At Rice University’s Global Paris Center, classroom walls give way to city streets, museums, hospitals and jazz clubs, especially in Bryan Denny’s Introduction to Social and Affective Neuroscience course. Denny, associate professor of psychological sciences, brought his long-standing course to the Paris Center this summer with a goal beyond academic enrichment.
“I studied abroad in Europe and in Paris for the very first time when I was 18, and it was transformational for me,” Denny said. “I wanted to try to see if conditions like that might be possible for the students so that they could really deepen their understanding and be exposed to cultures that they may have less familiarity with.”
While the course content remained rooted in the neuroscience of emotion and cognition, the setting gave students opportunities to directly engage with the subject in new and unexpected ways.
“In Rice Paris, we say Paris is our classroom, and it’s really true in a number of ways,” Denny said. “When you think about social and affective neuroscience, you’re thinking about the neural mechanisms supporting social cognition and emotion. So we’re integrating Paris in a variety of ways, including engaging with highly influential neuroscience research that has occurred and is occurring in Paris.”
Students visited Sainte-Anne Hospital to see where Jean Talairach developed his groundbreaking stereotaxic human brain atlas. They also met with faculty and toured a cognitive neuroscience lab at Sorbonne University’s Pierre and Marie Curie Campus to study current neuroscience research in action. And they studied music-based emotion research before heading out for a Paris jazz night.
At museums like the Louvre, the Centre Pompidou and the Musée Picasso, they examined how visual art elicits emotional responses and discussed the brain systems behind those reactions.
“Because emotion is so fundamental to thinking about art and architecture, we’re definitely taking the students on a tour of the amazing artistic and architectural treasures that Paris has to offer,” Denny said.
Senior Mariam Falana said she did a double take when she saw the email about the course land in her inbox.
“I was like, wait, this is going to be a really great blend to see more neuroscience in life particularly, which is also where his class is so important,” Falana said.
Falana, who works in Denny’s emotion regulation lab, said she felt the course’s theories come alive during day-to-day moments in Paris.
“Being able to actually live the information I’m learning right now — like the growth model he talks a lot about — in terms of emotional regulation, seeing and feeling myself physically regulate my emotions as I’m seeing everything, it’s generally a great way to apply things,” Falana said.
For senior Chioma Modilim, the chance to study emotional appraisal and regulation through a Parisian lens was equally powerful.
“I feel like the intersection of psychology and art whilst in Paris, a very art rich city, was kind of perfect for what I’m doing and what I’m interested in,” Modilim said. “To be taking a class but also to be in this environment is so new, and it’s … you just don’t know until you try.”
The experience wasn’t limited to coursework. Modilim and Falana both emphasized how Paris itself — the people, culture and rhythm of daily life — helped solidify what they learned in class.
“We’ve applied and understood that culture is such a big part in understanding the fundamentals of social cognition and how we interact with people,” Falana said. “So you see everything all at once, and you’re just kind of hit with a wind of this history. But it gives you such a better appreciation for the way we’re living now.”
Denny said he hopes courses like his will continue to thrive at the Paris Center, offering students intellectual discovery alongside personal transformation.
“I love that we have this beautiful center here that can be our home base,” Denny said. “It’s been called the ‘Embassy of Houston’ here in Paris. I love that we’re here, and I just hope that these sorts of opportunities, that students will continue to take advantage of them.”