Global Contemporary Issues

ECTS : 2

Description du contenu de l'enseignement :

The Global Contemporary Issues course (September-December 2023 semester) included the following subjects:

• A Brief History of Truth, from Aristotle to Post-Truth
• Truth, Belief, Faith & Scientific Knowledge
• Freedom, Liberty, Equality
• Social Justice & Rights
• The University & Research
• The State
• Europe
• Climate Justice
• Climate Politics #1 : Adapting (How?)
• Climate Politics #2 : Agency (Who?)

Compétence à acquérir :

The Global Contemporary Issues course is part of the greater endeavour of Paris-Dauphine PSL University to provide critical thinking and communication skills to its sophomore students. As such, it is intertwined with the French-language Grands Enjeux Contemporains program, and shares goals such as:

• being able to process a specific text collection
• being able to work in a team of three students at an oral presentation in English
• being able to process and acquire key talking points and concepts
• being able to write essays in English, implying a set of four specific skills:
  • reading and analysing a set of texts provided on-the-spot, and using them in an articulate and thoughtful fashion
  • acquiring a critical distance to these texts, mediated by a given question, and then producing an accurate view of the issues at stake
  • building an outline, and then an essay proper, developing one's line of argument, with a view to taking sides personally in a convincing way
  • all the above while attempting to display the best possible command of the English language
• regarding the latter, perfected skills include:
  • English speech fluency (group talks, group talk preparation with the teaching professor)
  • English writing fluency (essays, group talk outline writing, group talk powerpoint writing)
  • English reading skills (in-depth text analysis, ability to sift through text collections)

Mode de contrôle des connaissances :

The overall mark is obtained by compounding:

• one mark for the aforementioned group talk personal performance [25%]
• one mark for a (one hour and a half long) written test breaking down the aforementioned essay skills to a set of questions on a text dossier [25%]
• one mark for a (two hours long) written essay on a given text dossier [50%]