Columbia Maison Française

Columbia Maison Française Since 1913, the Columbia Maison Française has been fostering intellectual and cultural exchange between France, the U.S.A and the French-speaking world.

Directed since 2009 by Shanny Peer, the Columbia Maison Française fosters intellectual and cultural exchange between the United States and France, Europe, and the French-speaking world. Its rich program of events stimulates debate, spotlights innovative scholarship, promotes dialogue across disciplines, and contributes to international and cross-cultural understanding.

✨A look back at an evening with historian Thomas W. Laqueur, author of The Dog’s Gaze, exploring the enduring presence o...
09/21/2026

✨A look back at an evening with historian Thomas W. Laqueur, author of The Dog’s Gaze, exploring the enduring presence of dogs in art, history, and the ways we picture ourselves.

Thank you to Thomas W. Laqueur for joining us and sharing his work and insights with our audience.

With thanks to our co-sponsors ICLS, the Department of History, and the Department of Art History & Archaeology.

Thank you to everyone who joined us!

09/21/2026

🎬⚖️ HISTORY ON TRIAL⚖️🎬�

*Film Series*

📅 Tuesday, October 6 - Thursday, December 3, 2026

History on Trial explores the courtroom as a space where history is recorded, contested, and remembered.

🎥 Featuring Bamako, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Filmmakers for the Prosecution, The Return of Martin Guerre, and Saint Omer.

📍 Maison Française & Lenfest Center for the Arts

🎥 Screenings are followed by discussions with invited scholars.�

🌎 All films are subtitled in English.�

🎟️ Free and open to all. RSVP required.

Additional support for the series is provided by the Columbia University School of the Arts , Alliance Program , SOF/heyman , and Dean of Humanities.

Additional sponsors of Filmmakers for the Prosecution are Columbia University Department of Music , the Department of History, ISERP, and the Department of Germanic Studies.

🎬⚖️ HISTORY ON TRIAL⚖️🎬�*Film Series*📅 Tuesday, October 6 - Thursday, December 3, 2026Curated by Shanny Peer with contri...
09/17/2026

🎬⚖️ HISTORY ON TRIAL⚖️🎬�
*Film Series*

📅 Tuesday, October 6 - Thursday, December 3, 2026

Curated by Shanny Peer with contributions by Emmanuel Kattan and Jane Gaines.

⚖️ Trials occupy a unique place in the historical record. By compelling witnesses, defendants, accusers, and judges to account for themselves, they generate unusually rich archives of testimony, evidence, and argument. For historians, such records often provide rare access to worlds that would otherwise remain inaccessible. For filmmakers, trials offer a powerful dramatic form through which larger questions of truth, memory, responsibility, and justice can be explored.

🎬 The films in this series examine the relationship between trials and history in a variety of ways. Some draw directly upon judicial archives to reconstruct the lived experience of the past. Others explore how legal proceedings become sites of historical memory, political accountability, and cultural interpretation.
Whether based on documentary records or fictional proceedings, each film uses the courtroom as a space in which individuals are called upon to explain themselves and societies reveal their deepest assumptions, values, and conflicts.

📍 Maison Française & Lenfest Center for the Arts

🎥 Screenings are followed by discussions with invited scholars.�

🌎 All films are subtitled in English.�

🎟️ Free and open to all. RSVP required.

Additional support for the series is provided by the School of the Arts Film & Media Division, Alliance Program, Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, and Dean of Humanities.

Additional sponsors of Filmmakers for the Prosecution are Columbia University Press, the Department of History, ISERP, and the Department of Germanic Studies.

🎬 RETOUR EN IMAGES 🎬 Two nights. One extraordinary journey across the early cinematic world.Rediscovering the Lumière Br...
09/16/2026

🎬 RETOUR EN IMAGES 🎬 Two nights. One extraordinary journey across the early cinematic world.

Rediscovering the Lumière Brothers Film Footage, a two-part program exploring the early journeys of cinema across North Africa and the Middle East.

The journey began with an extraordinary screening of rare Lumière footage from 1895–1905 at the Lenfest Center for the Arts, introduced by Michael Allan and brought beautifully to life by Makia Matsumura’s live piano accompaniment.

The following night at La Maison Française, Michael Allan took us further along the global routes of the Lumière camera operators, sharing his fascinating research.

A warm thank you to everyone who joined us for these two evenings.✨

A special thank you to the global francophone cinema students ✨

Finally, un grand merci to our partners Film & Media Studies / School of the Arts, the Dean of Humanities, the Institute for Comparative Literature & Society, and The Society of Fellows & the Heyman Center for the Humanities.

🌿 Event Announcement: What is left of the Paris Climate Agreement? Can international policymaking still play a transform...
09/14/2026

🌿 Event Announcement: What is left of the Paris Climate Agreement? Can international policymaking still play a transformative role in addressing the climate crisis?

Adopted in 2015 by 194 countries, the Paris Agreement set ambitious goals to limit global warming. Today, as international dynamics shift, the Columbia Maison Française, Alliance Program, Columbia Climate School, and Villa Albertine invite you to a critical panel on the future of multilateral climate action.The event marks the launch of a new Dual Master's in Climate between Columbia University and Sciences Po.

