44 courses with the subject FFS, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
FFS 105Elementary French1
Fundamentals of the language. Students learn to understand spoken French, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read French of average difficulty. While enhancing their communicative skills, students acquire knowledge of France and the Francophone world. Enrollment limited by class. Open to seniors by permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have previously studied French. Yearlong course 105- FFS 106 . Three 50-minute periods; two 50-minute periods of drill and oral practice. Course Format: CLS
Fundamentals of the language. Students learn to understand spoken French, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read French of average difficulty. While enhancing their communicative skills, students acquire knowledge of France and the Francophone world. Terrence Cullen. Enrollment limited by class. Open to seniors by permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have previously studied French. Students should go on to FFS 205 after successful completion of 106. Yearlong course FFS 105 -106. Three 50-minute periods; two 50-minute periods of drill and oral practice. Course Format: CLS
For students who have had some French but who are not yet ready for an intermediate course. Students learn to understand spoken French, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read French of average difficulty. While enhancing their communicative skills, students acquire knowledge of France and the Francophone world. Rupinder Kaur. This course does not satisfy the college’s foreign language proficiency requirement. Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required. Three 50-minute periods; two 50-minute periods of drill and oral practice. Course Format: CLS
(Same as CLCS 131 ) In the mid-twentieth century, many American and European writers and critics began insisting that we treat fictional characters as strictly textual entities. Characters, they declared, are mere words on a page, not psychological beings capable of agency. Accordingly, many literature professors discouraged students from discussing a fictional character as if it were a real person. Inspired by new debates in the humanities, the course considers our engagement with characters a topic worthy of exploration. What prompts us to care about characters as if they were persons? What incites us to judge their moral or practical choices? Can examining our responses to fictional characters help us understand the workings of a text? Can it help us understand our own “character”: what we care about or struggle with, or how we apprehend the world? To pursue these questions, we examine a variety of texts that may include short stories (American, British, French, Haitian), a film and a play. Because this is a first-year writing seminar, the course emphasizes writing in connection with other activities: close reading, discussion, revision, peer review, and the exploration of secondary texts representing a variety of disciplinary approaches. Kathleen Hart. Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. All readings and discussions are in English. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
FFS 170Perspectives in French and Francophone Cultures1
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. All readings and discussions are in English. No knowledge of French is necessary. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
Basic grammar review and vocabulary acquisition. Oral and written practice using short texts, audiovisual and on-line resources. Enrollment limited by class. Susan Hiner (a); Jackson Smith (a); Anne Brancky (b).
FFS 105 - FFS 106 , or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken a course at or above the FFS 206 level. Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required. Three 50-minute or two 75-minute periods; 50 minutes of scheduled oral practice. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall and Spring
FFS 206Intermediate French II1
Emphasis on more complex linguistic structures. Reading, writing, and speaking skills are developed through discussion of cultural and literary texts and use of audiovisual material. The course prepares students linguistically for cultural and literary study at the intermediate level. Terence Cullen (a); Rupinder Kaur (b); Jackson Smith (b).
FFS 205 or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken a course at or above the FFS 210 level. Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required. Three 50-minute or two 75-minute periods; 50 minutes of scheduled oral practice. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall and Spring
FFS 210The Francophone World Through Text, Sound, and Image1
Introduction to the Francophone world and to basic modes of interpretation and analysis through the study and discussion of short texts (print or online magazine or newspaper articles, short stories, essays), films, and other visual or recorded media. The course includes a grammar workshop, vocabulary building, essay writing, image analysis, and “explication de texte.” The course includes review and expansion of complex linguistic structures, and serves as a preparation for upper 200-level courses. Rupinder Kaur (a); Thomas Parker(b).
FFS 206 or the equivalent. Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required. Two 75-minute periods; 50 minutes of scheduled oral practice. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall and Spring
FFS 212Reading Literature and Film1
Introductory study of French and Francophone literature and cinema through the analysis and discussion of poetry, short fiction, theater, the essay, and film. Biographical information, cultural context, historical background, critical theory, and the evolution of genre are explored. Jackson Smith (a); Patricia-Pia Célérier (b).
