Past events 2015-2016

The French Ambassador to the US, Mr. Gérard Araud, is coming to Los Angeles and will be giving a speech:

"French Foreign Policy in an Unstable World"

At the University of Southern California, Doheny Memorial Library, Intellectual Commons (DML233),

On Tuesday April 19th, 2016 from 3:00 to 4:30pm.

 This event is free and open the public.

Gérard Araud, 62, a career diplomat, was appointed Ambassador of France to the United States in September 2014. He previously held numerous positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, notably including that of Director for Strategic Affairs, Security and Disarmament (2000-2003), Ambassador of France to Israel (2003-2006), Director General for Political Affairs and Security (2006-2009), and, most recently, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations in New York (2009-2014).

Over the course of his career, Mr. Araud has developed specialized knowledge in two key areas: the Middle East and strategic & security issues. As regards the latter, he was the French negotiator on the Iranian nuclear issue from 2006 to 2009. In New York, at the Security Council, he notably contributed to the adoption of resolutions on Libya (1970 and1973), Côte d’Ivoire (1975), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and the Central African Republic, and participated in debates on the Syrian and Ukrainian crises.

He has written numerous journal articles, including recently in ‘’Commentaire’’, two on the outbreak of WWI and one on the French foreign policy between 1919 and 1939, and another in ‘’Esprit’’, on the search for a new world order. He is working on an article on the treaty of Versailles.

-> See the Daily Trojan article "Ambassador urges collaboration in diplomacy"

What?

France was the host country for the 21st world conference on the climate, and is committed to acting against climate change. The French Embassy in the United States and the CLEMI now offer their webRadio publishing platform for teachers and learners of French in the US to express themselves on this issue. As well as introducing some basic technical skills such as the use of digital recorders and audio editing software, this workshop aims at giving teachers the didactic and pedagogic skills they need in order to approach how French is used in the medium of radio. Participants will be introduced to media and online information analysis through the examination of authentic AV resources. They will then create a scenario and work on different ways to make recordings with a view to producing an audio broadcast. Finally, participants will be given advice on using an audio recording device in the field, and they will learn how to use audio editing software, as well as how to publish their broadcast on the online platform.

Who?

Éric Schweitzer is specialized in NTIC and the use of media in language learning. He is a trainer specialized on web and AV resources at the CLEMI, and he is also recognized as an expert in the production of media content and projects designed for education.

The CLEMI (Centre de liaison de l'enseignement et des médias d'information) is part of the French Ministry of Education. Its mission is to develop media awareness and to increase the use of news media in teaching, with the aim of encouraging a better understanding of the world by pupils while simultaneously developing critical understanding. To achieve this goal, the CLEMI offers training sessions, educational events, opportunities for exchange and networking, and pedagogical publications.

Where?

USC Leavey Library (Los Angeles)

Room 16 (basement)

When?

Saturday, April 16th, 2016 from 9am (registration and breakfast starting at 8:30am) to 4pm.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016
10:00 - 11:30 am
Taper Hall of Humanities (THH) 213

Maylis de Kerangal's novel Réparer les vivants tells the story of the twenty-four hours surrounding a fatal accident and a resulting heart transplant as life is taken from a young man and given to a woman close to death. In gorgeous, ruminative prose it examines the deepest feelings of everyone involved--grieving parents, hardworking doctors and nurses--as they navigate decisions of life and death. (Farrar Straus & Giroux). 

Translated in English under the title The Heart, the novel has mesmerized readers in France, where it has been hailed as the breakthrough work of a new literary star - for its scope, originality, and use of language.

What ?

The USC Francophone Research & Resource Center is pleased to invite you to a new workshop: "Integrating ICT in your Teaching with the Google suite" by Guy Vandenbroucke.

The main objectives of this workshop are to:

• explore the education-related tools developed by Google;
• learn how to share documents and give feedback on student work;
• learn how to use Google tools to build ICT-based lessons;
• integrate those lessons into a website to be built as a complement to the textbook used in class, or as a self-contained set of units.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• make the best of Google search engine and Chrome extensions;
• create lessons in different formats, such as presentations, slide shows, drawings, online quizzes, graphs by using the following Google apps: Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawing, Forms;
• share those lessons with their students;
• build a Google website to be used as a companion site.

Who?

