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Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis

Coordinates: 48°56′41″N 2°21′48″E / 48.94472°N 2.36333°E / 48.94472; 2.36333
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For the similarly named university in Indiana, United States, see Vincennes University.
Paris 8 University
Université Paris-VIII


MottoUniversité des créations
Motto in English
Creative University
TypePublic
Established1969
Academic affiliations
Chancellery of the Universities of Paris
UNIMED
Endowment€113 million (2013)[1]
ChancellorAnnick Allaigre
Undergraduates14,070
Postgraduates6,259
Location
Saint-Denis, Aubervilliers, Paris
,
France

48°56′41″N 2°21′48″E / 48.94472°N 2.36333°E / 48.94472; 2.36333
Websitewww.univ-paris8.fr/en

Paris 8 University (French: Université Paris VIII), or usually the University of Vincennes in Saint-Denis, Paris 8, or historically the University of Paris in Vincennes[2][3] is a public university in the Greater Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public institution.

It is based on several campuses, mainly in Saint-Denis, as well as in Aubervilliers and the north of Paris on the Condorcet Campus, which it has initiated with nine other universities and public institutions since 2008 and which will be inaugurated in 2019.

It is one of the thirteen successors of the University of Paris, and was established shortly before the latter officially ceased to exist on 31 December 1970. It was founded as a direct response to events of May 1968, as a campus of the University of Paris in Vincennes. This response was twofold: it was sympathetic to students' demands for more freedom, but also represented the movement of students out of central Paris, especially the Latin Quarter, where the street fighting of 1968 had taken place.

History

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Founded in 1969, the new experimental institution was named Centre Universitaire Expérimental de Vincennes (CUEV) in Vincennes. In 1971, it gained full university status, thus allowing it to award its own degrees, and renamed University of Vincennes, then University of Paris-VIII.[4] Since moving to Saint-Denis in 1980, the university has become a major teaching and research centre for humanities in the Île-de-France region.

Foundation

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On Monday 5th of August 1968, the Dean of the University of Paris, Raymond Las Vergnas, proposed the creation of a new university to Edgar Faure, the Minister of National Education. Las Vergnas was accompanied by professors Pierre Dommergues, Bernard Cassen and a young female lecturer in English, Hélène Cixous.[5] Two days later, Cixous sent a telegram to her friend Jacques Derrida, asking him to be his advisor.[6] Through Derrida, Cixous recruited Georges Canguilhem and Roland Barthes, who became official advisors.[6][7]

Tumultuous years

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As soon as it opened, the University of Vincennes became the venue for a continuation of 1968, being occupied almost immediately by student radicals, and being the scene of violent confrontations with the police. One incident, in early 1972, involved a janitors' strike. The radicalized janitors invaded classrooms, accused the professors of being scabs, and demanded solidarity. Meanwhile, there was so much radical leafleting, some university hallways were clogged with ankle-deep crumpled leaflets.[citation needed][tone]

It became known for its radical philosophy department, with many faculty considering themselves communist which was at the time headed by Michel Foucault, who in this stage of his career was at his most militant, on one occasion participating in a student occupation and pelting the police outside the building with projectiles.

The footbridge of the Paris 8 University Library, in 2024.

The most consequential scandal of this department emerged around one of the philosophy professors, Jacques Lacan's daughter Judith Miller. The department had its accreditation withdrawn after it was revealed that Miller had handed out course credit to strangers she met on a bus.[8] Miller was subsequently fired by the French education ministry after saying in a radio interview that the university was a capitalist institution and that she was trying to sabotage it from within.[citation needed]

Recent reforms

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Since the turmoil in the late 1960s, the University of Vincennes has endorsed a far more mainstream academic life and has brought in new departments, new professors, and national rules to effect this change.

In 1980, the university was relocated to the suburb of Saint-Denis, to the north of Paris. The university's capacity of 24,000 students per year makes "Paris VIII" an important university with internationally recognized departments in Philosophy, Political Sciences, Cinema Arts, Communication Studies, and Feminist Studies.

In 1992 and 1998, the University of Paris-VIII created two university technical institutes (in French: IUT), in Tremblay-en-France and Montreuil.

