The next application deadline is Feb 21, 2025
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his four-week program offers a comprehensive exploration of the architects, architectural theories, and museums that have shaped Paris from the Enlightenment to the present day, while also contributing to the broader development of modern architecture and museum culture. It examines the Enlightenment’s call for reason and progressive invention, the interwar modernist avant-garde led by figures like Le Corbusier, and the evolving role of museums from the French Revolution to contemporary times. Weekly site visits will include iconic buildings, and diverse museums, including special access.

Program Overview

Students will take two 3-point courses on this program: Museums for Paris, 1793-Today with Barthélemy Glama and Paris Architecture and Urbanism 1750-1940 with Barry Bergdoll.

The courses combine seminar formats with field trips to help students reflect on and gain insight into the impulses behind collecting, the narratives constructed around the display of objects, and the emergence of Paris as a political, cultural, and global (or imperial) center.

This four-week program will take place from Wednesday, May 21st, 2025, to Thursday, June 19th, 2025. Classes are typically Monday to Thursday, while on Fridays activities are planned in conjunction with the courses to offer more cultural exposure to the city.

We encourage you to watch the Columbia Summer Art History in Paris information session to learn more about the structure of the program and the application components:

Eligibility and Application

Eligibility

  • Currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students in good academic and disciplinary standing
  • Students should have experience in or completed coursework in Art History and/or Architecture
  • Minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA. Students must also maintain a 3.0 GPA during the semester before going abroad

How to apply

Want to apply? Click the “Start Your Application" button at the top of this page. If the button doesn't appear, the program is not yet accepting applications. You will be asked to set up a short profile, which will allow us to send you relevant information about your application. Once you’ve created a profile, you will see a checklist of items that you will need to submit. These generally include:

  • Application item(s)
  • Personal statement
  • Official transcript(s)
  • Home School Approval/Clearance: If applying from another university, please check with your home university's study abroad office about applying for permission to attend the program and transfer the credit
  • Application fee (if applying from another university)​

Academics

Students will take two 3-point courses on this program: Museums for Paris, 1793-Today with Barthélemy Glama and Paris Architecture and Urbanism 1750-1940 with Barry Bergdoll.


AHIS 3472: Museums for Paris, 1793-Today, 3 credits
Instructor Barthélemy Glama, Senior Advisor to the President-Director of the Louvre Museum

Pending approval by the Committee on Instruction (COI).

This course explores the evolving role of museums in Paris from the transformative era of the French Revolution to the present day. Through a combination of in-class discussions and weekly site visits, Museums for Paris, 1793–Today traces how museums in the French capital have served as dynamic spaces for nation- and city-building. Each week addresses different museum types, providing insight into the impulses behind collecting, the narratives constructed around the display of objects, and the emergence of Paris as a political, cultural, and global (or imperial) center.


AHIS4047GU: Paris Architecture and Urbanism 1750-1940, 3 credits
Instructor Barry Bergdoll, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University

Pending approval by the Committee on Instruction (COI).

This course provides an overview of the key architects and architectural theories that shaped not only the city of Paris but contributed to the larger development of modern architecture since the Enlightenment. From the Enlightenment call for an architecture based on reason and progressive invention to the heyday of the modernist avant-garde around the towering figure of Le Corbusier in the interwar years. Site visits each week will include major buildings, some difficult to access for tourists, to discuss changing spatial concepts and the relationship between individual buildings and an evolving vision of architecture as building blocks of a city understood as a complex organism that can be controlled through design.

Note: The University reserves the right to withdraw or modify the courses of instruction or to change the instructors as may become necessary.


PROGRAM DATES

The program will be intensive and students should expect to devote much of their time to their classes, coursework, and attending the specially planned co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. A more detailed schedule will be provided at a later date.

InformationDate
Student Arrival and Housing Check-InWednesday, May 21st, 2025
OrientationThursday, May 22nd, 2025
First Day of ClassesFriday, May 23rd, 2025
Last Day of ClassesWednesday, June 18th, 2025
Student Departure and Housing Check-OutThursday, June 19th, 2025

All students are required to attend the orientation, which will provide an introduction to life in Paris and other important information. Program housing is not available outside of the program dates.


Grades and Transcripts

GRADING POLICY

Click here for the Columbia summer program grading policies.


TRANSCRIPTS

Upon successful completion of the program, grades are entered into Columbia's online grading system.

Credit is not granted to students who do not complete the full program.

All courses taken on the program are converted to an American grading scale and transmitted to students as follows:

Life in Paris

Housing

Students will live in single-furnished rooms with access to a private bathroom, shared kitchenette, and laundry facilities or in furnished studio-style apartments with their own kitchenette.

Housing is located with easy access to transportation and approximately a 30-minute commute (on the métro) from Columbia Global Centers | Paris at Reid Hall.


Daily Living and Schedule

The program has many course-related activities, as well as a few social events, that will help students engage with the cultural life of Paris. Past social and cultural activities have included theater workshops, pottery, crépe-making, wine tasting, and excursions around Paris. You will have adequate time to explore Paris on your own and to soak up the ambiance of the city Paris in the summer.