Guy Vandenbroucke is a certified TV5 trainer and has presented workshops in France, Switzerland, Belgium and California. He has more than 30 years of experience in the teaching of French as a foreign language, and he now teaches at the Crossroads School for Arts and Science (Santa Monica).

When ?

Saturday, December 12, 2015

USC Leavey Library (Los Angeles)

Room 16 (basement)

9am - 4pm

What?

There is no such thing as race in France – the refusal of so-called racial statistics in the last few years, along with the recent erasure of the word “race” in French law (used to combat racial discrimination), only confirm this claim of Republican universalism in the context of a European Union of human rights erected in the aftermath of the racial politics of Nazism. However, not only is there everyday racism in postcolonial France; the years 2000 have witnessed the rise of a new logic – the resurgence of the politics of race, targeting the (so-called) Roma. Of course, the treatment of this population resembles that of non-European migrants. Yet, the Roma are not mistreated despite, but because of the fact that they are Europeans: the only way to get rid of them is to make their lives unlivable – i.e. instead of deportation, “self-deportation.” Such a radical treatment results from and leads to the presupposition of a radical difference, in cultural or biological terms, which confirms the racial nature of these policies. That there are so few Romanian and Bulgarian poor migrants in France only confirms that they are rejected in principle, in a phobic logic. The source of the “Roma question” is not economic, but it has to do with neoliberalism: the Roma are deemed useless. Their alleged lack of value makes them the mirror image of neoliberal Europe.

Who?

Éric Fassin is a professor of sociology in the Political Science Department and the Gender Studies program at Paris 8 University, affiliated with the Laboratoire d’études de genre et de sexualité (LEGS, CNRS – Paris 8 – Paris Ouest). He works on contemporary sexual and racial politics in France and the United States, and their intersections (e.g. immigration in Europe). He is frequently involved in French public debates on issues his work addresses. He is the author of books such as L’inversion de la question homosexuelle (2005), Le sexe politique (2009), and Démocratie précaire. Chroniques de la déraison d’État (2012), co-author of four volumes on French immigration policies (Cette France-là, 2008-2012), co-editor of De la question sociale à la question raciale? (2006). Published in 2014: Roms & Riverains. Une politique municipale de la race (La Fabrique), Gauche : l’avenir d’une disillusion (Textuel), and the new edition of Foucault’s Herculine Barbin (Gallimard).

 When?

Tuesday, December 8, 12-2pm

USC Doheny Memorial Library (DML), G28 - Herklotz Room

Lunch will be served.

Practical information

Monday, Nov. 16, 2015

4-6 pm

Taper Hall of Humanities (THH), Room 120

Who?

Historien et professeur d'esthétique à l'Université de Lorraine, également membre du Laboratoire lorrain de sciences sociales, Roland Huesca est auteur de plusieurs ouvrages s'intéressant au corps et aux dispositifs de ses mises en spectacle: Triomphe et scandales. La Belle époque des Ballets russes, Hermann, 2001; L'écriture du (spectacle) vivant: Approche historique et esthétique, Le Portique, 2010 et Danse, art et modernité, publié aux PUF en 2012. 

Son dernier livre, La danse des orifices: étude sur la nudité, paru aux Nouvelles éditions Jean-Michel Place en 2014, "retrace l’histoire de la nudité dans le monde de la chorégraphie de la fin du XXe siècle à nos jours." Egalement intéressé par le lien entre philosophie et danse contemporaine, il a travaillé sur l'influence de Michel Foucault et  de Gilles Deleuze sur les chorégraphes français du XXème siècle.

Our next workshop

The USC Francophone Research & Resource Center is pleased to invite you to a new workshop - Learning and Teaching with TV5Monde by Guy Vandenbroucke, on Saturday, November 14th, 2015 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, welcome & registration starting at 8:30am @ USC Leavey Library, room LVL16

Objectives

The objectives of this workshop are to learn the best teaching practices in using audio-visual documents and teaching media literacy, to explore the website TV5Monde and its resources, and to understand the main elements of an ICT-based lesson plan. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to incorporate relevant TV5Monde resources in their curriculum and lessons, to help their students develop listening, but also reading, writing and speaking skills.

Who?

Guy Vandenbroucke is a certified TV5 trainer and has presented workshops in France, Switzerland, Belgium and California. He has more than 30 years of experience in the teaching of French as a foreign language, and he now teaches at the Crossroads School for Arts and Science (Santa Monica).