FFS 210 or equivalent. Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall and Spring
FFS 228Tellers and Tales1
The course uses short stories to think about culture, and culture to think about stories. How do stories challenge or reinforce the prevailing beliefs and practices of a specific era, region or subculture of the French-speaking world? The study of narrative techniques, such as point of view and event sequencing, can help us address such questions. After exploring narrative techniques in short fictional works, we turn our attention to film adaptations, storytelling podcasts, and a French song tradition of storytelling. Authors include Honoré de Balzac, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Victor Hugo, Guy de Maupassant, Paulette Pujol-Oriol.
FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FFS 233Monsters and Marvels, Medieval to Modern1
Werewolves, headless men, human–snake hybrids, fish dressed like monks: these and other monsters and marvels captivated premodern France and continue to do so today. While such creatures could provoke wonder and horror, they also reflected anxieties about cultural difference, challenged the boundaries of the human, and probed at the nature of knowledge and belief. What lies beyond the known world? Where does the human end and the animal begin? Whose bodies are considered monstrous? This course takes up such questions raised by the marvelous and monstrous beings of premodern French literature, natural history, and travel accounts. Readings include Marie de France, Chrétien de Troyes, Marco Polo, Rabelais, and Montaigne as well as twenty-first-century adaptations and criticism. Alongside these texts, we pay close attention to visual depictions in maps, medieval illuminations, and early modern illustrations. This course includes visits to Vassar’s Archives and Special Collections Library and, when possible, cultural institutions in the region.
FFS 212 . Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
FFS 235Contemporary France1
In this course, we analyze the major historical and cultural events that have shaped France’s evolution since the end of WWII, and the start of the 5 th République. We gain an understanding of the country’s current identity crisis by looking at the consequences of decolonization, the changing roles of intellectuals and the media, the emergence of women in the public sphere, the causes of enduring social inequalities, the legitimacy of the French Republican model in relation to European integration and national sovereignty, multiculturalism and globalization. The course draws on a wide range of texts, films, songs, and documents including essays and articles from the press.
FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
FFS 240Grammar and Composition1
A course designed to improve written expression through the study and practice of various forms of writing, readings, and oral practice as well as an in-depth study of major aspects of French grammar. Terrence Cullen.
FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
FFS 280Accelerated Intermediate French1
This course combines FFS 205 and FFS 206 , offering an accelerated review and development of linguistic structures and vocabulary while engaging with cultural media. Students deepen their knowledge of the French language and further competency in listening, speaking, reading and writing. This course prepares students for FFS 210 . Terrence Cullen.
FFS 105 or FFS 109 or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken FFS 205 or FFS 206. Five 50-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall and Spring
FFS 282Afro-Caribbean Voices in Francophone Phenomenology0.5
(Same as AFRS 282 and PHIL 282 ) French phenomenology is a rich and complex lineage of inquiry, whose methodological influence can be traced in a variety of disciplines, from Continental philosophy, where it originates, to sociology, psychology, and virtually every other social science and humanity. Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty are the figures predominantly considered key to this lineage. This course is aimed at decolonizing this representation of “French” phenomenology by introducing students to the specific questions and methods developed by Afro-Caribbean “francophone” phenomenologists, from the 1930s through the 2010s. The contributions of Léopold Sédar Senghor, Aimé Césaire, Franz Fanon, and Éduard Glissant, as well as their influence on contemporary anglophone decolonial theorists, including Sylvia Wynter, Saidyia Hartman, and Christina Sharpe, will thus emerge as a distinct constellation within the phenomenological tradition. Students learn how these Afro-Caribbean thinkers both shared the agenda of phenomenology and challenged some of its Eurocentric premises. In its historical progression, the exploration of this Afro-Caribbean contellation illuminates an approach to the philosophy of race on phenomenological premises. Giovanna Borradori. First six-week course. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Salons were social spaces that changed French society. In early modern France (17th-18th century), groups of noble and upwardly mobile folk met regularly at the homes of salonnier·ière·s (salon hosts) to discuss science and revolution, debate philosophical problems, write, play, read, and gossip. In this half-unit intensive, students learn about the early modern salon and stage a contemporary version of their own. Classes are organized as salon meetings, with students alternating as the salonnier·ère. At each meeting, members begin by discussing salon texts and objects, including board games, moral philosophy, decorative fans, fairy tales, and botanical specimens. Drawing on the formal features of those early modern genres, the salonnier·ère then brings the salon into the twenty-first century. This may take many forms: they might start a debate on a contemporary issue, present their fellow attendees with a new invention or interesting object to discuss, preside over a game or competition, organize a dramatic reading of a scene from a play or film, strategize the means to effect change in their local community, and so on. Ultimately, the form that the salon takes depends on the interests of its participants. Throughout the semester, participants write short reflections on the salon experience, culminating in a written or artistic final project. Rupinder Kaur.
