MSU Faculty Led Short-Term Study Abroad Institutes
Global Education Center
Montclair State University
22 Normal Avenue
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043

Tel: 973 655-4185
Fax: 973 655-7654
simonw@mail.montclair.edu

Faculty
Joanna Dezio, the Program Director, received her Ph.D from New York University. She teaches interpretation and translation at Montclair State University and French and Italian at New York University. She is a conference interpreter whose clients include the United Nations, the U.S.  Department of State, intellectual property and other law firms, selected corporations, the federal and state courts, television networks, the French Embassy and various entities within the French government. 

Karen Guancione has been awarded a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Artists and Communities Grant, three New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowships, a Ford Foundation Grant and a Puffin Foundation Grant. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and is in numerous public and private collections. Her interdisciplinary art includes large scale installations, performance, sculpture, printmaking, papermaking, bookarts and video. She has curated many exhibitions, is an adjunct professor of art at Montclair State University and SUNY Purchase and has been a visiting artist and lecturer at Pratt Institute, Rutgers University and numerous schools and institutions in the United States and abroad. She recently became the first time recipient of the Erena Rae Award for Art and Social Justice.

Academics
Participants take two courses from among the following:

Mediterranean Civilization (taught in English and required for all undergraduates who are not French majors), either a French language course (from elementary to advanced levels), or a studio art course, and for advanced and graduate French majors, two upper level courses taught in French.  Courses taken in Nice that are offered in French may be substituted for major or minor requirements in the French program.  Students with a French minor may receive French credit for Mediterranean Civilization by prior agreement with Professor Dezio, if they do their work in French. Courses may be also be used as electives or to fulfill the MSU General Education foreign language requirement.  All study abroad programs can fulfill the GNED 303: Global Issues requirement (one of the Contemporary Issues "Core" courses in GenEd 2002).  All courses offered have received prior approval for credit. Required for all undergraduates who are not advanced level French majors

FRIN 145: Introduction to French Culture: Mediterranean Civilization
Taught in English. This course explores the principles of life and culture that have made the Mediterranean region fertile ground for creativity and the art of living well for millennia. Students will study the major innovations of the Roman Empire and the artistic, philosophical and political contributions of Mediterranean cultures with respect to their impact on our lives today.  They will consider the various ways that so many brilliant cultures in the Mediterranean have interacted over time and discuss their significance to our interdependent contemporary world.

Undergraduates who are not advanced level French majors select one of the following courses to complete their program:

FREN 375: French Study Abroad: Beginning and Intermediate Levels                
For undergraduate students
This course includes 10 hours per week of beginning, intermediate or advanced level language instruction in small groups, utilizing both the classroom and everyday life in the community at large.  Class time will be divided into concentration on grammatical rules, followed by immediate application of the principles learned in the city of Nice itself.  Students will be exposed to specific, living situations and will build vocabulary around them.  Emphasis will be put on your communication with your environment on a daily basis.

ARAN 190: Intro to Visual Arts:Color, Light and Form as Inspiration in the South of France
This course is for artists, non-artists and would-be artists who are looking for an opportunity to discover the artistic side of their nature and the unique culture of Nice by recording their discoveries in guided daily art making. Class sessions will be held outside of the classroom and activities will focus on the exploration of color, light, architecture, style and the vibrant rhythms of Nice and the Côte d’Azur, an environment that has inspired great artists for centuries. Course activities will involve making an ongoing visual or text journal whose ultimate form will be determined by the student. Participants may choose writing, collage and assemblages from found objects, on-site drawing, mixed media pieces, color studies and photography, or wherever imagination takes them.  Observation, experimentation and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. The visual or textual vocabulary developed in Nice will lead to a singular and personal piece of art evoking the sensual experience of travel.

Advanced level French students or graduate French Majors will take either the two seminars listed below as FREN 470/501 and FREN 548 for 3 credits each, or FREN 510 for 6 credits:

FREN 470/ FREN 501: Seminar “Role of the Arts in French Society” (3 credits)
Taught entirely in French.  Available to advanced undergraduates and graduates.

