ABOUT THE COURSE
FRENCH 10SC
Prerequisites: Must have taken first-year French (up through Frenlang 3 or 2A), or placed into FRENCH 21.
Do you dream of studying in the Latin quarter? Love the sound of French? And do the names Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre make your mind tingle with excitement?
Then you will want to spend next September immersing yourself in French and reading its most famous Existentialists. Spend mornings brushing up on your spoken and written language proficiency, and afternoons talking about some of the great works of the twentieth century (including L’Etranger, Huis clos, and Le Deuxième sexe).
We will also broaden our discussions with French films (including Les quatre-cent coups and A bout de soufflé) and other cultural activities (like a trip to the Legion of Honor), including a performance starring YOU!
INSTRUCTOR BIO
Dan Edelstein - Born in Ithaca, NY, I moved to Geneva, Switzerland when I was eleven. After attending the Collège Calvin, I studied French literature at the University of Geneva; I then returned to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 2004. I joined the Department of French and Italian at Stanford that same year.
I work for the most part on eighteenth-century France, with research interests at the crossroads of literature, history, political theory, and digital humanities (DH). I've published two books, one on French revolutionary Terror, the other on the Enlightenment, both with the University of Chicago. I've also edited or co-edited three volumes of essays: one on "Myth and Modernity" (co-edited, Yale French Studies); the second on "The Super-Enlightenment" (Voltaire Foundation, at Oxford University); and the third on "Scripting Revolution" ( co-edited with Keith Baker, Stanford University Press). I'm a co-PI for the "Mapping the Republic of Letters" project, and the founding faculty director of the "Humanities + Design" research lab at CESTA.
I'm currently at work on two book projects: a history of early-modern rights ("The Spirit of the Rights"); and a comparative history of revolutions ("On Permanent Revolution"). I also continue to work on a variety of DH projects. I regularly teach courses on the literature, philosophy, culture, and politics of the Enlightenment; nineteenth-century French novels; the French Revolution; early-modern political thought; French intellectual culture (“Coffee & Cigarettes”); liberal education ("Education as Self-Fashioning"); and historical networks ("Networks: Ecological, Revolutionary, and Digital").
Heather Howard -Southern California born and raised, I first studied in France as an international relations student at Sciences Po in Grenoble. I grew up in Santa Barbara, California, raised by a francophile mother who passed on her love of the language and culture. After several years working for an international law firm and earning a paralegal degree, I left to pursue a degree in French Literature degree at UCLA, where I earned a doctorate in 18th-century literature. My thesis focused on the figure of the reader in Diderot's theoretical texts on art, literature and theater. After teaching at a variety of different institutions, including USC, Scripps Claremont and Allegheny College, I came to Stanford ten years ago as a lecturer in French. I now coordinate the French program for the Language Center, where I teach French language courses at all levels and mentor graduate students. My early interests in literature, philosophy and politics are now combined with a passion for language teaching. My most current research and conference presentations have focused on these pedagogical challenges, especially on how to bring greater cultural context to the language classroom.
Maria Comsa - I was born and raised in Transylvania (Romania), where I grew up learning French. Before coming to the US, I lived and studied in France where I obtained a DEUG (Diplôme d’Études Universitaires Générales) in Lettres Modernes at Université Lyon2 Lumière. In the US, I continued my studies (BA and MA from San José State University) and earned my PhD in French Literature from Stanford University in 2014. My research focuses on 18th-century French theater, Casanova, second language acquisition, and digital humanities. I am currently working on a project on private theater in 18th century France and on Casanova’s theatrical networks.
I teach all levels of French language courses. In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, kayaking, bird watching, and photography.
