Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Foreword
- Foreword by His Excellency
- Part I: Contextualisations
- Part II: Research and Public Engagement Strategies
- Part III: The Place of Women and Gender in French Studies
- Part IV: The Place of Literature
- Part V: The Place of Linguistics in French Studies Today
- Part VI: Theatre, Cinema and Popular Culture
- Part VII: Area Studies, Postcolonial Studies and War and Culture Studies
- Part VIII: Adventures in Language Teaching
- 19 French Studies at the Open University: Pointers to the Future
- 20 Opportunities and Challenges of Technologically Enhanced Programmes: Online and Blended Learning at King's College London
- 21 French Studies and Employability at Home and Abroad: General Reflections on a Case Study
- 22 Sartre in Middlesex, De Beauvoir in Oxford: The Contribution of the ASMCF to the Study of France
- 23 Culturetheque: A New Tool for French Culture
- Appendices. Addresses to the Future of French Studies Conference
22 - Sartre in Middlesex, De Beauvoir in Oxford: The Contribution of the ASMCF to the Study of France
from Part VIII: Adventures in Language Teaching
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Foreword
- Foreword by His Excellency
- Part I: Contextualisations
- Part II: Research and Public Engagement Strategies
- Part III: The Place of Women and Gender in French Studies
- Part IV: The Place of Literature
- Part V: The Place of Linguistics in French Studies Today
- Part VI: Theatre, Cinema and Popular Culture
- Part VII: Area Studies, Postcolonial Studies and War and Culture Studies
- Part VIII: Adventures in Language Teaching
- 19 French Studies at the Open University: Pointers to the Future
- 20 Opportunities and Challenges of Technologically Enhanced Programmes: Online and Blended Learning at King's College London
- 21 French Studies and Employability at Home and Abroad: General Reflections on a Case Study
- 22 Sartre in Middlesex, De Beauvoir in Oxford: The Contribution of the ASMCF to the Study of France
- 23 Culturetheque: A New Tool for French Culture
- Appendices. Addresses to the Future of French Studies Conference
Summary
Founded in 1979, the ASMCF offers an unrivalled multidisciplinary forum for those involved in teaching and research on all aspects of France since 1789. The Association's worldwide membership brings together scholars, researchers and graduate students in disciplines ranging from history and the social sciences to philosophy, education, politics, language, literature, media studies and the arts.
The Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF) sees its contribution to promoting knowledge of France mainly, but not exclusively, through the area studies approach, which is broadly the study of the country including its political system, history, geography and general culture integrated with its language. That area studies is now a key term alongside languages and culture in the definition of French Studies is testimony to the achievements of the ASMCF and recognition of its place in the research and teaching of French. The ASMCF has the largest membership of all the area studies associations in the umbrella group UKCASA. It has three main areas of activity: the annual conference, publication of the journal, and support for local and regional research groups. This chapter sets out to explain the growth of the association during the expansion of French teaching in higher education.
The reason for the creation of a French area studies association lies in the name: the emphasis is on the study of twentieth-century and present-day France. This is evinced from the manner in which the journal and annual conferences are organised. Using the term area studies is useful to distinguish the ASMCF from the Society for French Studies – an older learned society which has as its journal French Studies. The two organisations share an interest in postcolonial studies, gender studies and in French intellectual ideas, equally influential in the broader fields of critical theory and philosophy in the humanities and social sciences. When the association was founded some academics questioned the scholarly worth of topics other than literature in French Studies.
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- French Studies in and for the 21st Century , pp. 272 - 287Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2011