Here are a sample of previous Centenary in Pairs Courses. Courses may vary year to year and there is something for everyone!

 

Beliefs and Values

Hours: 2 or 4
Instructors: Chris Ciocchetti (1 section: max 13 students)

Develop a strong core of beliefs and values to start your college experience. We engage in personal, in-depth discussions about the most important questions arising from philosophy, religion, ethics, and politics. We visit various religious sites, read about the French and American existentialists, and carefully examine how different people answer questions about work, death, love, and suffering. Students will find the class personally challenging, but they will leave the course with a stronger sense of their own beliefs and values and the skills and community support needed to thrive in a diverse world. 

 

Her Words, Her City: Women Writers of Paris

Hours: 2 or 4
Instructors: Ellyn Evans, Rachel Johnson, Terrie Johnson (3 sections: max 39 students)

This course invites students to explore women’s voices throughout history that have shaped the intellectual and literary landscape of Paris. Students will read the works of influential writers who defied societal norms, examining the intersection of literacy, agency, education, and liberation. From abbesses and poets to scientists and philosophers, students will learn from these women in their own words. In Paris, we’ll visit the sites of their important discoveries and artistic contributions while exploring the city they called home. Through group discussions, guided tours, and interactive seminars, students will gain a profound understanding of the cultural and historical contexts that inspired these luminaries.

 

Historical Scenes in Paris

Hours: 4
Instructors: Chad Fulwider, Kyra Rietveld (2 sections: max 26 students)

This course has been designed to meet the challenges of expanding one’s circles through new social and cultural interactions.   History has shown us that people do not always share the same values or experiences, but we are increasingly more aware of our interdependent relationship to the world around us.  Our challenge, then, is to expand our understanding to promote respectful engagement with a broader world.  Learning how the people of Paris experienced the city around them as it changed and modernized from roughly 1600 to the present can give us great insight into how modern western cities as we know them today came to exist.  Our task is to relate to their experiences and to try to understand them better and to respectfully engage with a broader world today.

 

Paris Noir 

 

Hours: 2 or 4
Instructors: Augustin-Billy and Dana Kress (2 sections: max 26 students)

This course examines the achievements of a few of the countless African-Americans who sought refuge in Paris because their own country did not share or value their experiences and denied them the very human dignity and opportunity they found so abundantly in France. Their experiences can help us learn to appreciate the common ground we share so that we can build mutually beneficial relationships through respectful engagement with a broader world.

 

View photos for the 2023 Paris Noir course.

 

Writing Paris, Writing Home

Hours: 4
Instructors: Hendricks (1 section: max 13 students)

Writing Paris / Writing Home is an introductory, immersive course in creative writing. Through the close reading of short poems, literary nonfiction, fiction, and letters by established authors and through the composition and group critique of work of your own, you will discover and put into practice basic techniques of creative writing that draws its subject from the sensations of home and the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch of Paris.

 

Urban Canvases and Private Vaults: The Dual Worlds of Public and Private Art

Hours: 2 or 4
Instructors: Joshua Chambers, Jessica Hawkins (2 sections: max 26 students)

This immersive course takes you beyond the museum walls to explore how art comes alive in public spaces. From street art to iconic galleries, from advertising design to hidden gems around the city, you’ll see how a city’s art shapes its streets and minds. Gain a fresh perspective on what makes art "public" and how the city’s diverse art forms reflect its rich history, culture, and social context.

 

The Innocents Abroad: Cultural Literacy & Tourism

Hours: 4
Instructor: Matthew Blasi, Ryan Doherty (2 sections: max 26 students)

In Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad (1869), he paints a satirical portrait of
Americans engaging as tourists on the global stage. The question remains: how can we, much less freshmen college students, learn to be responsible and thoughtful American tourists abroad? How do we respond to immersion in cultures not our own? How do we seek to compare and contrast our culture with what we may encounter in other countries? How do we be successful, respectful, culturally literate tourists? In this course, we will read the works of Americans who went abroad, as well as works by French authors that will help provide a cultural context for our trip to Paris. We will also visit sites of cultural import, discuss Louisiana’s particular contribution to French culture, and vice versa, and learn to how to engage in an interculturally competent manner as global citizens.