Bicentennial Apply Visit Request Info Give
Academic ToolsCourse Schedule

Course Schedule

Click here to browse textbooks information at the bookstore's web site.
Browse the course schedule by:
Select a subject:
Select a level:
Select a term:
Courses available to first-year students only!
Select a session:

Course Listing for FIRST YEAR SEMINAR - Fall 2021 (ALL: 09/08/2021 - 12/22/2021)
Class
No.		 Course ID Title Credits Type Instructor(s) Days:Times Location Permission
Required		 Dist Qtr
3379 FYSM-102-01 Poetry in Motion 1.00 SEM Berry,Ciaran M. TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM 115V - 106 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  In this seminar we will explore poetry in its many guises. We will learn together about spoken word and slam poetry, poetry in social media (aka Instapoetry), the poetry bestseller, and poetry in film, as well as poetry in its more traditional print settings. We'll engage with the poetry scene both on and off campus via readings and performances, class visits from guest speakers, and by organizing our own open mic event. This class would be a great fit for anyone interested in writing poetry or writing about poetry or literature, and for anyone eager to connect with a literary community.
3368 FYSM-105-01 Prohibitions 1.00 SEM Alcorn,John H. MWF: 9:00AM-9:50AM HHN - 105 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  This seminar tackles two questions: Why do we outlaw some consensual behaviors by adults? And should we? We will examine “vices” (alcohol, drugs, and gambling), “repugnant markets” (commerce in sex, organs for transplantation, and adoption), and prohibitions against guns, advertising, and open international labor migration. Students will learn fundamentals of social science and will practice constructing perspicuous arguments. To punctuate the course, students will conduct policy debates during Trinity’s Common Hour. This is an experimental First-Year seminar that mixes traditional seminar meetings, public debates, multimedia instruction, and workshops in which students will learn to create polished virtual presentations of their final projects.
3369 FYSM-110-01 Designing Your Future Work 1.00 SEM Catrino,Joseph M. TR: 2:55PM-4:10PM SH - S204 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 16 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  In this course, students will apply design thinking and career development theory to better understand the link between their liberal arts education and their life after college. Students will identify individual goals, assess their skills and talents, explore career options, analyze the job market, effectively use employment search tools, and contemplate and investigate how meaning and purpose can be infused into any career. Students will rely on self-reflection and understanding the value of experiential education in the exploration and decision-making process. Students will evaluate how to design their lives in the changing landscape of work. Through readings, class discussions, and assignments, students will design a plan that will guide their career and academic decision making throughout the remainder of their Trinity College experience.
3380 FYSM-115-01 American Letters 1.00 SEM Wyss,Hilary E. MW: 10:00AM-11:15AM MC - 309 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Thomas King, Cherokee writer and intellectual, writes, "the truth about stories is that's all we are." In this course we will look at the contested "stories" that shape America as we know it, from the earliest narratives of American exceptionalism to our personal or familial relationship to the idea of America. From the writings of Christopher Columbus to the Declaration of Independence to the various speeches, letters, and stories that challenge, embrace, or otherwise engage with the idea of America, we will think about how writers, intellectuals, and activists have imagined this place into being. Along the way we will examine our own connection to the idea of America and our familial and personal history with this place, concept, and identity.
3364 FYSM-116-01 Friendship 1.00 SEM King,Joshua MW: 1:15PM-2:30PM 115V - 103 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  What is friendship? From the era of the Homeric Epic to our own, this question has been critical to our understanding of what it means to be human in a shared world. In this course we will join this long critical interrogation. Our approach to the notion of friendship will be interdisciplinary. We will work from a broad survey of literary and philosophical texts across different eras in order to think critically about the meaning of friendship and its ethical implications in our world.
