Michael Kline and Nancy Mellerski, Co-Directors

This seminar invites secondary school teachers to explore the construction of Republican identity in France and to study challenges to the ideal, foundational French Republic since the Revolution of 1789. Representations of the Republic in art, theater, film and essay will demonstrate how the ownership of each has evolved over time as the master narrative of French republicanism and nationhood unfolds. French identity, as a product of the centralizing heritage of Jacobinism, will be examined as it undergoes the pressures of ethnic and regional voices that are increasingly demanding of recognition and autonomy. Two case studies, that of regional identities and languages and debates on the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages as well as the “Headscarf Affair,” the most important drama in contemporary France, will serve to investigate the challenges to French republicanism.

Participants receive a stipend of $3600.

For further information please email Michael Kline (e-mail address shown below).