by Janelle Kohnert
Distribution Manager

This summer, Dutch Henry will be leading a short-term study abroad program in which students will study contemporary literature and writing in a course called “Identity Crisis: The Outsider in French Culture.”

If at least 10 people participate, the program will run from August 17 until September 6 and will cost $2,990 plus the cost of tuition. Students will live in single dorms at Cité Internationale Universitaire.

The class taught is a 200 level English course. The only prerequisite is successful completion of English 101.

“The literature that will be read is contemporary and in English,” said Henry. “I tend to design my literature courses for all students.”

Henry hasn’t led a study abroad trip for SCC before, but he has taken groups of high school students to both France and Ireland in the past.

The focus of Henry’s trip will relate mostly to French immigration history. Before the 80s, North Africans came to France to work and send money home to their families until they considered themselves financially stable enough to return to North Africa.

The French have yet to accept the presence of North Africans as equals in their society, while the North Africans struggle to demand respect and equal representation. In 2005, Paris natives held riots against police over immigration issues after more North Africans were moving to France.

In taking students to Paris to explore this topic specifically, Henry said, “What I really hope is that students can use what they learn in France, and apply it to their own lives and situations.” Henry wants students to know that racism exists in both France and the U.S. in different ways.

As a part of the trip, the students do a service project in a suburb of Paris, working with French immigrants and French citizens.

Politics play a major role in the situation that French immigrants now live in, so the students will meet with a French immigration attorney to better understand the position and hardships of immigrants to France. Some of the translated French literature the students will be reading also discusses immigration issues.

Henry also plans on leading the trip in a well-organized manner because he doesn’t want to assume that the students attending have done a lot of traveling. Still, the students will have plenty of time alone to visit the Louvre, the Palace of Versailles and the Eiffel Tower.

Though the prerequisites for the Paris trip are minimal, registration in English 283: Modern and Contemporary European Literature is required for the fall quarter following the trip.