In addition, the Columbia Global Center | Paris has many activities throughout the summer that are open to students on the program at no charge.


Location

The home base of Columbia University in Paris is the Columbia Global Centers | Paris at Reid Hall, where all of your classes will take place. Reid Hall is a small group of buildings owned and administered by Columbia. It also serves as an educational center for other American universities and for scholars from around the world. For more than a century, its long and distinguished past of intellectual, artistic, and cultural exchange has made it significant for the relationship between France and the United States.

Reid Hall, constructed in the early 18th century before the French Revolution, is located in the lively Montparnasse (6th arrondissement) district of Paris, near the Luxembourg Gardens and within walking distance of the Latin Quarter and several branches of the University of Paris. Modern additions have enlarged the facility, creating an interior courtyard and private garden. Reid Hall primarily houses administrative offices and classrooms and also has a small reference library, a reading room, lounges, a multimedia lab, and two large conference rooms. Students have access to WiFi in all common areas of Reid Hall.

People

Columbia Global Centers | Paris

The faculty and program are supported by the staff of the Columbia Undergraduate Programs in Paris and the Columbia Global Centers | Paris. You will be introduced to the Columbia Undergraduate Program staff during the orientation.


Faculty

Barthélemy Glama, Senior Advisor to the President-Director of the Louvre Museum

Barthélemy Glama is Senior Advisor to the President-Director of the Louvre Museum, where he leads scientific and cultural programming and directs cross-departmental curatorial initiatives. A graduate of the École normale supérieure, the Sorbonne, and Columbia University, he specializes in the history of European museums of the 18th and 19th centuries, with a particular focus on their connections to colonial expansion. His doctoral research examines the development of the Louvre’s extra-European archaeological collections in the 19th century. Earlier roles include editorial positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Grande Galerie, the Louvre's magazine, as well as serving as cultural advisor to the French Embassy’s cultural services in New York. A published author, his works include Tout le Louvre (2012) and Objectif Louvre: A Family History of the World (2022). He is currently coordinating efforts to reshape the Louvre’s galleries dedicated to non-Western arts.


Barry Bergdoll, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University

Barry Bergdoll is Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University. A specialist in the history of modern architecture, his principle expertise lies in the architecture and urban history of 18th and 19th century France and the German states. As an exhibition curator, he served from 2007 to 2014 as Chief Curator of Architecture & Design at the Museum of Modern Art (NY). He has also organized exhibitions at the Musée d’Orsay and the Caisse des Monuments Historiques, in Paris; the Centre Canadien d’Architecture in Montréal; the Center for Architecture in New York; and the Banamax Foundation in Mexico City. He is co-curating an exhibition on Viollet-le-Duc for the Bard Graduate Center to open in September 2025. He is the author of the widely used textbook European Architecture: 1750-1890 in the Oxford History of Art (2000) and monographs on Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Mies van der Rohe, Léon Vaudoyer, and Marcel Breuer. He is at work on a volume on the history of exhibiting architecture, derived from the Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 2013.

Financial Considerations

Summer 2025 Tuition & Fees*

Please see our cost breakdown for detailed information on additional estimated expenses.

*Tuition and fees are subject to the Board of Trustees' approval and may change.


Financial aid and scholarships

If you receive financial aid during the academic year, you may remain eligible for financial aid when you attend a summer Columbia-Led Program as long as you take a minimum of 6 points.

CC/SEAS: Contact the CC/SEAS Financial Aid & Educational Planning to understand if any of your federal financial aid may cover enrollment costs for a summer program. Please note the Columbia Grant is not available for summer studies.

General Studies: Contact the GS Office of Educational Financing to understand if any of your financial aid may cover participation in a summer program.

Other students should contact their home school financial aid offices.

For more general information and resources on financing your time abroad, please see the pages below:


GLOBAL LEARNING SCHOLARSHIP

The Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE) offers the Global Learning Scholarship (GLS) to support Columbia students so they may enhance their undergraduate education by participating in a summer global learning opportunity.

Eligibility:

You are eligible for the Global Learning Scholarships (GLS) if you are:

  • A Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, or General Studies student who demonstrates financial need

  • All other students are not eligible for the GLS

Application and Timeline:

Students apply for the Global Learning Scholarship (GLS) and the Columbia-Led summer program with two separate applications.

Scholarship applications are due: February 14th, 2025 (closes at 11:59 pm EST)

GLS applicants must also submit a completed program application by the program application deadline OR no later than the following: February 14th, 2025 (closes at 11:59 pm EST)

To apply to the Global Learning Scholarship, please click here.


OTHER SCHOLARSHIPS

For a list of other scholarships specific to study abroad, please visit the Scholarships for Study Abroad for more information. Of note are the:


Withdrawal Policy

To learn about the financial consequences of withdrawing from the program, please review the Summer Withdrawal and Refund Policy here.

Resources for Accepted Students

After being accepted to the program, we will share information and email communications regarding the next steps. We understand that there will be a lot of steps to complete, so please utilize the resources below to help you get started: