The Humanities Require A Human Touch!

As France enters a renewed lockdown, PICT has taken the decision to suspend its Fall 2020 academic program. This includes PICT courses, workshops, ateliers, conferences, public lectures, and walking tours. All these activities will recommence as soon as state regulations permit.

Unlike most institutions of higher and further education, we at PICT continue to reject online education on principle. The communities of critical and creative thinking brought into existence by our courses are only possible face to face. Also, our faculty members’ recent negative experiences with online instruction at universities have confirmed our belief that online teaching cannot be an adequate substitute for seminar-style, engaged, in-person educational exchange.

It is hard to put into words how saddened and disappointed we are by the news of a renewed confinement. For our staff and instructors alike, our activities at PICT are a major source of motivation, inspiration, and pride. We know the same is true for all of you who engage with us at PICT. We have immensely enjoyed the privilege of coming face to face with you this semester, and we will miss you dearly.

But we will not leave you alone in the challenging days ahead. As in Spring 2020, we will step up our online outreach such as podcast series. And we want our outreach to respond to your current concerns, so please contact us with any and all ideas for future podcasts and other online content, and please subscribe to our e-newsletter, our social media pages, and our YouTube channel, which is frequently updated and features, among other things, a full archive of our podcasts.

We are a community at PICT, and community is more important than ever at times like these. We thank you for your continued support and look forward to seeing you in person again at the earliest possible date.