syllabus

This course is as much a journey through ideas as it is a journey through France. Along the way, we will encounter some of the writers, thinkers, activists, and movements that have asked enduring questions. Our readings will put the places we visit into conversation with important ideas—from the revolutionary experiments of the Paris Commune and the voices of workers and activists in Brittany to contemporary thinking about feminism, ecology, community, and the commons. 

These will not be readings left behind in the classroom. We will carry them with us. A text read before arriving in Douarnenez may change what we notice in its harbor; ideas about ecology and the commons will take on new meaning as we move through Brittany’s coastlines and islands; and our experiences in Brittany will shape the questions we bring to the streets of Paris.

See syllabus for tentative list of readings.