Content deleted Content added
→Recruitment: Fixed inacurate information: normaliens étudiants (and not étudiant normaliens) are called normaliens |
m Updated short description Tags: Mobile edit Mobile app edit iOS app edit App description change |
||
| (48 intermediate revisions by 30 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{short description|
{{
{{Redirect-several|École Normale Supérieure|École Normale}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox university
| image = Logotype de École normale supérieure.svg
| name =
| other_names =
| image_size =
| caption =
| established = {{Start date and age|1794}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ens.psl.eu/grandes_dates|title=Grandes dates {{!}} ENS|website=ens.psl.eu|access-date=1 July 2020|archive-date=10 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810160405/https://www.ens.psl.eu/grandes_dates|url-status=live}}</ref>
| founder = [[National Convention]]
| type = [[école normale supérieure|ENS]] (informal), <br />[[Grandes écoles|''grande école'']], <br />[[Établissement public à caractère scientifique, culturel et professionnel|EPSCP]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ens.fr/a-propos/l-institution/?lang=fr |title=L'Institution - École normale supérieure - Paris |access-date=20 November 2014 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129033721/http://www.ens.fr/a-propos/l-institution/?lang=fr |url-status=dead }}</ref> (administrative)
| president = [[Pierre-Louis Lions]]<ref name="Decree of 11 June 2009">{{cite web |url=http://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/pid20536/rubrique-bo.html?cid_bo=28475 |title=Decree of 11 June 2009 |publisher=French Ministry of Higher Education |access-date=20 November 2014 |archive-date=22 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422170000/https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/pid20536/rubrique-bo.html?cid_bo=28475 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| director = [[
| city = [[Paris]]
| country = [[France]]
| academic_staff = 1,400<ref name="ENS figures">{{cite web |url=http://www.ens.fr/spip.php?article7&lang=en |title=Faits et chiffres – École normale supérieure – Paris |publisher=Ens.fr |access-date=15 May 2014 |archive-date=7 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207083502/http://www.ens.fr/spip.php?article7&lang=en |url-status=dead }}</ref> (630 teaching fellows, 170 professors and 580 post-doctoral researchers)
| students = 2,400<ref name="ENS figures" />
| undergrad = 300<ref name="ENS figures" />
Line 26 ⟶ 27:
| free =
| colours = [[Purple (color)|Purple]]
| affiliations = {{Nowrap|[[Paris Sciences et Lettres – Quartier latin|Paris Sciences et Lettres]] (PSL) <br />
| website =
| footnotes =
| logo = File:LOGO-PSL-nov-2017.jpg
}}
The '''
Its [[List of École Normale Supérieure people|alumni]] include 14 [[Nobel Prize]] laureates,<ref name="nature.com">{{cite journal|title=Hsu & Wai survey of universities worldwide ranked by ratio of Nobel laureates to alumni |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |date=7 October 2016 |volume=538 |issue=7624 |pages=152 |doi=10.1038/nature.2016.20757 |last1=Clynes |first1=Tom |pmid=27734890 |s2cid=4466329 |doi-access=free }}</ref> of which 8 are in [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]], 12 [[Fields medal|Fields Medalists]], more than half the recipients of the [[CNRS]]'s [[CNRS Gold medal|Gold Medal]], several hundred members of the {{Lang|fr|[[Institut de France]]|italic=no}}, as well as several French and foreign politicians and statespeople.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.topuniversities.com/universities/ecole-normale-sup%C3%A9rieure-paris/undergrad |title=Top universities – University profiles |publisher=Top Universities |access-date=19 November 2014 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127073722/https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/ecole-normale-sup%C3%A9rieure-paris/undergrad |url-status=live }}</ref>
▲The ENS is a ''[[grandes écoles|grande école]]'' and, as such, is not part of the mainstream university system. However, the vast majority of the academic staff hosted at ENS belong to external institutions such as [[List of universities and higher education institutions in the Paris region|one of the Parisian universities]], the [[CNRS]] and the [[EHESS]]. This mechanism for constant scientific turnover allows ENS to benefit from a continuous stream of researchers in all fields. ENS full professorships are rare and competitive. Generalistic in its recruitment and organisation, the ENS is the only ''grande école'' in France to have departments of research in all the natural, social, and human sciences.
