Topics course. What connection do trade and manufacturing have to German literature, music, art, architecture and film? In this course we investigate the reciprocal influence of culture and commerce in Germany from the Hanseatic League to the present, with attention to famous companies and products as well as to the current economic situation. Included are works by, for example, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx, Richard Wagner, Adolf Menzel, Theodor Fontane, Gerhart Hauptmann, Kathe Kollwitz, Bertolt Brecht and Heinrich Boll. Conducted in German.

Topics course. This course examines the role and representation of Hamburg, the famous German harbor city, in German films from the Weimar era to today. Discussions address formal and thematic approaches to representing the city, with special focus on the relationship between protagonists' (often marginalized) identities and the milieu they inhabit. Discussions consider political, social and cultural factors that inform the filmic representation of Hamburg as well as issues in film production and technology.

Topics Course. An overview of commercial and financial terminology against the backdrop of contemporary French business culture, using case studies, French television and newspapers, and the internet. Emphasis on essential technical vocabulary, reading and writing business documents, and oral communication in a business setting. Prepares students for the Diplome de francais professionnel (Affaires B2) granted by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry and administered at Smith College.

Topics course. What is French America, or l'Amerique francaise? What is the nature of the French-American relationship, historically and today? At the height of the contemporary Franco-American culture wars, France and the United States seemed to be polar opposites. Yet at one time parts of the United States spoke French, lived and laughed in French, cried and died in French. Must French now be translated in America? Through what cultural mechanisms is Frenchness expressed by Americans? In what languages does one write French America today?

Topics course. How did social networks connect people who shared common interests and activities in early modern France? What defines the so-called French sociability and how does it emerge in both court and town society in the early 17th-century?

How was France's cultural and political identity shaped by its encounters with the Other as it expanded trade and its conquest of foreign political and cultural powers such as the Ottoman empire and the newly discovered nations of the Americas, Africa and Tahiti? How did the concept of the foreigner evolve as confrontations with other nations, other religions, other ethnicities put into question France's conception of its own society and culture?

An intermediate language course designed for students with two or three years of high school French. Its main objective is to develop cultural awareness and the ability to speak and write in French through exposure to a variety of media (literary texts, newspaper articles, ads, clips, films, videos). Students completing the course normally enter 220. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.

Topics course. This class investigates cinema and its relationship to the rest of 20th and 21st century art, especially visual culture. Working with the premise that film has been arguably the most influential, powerful and central creative medium of the age, the course examines how film has been influenced by, and how it has influenced, interacted with, critiqued, defined and been defined by other media. Historically we examine how film has moved from a marginal to a mainstream art form, while maintaining a very active avant-garde practice.

Sectioned course. Students are introduced to the basic strokes of tennis (forehand, backhand, volleys, serves). Singles and doubles play and basic positioning are presented. Tennis rules and etiquette are included in the curriculum. Enrollment limited to 16 per section.

An advance perspective of the development of athletes' functionality, strength and movement mechanics to improve overall performance. This course reviews lifting techniques, speed mechanics, functional training and practical theory of the athletic performance model and prepare students for applications of these principles in everyday sport coaching and to prepare for the NSCA-CSCS certification exam.