3499 FYSM-117-01 Life & Democracy in Athens 1.00 SEM Risser,Martha K. TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM SH - N128 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Explore ancient Athens with the art, architecture, words, and material remains of the Athenians themselves, including through a Reacting to the Past role-playing game! Your roles will reflect the historical setting, drawing on primary sources to present the various businesses, homes, and viewpoints that were all part of fifth-century BCE Athens. Some players will be vigorous defenders of Athens' famous participatory democracy; others will question the wisdom of upholding the system that had plunged Athens into decades of an unwinnable war against Sparta. You will debate the pros and cons of democracy, monarchy, and oligarchy: which form of government is best, given that all are imperfect? Students collaborate and negotiate with one another in an immersive experience that transcends classroom walls.
3376 FYSM-121-01 Traveling the Middle East 1.00 SEM Antrim,Zayde TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM SH - N215 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  This first-year seminar explores travel in and out of the Middle East from the medieval period to today. Topics will include motivations for travel, the dynamics of cross-cultural encounter, and the relationship between travel and the geographical imagination. Readings for the course will be travel narratives by a diverse range of authors. In addition to learning about the history of Middle Eastern connections to the rest of the globe through the eyes of travelers, we will pay attention to the genre of travel literature as it has changed over time.
3377 FYSM-128-01 Creativity for All 1.00 SEM Allen,Jennifer M. TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM AAC - 112 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  We will explore the definition of creativity: where it exists in nature; why it's important; who uses it; how it's not just artists who get to be creative; and how it is applicable to our own lives. We will dive into scientific studies about the brain and creativity; read creative works; watch performances; practice creativity through projects and field trips (locations and events to be determined).
3371 FYSM-131-01 Landscape Photog and Conserv 1.00 SEM Geiss,Christoph MWF: 9:00AM-9:50AM
W: 1:15PM-3:55PM		 MC - 313 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Nature photography has played a major role in conservation efforts. For example, early photographs of the American West excited the American public about these landscapes and were instrumental in the establishment of National Parks. Today photography is still used to promote environmental causes, but it also attracts large numbers of visitors to distant, often fragile places, thus aiding in the destruction of environments that it intended to protect. This seminar will explore the role of art in conservation. Students will have opportunities to take digital photographs during afternoon and Saturday sessions. A digital camera is required for the course. Photo outings will be subject to COVID regulations.
3382 FYSM-137-01 Pandas, Pigs, and Pangolins 1.00 SEM Alejandrino,Clark L. MWF: 9:00AM-9:50AM SH - N215 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  From Shang dynasty bronze elephants to Chinese pandas in zoos today, animals both real and imagined appear throughout Chinese history. Most recently, Chinese consumption of exotic animals, like the pangolin, were spotlighted by the outbreak of Covid-19. What did it mean to be an elephant, a horse, a pig, a panda, or a pangolin in Chinese history? This first-year seminar explores the interrelationships between human and non-human animals in Chinese history. We will examine, in an interdisciplinary manner, how humans in one corner of the world have shaped the ecological and evolutionary paths of animals in and around it but also how animals have influenced the course of Chinese history as agents of culture, biotechnology, and empire.
3381 FYSM-139-01 Figures of Death 1.00 SEM Vogt,Erik TR: 2:55PM-4:10PM HL - 123 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  In this course, different examples of figuring death in contemporary European philosophy, literature, and art will be introduced. The following questions will be elaborated and examined: Is there something like an individual or individualizing death? How is one to conceive of the relationship between death and gender? How has the Nazi genocide affected philosophical, literary, and artistic representations of death Philosophers, poets, and artist consulted might include Rainer Maria Rilke, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Egon Schiele, Horst Janssen, Theodor W. Adorno, Paul Celan, Anselm Kiefer, and Christian Boltanski.
3378 FYSM-143-01 American Conscience 1.00 SEM Hager,Christopher TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM HL - 123 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Conscience can be the inner voice of an individual; it can also be the shared voice of a society's commitment to certain norms--sometimes the same norms an individual feels driven by conscience to defy. Questions of conscience are thorny, and they involve some of the central issues for studying literature and the humanities: How does individual expression interact with cultural context? How is content (what is moral?) mediated and modulated by the form of its representation (what is "my conscience" telling me?). This course explores key episodes in US history when authors and activists--from Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry David Thoreau to Ida B. Wells and Martin Luther King--have mobilized the written word to awaken readers' consciences or reshape a collective conscience.