== History ==
=== Founding ===
[[File:École normale supérieure de Paris, 26 January 2013.jpg|thumb|Entrance of the historic building of the ENS, at 45,
The current institution finds its roots in the creation of the
The inaugural course was given on 20 January 1795 and the last on 19 May of the same year at the [[National Museum of Natural History (France)|Museum of Natural History]]. The goal of these courses was to train a body of teachers for all the secondary schools in the country and thereby to ensure a homogenous education for all. These courses covered all the existing sciences and humanities and were given by scholars such as: scientists [[Gaspard Monge|Monge]], [[Alexandre-Théophile Vandermonde|Vandermonde]], [[Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton|Daubenton]], [[Claude Louis Berthollet|Berthollet]] and philosophers [[Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre|Bernardin de Saint-Pierre]] and [[Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney|Volney]] were some of the teachers. The school was closed as a result of the arrival of the
On 17 March 1808, Napoleon created by decree a ''pensionnat normal'' within the imperial [[University of France]] charged with "training in the art of teaching the sciences and the humanities".<ref>Law of 10 May 1806 relative to the creation of the Imperial University, article 118.</ref> The establishment was opened in 1810, its strict code including a mandatory uniform. By then a sister establishment had been created by Napoleon in [[Pisa]] under the name of
=== Second founding ===
[[File:Façade de l'École normale supérieure.JPG|left|thumb|The main entrance to the ENS on
An ''
Having been recognised as a success, a second school was created on its model at Sèvres for girls in 1881, followed by other schools at [[Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon|Fontenay]], [[Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon|Saint-Cloud]] (both of which later moved to [[Lyon]], and [[École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay|Cachan]]). The school's status evolved further at the beginning of the twentieth century.
In 1903 it was integrated into the [[University of Paris]] as a separate college,<ref>Decree of 10 November 1903 ([http://books.openedition.org/editionsulm/1218?lang=en Pascale Hummel, ''Pour une histoire de
The ranks of the school were significantly reduced during the [[First World War]], but the 1920s marked a degree of expansion of the school, which had among its students at this time such figures as [[Raymond Aron]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Vladimir Jankélévitch]] and [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]].
The high sacrifice paid by normaliens in the First World War was recognized by the award of the croix de guerre avec citation à l ordre de l armée in 1925.<ref>1926, p. 26).
AUx oRIGINES DE IJ\ KHAGNE 31
grecque, soit une explication d'allemand, ou d'anglais, ou d'italien, ou d'espagnol, soit une seconde interrogation sur I'histoire ou la philosophie ,. On avait donc tenté, semble-t-il, d'éliminer de l'écrit la plupart des épreuves qui demandaient un travail de révision trop intense, incompatible avec les quelques mois de préparation passés dans les centres de préparation mili- taires. Ces épreuves, reléguées a l'oral, voyaient d'ailleurs leur programme considérablement limité par rapport a celui des concours ordinaires. Ainsi, en histoire, les connaissances exigées portaient sur la France de 1789 a la fin du Directoire et sur u I'Empire allemand, I'Autriche-Hongrie, l'Angleterre et l'Amérique dans la seconde moitié du xrx" siècle >.
L'organisation de ce concours spécial avait naturellement pour but, on I'a vu, de sauvegarder les droits des khàgneux dont la mobilisation et les années au front avaient interrompu les études. De son cóté, la III" République entendait ainsi reconstituer le plus rapidement possible cette ( élite u que son système scolaire était chargé de promouvoir et que la guerre venait de décimer. Et, de fait, la session spéciale de 1919 déboucha sur une promotion plus importante que les promotions habituelles, mais aussi, en termes relatifs, sur un pourcentage de réussites plus élevé qu'a l'habitude. Sur 233 candidats littéraires inscrits, 70 furent regus normaliens et 75 boursiers de licence ls. A titre de comparaison, avant et après le conflit mondial, pour un nombre a peu près égal de candidats, les promotions littéraires comptaient un peu moins d'une trentaine de membres, et une vingtaine de bourses de licence étaient allouées.