FFS 212 or the equivalent. This course is conducted in French and meets every other week. One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor. Course Format: INT
Offered
Spring
FFS 292Monuments: Commemoration and Community in the Francophone World0.5
In this intensive course, students reflect on the role that monuments play in the francophone world and collaborate in the creation of an exhibition on the subject. Students research and present monuments throughout the francophone world in order to unpack the social and political stakes of memorialization. Among other questions, we consider: what constitutes a monument? What are they for? Who are they for? How do they create, concretise, and efface communities? What cultural myths do they embody? How does the public interact with and contest the monuments they encounter in their daily lives? Through these conversations, students gain theoretical tools which they use to analyze and critique monuments in their local community, and to create an on-campus exhibition. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
This project-based intensive explores contemporary issues being debated online in France today. Through a study of French online media—including both newspapers of record and new media outlets including, but not limited to, Twitter, podcasts or other blog-sites—students in the course help each other gain an appreciation for the history, politics and culture of the French nation post-1945. Working individually and in groups, students learn to research topics identified, practice using the French exposé oral model, as well as design and execute a Web-based project to record their findings. Working to understand a variety of cultural and political discourses available online allows students the opportunity to hone their oral, written and technical skills in novel ways while engaging with current online debates in France.
FFS 212 or the equivalent. Two hours every other week. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FFS 295Voices of Exile and Migration1
What does it mean to live in exile? What happens to the subject and the voice that s/he produces? This intensive delves into narratives of exile, migration and immigration, whether forced or chosen, and considers the political and aesthetic effects of writing about and from exile. This intensive has two components. We read and discuss French-language texts by authors who have experienced and speak to exile and migration. We also work with French-speaking immigrants, migrants and/or refugees to bear witness to their narratives and to retransmit them through transmedial storytelling techniques. Students are invited to consider the impact of the pandemic and policy on immigration, migration and asylum. If available, additional opportunities for community engagement are offered.
FFS 212 or the equivalent. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FFS 296La chanson engagée: Songs of Protest and Hope0.5
This half-unit Intensive meets every two weeks to explore the word-play, musical traditions, and cultural history of French-language songs expressing desire for social or political change. We start with the politically engaged or anti-authoritarian traditions of French chanson in the 19 th and 20 th centuries, then examine their continuities with song traditions in other parts of the French-speaking world. Vocabulary and methods are introduced for discussing and analyzing music, sound (including tone of voice), and interactions between acoustic, verbal and visual images. Activities culminate in an analytical presentation that incorporates organized sound. This can entail either recordings or a live performance provided that either music or rhythmic speech (for instance, in the case of slam, or speech that imitates French cabaret style) is incorporated into the presentation. Alternatively, it can involve the creation of background music or sound effects for French-language lyrics or poetry relating to the course content. Students participate in choosing the regions and time periods studied.