3500 FYSM-150-01 Lights, Camera, Society! 1.00 SEM Andersson,Tanetta E. MW: 2:40PM-3:55PM SH - S205 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  This course invites students to think about society from a sociological rather than individualistic viewpoint. For sociologists, society is more than a random collection of people all making individual choices, rather the field of sociology demonstrates that we participate in social systems--social structures that are larger than ourselves--which also shape us, simultaneously, in profound ways. First, students will explore this synergy of social life through the works of sociologists like C.Wright Mills, Marx, Durkheim, Mead, and Goffman. Second, they will apply these thinkers' work to films like Wall-e, A Bug's Life, Ex Machina, Black Mirror, Tootsie, and Friday Night Lights. By using techniques including peer-review and free-writing exercises, this course builds students' writing, scaffolding their thinking upwards from paragraph-length assignments into structured, well-argued papers.
3360 FYSM-152-01 In Search of a Good Life 1.00 SEM Sandoval,Mary MW: 1:15PM-2:30PM SH - T121 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Many philosophical and religious traditions, from the ancient stoics to modern day Buddhists, have attempted to answer the question of what makes for a good life. Modern disciplines as diverse as behavioral economics, positive psychology, and brain science have also sought to understand issues related to this question. In this seminar, we will examine what all these disciplines, both ancient and modern, have to say about what it means to have a good or happy life, examining the roles of freedom and choice, economic conditions, engagement in one's work, the pursuit of virtue and public service, and resilience in the face of adversity. Along the way, we will examine the contributions of modern brain science and positive psychology to this discussion. Mary Sandoval is a professor in the Department of Mathematics, where she has taught many courses across the departmental curriculum from calculus to the mathematics of special and general relativity. She has broad interests that include ancient philosophy, psychology, the science of the brain, and behavioral economics.
3374 FYSM-156-01 It's A Massacre! 1.00 SEM Gac,Scott MW: 1:15PM-2:30PM LSC - 135 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  This course explores the foundations of modern American life through four important, violent events: the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Fort Pillow Massacre, Sand Creek Massacre, and the Wilmington Massacre. From primary source documents students will create usable histories of how these events transformed indigenous communities, race relations, and the course of American government.
3375 FYSM-157-01 Race and American Culture 1.00 SEM Nebolon,Juliet M. MW: 2:40PM-3:55PM MC - 309 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  How can we understand race in the United States through the lens of American culture? In this seminar, students explore past and present dynamics of race in visual, literary, and popular culture alongside scholarly work from the fields of American Studies, Ethnic Studies, and U.S. history. This course centralizes the work of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian American writers, filmmakers, and creators. We will not only explore the form and genre of these cultural texts, but also the histories that intersect within them, including colonialism, slavery, immigration, gender and sexuality, antiracist social movements, and globalization.
3501 FYSM-158-01 Rhetoric of Sports and Fitness 1.00 SEM O'Donnell,Tennyson L. TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM 115V - WC Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  The United States is a fitness-obsessed culture. From YouTube strength gurus to radical diet solutions, from Cross-fitters to yoga enthusiasts, the culture produces and consumes displays of fitness in human bodies. We will consider the rhetoric of a sports and fitness culture through many frequently rich, often ridiculous manifestations. We will examine how the culture of sports and physical fitness relies on language - from metaphors to tropes, from photographs to hash-tags - to produce value systems and power. The goal of this course is two-fold: to examine and analyze some of the artifacts of sports and fitness culture through rhetorical analysis, and to make our own informed interventions into that culture.