D'une manière générale, et toujours dans le double dessein de préserver les droits des mobilisés et' de reconstituer des cadres vidés par la guerre, beaucoup d'examens et de concours universitaires de I'année 1919 et des années suivantes furent largement ouverts aux démobilisés : par exemple, l'agrégation d'histoire et de géographie de 1920 compta, pour sa session normale, sept regus - dont le premier fut Pierre Gaxotte -, ¤t, pour sa < session spéciale >, vingt-six regus.
L'École normale supérieure en 1919.
Du fait de la guerre, se cÒtoyèrent donc a l'École normale supérieure, en 1919 et dans les années suivantes, des élèves d'àges et d'expériences très différents. La promotion spéciale de 1919 comprenait des mobilisés de l'été 1914 et des soldats appelés sous les drapeaux au cours des années suivantes. Des élèves reQus au Concours de 1914 ei mobilisés aussitót après, tel Marcel Déat, commengaient, en réalité, eux aussi leur scolarité rue d'Ulm en 1919. Les survivants des promotions 1912 et 1913 reprenaient leurs années de scolarité a I'Ecole, interrompues par la guerre avant I'agrégation. Les élèves des promo- tions 191ó, 1917 ou 1918 continuaient leurs études ou les reprenaient, certains
ayant été mobilisés après leur réussite au concours. Enfin, les élèves du concours normal de 1919 entamaient, eux aussi, leurs années d'études. Un texte de Paul Dupuy, qui fut pendant plusieurs décennies < surveillant
13. Joumal Officiel, 21 juillet 1925, p. ó859.</ref>
=== Twentieth century ===
After the [[Second World War]], in which some of its students were players in the [[French Resistance|Resistance]], the school became more visible and increasingly perceived as a bastion of the [[communist left]]. Many of its students belonged to the [[French Communist Party]]. This leftist tradition continued into the 1960s and 1970s during which an important fraction of French [[Maoists]] came from ENS. In 1953 it was made autonomous from the [[University of Paris]],<ref>Decree of 3 February 1953 ([http://books.openedition.org/editionsulm/1218?lang=en Pascale Hummel, ''Pour une histoire de
The fallout from the May 1968 protests caused President of the Republic [[Georges Pompidou]], himself a former student at the school, to
The school continued to expand and include new subjects, seeking to cover all the disciplines of natural and social sciences. In this manner, a new ''concours'' was opened in 1982 to reinforce the teaching of social sciences at the school.<ref name="lemonde.fr"/> The ''concours'', called B/L (the A/L concours standing for the traditional letters and human sciences), greatly emphasises proficiency in mathematics and economics alongside training in philosophy and literature.
For a long time, most women were taught at a separate ENS, the
== Organisation ==
=== Sites ===
[[File:ENS Ulm cour Ernests DSC00106.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Quadrangle (architecture)|quadrangle]] at the main ENS building on
The
The main site at 45
Several auxiliary buildings surround this main campus in adjacent streets. The closest one, opposite the main entrance, at 46
ENS has a second campus on Boulevard Jourdan (previously the women's college), in the 14th
The school has a secondary site in the suburb of [[Montrouge]], which houses some of its laboratories alongside those of [[Paris Descartes University]]. It features green areas and sporting facilities as well as some 200 student rooms. A fourth site in the town of
=== Recruitment ===
The school is very small in student numbers. Its core of students, who are called ''
Preparation for the ''concours'' takes place in [[preparatory classes]] which last two years (see ''[[grandes écoles]]'').
Other students
PhD students at ENS are either graduate students from the ENS doctoral school<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ed540.ens.fr/?lang=en |title=ENS Doctoral School |access-date=23 October 2019 |archive-date=23 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023185513/https://www.ed540.ens.fr/%3Flang%3Den |url-status=live }}</ref> or from another doctoral school co-accredited by ENS.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ens.fr/en/academics/academic-programs/phd-programs |title=ENS PhD programs |access-date=23 October 2019 |archive-date=23 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023185513/https://www.ens.fr/en/academics/academic-programs/phd-programs |url-status=live }}</ref> Since 2016 PhD students preparing their doctoral research at ENS are awarded a PhD from PSL University.
ENS also welcomes selected foreign students (the "international selection"), participates in various graduate programs, and has extensive research laboratories. The foreign students selected often receive a scholarship which covers their expenses.
The students selected via the ''concours'' remain at the school for a length of time ranging from four to six years. ''Normaliens'' from [[France]] and other [[European Union]] countries are considered civil servants in training.<ref name="legifrance.gouv.fr">{{cite web |title=Law granting ENS students the status of civil servants |url=http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000503927&categorieLien=id |access-date=22 November 2014 |publisher=Légifrance (French government legal database) |archive-date=1 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230301160048/https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000503927&categorieLien=id |url-status=live }}</ref> Many students devote at least one of those years to the ''[[agrégation]]'', which allows them to teach in high schools or universities. Faculty recruitment is selective, with between zero and one ENS professorship open per year{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}. Faculty recruitments usually happen upon previous incumbent retirements. In informal ENS jargon, ENS full professors are popularly called ''PdPs'' ("''professeurs des professeurs'')" because traditionally ENS was created to educate future professors{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}.
=== Divisions ===
{{stack|[[File:Cour aux Ernests sous la neige.jpg
Founded to train high school teachers through the ''[[agrégation]]'', ENS is now an institution training researchers, professors, high-level civil servants,
The school has seven departments in its "Sciences" section: [[mathematics]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dma.ens.fr/ |title=DMA – Department of Mathematics |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=15 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115062043/http://www.dma.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[physics]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://fip.phys.ens.fr/ |title=FIP – Department of Physics |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129040023/http://fip.phys.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[computer science]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.di.ens.fr/ |title=DI – Department of Computer Science |access-date=23 August 2019 |archive-date=5 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505215618/https://www.di.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[chemistry]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chimie.ens.fr/ |title=Department of Chemistry |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=22 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622164602/http://www.chimie.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[biology]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.biologie.ens.fr/depbio/ |title=Department of Biology |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=18 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218070405/http://www.biologie.ens.fr/depbio/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[geoscience]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tao.ens.fr/ |title=TAO – Department of Geoscience |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=16 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516075928/http://www.tao.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[cognitive science]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cognition.ens.fr/ |title=DEC – Department of Cognitive Science |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=30 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330012635/http://www.cognition.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It also has eight departments in its "Letters" section: [[philosophy]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.philosophie.ens.fr/ |title=Department of Philosophy |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=18 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218061232/http://www.philosophie.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[literature]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.lila.ens.fr/ |title=LILA – Department of Literature and Language |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=3 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503140538/http://www.lila.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[history]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.histoire.ens.fr/ |title=Department of History |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=11 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811071552/http://www.histoire.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[classics]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.antiquite.ens.fr/ |title=CEA – Department of Classics |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=21 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121170400/http://www.antiquite.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[social science]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.paris-jourdan.ens.fr/accuei/?%20DSS |title=Jourdan – Department of Social Science |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129040023/http://www.paris-jourdan.ens.fr/accuei/?%20DSS |url-status=live }}</ref> [[economics]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://economie.ens.fr/?lang=en/ |title=Department of Economics |access-date=12 October 2016 |archive-date=12 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012153450/http://economie.ens.fr/?lang=en/ |url-status=live }}</ref> (this section is the base of [[Paris School of Economics]]);<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/ |title=Paris School of Economics |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=12 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012024027/http://g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/topincomes/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[geography]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.geographie.ens.fr/ |title=Department of Geography |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=4 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104061611/http://www.geographie.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[art history]] and [[art theory|theory]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dhta.ens.fr/ |title=Passerelle des arts – Department for the History and Theory of Art |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=16 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416143458/http://www.dhta.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition to these fifteen departments, a language laboratory<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ecla.ens.fr/ |title=ECLA - ENS Language Laboratory |access-date=12 October 2016 |archive-date=9 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009115921/http://ecla.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> for non-specialists offers courses in most major world languages to all the students. Additional centres of research and laboratories gravitate around the departments, which function as nodes of research.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}
▲[[File:Cour aux Ernests sous la neige.jpg|left|thumb|The school's ''Cour aux Ernests'' under a coat of snow.]]
▲Founded to train high school teachers through the ''[[agrégation]]'', ENS is now an institution training researchers, professors, high-level civil servants, as well as business and political leaders. It focuses on the association of training and research, with an emphasis on freedom of curriculum. The school's resources are equally divided between its "Letters" (social and human sciences and literature) and its "Sciences" (natural sciences and mathematics) sections. The school's fifteen departments and its 35 units of research (''unités mixtes de recherches'' or ''UMR'' in French) work in close coordination with other public French research institutions such as the [[CNRS]].
The emphasis is placed squarely on [[interdisciplinarity]].
=== Libraries ===
The École normale supérieure has a network, known as Rubens, of ten libraries shared over its sites, which taken together make up the third largest library in France.<ref name="Article from the Nouvel obs">{{cite web|url=http://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com/actualites/20111129.OBS5574/ens-une-ecole-au-bord-de-la-crise-de-nerfs.html
{{Base Mérimée|PA00132985}}</ref> This main library, which covers several thousand square metres, is one of the largest free access funds of books in France, with upwards of 800,000 books readily available and more than 1600 periodicals. Its classics section is part of the national network of specialised libraries (
▲http://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com/actualites/20111129.OBS5574/ens-une-ecole-au-bord-de-la-crise-de-nerfs.html |title=Article from the ''Nouvel obs''|publisher=bibliobs.nouvelobs.fr |access-date=22 November 2014}}</ref> The catalogue is available for consultation online.<ref>[http://halley.ens.fr/ Halley integrated catalogue of the Rubens libraries]</ref> Entrance to the libraries is reserved to domestic and international researchers of doctoral level, as well as to the teachers at the school, ''normaliens'', other ENS students, and [[PSL Research University]] students. The main library, devoted to literature, classics, and human sciences, dates back to the nineteenth century when it was greatly expanded by its director, the famous [[dreyfusard]] [[Lucien Herr]]. Its main reading room is protected as a ''monument historique''.<ref>
▲{{Base Mérimée|PA00132985}}</ref> This main library, which covers several thousand square metres, is one of the largest free access funds of books in France, with upwards of 800,000 books readily available and more than 1600 periodicals. Its classics section is part of the national network of specialised libraries (''Cadist'').<ref>Y. Desrichard, ''Administration et bibliothèques'', 2006, p. 174-176</ref>
A secondary library concerned with social science, economics, and law is located at the Jourdan campus for social science. This library has more than 150,000 books in the subjects it covers{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}. The school also has specialised libraries in archeology, cognitive sciences, mathematics and computer science, theoretical physics. A recently unified natural sciences library was opened in 2013, aiming to bring together in a central place on
=== Affiliations ===
Line 127 ⟶ 130:
Two other [[école normale supérieure|''écoles normales supérieures'']] were established in the 20th century: the [[École Normale Supérieure de Lyon]] (sciences and humanities); and the [[École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay]] (pure and applied sciences, sociology, economics and management, English language). More recently, the fourth ''école normale supérieure'' was created in January 2014 under the name of École Normale Supérieure de Rennes (pure and applied sciences, economics and management, law school, sport) in [[Brittany]]. All four together form the informal ENS-group{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}.
The
=== Domestic partnerships ===
Its educational project being based on research, ENS seeks to train its students to become researchers. The main objective of the education given is getting a doctorate, and more than 85% of ''normaliens'' achieve this{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}. The students are free to choose their own course of study but must at least attain a master's degree in research. Since, traditionally, the institution does not have the powers to grand university degrees, students have to follow courses in other universities in Paris. To this end, ENS cultivates a large number of partnerships and conventions with other higher education institutions to create master's degrees which are co-presided by two institutions. ENS works closely with the
=== International partnerships ===
[[File:Palazzo Carovana Pisa.jpg|right|thumb|The
The
ENS welcomes international researchers for one-year stays through the mediation of the Paris Institute of Advanced Research and the Villa Louis-Pasteur. The Blaise Pascal, Marie Curie, Condorcet and Lagrange research places (''chaires'') also allow researchers from abroad to stay for more than a year at ENS laboratories. ENS also is a member of the Franco-Chinese laboratory Saladyn since 2013.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ambafrance-cn.org/IMG/pdf/newsletter_13_final_-_fr.pdf |title=
Furthermore, ENS has partnerships for research at Master's and Doctorate levels, sending its students to universities around the world to complete their tuition. It also shares thesis habilitation with universities abroad, meaning that somes theses can be written with support from both the ENS and one of its partner institutions. It is also customary for students in the literary and linguistic subjects to go to teach for one year in universities abroad with the position of junior fellows. These exchange and cooperation programs link ENS with universities such as the [[University of Beijing]] in China, [[Freie Universität Berlin]] in Germany, the universities of [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], [[University of Edinburgh|Edinburgh]] and [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] in the United Kingdom, [[Trinity College, Dublin|Trinity College]] in Dublin, [[McGill University]] in Montréal, and the universities at [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]], [[Columbia University|Columbia]], [[University of Cornell|Cornell]], [[Harvard University|Harvard]], [[Princeton University|Princeton]], [[University of Stanford|Stanford]], and [[Yale University|Yale]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ens.fr/IMG/file/internationale/2013/Liste%20des%20universit%C3%A9s%20partenaires_sejours%20professionnalisants.pdf |title=ENS – list of partnerships |publisher=.ens.fr |access-date=20 November 2014 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129034357/http://www.ens.fr/IMG/file/internationale/2013/Liste%20des%20universit%C3%A9s%20partenaires_sejours%20professionnalisants.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Academics ==
Line 147 ⟶ 150:
=== Publishing ===
Since 2001, the
In 1975 the school founded its university press, first called
=== Foundation ===
In 1986, an ENS foundation was created and recognised as a ''fondation d'utilité publique'' by law.<ref>
=== Rankings and reputation ===
{{
In France, ENS has been regarded since the late 19th century as one of foremost ''grandes écoles''. However, the ENS system is different from that of most higher education systems outside France, thus making it difficult to compare with foreign institutions; in particular, it is much smaller than a typical English collegiate university. It is ranked as the second "small university" worldwide behind [[California Institute of Technology]] by the 2016 Times Higher Education Smaller Universities Ranking (a ranking of institutions of fewer than 5000 students).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/news/worlds-best-small-universities-2016 |title=Times Higher Education Ranking of Small Universities |work=THE Times |date=
== Notable alumni ==
Line 169 ⟶ 172:
=== Mathematics and physics ===
[[Évariste Galois]], the founder of [[Galois theory]] and [[group theory]], was an early student at ENS, then still called
Since the 1936 establishment of the [[Fields Medal]], often called the "Nobel Prize for mathematics", eleven ''normaliens'' have been recipients, contributing to ENS's reputation as one of the world's foremost training grounds for mathematicians: [[Laurent Schwartz]], [[Jean-Pierre Serre]] (also a recipient of the inaugural [[Abel Prize]] in 2003), [[René Thom]], [[Alain Connes]], [[Jean-Christophe Yoccoz]], [[Pierre-Louis Lions]], [[Laurent Lafforgue]], [[Wendelin Werner]], [[Cédric Villani]], [[Ngô Bảo Châu]] and [[Hugo Duminil-Copin]]. [[Alexander Grothendieck]], also a Fields medallist, though he was not a ''normalien'', received a substantial part of his training at the school. These twelve former students have made ENS [[Fields Medal#University ranking by alumni|the institution with the most Fields medallist alumni]] of any institution worldwide. Former student [[Yves Meyer]] was also awarded the Abel prize.
Line 179 ⟶ 182:
Its position as a leading institution in the training of the critical spirit has made ENS into France's premier training ground for future philosophers and producers of what has been called by some "French theory". Its position as a philosophical birthplace can be traced back to its very beginnings, with [[Victor Cousin]] a student in the early 19th century. Two ENS philosophers won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] for their writings, [[Henri Bergson]] and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]]. [[Raymond Aron]], the founder of French anti-communist thought in the 1960s and Sartre's great adversary, was a student from the same year as Sartre, and they were both near contemporaries of [[phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenologist]] [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]], musicologist [[Vladimir Jankélévitch]] and historian of philosophy [[Maurice de Gandillac]]. In [[Sèvres]], in the ENS for young women, philosopher and mystic [[Simone Weil]] was accomplishing her years of study at the same time. [[Jean Hyppolite]], the founder of [[Hegel]]ian studies in France, also studied at the school at this time and later influenced many of its students. [[Philosophy of science|Epistemologists]] [[Georges Canguilhem]] and [[Jean Cavaillès]], the latter also known as a [[Résistance]] hero, were educated at ENS as well.
[[File:Simone Weil 1921.jpg|right|thumb|[[Simone Weil]] attended the
Later, [[Marxism|Marxist]] political thinker [[Louis Althusser]] was a student at ENS and taught there for many years, and many of his disciples later became known for their own thought: among them were [[Étienne Balibar]], philosopher [[Alain Badiou]], who still teaches at the school as an emeritus professor, and [[Jacques Rancière]]. Still later, in the 1940s and 1950s, the world-renowned thinker [[Michel Foucault]], founder of the history of systems of thought and future professor at the [[Collège de France]] was a student a few years ahead of the founder of [[deconstruction]], [[Jacques Derrida]] and the thinker of [[individuation]] [[Gilbert Simondon]]. The tradition continues today through such philosophers as [[Jacques Bouveresse]], [[Jean-Luc Marion]], [[Claudine Tiercelin]], [[Francis Wolff]] and [[Quentin Meillassoux]], and the school has also produced prominent public intellectuals like [[Stéphane Hessel]] and such [[New Philosophers]] as [[Bernard-Henri Lévy]] and [[Benny Lévy]].
Line 187 ⟶ 190:
=== History and literature ===
One of the school's foremost specialities has always been the teaching of history, and as such it has produced a large number of renowned historians who have been important in the development of their subject, starting with [[Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges]], [[Ernest Lavisse]] and [[Jérôme Carcopino]], all students of the school in the second half of the nineteenth century who later would come back to direct it. Around the turn of the century two men who would become the founders of the [[Annales School]], [[Marc Bloch]] and [[Lucien Febvre]], studied at the school. [[Jacqueline de Romilly]] and [[Pierre Grimal]], respectively historians of [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome]], were both students at the school starting in 1933. Sinologist [[Marcel Granet]], medievalist [[Jacques Le Goff]], [[Egyptologist]] [[Gaston Maspero]],
[[File:Jean-Paul Sartre FP.JPG|left|thumb|upright|[[Jean-Paul Sartre]] attended the school at the same time as his intellectual foe [[Raymond Aron]].]]
The school has a long-standing reputation as a training ground for men and women of letters, and its alumni include novelist and dramatist [[Jean Giraudoux]], many of whose plays among which ''[[The Trojan War Will Not Take Place]]'' and ''[[Amphitryon 38]]'' have become staple elements of the French theatrical repertory; and acclaimed novelist [[Julien Gracq]], whose 1951 novel ''[[The Opposing Shore]]'' is now considered a classic. Poet [[Paul Celan]] and [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] winner [[Samuel Beckett]] were both teachers at the school. [[Jules Romains]], the founder of ''[[Unanimism]]'', essayists [[Paul Nizan]] and [[Robert Brasillach]], novelist [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] winner [[Romain Rolland]] and poet [[Charles Péguy]] are a few other examples of major authors who were educated there. The school has also long been a centre for literary criticism and theory, from one-time director [[Gustave Lanson]] to major twentieth-century figures of the field such as [[Paul Bénichou]], [[Jean-Pierre Richard]] and [[Gérard Genette]]. The founder of the influential ''[[Négritude]]'' movement, [[Martinican]] poet [[Aimé Césaire]], prepared and passed the entrance exam from the
=== Social sciences and economics ===
Line 201 ⟶ 204:
=== Government and politics ===
ENS has never had a public policy division, but some of its students have become leading statesmen and politicians. [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] Prime Ministers [[Jules Simon]], [[Léon Blum]], [[Édouard Herriot]] and [[Paul Painlevé]] as well as [[socialist]] leader [[Jean Jaurès]] were early examples of this trend. At this time, quite a few ENS former students and intellectuals were drawn to [[socialism]], such as [[Pierre Brossolette]] who became a
== See also ==
Line 213 ⟶ 216:
* [[List of École Normale Supérieure people]]
* [[:Category:École Normale Supérieure alumni|Alumni of the École Normale Supérieure]]
*
* [[École nationale d'administration]]
* [[École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris]]
Line 237 ⟶ 240:
* Collective, ''Notre Ecole normale'', [[Belles lettres]], 1994.
* Collective, ''Les Normaliens peints par eux-mêmes'', Chamerot et Renouard, 1895.
* Dimoff, Paul, ''La Rue
* Dufay, François & Dufort, Pierre-Bertrand, ''Les Normaliens. De Charles Péguy à Bernard-Henri Lévy, un siècle d'histoire'', J.-C. Lattès, 1993.
* Ferrand, Michèle, Imbert, Françoise & Marry, Catherine, ''L'Excellence scolaire : une affaire de famille. Le cas des normaliennes et normaliens scientifiques'', [[L'Harmattan]], 1999.
* [[Robert Flacelière|Flacelière, Robert]], ''Normale en péril'', Presses universitaires de France, 1971.
* [[Édouard Herriot|Herriot, Edouard]], ''Normale'', Société nouvelle
* Hummel, Pascale, ''Humanités normaliennes. L'enseignement classique et l'érudition philologique dans l'École normale supérieure au XIXe siècle'', [[Les Belles Lettres]], No. 298, 1995.
* Hummel, Pascale, ''Regards sur les études classiques au XIXe siècle. Catalogue du fonds Morante'', Paris, ''Presses de
* Hummel, Pascale, ''Pour une histoire de
* Israël, Stéphane, ''Les Études et la guerre. Les normaliens dans la tourmente'', ''Éditions Rue d'Ulm'', 2005.
* Judson Ladd, Adoniram, ''École normale supérieure: An Historical Sketch'', Herald Publications Company, Grand Forks, N.D., 1907.
* [[Gustave Lanson|Lanson, Gustave]], " L'École normale supérieure ", ''La Revue des deux Mondes'', 1926.
* Masson, Nicole, ''L'École normale supérieure : Les chemins de la liberté'', collection « [[Découvertes Gallimard]] » (nº 221), série Mémoire des lieux. [[Gallimard]], 1994.
* Méchoulan, Eric & Mourier, Pierre-FrançoisÉric Méchoulan, ''Normales Sup' : des élites pour quoi faire ?'', ''L'Aube'', 1994.
Line 255 ⟶ 258:
* [[Clément Rosset|Rosset, Clément]], ''En ce temps-là'', [[Editions de Minuit|Minuit]], 1992.
* Sirinelli, Jean-François, ''Génération intellectuelle. Khâgneux et normaliens dans l'entre-deux-guerres'', Fayard, 1988.
* Sirinelli, Jean-François (ed.), ''École normale supérieure
{{Refend}}
| |||