FFS 212 or the equivalent. Two hours every other week. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FFS 297The Afterlives of Carmen0.5
“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle/que nul ne peut apprivoiser” “(Love is a rebellious bird/that nobody can tame”). So go the lyrics from the famous aria “Habanera” of George Bizet’s 1875 opera Carmen , inspired by Prosper Mérimée’s novella of the same name. Originally published in 1845, Mérimée’s Carmen is the story of a Basque soldier’s infatuation with a high-spirited Romani woman. It inspired numerous dramatic and cinematic adaptations, including musical drama films. We begin with a focus on the novella’s musical elements in relation to the cultural anxieties it expresses about gender, race, class and nation. We then examine ways in which Bizet’s opera perpetuates the novella’s conflation of Spain with the Orient, and independent women with danger. Students complete bi-weekly blogs, take turns presenting on materials, and complete a final presentation on which a final paper is based. Possible topics include various adaptations of Carmen , bohemianism as a social and cultural movement, the status of the Romani people in France, and the nineteenth-century French fascination with Spanish culture.
From Bizet’s opera Carmen, inspired by Prosper Mérimée’s nineteenth-century novella, to modern cultural practices including rap, raï, slam, and environmentally focused sound recordings, the intensive examines literary language in relation to music. How does language “sing,” and what does music “say?” If music performs a “socially prescribed task,” as musicologist Richard Middleton proposes, then what do various combinations of music and language suggest about specific moments in French history? We address this question by considering music and literature in relation to class, gender, ethnicity, and national identity. Vocabulary and methods are introduced for discussing music, sound (including tone of voice) and interactions between acoustic, verbal and visual images. Bi-weekly blogs and workshop activities culminate in an analytical presentation that incorporates organized sound in the form of recordings by known artists, or a live performance involving music or rhythmic speech (for instance, in the case of rap, slam, or speech that imitates a French cabaret style). Alternatively, the student project can involve the creation of background music or sound effects for French-language lyrics or poetry. Students participate in choosing the regions and time periods studied.
0.5 or 1 unit(s) Open only to majors. One unit of credit given in exceptional cases only and by permission of the chair. The department. Course Format: OTH
Two units above FFS 212 or permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
FFS 348Modernism and its Discontents1
The “Belle Epoque” (1880-1914) evokes a specific place and time–Paris in and around 1900–and conjures images of ladies in big hats, sinuous architecture, bicycles speeding through the city and other progressive technologies, such as the Paris metro, the cinema, and, of course, the Eiffel Tower. But this period was also characterized by deep political instability and social upheavals and marked by massive colonial expansion, which brought a wealth of goods and peoples to the Metropole. In this seminar, we consider cultural sites, phenomena, and movements that define the Belle Epoque–the vibrant Parisian press, increasingly including women journalists, the Exposition Universelle of 1900, showcasing French colonialism in triumphant and disturbing ways, events such as the Dreyfus Affair, which mobilized the mass media, and artistic interventions, such as literary décadence , that disrupted aesthetic conventions and challenged social norms. Through a multidisciplinary cultural prism of literature, art, cinema, fashion, and the press, we uncover Belle Epoque Paris as a rich site of contradiction. Authors may include Apollinaire, Colette, Huysmans, Maupassant, Proust, Rachilde, Vivien, Zola.
Two units above FFS 212 or permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
FFS 370Stylistics and Translation1
Translation serves as a vehicle for creative experimentation and intellectual inquiry while refining students French communicative skills. Students become more sophisticated speakers and writers by practicing how to render specific grammatical structures and lexical items from French to English and vice versa. At the same time, they learn to think critically about the broader cultural issues raised by translation as a form of creative rewriting. Class discussion centers on cultural as well as more language-focused issues raised by translations of various French-language literary passages, proverbs, cinematic subtitles or advertisements from different time periods and regions of the francophone world. Exploring various theories, strategies and concepts, students learn to reflect on their translation choices with enhanced sensitivity to language, culture, genre and context. Kathleen Hart.
