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. Previously offered first-year seminars can be found in the first-year seminar archive.
Course Title | Instructor | Fulfills (Sectors | Foundational Approaches) |
---|---|---|
ANTH 0058/SAST 0058: Doing Research: First-Year Seminar | Lisa Mitchell | Sector 1: Society |
ARTH 0501/ENGL 0365: Spiegel-Wilks First-Year Seminar: The Art of Care | Aaron Levy | Sector 3: Arts & Letters |
CHEM 0250: Structural Biology | Jeffery Saven | Sector 7: Natural Science Across Disciplines (formerly Natural Sciences & Mathematics) |
CIMS 0201: Sci-Fi Cinema | Christopher Donovan | Sector 3: Arts & Letters |
CLST 0021: Percy Jackson and Friends: Ancient Greece and Rome in Children's and Young Adult Culture | Sheila Murnaghan | Sector 3: Arts & Letters |
COML 0087/GSWS 0087/ITAL 0087: Desire and Deception in Medieval Erotic Literature | Francesco Aresu | Sector 3: Arts & Letters |
COML 0090/FREN 0090: The Fantastic Voyage from Homer to Science Fiction | Scott Francis | Sector 3: Arts & Letters |
COML 0310/ENGL 0310: Reading the City (First-Year Seminar) | Emily Steinlight | Sector 3: Arts & Letters |
ENGL 0391: First Year Seminar: Dark Academia | Caroline Batten | Sector 3: Arts & Letters |
LING 0054: Bilingualism in History | Marlyse Baptista | Sector 2: History & Tradition |
MATH 2030: Proving Things: Algebra | Varies by section | |
MATH 2100: Mathematics in the Age of Information | Staff | Sector 7: Natural Science Across Disciplines (formerly Natural Sciences & Mathematics) |
MUSC 0160: South Asia: Music, Politics, Aesthetics | James Sykes | Sector 3: Arts & Letters |
MUSC 0180B/URBS 0180B: Music in Urban Spaces | Molly Mcglone | Sector 4: Humanities and Social Sciences |
NRSC 0060: Music and the Brain | Michael Kaplan | Sector 5: Living World |
PHYS 0171: Honors Physics II: Electromagnetism and Radiation | Varies by Section | Sector 6: Physical World |
PSCI 0010: Making the Modern State | Melissa Lee | Sector 1: Society |
STSC 0668: River History | John Kanbayashi | Sector 2: History & Tradition |
VLST 1060: Virtual Reality Storytelling | Gregory Vershbow | Sector 4: Humanities and Social Sciences |