What enables one nation to assign an important, seminal role to the arts, while another considers them expendable?  Among the many reasons may be the moment a nation becomes conscious that it exists as such.  Americans have been taught traditionally to equate their origins with industrialization and their coming of age with war.  But other societies have a much older, pre-industrial consciousness of coming into being related to an epic poem.  La Chanson de Roland in France is one such work; Gilgamesh in Iraq, Beowulf in England and The Aeneid in Italy are others.  All of these works offer a sense of identity to a people.  What differences might this poetic identification make in a nation’s view of the world?  How does pre-industrial memory color present day decisions, personal or political?  In this course, we will study the development of the arts in France with the goal of discovering the connection between an identity grounded in the arts and the resulting reflection of that identity in the society itself.

FRENCH 548: Seminar: International Relations (3 credits)
Taught entirely in French.  Available to French graduate students and advanced French undergraduates by prior approval.

What do you think of your country’s image abroad?  Does it correspond to the truth as you see it? What is the use of our current insistence on international relations in an era which seems to say that nationalism is an outmoded concept and that globalization is on the point of transforming us unto one bland culture for time to come.  Has diplomacy in the hands of the powerful become a mere tool to solidify a hegemony which enriches a few, impoverishes many and condemns to perpetual outside aggression those who refuse to go along?  In this course, you will share your reflections on the place in the world of France, the United States and other nations, examining the successes and failures of international organizations such as the United Nations, NATO, the African Union, the Organization of American States and even the European Union.  Thanks to technology, nations are more aware of each other than ever before.  Has our knowledge of other countries’ approach towards immigration, capital punishment, health care, civil rights and other social factors influenced our and others’ development?  France is the mother of modern diplomacy.  What does her relation to other nations teach us?  These are a few of the many questions you will pose as you seek to better understand the manner in which nations achieve solutions or perpetuate problems as they interrelate.

Alternatively, graduate students may elect to take the following 6 credit intensive course at the University of Nice summer program, in lieu of the two preceding seminars:

FREN 510 Topics in French Linguistics: Teacher Training Program at University of Nice
(6 credits)

This course is for teachers of French who wish to enhance their professional teaching practices while acquiring new linguistic and cultural knowledge.  Activities are in the form of interactive teaching workshops that take into account the latest research on the teaching of French as a foreign language.  Workshops include the Methodology of Teaching; Analysis and Preparation of Pedagogic Material; Activities to revitalize a class; and theatre exercises emphasizing intonation and body language.  The goals of the course are to reflect on contemporary teaching challenges, to understand the needs and objectives of the teaching and learning of French, to analyze grammatical approaches and forms, to diversify one’s aids by exploiting the numerous available online resources and to encourage and stimulate the learner.  Your effectiveness and your value as a teacher of French will surely be enhanced by your exposure to these facets of your profession.

Program Costs:
$3,400 plus tuition and fees for six credits. The program cost includes:

• Roundtrip airfare
• Studio apartment with private bath and kitchenette
• All transfers in France
• All group excursions, including entrance fees to museums
• Wine tasting                       
• Olive oil tasting
• Visit to a bio-dynamic family farm
• A celebration luncheon in the countryside of the Var wine region

Application procedure and payment schedule:
All participants are required to have
1) a minimum GPA of 2.75;
2) an interview with one or both of the faculty leading that program;
3) a reference form completed by a faculty member other than the faculty
leading that program; and
4) the $100 non-refundable application fee.
Summer programs are open to non-MSU students and high achieving high school seniors who demonstrate special interest. Non-MSU students, new transfer students and high school seniors will need to submit two references forms plus an official transcript from their home institution(s).

Applications and the application fee (non-refundable but applied to total program cost if accepted) may be submitted at any time up to February 15. Once accepted into the program, the payment schedule for program costs is as follows:

Payment Schedule:
Non-Refundable Application fee:       $ 100
By February 15, 2010                         $1,000
By March 15, 2010:                            $1,000
By April 15, 2010:                               $1,300
Make checks payable to “Montclair State University”
A limited number of partial scholarships are available for MSU students with a 3.0 G.P.A. Contact the Global Education Center for further information.

Pre-Enrollment Form

Non-MSU Students
Applicants should submit two reference forms and official transcript(s) from the home institution(s) plus the $100 non-MSU administrative fee and the $100 non-refundable deposit. Telephone interviews with the faculty will be accepted for out of state students. After completion of the program, non-MSU students will need to request an MSU transcript for submission to the home institution.

For Further Information:
Contact the Global Education Center at 973-655-4185 or email simonW@mail.montclair.edu.