Coordinator and examiner: Mr Nicolas Wanlin, Humanities & Social Sciences Department

nicolas.wanlin@polytechnique.edu

 

Visit of

- Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte (http://www.vaux-le-vicomte.com/)

- MACVAL (Museum of contemporary art in Vitry-sur-Seine: http://www.macval.fr/Institution)

 

Mr Nicolas Wanlin, Humanities & Social Sciences Department

nicolas.wanlin@polytechnique.edu

 

Visit of 2 cultural places

among

- the Sainte-Chapelle à Paris

OR

- the Château de Versailles

AND
- the Musée National d'Art Moderne (Centre Pompidou)

OR

- the MACVAL (Museum of contemporary art in Vitry-sur-Seine: http://www.macval.fr/Institution)

 

Assessment

After having visited 2 different cultural places, you are required to write a paper (between 800 and 1200 words) in English about your visit. The paper should be a personal report, through which you will highlight all or some of these points:

* The comparison of cultural heritage and contemporary artistic production;

* The way historic monuments and works of art intertwine various dimensions (historical, scientific, artistic, political, religious, etc.);

* How these 2 places affected your perception of history (recent and distant)

Papers will be assessed on:

* The originality and precision of your point of view;

* Your understanding of the cultural issues explored throughout the visits;

* The clarity and relevance of your argument.

Due date: Monday, November 11th, 8 PM.

Accepted file formats: doc, docx, gdoc, odt, pdf, rtf.

 

Pr Nicolas Roussellier

Major Issues in Today’s World and the Place of France

 

The course is designed to give a broad and comprehensive view of the political and social place of France in today’s globalized world. Two themes will be addressed this year in order to understand the originality of French Politics. First, we will study the question of the French democracy and its difficulties. French Politics have gone through many different political regimes (Monarchy under different styles, two Bonapartist Empires, five different forms of Republic, Vichy’s Dictatorship) and recurrent upheavals from the Revolution of 1789 to the “Gilets Jaunes” of 2018. It is this “French instability” which is at the core of the First part of the course. Secondly, the course will address the issue of the French Secularism, the “laïcité à la française”. It was in the history and it is still today one of the great challenges of the French society and the French democracy.

 

This course is not open to International Exchange program students

The aim of this course is to approach a wide variety of subjects related to the wide domain of the geopolitics of cyberspace. While cyberspace has been – and still is – considered inherently as an external and somewhat ethereal space, the field of geopolitics studies focuses on comprehending rivalries of power and control on territories. To understand the intricate relationships between these concepts, the course studies their definition and the changing meaning of these words in both space and time.

Starting by looking at the evolving nature of the concept of geopolitics, we then apply geopolitics to the complex and changing concept of cyberspace through multiple case studies. The course is divided into 3 major themes that consist in the layers of cyberspace: Internet infrastructures (how (in)secure Internet cables are, where are data centers and why that matters), Internet protocols and logical layer (are protocols neutral, what is the DNS and why people fight about it), and Internet application and cognitive layer (what is influence and can it be measured, is disinformation impactful and why is it used by private actors, are platforms that powerful, is digital surveillance a new phenomenon).

While geopolitics and international relations focus mostly on States as central actors, the course digs into many cast studies where States are secondary stakeholders. The emergence of numerous powerful private actors also raises trans-layer questions in the political field (Internet giants and their relationships to governments or the EU) and in the military and defense domains (non-State actors including terrorist groups, and their role in cyber conflicts).

This course is not open to International Exchange program students

Is nature dead? In at least three different ways, it may be the case. 1/ First, the diversity of living creatures and ecosystems, as well as the vast majority of natural areas on the surface of our planet, have been affected or destroyed by human activity. As a result, nature itself – whether we're referring to wildlife or wilderness – is either dead or dying. 2/ Second, virtually everything in our daily lives is unnatural: not only is it our environment, but also our bodies, our actions, our language and thoughts that are shaped by technology, artificial constructs or cultural meaning. This means that if nature is opposed to culture, technology and artificiality, there is no place left for nature in our lives. 3/ Third, at this point in history, not only are the ideas of nature and “natural boundaries” constantly challenged by technological progress and cultural revolutions, but they actually seem to loose any relevance regarding what we should hope for the future. If we are to determine by ourselves what our future should be, it seems that if nature has had any normative power, it is now lost for good.

This course aims to investigate what is left of nature. This concept will appear at the center of essential questions of our time regarding ecology, politics, epistemology and metaphysics. While the current ecological crises have brought attention to nature, prominent contemporary thinkers have distanced themselves from this concept, accusing it of shaping modernity and its destructive power. With or without the concept of “nature,” it may be time to explore new relations to animals, wildlife and ecosystems, but also to reinvent politics in the Anthropocene. It is actually our very metaphysical conception of man facing nature and dominating it that should be questioned. But paradoxically, this very call to go “back to nature,” looking for a more “natural” way of life, is paralleled by a fierce criticism of any “naturalism” regarding individual choices and social issues. When it comes to bodies, gender, race or disabilities, but also inequalities and violence, any reference to nature looks suspicious. It is tempting to view nature as normative – that is, as a guide for how we should live our lives and a justification for social norms. After all, are there no laws of nature? Isn’t there a nature of things? Sure – but does nature leave us with any freedom? Or is freedom against nature?

Ultimately, preserving nature appears as a both revolutionary and conservative ambition. If the concept of nature is so embarrassing, it’s all the more reason to examine it more closely. In confronting paradoxical views of nature, we will explore the role it may play in our future.

French Identity HSS151- for students with little or no previous knowledge of French culture/language. 

This course aims to define French identity from a historical, geographical, cultural and political point of view. Political science methods will be used to address three questions:

- the social construction of French Identity as seen through France's history and geography
- French identity as a social model and national model claiming a universal dimension
- French identity facing globalization
The purpose will be to be able to analyze the French context and understand its specificities.

This course is not open to International Exchange program students