Top, l. to r. Josephson, Holland, Cape, Nissen, Williams. Bottom, l. to r. Nicolov, Rosen, Spearman, Gustave, Fougerouse. Looking at the Champs Elysées toward the Arc de Triomphe.

Faculty and Administrative Staff

The staff in 2008 included four teachers of French, two in art history, one in politics, one in drawing and digital photography. Administrative staff were the Director of the Paris site, Director of Community Service, Dean of Students, Director of Co-curricular Activities, and a program assistant.

Faculty

Jean-François Bédard was raised in French Canada. He was graduated from university, received an architect's license, and then went to New York for his studies in architecture and archeology at Columbia. He moved to Paris to complete his work for the doctorate, was awarded a Getty Fellowship in 2005, and is now in the architecture faculty at Syracuse University.

Marie-Christine Fougerouse is from Clermont-Ferrand where she received her licence and maîtrise in French languages. She also earned a DEA and doctorat en Didactologie des langues et des cultures from the Sorbonne. After working at l'Université Catholique in Lyon, she came to Paris to live on the famed Left Bank and taught at the Institute for European Studies. During the regular academic year, she teaches at l'Université de Saint-Etienne.

Thierry Gustave was born in Martinique. Because his father served in the French armed forces overseas, he was raised and educated in Martinique, the French colonies in Africa, and in Paris where his family still lives. He received his undergraduate education at Rhode Island College in Providence and is currently a PhD candidate at Boston College. He teaches French at the Lincoln School in Providence.

Marcia Josephson, a mid-westerner by birth, did undergraduate work at Carleton College and Northwestern University. As a Fulbright scholar, she studied at the University of Caen, and then pursued graduate studies at Harvard University where she earned a PhD in Medieval French Language and Literature. Her professional experience includes teaching at the university and secondary levels, educational consultancy, and study abroad work with programs and institutions in France and England.

Charlotte Lacaze holds a BA, New York University and an MA and PhD, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is the Schiff-Dupee Associate Professor of Art History and Co-Chair, Department of Art History and Fine Arts at the American University of Paris where she teaches Ancient and Medieval Art as well as French architecture and urban history. Widely published, her special interests are medieval manuscript illumination, its 19th-century revivals, and architectural history and urbanism.

Xavier Renou has roots in Brittany but has been a long-term resident of Paris. He received an MA from the prestigious grande école, Sciences Po; a second MA from University of Paris II-Assas, where he is now completing his PhD. Xavier has worked in several community service projects in Paris over the years. During 1999-2000, he was a visiting lecturer on French foreign policy at several universities in South Africa where he taught and conducted numerous symposia.

Kelly Spearman is a Greek-American who was raised in Athens but came to Paris in 1980. She completed all of her university training in France and earned a doctorat in art and architecture studies from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne. Her academic focus was on art done in Paris between the World Wars. Over time, she developed a specialty in 18th century French art, especially furniture and interiors. She has taught in several of the study abroad programs in Paris and more recently has been a consultant to art dealers and collectors worldwide.

Administrative Staff

Mark Andersen-Nissen is an alumnus of ISS. He graduated from Burr and Burton Academy in Vermont, and went on to Providence College in Rhode Island as a bio-chem major. He transferred to the University of Denver where he is completing a dual major in French and International Studies. In 2007-08, Mark, a Cherrington Scholar at DU, is studying at Sciences Po in Paris.

Ron Cohen is Chicago-born and holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan. A long time faculty member at Bennington College, where he has served as Dean of Faculty and Dean of Studies, Ron has both directed and been a consultant to our community service program from its inception. He is a founder of the Community Justice Center, a community-based alternative to the standard criminal justice system in Vermont.

Sarah Erich attended ISS-Paris in her senior year of high school in Vermont. She went on to Mt. Holyoke and then transferred to Brandeis from which she was graduated Phi Beta Kappa. During her undergraduate years, she studied at the French University in Montpelier. In the year after graduation, she worked as a teacher in a charter school in Boston for students at risk. Just last year, she returned to Brandeis in the Admissions Office.

Laura Green attended public high school in New York, studied French and Spanish languages at Bennington College, and almost immediately after graduation moved to Paris where she took up the life of an expatriate. For the last many years, she has been the head of International Relations at the Ecole Supérieure de Chimie Organique et Minérale (ESCOM) just outside of Paris.

Students with visiting presenter, Steevy Gustave, Director of Cultural Programs SOS Racisme

Linda Law came to live in France in the early 1990's. She is a New Yorker by birth, but a Parisian by adoption. Linda teaches at the International School of Paris, and has been a chef in her own restaurant in central Paris.

John Nissen is the founder of the Service Learning in Paris program. During the 1990's, he resided in Paris for seven years while he was the Dean of Students and a vice-president at the American University of Paris. During the regular academic year, he is a consultant in international education at New York University and Dean of Transfer Services at Landmark College in Vermont.

Vlady Nicolov is Bulgarian by birth, but has lived in Paris for 15 years. He holds an undergraduate degree from the American University of Paris in international relations and economics, an MA from Université de Rennes I, an advanced certificate from University of Paris IX, and is now a candidate for the doctorat in Media Studies at the Sorbonne.

Marika Rosen was born and raised in California. She received her BA from Brown University and MA from the University of Virginia. She taught at several American schools before moving to Paris. She was a member of the faculty and of the college advising staff of the American section of the Lycée International in St. Germain-en-Laye for nine years. In 1999, she returned to Washington, DC, where she works as an interpreter for the US Department of State and a consultant to educational organizations.