While not required, first-year seminars are an excellent introduction to academic life in the College and are highly recommended for first- or second-semester students. The primary goal of the first-year seminar program is to provide every first-year student with the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small class setting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. First-year seminars also fulfill one of the College General Education Requirements. Below is the list of the first-year seminars offered for Fall 2025. Previously offered first-year seminars can be found in the first-year seminar archive.
| Course Title | Instructor | Fulfills (Sectors | Foundational Approaches) |
|---|---|---|
| AFRC 0016/RELS 1080: First Year Seminar - Black Spiritual Journeys: Modern African American | Vaughn Booker | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| AFRC 0320/ENGL 0320/GSWS 0320: First Year Seminar: Black Queer Traditions | Dagmawi Woubshet | Arts & Letters (AUAL) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| ANTH 0085: Contemporary Native Identities: Traditions, Resistance, Resilience, Advocacy and Joy | Tina Fragoso | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| ARCH 0110: Design, Race, and Climate Justice | Rashida Ng | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| ARCH 0201: Land Practice | Catherine Seavitt | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| CIMS 0101: The Difficult Legacy of Eadweard Muybridge | Ian Fleishman | |
| CHEM 0250: Structural Biology | Jeffery Saven | Natural Science Across Disciplines (AUNM) |
| CLST 0017: First Year Seminar: Private Life in Ancient Rome | Kimberly Bowes | History & Tradition (AUHT) | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| CLST 0019: First Year Seminar: Town and Country in Ancient Greece | Thomas Tartaron | Arts & Letters (AUAL) |
| COML 0103: Doctors' Notes | Carolyn Ureña | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) |
| EALC 1120: Oracle bones to the Chinese Classics: beginnings of writing in East Asia | Adam Smith | Arts & Letters (AUAL) | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| ECON 0055: Economics and Ideas: The Origins of Modernity | Enrique Pallares | Society (AUSO) |
| EDUC 1450: School Reform in America: History, Politics, and Policy | Rand Quinn | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) |
| ENGL 0306: First Year Seminar: How and When to be Bored: Literature and Attention | Staff | Arts & Letters (AUAL) |
| ENGL 0372: First Year Seminar: Juvenilia | Melissa Jensen | Arts & Letters (AUAL) |
| ENGL 0392: First Year Seminar: The Economics of Literature and Film in the 21st Century | James English | Arts & Letters (AUAL) |
| ENGL 0402: First-Year Seminar: Kelly Writers House | Julia Bloch | Arts & Letters (AUAL) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| GRMN 0012/JWST 0012: Jews and China: Views from Two Perspectives | Kathryn Hellerstein | History & Tradition (AUHT) | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| GRMN 0016: Babylon Berlin: German Crime Books | Javier Samper Vendrell | Arts & Letters (AUAL) | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| GSWS 0500: Introduction to Disability Studies | Staff | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| GSWS 0800/SOCI 0800: Men & Masculinities in America | Joel Mittleman | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| HIST 0012: First-Year Seminar: Why College? Historical and Contemporary Perspectives | Jonathan Zimmerman | History & Tradition (AUHT) |
| HIST 0014: First-Year Seminar: A History of America's Children | Hardeep Dhillon | History & Tradition (AUHT) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| HIST 0061/MELC 0460: First-Year Seminar: Of Horses, Bows and Fermented Milk: The Silk Roads in 10 Objects | Oscar Aguirre Mandujano | History & Tradition (AUHT) | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| HIST 0065: Histories of Religion and Violence | Daniel Cheely | History & Tradition (AUHT) |
| HSOC 0343/STSC 0343: Why Medical Interventions Work or Fail: A Search for Answers |
Robert Aronowitz |
Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) |
| HSOC 0361: Medical Missionaries and Partners | Kent Bream | Society (AUSO) |
