacy; and International Public Law. Throughout the program, the students will do site visits and excursions to support the classroom learning and enhance their cultural experience in Paris. They also have two trips scheduled this semester: they will also travel to Nice to explore the picturesque French riviera, and to Brussels to visit the European Union institution studied in class.

AGS is proud to add a European Studies Certificate to its program offering. This will also be offered to M.A. in International Relations and Diplomacy candidates as an optional Area Concentration. The courses will focus on the history and framework of the European Union and its connection to the world via foreign policy. They are being developed and will be taught by Dr. Markéta Brustlova, a UNESCO officer and a specialist of the European Union as well as Central and Eastern Europe. The European Studies specialization will go live in programming in Spring 2015.

The other certificates and area concentrations available at AGS are African Studies, Asian Studies, and Middle-Eastern Studies, as well as an NGO management certificate. For further information please contact info@ags.edu.

This coming Fall, students in the M.A. or Ph.D. programs in International Relations and Diplomacy at AGS will have the opportunity to go to Northern Ireland for a week-long intensive field study trip focusing on peacemaking, where they will learn about conflict and reconciliation in the aftermath of the 30-year violent struggle known as the Troubles.

The goal of this field study experience in Belfast and other locations in Northern Ireland is to be immersed in an environment where people are actively building peace and trying to reconcile past violence with a peaceful future. Along with the group of students from Arcadia, and under the leadership of IPCR Program Director Amy Cox, AGS students will meet with academics, practitioners, peacemakers, police officers, members of the Apprentice Boys, artists, and advocates to explore all aspects of the 30-year Northern Ireland conflict. They will investigate and learn from these experts on the ground about root causes, on-going community violence, policy and security issues, parades, paramilitaries, crime and corruption, as well as reconciliation, victim reparations, restorative justice, and the creation of healing and peaceful spaces through art, theater, and more. Through this experience in Northern Ireland, students will get to learn about what it takes to become a thoughtful, engaged and dedicated peacemaker.

This optional field experience will take place in late October - specific dates are to be determined. It is organized by AGS's partner program in International Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) at Arcadia University, and is open - with a selection process - to AGS International Relations and Diplomacy Master's and Ph.D. students in their first or second year.

For further information about this field study, please contact our academic coordinator Ashley Stepanek at academics@ags.edu.

The American Graduate School in Paris celebrated its 20th Anniversary commencement on 5 June 2014, in the presence of alumni, students, faculty, and academic partners who traveled to Paris from France and abroad for the occasion. The ceremony took place in the Alliance Française auditorium, in the same building as AGS, and was followed by a graduation dinner in the French Senate, where AGS has held its commencement for the past ten years under the sponsorship of a sitting senator.

The thirty-three graduates who compose the AGS class of 2014 are from fourteen different national origins: France, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Russia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Philippines, Singapore, Iran, New Zealand, the US, and Trinidad and Tobago. “Cultural diversity has defined our student body - as well as our faculty - from our very first class 20 years ago, where we had five students from five different countries.” says Eileen Servidio, who heads the international relations programs at AGS. “Since then, we have had students from over 50 national origins.”

The question of diversity and difference was the theme of the official commencement address, delivered by former UK Ambassador Sir Christopher MacRae. A graduate of Oxford University and Henry Fellow at Harvard University, Sir Christopher MacRae drew from his thirty-five year diplomatic career in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including assignments in Baghdad, Beirut and Tehran, to share advice with the new graduates. He called them to reflect on what defines identity, and to contribute to the world by fighting intelorance, closing his speech with an enthusiastic “Vive la différence!”

Also speaking at the ceremony was Steve Michael, Provost of Arcadia University, who encouraged the graduating students to achieve, through their careers, the experience of global citizenship for which the AGS and Arcadia education prepared them.

"Not only do our students and alumni come from a wide span of national backgrounds, they also go on to pursue their careers in countries all over the world,” says Joyce Lee, AGS Vice-President for Alumni Relations. "Our alumni community serves international organizations, NGOs, and private organizations on all continents.”

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