First-Year Seminar Course Descriptions

FS 102 – The Afterlife [Honors only]

This seminar explores how cultures in different times and places have imagined what happens to human beings after death. It will also examine how beliefs about the afterlife are related to questions of power, authority, and ethics in this life. All major world religions, and some localized indigenous traditions will be covered.

FS 111 – The Examined Life [Honors option]

In this course we will examine our lives by writing about them, using “lenses” from various fields (literature, history, philosophy, or psychology, for instance) to see ourselves from different angles. We will each write a memoir of our own, using what we have learned to further explore the writing process and examine our own lives.

FS 112 – Drama and Culture

This course will introduce students to plays from classical times to the present. Through reading, watching, discussion, and regular writing assignments, students will be challenged to understand the relationships between the theatrical worlds that playwrights have fashioned and the world in which we live. Live performances during the semester may be included as they become available.

FS 115 – The American Environmental Imagination

This course is designed to introduce students to American literary and cultural representations of the natural environment, examining a variety of writings that have shaped the way that we understand and treat nature. We will consider a number of relevant disciplines, including environmental philosophy, politics, aesthetics, and ethics.

FS 128 – Journey Stories

We use stories to make sense of our world and to share that understanding with others. This seminar reads, examines, and listens to the stories people tell. Students will tell their own stories, attend a Moth Story Slam, and interview other people to give them an opportunity to tell their own story. We will use these stories to develop a common language and understand both the inner and outer landscapes of our lives.

FS 140 – Place and Placelessness

This course examines conceptions and experiences of place. We live in a world of distinct, memorable and meaning-infused places. By exploring spaces and places that seem to resonate with meaning, we will probe how the essence of the meaning of place can be imposed and maintained (or resisted and denied?), and how we define ourselves and others through and within places.

FS 150 – Black Voices of Democracy

African American writing and music are fundamentally American traditions that express the gaps between democratic ideals and social realities. From the time of slavery to the present, Black writers have used the prophetic power of voice-spoken, sung, and written-to move the nation towards transformation, freedom, and equality. This course explores examples from these traditions.

FS 153 – Peace and Justice

This course is designed as an introduction to the subject of social justice through the study of social justice issues in the context of the lives of individuals who envision(ed) a more just society and endeavor(ed) to live by that vision. We will study issues such as nonviolence, racism, and social and economic inequality, and individuals such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Paul Farmer. This course includes a community service component. [Two sections of this course are currently expected to be offered; one section will focus specifically on disability justice.]

FS-161-A: Technology & Ethics in Society

This seminar investigates the interplay of technology and ethics. The impact of technological innovations on human society and the ethical challenges which have arisen because of them will also be discussed. Readings may include selections from fields such as philosophy and the social sciences as well as topics related to biotechnology and genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, surveillance and security, and the consequences of social media. (Topics will vary every semester.)

FS 163 – Climate Crisis: Visions of Sustainability and Justice

In this course, we will analyze the deep roots of the climate crisis, understanding what has brought it about. We will ask, then, what it would take to change our ways of living in response to its demands. To do this, we will engage a visionary horizon – imagining radically different ways of living that might not only avert the worst of climate change but also create far more just and more satisfying societies as well.

FS 165 – Math & Social Justice

In this course we will analyze how math can be used to assess problems pertaining to social justice and what it means to use mathematics ethically. We will consider political topics like gerrymandering and will discuss how big data and algorithms can amplify social inequalities. There are no specific math skill requirements for this course.