Saint Germain des Prés

Academics

Students enroll in three courses at the Paris campus of Sciences Po in addition to two courses at Reid Hall, Columbia's Global Center in Paris.

At Reid Hall, students have the opportunity to take specially-developed courses, taught exclusively for the program, that draw on the rich urban fabric of the city.

Coursework

Confirmed courses for Fall 2023 are listed below.

AHIS3682OC: Issues in 19th Century Art. 3 points.

In this course, students will focus on a key artistic period that is full of upheavals. Students will particularly consider the affirmation of the individuality of the artist in relation to the institutions and great pictorial movements that have marked the history of French painting of that time.

FREN3724OC: Elites, Privilege and Inequalities: A Global History of Social Boundaries Building and Dismantling (18th-21st century). 3 points.

Economic and social inequalities are a structuring dimension of societies and are at the center of many analyses in history, economics and sociology. This course offers an in-depth analysis of how inequalities in access to economic resources, political power, and knowledge are justified in different societies by articulating barriers of class, gender, or race. Drawing on works on different historical configurations in Europe but also in America, Africa and Asia, the course encourages an epistemological reflection on the production of social barriers and the social construction of « elites ».

CLFR3821OC: City Diplomacy (Global Core). 3 points.

Based on a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the city diplomacy course is designed to offer a general introduction to the international role of cities. Through an innovative approach cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines (international relations, urban sociology, area studies, history, geography), the course will combine the emerging scholarly literature with a comparative accent linked to the analysis of primary sources from cities and international actors from all regions of the world. As a result, students will learn to connect global and regional macro-dynamics with micro-transformations at the local level, while gaining an in-depth understanding of city diplomacy's core features, management, tangible impact, and evolution.

Students in the English Program supplement their studies at Reid Hall with coursework at the Paris campus of Sciences Po, a world-renowned institution in the social sciences. Sciences Po offers a full selection of courses in English across various disciplines.

Please note that one of the three courses at Sciences Po must be a French language course.

Click here for more information on the courses available to exchange students at Sciences Po Paris.

Academic Regulations

As a participant in a study abroad program administered by Columbia University, you are considered a member of the Columbia community and are expected to uphold the highest standards of integrity, civility, and respect. Students are therefore expected to conduct themselves in an honest, civil, and respectful manner in all aspects of their lives. Students who violate these standards of behavior interfere with their ability and the ability of others, to take advantage of the full complement of university life and are subject to disciplinary measures. For more details of what is expected of you during your stay, please review the program participation agreement you signed before leaving.

  • Attendance and participation are mandatory
  • Each student is allowed one unjustified absence for the entire length of the course, with the exception of religious holidays. Faculty members and the program Director must be informed of these absences in advance. 
  • Medical absences must be justified by a dated medical certificate from a French doctor.
  • Each absence beyond the authorized threshold will lower the final grade by 1 point (i.e.: with one unjustified absence a 16 becomes a 15, etc.)
  • In addition to attendance students should plan on being punctual. Please note that 3 tardies (10 minutes late or more) are equivalent to 1 full absence
  • Assignments handed in late without the authorization of the instructor will be penalized
  • In addition to punctuality and motivation, students should do their best to be engaged critics and scholars, by participating actively in class, producing original work, and having pleasure in reading, writing and thinking
  • No eating in class
  • No cell phones in class
  • No laptops or other electronic devices (unless ODS accommodation has been authorized)
  • Leaving the classroom once class has begun is considered very impolite in France

The intellectual venture in which we are all engaged requires of faculty and students alike the highest level of personal and academic integrity. As members of an academic community, each one of us bears the responsibility to participate in scholarly discourse and research in a manner characterized by intellectual honesty and scholarly integrity. Scholarship, by its very nature, is an iterative process, with ideas and insights building one upon the other. Collaborative scholarship requires the study of other scholars’ work, the free discussion of such work, and the explicit acknowledgement of those ideas in any work that inform our own. This exchange of ideas relies upon a mutual trust that sources, opinions, facts, and insights will be properly noted and carefully credited. In practical terms, this means that, as students,

  • you must be responsible for the full citations of others’ ideas in your research papers/ projects
  • you must be scrupulously honest when taking your examinations
  • you must always submit your own work and not that of another student, scholar, or internet agent

Students needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented disability should contact the Program Director before the start of classes.

Tutoring

  • Students are required to register methodological tutoring sessions (4 hours per course on average) for courses taken at Sciences Po.
  • Introductory sessions on these methodological tutorials are organized at the beginning of the semester.
  • This tutoring concerns only the methodological aspect of the courses taken at Sciences Po.