| HSOC 0387/STSC 0387: Epidemics in History | David Barnes | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) |
| ITAL 0085/CIMS 0085: Representations of Rome in Film and Literature (1848-present) - First Year Seminar | Filippo Trentin | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| LING 0054: Bilingualism in History | Marlyse Baptista | History & Tradition (AUHT) |
| MATH 0021: Freshman Seminar: Math and movies | Jonathan Block | Formal Reasoning & Analysis (AUFR) | Natural Science Across Disciplines (AUNM) |
| MATH 0025: Geometry and Art | Robin Pemantle | Formal Reasoning & Analysis (AUFR) | Natural Science Across Disciplines (AUNM) |
| MELC 0600: The Middle East through Many Lenses | Heather Sharkey | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| MELC: 0905/ANTH 0905: Water in the Middle East Throughout History | Emily Hammer | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| MUSC 0181: On Belonging: Music, Displacement, and Well-Being (SNF Paideia Program Course) | Carol Muller | Arts & Letters (AUAL) |
| MUSC 0182: Music and the Exploration of Consciousness | Staff | Arts & Letters (AUAL) |
| MUSC 0180A/URBS 0180: Music in Urban Spaces | Molly McGlone | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| NRSC 0045: A Neuroscience Perspective on Brain Aging | Mary Ellen Kelly | Natural Science Across Disciplines (AUNM) |
| NRSC 0050: Forensic Neuroscience | Daniel Langleben | The Living World (AULW) |
| PHIL 0430: Markets and Morality First-Year Seminar | Douglas Paletta | Society (AUSO) |
| PHIL 0640: Enhancing the Human Mind with Technology | Gary Purpura | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) |
| PHIL 0991: Topics in Philosophy: Effective Altruism and Its Critics | Carlos J Pereira Di Salvo | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) | Society (AUSO) |
| PHYS 0170: Honors Physics I: Mechanics and Wave Motion | Varies by Section | Quantitative Data Analysis (AUQD) | The Physical World (AUPW) |
| PSCI 0010: First Year Seminar: Democracy and Disagreement | Diana Mutz | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) | Society (AUSO) |
| PSCI 0010: First Year Seminar: How To Disagree Better | Matthew Levendusky | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) | Society (AUSO) |
| PSCI 0010: First Year Seminar: Dispossessions and Resistance in the Americas | Tulia Falleti | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) | Society (AUSO) |
| PSCI 0017: First-Year Seminar: Conservatism in Theory and Practice | Damon Linker | |
| PSCI 0018: First Year Seminar: Poverty in the History of Political Thought | Chris Chambers | |
| PSCI 0019: First Year Seminar: Democratic Erosion, Racial Threat and Studying the 2024 Presidential Election | Andrew Thompson | |
| REES 0411: First-Year Seminar: Masterpieces of 19th-Century Russian Literature | Brian Kim | Arts & Letters (AUAL) | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| SAST 0057: Planning to be Off-shore | Srilata Gangulee | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) | Society (AUSO) |
| SAST 0060: Modern South Asia and the World | Ketaki Umesh Jaywant | |
| SOCI 0004: The Law in our Lives: Governing Marginalized Populations | Staff | Society (AUSO) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| SOCI 0006: Anxious Times: A Sociology of the Environmental Crisis | Hashim Bin Rashid | Society (AUSO) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| SOCI 0007: The Future of Work - First Year Seminar | Stephen Viscelli | Society (AUSO) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| STSC 0283/HSOC 0283: Medicine, Magic and Miracles | Elly Truitt | History & Tradition (AUHT) |
| STSC 0613: How Is AI Changing Higher Education? | Robert Nelson | Society (AUSO) |
| STSC 0883/ HSOC 0883: Climate and Change | Melissa Charenko | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cross Cultural Analysis (AUCC) |
| THAR 0076: Theatre in Philadelphia | Rosemary Malague | Arts & Letters (AUAL) |
| URBS 0010/AFRC 0010/SOCI 2940: Homelessness & Urban Inequality | Dennis Culhane | Society (AUSO) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |
| URBS 0350: Du Bois’ Philadelphia | Amy Hillier | Humanities & Social Science (AUHS) | Cultural Diversity in US (AUCD) |