The Condorcet Campus North Research Building, shared with other universities.

In 2008, the university, along with seven other humanities and social sciences institutions, launched a campus project to the north of Paris, with the aim of bringing together on the same site a common research facility in the humanities and social sciences. In 2009, this became the Condorcet Campus, which opens in 2019.[9]

In 2024, the university inaugurated the renovation of Building C, marking the first energy-efficient renovation of a university service building in France using the Energiesprong method. This initiative aims to make the building fully energy self-sufficient for all its uses, with a 20-year performance guarantee.[10][11][12][13]

Academics

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The university offers over a hundred undergraduate, graduate and diploma courses.[14] It is particularly well known for its political science program as it is the only public university in France to offer this subject at undergraduate level.

The University of Paris-VIII also offers some distance-learning opportunities for a select number of subjects such as Law and Psychology.

Affiliations

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Paris-VIII is well-connected and has over 250 partnerships with universities around the world. They include the UC Berkeley, the Beijing Film Academy, Boston University, the Free University of Berlin, the Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Vienna as well as since 2016 the University of Rojava.[15]

Students are encouraged to spend one or two semesters at a neighbouring institution in the US, Canada, Latin America, Asia or Europe in order to develop their language skills and cultural understanding. Alternatively, students also have the possibility to teach French in a high school abroad or to complete an internship.

Notable academics

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Main page: Category:Academic staff of Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis
Philosophy
Psychoanalysis
Politics and international relations
Economics
Communication sciences
Hypermedia, new media and cyberculture
Anthropology
Sociology
Arts
Music
Ethnomusicology
Linguistics
University Presidents


Notable alumni

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See also: Category:Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis alumni
Royalty

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Info" (PDF). www.letudiant.fr. 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
  2. ^ "University of Vincennes in Saint-Denis (Paris 8)". Nature Index. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  3. ^ "University of Vincennes in Saint-Denis, Paris VIII | Fulbright Scholar Program". fulbrightscholars.org. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  4. ^ "Paris VIII: History". www.univ-paris8.fr. Archived from the original on 2014-10-15. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  5. ^ Boulard, Stéphanie; Gueorguieva, Elitza; Samoyault, Tiphaine; Ruffel, Lionel (2019-03-15). "L'Invention de Vincennes en trois épisodes". Contemporary French and Francophone Studies. 23 (2): 226. doi:10.1080/17409292.2019.1674489. ISSN 1740-9292. Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  6. ^ a b Peeters, Benoît (2010). Derrida. Grandes biographies. Paris: Flammarion. p. 250. ISBN 978-2-08-121407-1.
  7. ^ Boulard, Stéphanie; Gueorguieva, Elitza; Samoyault, Tiphaine; Ruffel, Lionel (2019-03-15). "L'Invention de Vincennes en trois épisodes". Contemporary French and Francophone Studies. 23 (2): 228. doi:10.1080/17409292.2019.1674489. ISSN 1740-9292. Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  8. ^ Miller, James (2000). The Passion of Michel Foucault. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674001572. Archived from the original on 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  9. ^ Filoche, Adrien (2019-09-02). "A Aubervilliers, la naissance du campus Condorcet, le «Harvard français»". Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  10. ^ "Université Paris 8 : ALTERESCO et ALTYN livrent la première réhabilitation énergétique sur une université française selon la démarche EnergieSprong" (PDF).
  11. ^ "Réhabilitation énergétique d'un bâtiment universitaire selon la démarche EnergieSprong".
  12. ^ "Université Paris 8 - Cyrisea".
  13. ^ "Université Paris 8 : ALTERESCO et ALTYN réalisent la première réhabilitation énergétique sur une université française". 18 March 2024.
  14. ^ "Paris VIII: Educational Programs". www.univ-paris8.fr. Archived from the original on 2016-09-17. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  15. ^ "Rojava university seeks to eliminate constraints on education in Syria's Kurdish region". ARA News. 2016-08-15. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
  16. ^ (in French) Info archive on musicaitalia.free.fr Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine (DOC file)
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