Course on Paris to Educate by Virtual Tourism

To compare and contrast social climates and outlooks on moral issues, a typical 18th-century Parisian provides a better counterpart than a 21st-century one to contemporary Americans, says a Penn State cultural theorist who’s teaching a new class on the city of Paris this fall. While it’s introducing the cultural, artistic, literary and social life of France’s most celebrated city from the level of yesteryear’s Emperors to peasants and today’s movie stars to blue collar workers, the course, Paris: Anatomy of a City (French 137), will also show how the nation has interacted with the United States over time. Since students will not actually visit Paris, they will use CD-ROMs, DVDs, and the Internet extensively to simulate the experience.