3504 FYSM-160-01 Changing Your Mind 1.00 SEM Raskin,Sarah A. MW: 1:15PM-2:30PM LIB - 103 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with CLIC
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Your brain is responsible for everything you experience and everything that you will ever be able to do. You probably exercise your body on a regular basis, but do you exercise your brain? We will explore the kinds of activities that improve brain function, and those that do not. We will consider research that suggests ways you might improve your ability to pay attention, to remember things, and to solve problems, including the effects of humor and music. We will read about things that impair brain function and make it harder to think well, such as stress, lack of sleep, and multitasking. There will be time spent in community settings outside of the scheduled class each week and occasional evening events (if this is possible).
3503 FYSM-161-01 Star Trek and the 1960s 1.00 SEM Greenberg,Cheryl MW: 2:40PM-3:55PM LIB - 174 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  The 1960s (and early 1970s) were about ideas, often clashing ideas, on politics, morals, activism, the Cold War, environmentalism, relationships, culture, social roles, war, drugs, sexuality, civic life, racial and gender equality, life's meaning, and of course rock'n'roll. In the midst of it all came Star Trek, a science fiction television show that ran only three seasons, which offered both explicit and inadvertent commentary about many of these topics. Together we will explore those issues through the lenses of Star Trek and other contemporary commentaries across the political spectrum. Each week we address a different theme, reading conservative, liberal and "new left" writings, watching relevant Star Trek episodes and debating the issue through discussion, writing and simulation games.
3498 FYSM-162-01 Cryptology 1.00 SEM Syta,Ewa TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM LIB - B03 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  The quest for confidentiality, keeping information secret, is as old as any form of communication. Cryptology, the art and science of making and breaking ciphers, has a rich history reflecting the fierce rivalry between those making and breaking ciphers. This course will explore technical, ethical and social aspects of classical and modern cryptology by tracing the milestones from Ancient Egypt through World War II until today. Special attention will be paid to the role of women who contributed to breaking the code behind the Enigma machine extensively used by Nazi Germany. In addition to reading, writing and discussion activities, students will engage in hands-on problem solving.
3511 FYSM-164-90 The Inhospitable 1.00 SEM Hubert,Maria Del Rosario TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM N/A Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: Remote  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  The desert is an inhospitable space because it provides neither shelter nor welcome. However, it has been a foundational landscape of modernity throughout the Americas because it represented the empty space that needed to be filled by new states. This courses proposes a study of Latin American literary traditions through an analysis of desert landscapes. We will explore the representations of this particular territory in fiction, film, poetry, and photography by making critical points of contact with urgent themes such as global warming, waste, migration, and the effects of feverish developmentalism. By connecting foreign cultural traditions with contemporary issues very relevant to our planet today, this course hopes to engage with discourses of ecocriticism, aesthetics, and intellectual history.
3373 FYSM-171-01 Trials of the Century 1.00 SEM Falk,Glenn W. TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM SH - T121 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Using trial transcripts, newspaper articles, films and selected texts, this course will examine the social and political contexts and legal and public policy implications of some famous criminal and civil cases from the early twentieth century, including the Harry Thaw trials for the murder of architect Stanford White (1907-08), the Triangle Fire trial (1911), the official inquiries into the sinking of the Titanic (1912), and the Massie-Kahahawai trials, Clarence Darrow’s last case (1931-32). Topics include honor killing and the insanity defense, the role of race, gender and wealth in the justice system, and the relationship between law and culture.
3512 FYSM-174-01 Economics: The Prequel 1.00 SEM Shikaki,Ibrahim MWF: 9:00AM-9:50AM SH - N128 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  As early as high school, students are introduced to economics as a strictly quantitative field, jam-packed with graphs, equations and vague new terms (mostly using the word marginal!). This seminar takes students through the "prequel" of that introduction. Reading and discussing the book by Yanis Varoufakis, students will go through a journey in time (often expanding 10,000 years) to appreciate the historical and political aspects of the origins of economics. Instead of "jargon-infested pseudo-scientific language" of mainstream economics, students will use daily life, Greek mythology, and pop-culture films to understand some of the challenges and inequalities inherent in the current economic system, while also appreciating the magnitude of benefits it has created.
3522 FYSM-175-01 Scientific Method in Society 1.00 SEM Skardal,Per Sebastian MW: 1:15PM-2:30PM MC - 305 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  This seminar will examine the role that science and the scientific method play in shaping our world and using their guiding principles in our own lives. We will examine the origins of rationalism and skepticism using fundamental works of figures like Descartes and Galileo, tracing our way to the scientific contributions of modern history and current events. Special emphasis will be placed on learning how to employ the scientific method in our own lives: making hypotheses, evaluating evidence, judging scientific (and non-scientific) literature, and reexamining assumptions to make sound conclusions and informed decisions about issues that we face daily.
3556 FYSM-177-01 Minds Behind the Brain 1.00 SEM Blaise,J. Harry TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM MC - 309 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  This first-year seminar will study the great thinkers and scientists whose contributions of ideas, theories and scientific discoveries have led to our current understanding of the brain. Spanning ancient Egypt and Greece to the 20th century, these pioneers include Hippocrates, Galen, Vesalius, Descartes, Galvani, Broca, Ramon y Cajal, Sherrington and Levi-Montalcini, among others. We will explore not just their ideas and theories, but also their private lives, ambitions, biases, as well as their detractors. The seminar will expose students to the non-technical aspects of brain science, its multidisciplinary nature and its impact on our modern society. Controversial issues related to the mind-brain dualism and whether or not behavior, thoughts, and previous experiences can change the actual structure of the brain will also be explored.
3363 FYSM-178-01 Short Stories 1.00 SEM Humphreys,Karen L. TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM MC - 313 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Stories and storytelling are fundamental to human experience. In this course, we study the short story as a literary genre, a form of creative expression, and a means to connect/ share with a broader public. We analyze the structural elements of the genre as well as the short story as a cultural product of industrialization and consumerism. From the gothic tradition in the 18th century, we trace the development of the short story through socio- historical changes that gave rise to "the second revolution of the book." This is not a creative writing course, but we address various features of the creative process in the texts as well as students' approaches to writing critically about the readings. Strengthening critical reading and writing skills are especially important goals. Sources include, but are not limited to, selections from Edgar Allen Poe, Maupassant, Jorge Luis Borges, Ray Bradbury, Toni Morrison, and Ken Liu.
3372 FYSM-182-01 France: The Age of Cathedrals 1.00 SEM Cadogan,Jean W: 1:15PM-3:55PM HL - 121 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Gothic cathedrals were built to inspire awe and still do. This course will explore the monuments of late Medieval France in their artistic, social and political contexts. It will focus on the emergence of Gothic style in the cathedrals of the Isle de France, including St. Denis, Chartres, Notre Dame de Paris, Amiens and Reims; but it will also consider building types such as hospitals, palaces, and abbeys. Ceremonies in the courts of Burgundy and Paris will also be discussed as settings for display and exchange of gifts. The afterlife of medieval monuments and changing views of them will also be approached from the perspectives of literature, imagery and restoration.
3524 FYSM-186-01 Mindfulness: Theory & Practice 1.00 SEM Fifield,Justin TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM LSC - 131 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Mindfulness is everywhere these days: on our phones, in our schools and hospitals, and throughout the corporate sector. Purveyors of mindfulness promise a better life, more happiness, and less stress. But what is mindfulness? Where did it come from? How does it work? This class explores the theory and practice of mindfulness meditation from its Buddhist roots in ancient India to its modern-day manifestations in popular culture. Students learn a critical, interdisciplinary approach to academic study that combines readings from the humanities and sciences. In addition, the course will help students develop habits and best practices to thrive in their academic lives at Trinity.
