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French Section: An Overview You might sum up French at Johns Hopkins by saying that it's "live with Paris." "Live," in the sense of a constant flow of students and professors coming to the department from Paris and Geneva to study and teach; but "live" also in the reverse sense of our faculty and students studying and teaching as visiting professors in such key institutions as the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, the Collège de France, the two branches of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm & Fontenay/St Cloud), Paris 4, Paris 8, the Institut National de la Langue Française, the Ecole Nationale des Sciences-Politiques, the University of Geneva. The interaction works bi-laterally and at all levels: undergraduate, graduate, faculty. This means that historians, anthropologists, philosophers, literary theorists, writers, art historians, literary historians, comparatists, linguists, disciplinary specialists of all kinds, regularly come to Hopkins not for a single lecture, but to teach seminars ranging from two intensive weeks to a whole semester. These figures don't come once, never to be seen again. They come on a regular basis, get to know our students who then continue studying with them when they go to Paris and Geneva as part of their training. Indeed, the integration of the French section with the Francophone world is so natural that all dissertations in the department are co-directed by a Hopkins faculty member and a major specialist from Paris or Geneva. This means that graduate students have the advantage of a double tutelage. We don't think that in this day and age, you can measure the quality of a French department simply by counting the number of full-time faculty, or looking solely at the courses offered within the department itself. This would be like saying: "if you want to study French you're limited to the competence of the current faculty. Sorry about that." At Hopkins, we feel that a viable French program has got to be in touch with a broad spectrum of ideas and movements. Not all students are going to be interested in the same things. Why shouldn't students be able to design programs around their interests drawing upon faculty and cultural resources from a broad range of sources, not only within the University, but also from the major university and research facilities in Paris and Geneva? At Hopkins, we view French as dynamically linked to other departments in the Humanities and social sciences where significant interest and research in French occurs. This means that a pre-med French major can do a senior thesis on Pasteur using the resources of our History of Science Department and the research facilities at the renowned Welch Medical Library. Specialists in the history of the book, like Roger Chartier or Henri-Jean Martin, teach seminars jointly for the French and History departments. Jean-Luc Marion, the noted Descartes specialist, will teach for Humanities, German, and French. The list is literally endless because every month, every semester, every year sees new and familiar examples of dynamic interaction between Paris and Hopkins. Faculty Michel Jeanneret Jacques Neefs Stephen Nichols Elena Russo Other JHU Faculty associated with the study of France and Alain BOUREAU, EHESS |