Image title: Bana Banalisés; Artist: Alexis Peskine
Paris Foreign Study Program
The Afro/Black Paris FSP is a biennial program in English that will next run in summer 2020.
-
-
Photograph by Breeze Yoko, taken in Rue Oberkampf.
-
Experience another Paris!
-
Experience the FSP!
-
Experience Paris at night!
Program Details
Program Dates: TBD Summer 2020
Application Period: October 1, 2019 – February 1, 2020
The African and African American Studies Program (AAAS) offers an FSP in Paris, France, entitled Afro/Black Paris: The African Diaspora and the City of Light. Centered at a celebrated 18th century university campus in Paris, this FSP is focused on the historical, cultural, and social significance of African descended people in this region of the African Diaspora. The Afro/Black Paris FSP is intensive, interdisciplinary, immersive, and comprised of three courses taught in English that examine the topics of (1) slavery and colonialism; (2) African/Black Americans in relation to Afro/Black French people (past and present); and (3) literary texts by French writers of African descent.
2018 Instructors
Professor Trica Keaton – Dartmouth College
Professor Françoise Vergès – Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH)
Laurella Rinçon – National Curator of African Art, Ministère de la Culture
Students enrolled at Dartmouth’s exchange partner schools, including Spelman, Morehouse and schools participating in the Twelve College Exchange are eligible and welcome to apply.
The Paris Experience
Paris, France is one of the most extraordinary destinations in the world. It is also an exceptional site in the African diaspora, a “City of Light” that Ernest Hemingway befittingly describes as “a moveable feast.” Nowhere has a metropolis in mainland Europe been so historically and socially transformed by a fascinating diversity of people from countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. Although their presence in France is centuries-old, Paris and France continue to be a contested home for their French descendants and others of African descent where questions of race, racialization, racism, anti-racism and their intersection conjugate with myths, narratives, and representations of these regions as colorblind and race-free.
What is Afro/Black Paris? What are the important events, key debates, and central figures associated with it? What do belonging and identity politics look like on the ground for citizens and denizens who refer to themselves and/or are referred to by others as “Afro French,” “B/black,” or “N/noir-e-s?” Is it as James Baldwin writes, “[i]n America, the color of my skin had stood between myself and me; in Europe, that barrier was down?”
- Experience a unique opportunity to explore “another Paris,” the exceptional and lived-experience that we refer to as Afro/Black Paris!
- Experience workshops on art, cuisine, film, Hip Hop, jazz, the literary landscape, museums, open markets, and so much more!
- Experience fieldtrips, ranging from a major slave port in France (i.e., Nantes) to the fairytale medieval village and chateau in the Dordogne region (i.e., Chateau des Milandes) where Josephine Baker and her twelve adopted children prospered!
Contact Information
For more information, please contact: