About Us

Welcome to InPerpignan.net, a multimedia website that explores the culture, food, people and traditions of Perpignan, France, a Catalan city in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southwestern France.

InPerpignan.net is a publication of The Perpignan Project, a four-week multimedia study-abroad program co-sponsored by the Institute for Education in International Media (ieiMedia) and the San Francisco State University Journalism Department. In the summer of 2010, 18 students from the United States, Canada and Indonesia came to Perpignan to study a range of multimedia journalism skills, including blogging, shooting and editing video, writing for the Web  and interactive mapping. The program was based at the Academie de Langues France Méditerranée(ALFMED), a language academy that provided French language instruction, interpretation services and cultural programming.

Every year for the past decade, ieiMedia has taken groups of student journalists to European villages and small cities where relationships with local community leaders and educators have permitted us to get behind the postcard facades presented to most tourists. In Cagli (2001-2008), Camerano (2006) and Urbino, Italy (2009-2010); and Armagh, Northern Ireland (2007, 2009), we recounted stories that revealed each location’s distinct regional identity.

The students of the Perpignan Project plunged into this work. Armed with still cameras, video cameras, audio recorders and notebooks, they explored the winding streets and hidden crannies of this historically strategic city near the Spanish border. They interviewed artists and farmers, merchants and community leaders, who helped them piece together a mosaic of Perpignan. We hope you enjoy the stories they collected.

For more information about next year’s ieiMedia/SFSU study-abroad programs go to ieiMedia.com.

— Rachele Kanigel
Director, The Perpignan Project
Associate Professor of Journalism, San Francisco State University

Meet The Participants