Course Catalog

This course focuses on how transnational actors - governments, citizens, social movements, corporations, NGOs, issue groups, and so forth - communicate to achieve their goals. The course also helps students develop skills in global advocacy, learning the genre of the press release, the organization and transmission of information (or, more accurately, persuasion) on websites, list-servs, grassroots work, and in visual rhetoric (posters, culture-jamming).

The notion of Paris as “the global fashion capital “is so popular that it became a self-perpetuating myth alongside its mythical figure of La Parisienne. According to this idea, Paris is the birthplace and the capital of fashion and is still today the capital of haute couture, of elegance, of chic and of luxury. In part one of the course, through readings, case studies and visits of certain key sites in Paris (or online visits), students will understand how the fashion industry has shaped –and continues to shape –the city of Paris, from textile factories during the 17th century within Paris, to the emergence of luxury good shops (18th century), of department stores (19th century), of couture houses (19th-20th centuries), of ready-to-wear and fast fashion shops and of luxury flagships during the 21st century). While giving students tools to understand the development of Paris as a “fashion capital” this course also aims to unpack the discursive construction of Paris as the center of the fashion world. Going beyond this general idea of “Paris, capital of fashion”, this course will have a critical approach of the sociological and construction of Paris as the center of the fashion world and question how the story has been told, what was included and what left out. It will address the different levels of the industry, the high and low, the everyday and haute couture, the grand couturier and the migrant garment workers, the Chanel workshop on Avenue Montaigne and the fast fashion workshops in Aubervilliers, the luxury department stores and the flea markets. Discussions in class will thus question the hierarchy in the Paris fashion industry and show that behind the catchy idea of “Parisian fashion”, a more complex eco-system is at stake, involving discussions about class, race and gender in the fashion industry. In taking this class, students come to understand that Paris is not the place of a unique kind of fashion, namely the place of high fashion for wealthy clients, as it is widely advertised in the media and forged in the collective imaginary, but that Paris is constituted by different kind of fashion spaces which correspond to different kind of systems of clothes production and consumption: haute couture and ready-to-wear in the center of Paris, fast fashion, retail and wholesale in the suburbs of Paris. This heterogeneous geography corresponds further to different type of labor force, consumers, and representations, allowing to de-hierarchized, de-centralized the geographies of Parisian fashion.

This course strengthens basic skills acquired in Principles of Video Production, and builds on them to further develop a deep understanding of the end-to-end workflow needed to make a professional film (fiction or nonfiction). Extensive hands-on and practical skill-development will be provided in three distinct areas: (1) pre-production, including idea-development, research, budgeting, pitching, grant-writing, storyboarding, etc; (2) production, covering advanced cinematography, sound recording, lighting, interviewing, directing, etc; (3) post-production, including professional editing workflows, soundtrack development, color correction, etc.

This is the capstone course for all Marketing and Communication interested Seniors. It puts previous learning experiences from management classes, marketing, research and communications into perspective and analyses the strategic choices that lead to building strong and lasting brands. The course sets a particular focus on brand positioning, brand architecture, Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) and teaches the academic foundations and tools that are indispensable to develop truly differentiating brand statements, to understand key research techniques and their usage in real life as well as competitive strategy. Numerous brand cases and exercises such as Nespresso, Tag Heuer, Healthy Choice, Toyota, etc. help to illustrate brand strategy and teaches students to apply strategic thinking in building strong and differentiated brands. The course employs the Harvard Business School Case Study method and teamwork throughout.