First-Year Seminar
The First-Year Seminar is designed for and required of new students at the beginning of their college studies. It offers students the opportunity to learn in small classes through reading and regular discussion, writing and critical engagement with controversial ideas. Sections are taught by faculty representing every part of the college's liberal arts curriculum.
Each section focuses on a topic from current events or history or within one of the traditional areas of academic study which has generated controversy among the scholars, policy makers and others who have grappled with it. The role of controversy in shaping human understanding and motivating social and political action is the common theme which unites all sections. As students develop their own positions in the topics of their seminars, they learn how knowledge and understanding depend on the clash and synthesis of multiple points of view. They can also expect to develop a range of academic skills, including critical reading and thinking, writing and oral presentation, library research and the use of electronic technology for their learning.
Section topics and descriptions vary from year to year and are available below. Recent sections have covered topics in the arts, ecology, international relations, social and public policy, personal development, the sciences and history. Students typically are placed in a FYS section by late June before registering for other first-semester courses. The instructor of their First-Year Seminar section is normally their faculty advisor for the first year.
First Year Seminar Sections
(see also Spring Semester sections)
FYS Sections for Fall 2008
The Search for Life in the Universe
Professor Philip T. Barker (MW)
Section A02 (L)
"L'Amerique! The United States through French Eyes"
Professor Kirk Anderson (TTh)
Section A03 (L)
Kooks, Commies, and the KKK: Radical Movements in America
Professor Anni Baker (MW)
Section A04 (L)
Cross Training: Building the Buff Brain Through Drawing and Design
Professor Claudia Fieo (TTh)
Section A05
Fear in the Making of the Americas
Professor M. Gabriela Torres (MW)
Section A06
How Things Work
Professor Xuesheng Chen (MW)
Section A07
Understanding New England Forests
Professor Deb Cato (MW)
Section A08
Genes 'R Us (?)
Professor Shawn McCafferty (MW)
Section A10
On Becoming Evil
Professor Gail Sahar (TTh)
Section A11
Classics and Comics
Professor Joel Relihan (TTh)
Section A12
Storytelling Through Computer Animation
Professor Mark LeBlanc (MW)
Section A13
United States Minority Education and Us
Professor Derek Price (MW)
Section A14
The Edge of Forever: Waking Up to Who We Are and What We Do
Professor Mary Lee Griffin (MW)
Section A15
Love and Death in English Renaissance Literature
Professor Katherine Conway (TTh)
Section A16
Sports, Schools and Society
Professor Paula Krebs (MW)
Section A17
Public Art and the Popular Imagination
Professor R. Tripp Evans (TTh)
Section A18
Fascism and Modernity in 20th Century Italian Culture
Professor Alberto Bianchi (MW)
Section A19
Hispanics in the United States
Professor Francisco Fernandez de Alba (TTh)
Section A20
From Wunderkammer to MoMA: The Art of Collecting
Professors Touba Fleming and Leah Niederstadt (TTh)
Section A22
Truth, Reconciliation, and Forgiveness
Professor Dolita Cathcart (TTh)
Section A23
Water, water every where: The legacy of the 1927 flood of the Mississippi River and Hurricane Katrina
Professor Thomas Ratliff (MW)
Section A24
Irish Music and Celtic Essence: From Deep in the Bog to Riverdance
Professor Matthew Allen (MW)
Section A25
Gods and Dwarves, Rings and Soundtracks, Hitler and Racism: Examining the Art and Legacy of Richard Wagner
Professor Guy Urban (TTh)
Section A26
Proletariat and Superman
Professor Stephen Mathis (TTh)
Section A27
Russia in Crisis
Professor David Powell (TTh)
Section A28
la dolce vita
Professor David Vogler (TTh)
Section A29
Right and Wrong, Life and Death
Professor Barbara Darling-Smith (TTh)
Section A30 (L)
Current Economic Controversies
Professor John Gildea (TTh)
Section A31 (L)
aMAIZEd and confused
Professor Laura Muller (MW)
Section A32 (L)
"But Wait, There's More!" The Psychology of Everyday Persuasion
Professor Michael Berg (TTh)
Section A33
The Dreams We See: Film in Society
Professor John Grady (MW)
Section A34
Family, Sex and Politics
Professor Kersti Yllo (TTh)
Section A35
Fit for a Queen: Dress of the Fashionable and the Formidable
Professor Clinton O'Dell (TTh)
FYS Sections for Spring 2009
"Trouble is My Business:" Mystery and Detective Fiction
Dean James Mancall (MW)
Section B02
Who was Joan of Arc?
Professor Katrin Sjursen (TTh)
Section B03
Whose Language Is It Anyway?
Professor Susan Dearing (TTh)
Section B04
The Nazi Aesthetic
Professor Tessa Lee (MW)
(L) Linked First-Year Seminar/English 101: Enrollment in both this seminar and the linked English 101 course is required. No waivers for English 101 will be approved for students who select this seminar. Please consider this if selecting this seminar.