Program Details

Program Dates: TBD Summer 2022

Application Period: October 1, 2021 – February 1, 2022

Program Overview

Language of Instruction: English

The African and African American Studies Program (AAAS) offers an FSP in Paris, France, entitled Afro/Black Paris: The African Diaspora in the City of Light. The AAAS Paris FSP takes place in one of the most extraordinary destinations in the world. It embodies experiential learning, and is intensive, interdisciplinary, and immersive. Comprised of three courses taught in English, this Program offers a unique opportunity to explore “another Paris,” the exceptional and lived-experience that we refer to as Afro/Black Paris, described by former students as “life-altering!”

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. What accounts for that presence? What are the lived experiences of people who self-identify and/or are identified as “b/Black,” that is, “n/Noir.e.s.”? What are the implications of this lived reality in France today? These are among the questions we will explore.

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.

Faculty Directors

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

Prerequisites
Preference will be given to students who have taken at least one course in AAAS, and are interested in learning, not only, about Afro/Black Paris, but also, about Paris and France.

Student Life

Living Accommodations: TBA

Students will stay in hotels during overnight fieldtrips.

For more information, please contact:

Professor Trica Keaton at [email protected]

or visit the AAAS website at http://aaas.dartmouth.edu/foreign-study/paris-foreign-study-program

Financial Information - Forthcoming

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:

Professor Trica Keaton