Featured Panelists:
• Laurence Tubiana — Economist, diplomat, Dean of the Paris Climate School at Sciences Po, and a key lead architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
• Alexis Abramson — Dean of the Columbia Climate School and leading expert in sustainable energy technologies.
• M. Sanjayan (Moderator) — CEO of the New York Climate Exchange and renowned conservation scientist.

📅 When: Wednesday, September 23, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM EDT
📍 Where: East Gallery, Maison Française (Buell Hall, Columbia University)
⚠️ Important Registration & Access Details:• Seating is first-come, first-served. Registration is required but does not guarantee a seat—early arrival is recommended!
• Non-Columbia Affiliates: You must register at least 48 hours in advance on Eventbrite to receive a guest QR code from Columbia Public Safety for campus entry.
🔗 Register here: https://maisonfrancaise.columbia.edu/events/what-left-paris-climate-agreement

What a way to begin the year at the Maison Française ! We could not have hoped for a better first event of the season !L...
09/10/2026

What a way to begin the year at the Maison Française !

We could not have hoped for a better first event of the season !
Last night’s conversation on Writing Colonial History brought together a full house, fascinating questions, and a passionate audience.

Centered around Emmanuelle Saada’s new book, Histoires et colonisations: Des récits de la conquête aux héritages post-coloniaux (Gallimard, 2026), as part of the New Books in the Arts and Sciences series.

Un grand merci to Emmanuelle Saada, Youssef Ben Ismail, Kavita Sivaramakrishnan, and Gregory Mann for such a rich conversation, and to Madeleine Dobie.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who joined us and contributed to such a passionate exchange.

A special thank you to our partners : the Dean of Humanities, SOF/Heyman, French Department, and Department of History.

🌍🎞️ **Two nights. One extraordinary journey across the early cinematic world.**What happens when cinema leaves France an...
09/09/2026

🌍🎞️ **Two nights. One extraordinary journey across the early cinematic world.**

What happens when cinema leaves France and begins to travel?

In **1896–97**, Lumière camera operator Alexandre Promio journeyed across **North Africa and the Middle East**, bringing the new *cinématographe* to places including Egypt and Palestine. His images—and those of other Lumière operators—offer a fascinating, complicated glimpse of a world being newly captured on film.

Join us for **Cinema Across Continents: Rediscovering the Lumière Brothers Film Footage**, a two-part program with cinema scholar **Michael Allan**, author of *Cinema Before the World: The Global Routes of the Lumière Brothers* (Fordham UP, 2026).

🎬 **MON, SEPT 14 | 7 PM**
**A Window on the World: The Global Routes of the Lumière Camera Operators**
📍 Lenfest Center for the Arts
A rare screening of Lumière Co. footage from **1895–1905**, with live piano accompaniment by **Makia Matsumura** and an introduction by Michael Allan.

📖 **TUE, SEPT 15 | 6:30 PM**
**Cinema Across Continents: The Lumière Brothers, 1896–1897**
📍 Maison Française, Buell Hall
An illustrated talk by Michael Allan, accompanied by **rare moving images from North Africa and the Middle East, including Palestine**.

✨ From the first moving images to the first journeys across continents: come discover how cinema began to imagine the world.

🎟️ **Free and open to the public. Registration required for Sept. 15.** https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1996741029169?aff=oddtdtcreator

Long before the phrase man’s best friend became common parlance, dogs were already standing beside us in art as in life....
09/03/2026

Long before the phrase man’s best friend became common parlance, dogs were already standing beside us in art as in life.

In The Dog’s Gaze, the historian Thomas W. Laqueur invites us to explore why they feature more than any other animal in the ways in which we picture ourselves and our stories.

Join us Wednesday, September 16, 6:00-7:30 PM

Thomas Laqueur is the Helen Fawcett Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

This event is organized by the Maison Francaise with funding from the Eugene Sheffer Distinguished Speaker series.

This event is co-sponsored by ICLS, the Department of History, the Department of Art History & Archeology.

In September, join us for conversations on colonial history with Emmanuelle Saada, the Lumière Brothers’ global cinema w...
09/01/2026

In September, join us for conversations on colonial history with Emmanuelle Saada, the Lumière Brothers’ global cinema with Columbia SchooloftheArts and Thomas Laqueur’s fascinating visual history of our canine companions.

Don't forget to register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/cu-maison-francaise-90405256733

A bientôt!

Welcome or welcome back to campus! The Maison Française cannot wait to see you soon at one of our events this fall 2026!...
08/31/2026

Welcome or welcome back to campus! The Maison Française cannot wait to see you soon at one of our events this fall 2026!

The Columbia campus is currently open only to guests with a CUID. However, outside guests who register on Eventbrite to attend a public event will be allowed to enter campus for the event if we provide their names and emails ahead of time.

Please be sure to register for any events at least 48 hours ahead of time and bring your ID with you, or we will not be able to guarantee entry.

See you soon at the Maison Française!

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515 W 116th Street, Buell Hall 2nd Floor
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