Freshman Seminar Series

What is the Freshman Seminar Series?

The Freshman Seminar Series is a group of courses that is designed to provide students with an educational experience characterized by dynamic learning and interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving.  The courses provide high quality interactions with the professor and classmates in a small size seminar environment.  The Seminar Series also encourages students to connect with the campus community through a variety of activities.

Seminar Descriptions:

Gods, Ghosts & Goblins: Understanding Belief
Do you believe in God? Do you think there are spirits in the material world?  Do goblins, fairies, pixies, and elves exist?  A majority of this planet will respond yes to the first question, a decent number will also say yes to the second, and some folk will even agree to the last one.  Why do we believe some things and not others?  How can we explain belief?  Why is it that those who believe in some supernatural and non-tangible entities (e.g., God) will scoff at those who believe in others (e.g., ghosts and goblins)?  This class will help you answer these questions.  Using a diverse and broad range of sources we will explore the underlying reasons as to why humans believe the things they do (and why they do not believe in other things).  We will take the social science perspective and examine belief. Along the way we shall discover what it means to think like a social scientist, and use this approach to explore the roots of religion, discuss the psychological benefits to believing and the perils of not, and examine some fascinating objects of belief ranging from paranormal activity to extraterrestrial life. 

Explorations of Gender
What is gender? Is sexual identity biologically determined, or is it the product of social convention? What are the psychological, social and political implications for individuals with diverse presentations of gender? Answers to these questions and others will be explored through discussions of a variety of readings and films that address the often controversial topic of gender.

The Culture of Food
On the surface, our relationship with food is simple: we eat in order to live. However, what we eat and how that food is produced, distributed, marketed, and consumed raises many fascinating questions. For those of us who live in an environment of abundance, how do we decide what to eat? How do these choices define and reflect who we are: our values, our ethic identities, our gender, etc.? Why do certain populations still not have enough to eat?  Has food production always been this way? We will look at articles from a multitude of disciplines: nutrition, history, psychology, women’s studies, and anthropology. In addition, we will look how food is represented in art, literature, and film, to ask what values food represents.

Fantastic Voyage:  Science in Film
Films with scientific elements have had a huge impact on science and society.  This course will explore how science and scientists are portrayed in these films and how the films have shaped popular perceptions of science and scientists, the world, and the universe.  It will also help students to gain an understanding of the interplay of science, science fiction, and society.

The ‘burbs: the history and future of life in suburbia
This course will look at the history and future of suburbia through an interdisciplinary exploration of the roots of the suburban ideal, how suburbia has developed in the US, the psychological impact of living in the suburbs, the sociology of race and class in the suburbs, the planning of specific types of suburban developments including gated communities, Neo-traditional planning, and eco-suburbs, and the future of suburbia.  We will incorporate the fields of planning, environmental psychology, sociology, political science, geography, and other social science fields into our exploration of suburbia.

Freshman Seminars - FALL 2007