Two courses above FFS 212 or permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FFS 391Flâner dans Le Spleen de Paris0.5
Flâner means to wander, to meander, to stroll through a city with no particular destination in mind; it can lead to keen observations and perceptions of people, spaces, and phenomena that otherwise escape our view. Flânerie is a privileged activity and positionality, and the encounter between the flâneur/flâneuse and its object is often fraught with the implications of that privilege. The term was coined in nineteenth-century Paris, and was immortalized by Charles Baudelaire, whose mid-century prose poems evoked the melancholy (spleen) of a new urban modernity. This half-unit intensive meets bi-monthly for an exploration of Baudelaire’s collection of prose poems entitled Le Spleen de Paris, also known as Petits Poèmes en prose, published posthumously in 1869. We examine contemporaneous and early critical writing about flânerie, such as Walter Benjamin and others, as well as more recent Baudelaire scholarship. Our exploration of Baudelaire’s prose poems is guided by the principle of flânerie: that is, students choose which poems we focus on, allowing our textual wanderings to develop organically. We consider the theme and activity of flânerie in our contemporary lives as well, and the course culminates in a field trip to experience our own urban flânerie and creative or critical projects inspired by Baudelairian flânerie. Two hours every other week. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
This half-unit intensive focuses on skills in French for immigration justice in New York and in the Hudson Valley. Working with community partners, students listen to and learn about experiences of exile, migration, immigration, forced displacement and asylum for French speakers in the US and around the world. They also engage in independent work such as: creating resources, doing research, translating, interpreting, fundraising, conducting outreach, etc. In addition to community engagement, we invite guest speakers to address topics such as legal aid, organizing, and resettlement both locally and in other French-speaking communities. How can we use our French to get involved in our local community? What can we learn from other organizations or initiatives who are already engaging in meaningful and impactful work? Students keep a journal and present their independent work in a final presentation. Anne Brancky. Two hours every other week. Course Format: INT
FFS 393Advanced Independent Projects in French and Francophone Studies0.5
This intensive brings together students who wish to deepen their understanding of a specific area of interest in French and Francophone Studies. Students share research through discussion as well as exercises that foster critical reflection on the topic in bi-weekly group meetings and independently. This work culminates in a final project or paper that is presented salon-style to their peers and the department. Two hours every other week. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FFS 394Independent Work on Post-Study Away Projects0.5
This intensive brings together students who wish to deepen their understanding of a specific area of interest related to their study away and work with data gathered while abroad. Students supplement their findings while away with research at home as well as exercises that foster critical reflection on the topic in bi-weekly group meetings and independently. This work culminates in a final project or paper that is presented salon-style to their peers and the department. Students are invited to propose topics prior to their departure abroad. Susan Hiner (a); Patricia-Pia Celerier (b).
This hands-on intensive workshop gives the opportunity for students interested in translation and cinema to work on subtitling a contemporary French film (TBD), which does not have published subtitles. Translation comprises both an art and a craft that requires close attention to meaning and nuance. Given the exigencies of the real-time context of a film, providing comprehensive subtitles to oral discourse in the cinematic medium requires further honing of translation skills. To that end, this workshop is open to students who have considerable experience with the French language, and preferably to those who have completed FFS 370 or equivalent. This half-unit workshop runs for the entire semester, giving us time to learn to accurately transcribe dialogue, produce succinct subtitles, as well as master appropriate technology to integrate our work with the original soundtrack and film.
Permission of the instructor. Two hours every other week. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FFS 397Student-Staged Surrealism: Liberty, Provocation, and Scandal0.5
Students present, interpret, and perform surrealism as a movement for protest and artistic, intellectual, and political freedom. We begin by examining how surrealist movements have been born and altered to fit different cultural, political and social contexts, with student-led workshops and discussions on decrees ranging from the 1916 Dada Manifesto and André Breton’s 1924 Manifeste du Surréalism all the way to D. Scot Miller’s 2009 Afrosurreal Manifesto . Turning from theory to practice, students demonstrate how the discursive voice of art alternatively challenges and transcends political rules by curating a 21st-century surrealist exhibition. Finally, in the final segment, students appropriate the surrealist process and the style of a particular artist in the service of artistic, political, or intellectual freedom to stage a vernissage for the FFS French Club. Possible projects include: a life-size calligram (Apollinaire), a sculpture (Duchamp, Giacometti), a photo exhibition (Man Ray, Cahun), a film (Buñuel, Cocteau), a painting (Ernst, De chirico), fashion (Schiaperelli), or object construction (Dali, Oppenheim). Thomas Parker.
