FREN 285 – Collecting Empire: Museums, botanical specimens, and assembling the French colonial empire
Four credits
4 weeks in France
Professors Steve McCormick and Mohamed Kamara
Our quick reflex to associate France, and more specifically the city of Paris, with images of culture and art stems in part from the practice of colonial hoarding. Nineteenth-century surveyors, academics and wealthy amateur collectors traveled the vast colonial possessions of France métropole, or mainland France, in search of the finest treasures produced by subject populations. The attention devoted toward hoarding the art of other nations was rivaled by fascination for the natural world as it existed in the sprawling colonial territories of the French Empire. Empire collecting resulted in Parisian museums and botanical gardens overflowing with objects and plants from all regions of the globe. If today only 8% percent of the Musée du Louvre can be displayed to the public at any given time, we might wonder what artifacts of questionable provenance are selected as public-facing and what others remain hidden from sight. This course explores the development of museum collections over the course of the nineteenth-century, and how museums played a key role in curating the image of Nation and Empire in the imaginations of French citizens, colonial subjects, and onlookers from abroad. Our course will spend the first three weeks in the southern French city of Toulouse preparing for the final week in Paris. In the final week, students will carry out a treasure hunt in museums devoted to art, ancient artifacts, botany and natural sciences. The course has a second goal that targets intensive growth in speaking proficiency. During our stay in Toulouse, students will live with host families and attend French-language courses in the morning, follow a W&L advanced-level course on the topic of collecting and colonial history, interact with guest speakers, and have ample opportunity to experience day-to-day life in France and to explore the surrounding region. In addition to the week in Paris, the course includes two one-day excursions in the vicinity of Toulouse: the first a visit to the ToulouseLautrec museum in the town of Albi; the second to the medieval fortified city of Carcassonne.
Prerequisite: FREN 162, FREN 164, or consent of professor.
Program fee (Paid to W&L): $4,418
Includes programming, room, almost all breakfasts (~27), most dinners (~23), fees, most in-country transportation.
Additional costs: airfare, a few breakfast and dinners, all lunches, cell phone, spending money, passport, and visa fees (if applicable).
For further details, please contact Professors McCormick (mccormicks@wlu.edu) or Kamara (kamaram@wlu.edu).
Please click the "Start New Application" button to start an application. Please click the "Resume Application" button to access an application you've already started. Please do not open multiple applications for the same program.
OR
Applications open October 5th, 2023