3362 FYSM-189-01 Predictive Fiction 1.00 SEM Evelein,Johannes F. MWF: 9:00AM-9:50AM SH - S204 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  Fiction, such as short stories and novels, conjures imaginary worlds. We tend to turn to literature not for its factual accuracy but because of the joy of reading and the promise that literature holds: the encounter with deep truths, about ourselves and the world. In this course, we will read a number of 20th century literary texts that imagine the future. While some of them may have little in common with today's world, others have proven remarkably prescient about our current social and political conditions. We will also turn to several "cli-fi" authors who imagine our own future in the age of climate change, and we will compare their literary designs with our own predictions, worries and hopes.
3448 FYSM-190-01 Reading the City 1.00 SEM Fitzpatrick,Sean M. TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM SH - N215 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  "The City," as both a social phenomenon and an ideal of human collaboration, evokes questions that have long engaged scholars, artists, and critics. Trinity College's own urban setting has powerfully shaped its heritage and increasingly informs its mission. Recent events, from the COVID-19 pandemic to an accelerating cycle of urban protest movements, have only heightened our awareness of the paradoxes and inequities that persist in our cities. In this seminar, we will examine the idea and the reality of "the City" through readings from a variety of disciplines and viewpoints, exploring the promise and the perils of our urban centers.
3365 FYSM-193-01 The Brothers Karamazov 1.00 SEM Any,Carol J. WF: 1:15PM-2:30PM MC - 309 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  How do we choose between our basest and noblest passions? How do the warring sides of our personality affect our lifestyle choices and romantic relationships? One of the most philosophical and influential novels ever written, The Brothers Karamazov, explores human behavior at its extremes and asks who we are, and want to be, as human beings. In this masterpiece of Russian literature, Dostoyevsky explores our darkest urges - to dominate and humiliate others - but also probes the mystery of how these cruel instincts can coexist with compassion and self-sacrifice. We will interpret the text collaboratively, drawing on the insights of each student. Students will practice techniques for leading class discussion, and will also learn how to prepare literary analyses based on close reading and textual evidence.
3370 FYSM-194-01 Histories of Medicine 1.00 SEM Mahoney,Mary M. TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM MECC - 232 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  This seminar will examine the stories we tell about medicine and its histories using the lens of disease. We will cover case studies from colonial understandings of disease in what is now the United States to our present moment and the stories used to frame Covid-19. In so doing we will explore narratives contemporaries created about disease and its causes and ask what work these stories did to assign blame, present solutions, instill experts with authority, and reflect larger narratives of social order and "dis-ease." To make sense of our findings, students will create virtual exhibits that will allow them to experiment with digital storytelling tools.
3449 FYSM-195-01 The Biology of Science Fiction 1.00 SEM Fleming,Robert J. TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM LIB - 103 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  In this course we will examine classical and modern science fiction works that rely upon an underlying biological theme as the basis for the work. We will examine classical works such as The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park and The Martian along with lesser known science fiction stories to determine if each work is compatible with both current biological concepts and with current technology. If current technology is inadequate, what changes need be made for the work to have validity? Students will research the underlying biology of a work to determine if the author made logical extensions to available science in the writing of the story. We will also examine moral and ethical issues associated with the technologies presented in each work.
3557 FYSM-197-01 Reader's Identity and Culture 1.00 SEM Katz,Adi MWF: 8:00AM-8:50AM MC - 313 Y FYR  
  Enrollment limited to 14 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
  The course is an international academic collaboration that seeks to produce a dialogue on a reading experience based on identity and ideology. During the semester, the students will have online meetings with Israeli students that will allow them to engage with different perspectives and mindsets. The students will examine the reading process as a subjective experience that changes according to the identity and culture of the reader. Students are exposed to ongoing societal issues and deal with varied cultural representations (literary, cinematic, and artistic) to the state of emergency in Israel. Pedagogically, learning will allow students to experiment with research and acquire essential academic habits that will help them integrate and develop tools adapted to learning in a Liberal Art College.