FYS1101 First-Year Seminar

The first-year seminar program comprises one-semester topical seminars unified under the theme "Knowledge, Values, and Social Change." These seminars are designed to introduce first-year students to the ways in which the liberal arts construct knowledge; to enhance their abilities to read closely, analyze information, instruct students in the expectations and values of the academic community; and to provide first-year students with an opportunity to work closely with a member of the faculty.
First-year students are required to complete one first-year seminar. Section topics will differ; see below.

FYS1101.01 - Globalization: The Great Debates

Globalization is the defining issue of our time. Some have argued that it has promoted international trade and migration, and led to impressive capital flows between rich and poor countries. Impassioned activists and non-governmental organizations on the other side have noted that the war on poverty is being lost, the position of women has been degraded, child labor has increased, and environmental degradation has been accelerated. In this class we will read some of the great debates. We will explore whether globalization is an economic process with benign social consequences, or if there is a real danger of homogenization, a loss of global diversity, and deeper divisions between rich and poor. What specific values are threatened? How has our knowledge of past globalization by traders, missionaries, imperialism and colonialism shaped our distrust of modern globalization? Can globalization, in truth, bring about social change based on real reductions in poverty and inequality? We shall read popular books, novels, and articles, examine global statistics, watch videos, listen to speeches and use web based resources.

FYS1101.04 - College: A Privilege or a Right?

Higher education has a tremendous influence on the cultural, social, and political character of this country. As an industry, higher education also plays an important role in US's economy. Whether viewed as engines of economic growth, keepers of the keys of culture, or tools of credentialism, colleges and a college education are powerful and important forces permeating America's society in general. This course will survey higher education in the United States from a historical perspective. The course will focus on the development of higher education from the Colonial Period through the GI Bill. Concurrently, the course will delve into how, from the inception of the first college, Harvard 1600, to today's different groups seeking access to College. These groups include women, blacks, working class, immigrants, older students, and other ethic groups. Furthermore, the course will delineate how educational advantages and disadvantages accumulate throughout the educational process and affect equity in college access, choice, and academic achievement.

FYS 1101.09 He's Not Your Professor Anymore-- He's a Zombie!: Social Issues in Comedy and Horror Films

This course will examine several social issues-race and privilege, the social contract, freedom of speech, social ethics-as they make appearances in some of the least likely places: the films and TV shows that told us they were just here to make us laugh or give us a scare. Some argue that they give us something to think about as well. This course will explore the ways in which these examples of pop culture, while often viewed as merely popular entertainment, serve as valuable sources of social criticism, worthy of study in the academic institution.

FYS1101.10 - Raising Hell: Twenty Years of Activism, 1955-1975

The United States changed dramatically between 1955 and 1975. Many Americans were forced to take a fresh look at issues such as race, the role of women in society, young people, poverty, and the war in Vietnam, among others. In short these were difficult times and the nation seemed divided. During these years various individuals stepped forward and challenged the status quo in America, often at great risk to themselves. Employing historical methods and means of analysis, this seminar will explore how and to what effect these individuals (and the organizations they were often part of) contributed to changing America. We will focus on four different groups of people -African Americans, young people and students, women, and gays and lesbians-who found that they could no longer remain silent or marginalized. We will use traditional primary sources as well as music and film to explore these turbulent years in America's history. We will also make use of the excellent primary sources found on the internet. Students will conduct their own primary research in the form of an oral history project.

FYS1101.11 - Call of the Wild: An Introduction to American Environmental History

This course will introduce students to the history of American attitudes towards nature and natural resources. Readings, lectures, and class discussions will focus on the trajectory of these attitudes, beginning with European and colonial perceptions of wilderness. We will then explore the way perceptions were changed through individuals inspired by Transcendentalism and Romanticism-in particular Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau-and the rise of American conservationist and preservationist movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course will also consider the current state of environmentalism in the US and abroad.

FYS1101.12 - Democracy and Education for a New Century: A Global Look at Schooling

Students will explore the meaning of democracy and its role in determining the purposes of education in today's world. Students will take a global look at educational practices and systems. In this seminar students will read and discuss the purpose of education, its connection to democracy and explore possible changes needed in today's system of schooling to meet the needs of a changing, technologically-driven society. Students will meet guest speakers schooled outside the US, as well as American educators, who will share their experiences and views on democracy, education, and the needs of a rapidly changing global community.

FYS1101.13 - The Beautiful, the Odd and the Ugly: Image and Seeing in Visual Culture

This course is an interdisciplinary course that introduces a specific area of cultural studies, visual literacy. The course considers modes or ways of seeing, ranging from pictorial art to modern media like television. The content will focus on a specific target of seeing, beauty. Cultural norms of beauty change as do conventions for depicting beauty. Students are expected to learn critical skills in assessing visual stimuli, understanding the context of visual media and be able to assess modern manipulations like advertising and phenomena like ugliness in modern art.

FYS1101.15 - Changing the World through Literature

This course provides the opportunity to discover the power of literature as a transformative force. A writer inspires change by giving voice to the most fragile segments of society while speaking out against social injustice, discrimination, corruption, political repression and other social maladies. In this course we will read contemporary world authors whose literary pieces provoke reflection and create the influential awareness that often leads to constructive action. The course's readings will take us to diverse parts of the world, including South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Guatemala and Chile. The deftly written words of Alan Paton , Jorge Amado, Bertolt Brecht, Ignazio Silone, Rigoberta Mench and Isabel Allende will inform and guide our thinking.

FYS 1101.17 - New England Life and Culture: Young America to 1877

This seminar focuses on two of the most famous novels of the 19th century, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. We will use these novels as a basis for discussing, among others, gender, race, childhood, sentimentality, and identity in 19th-century American culture. We'll explore Stowe's and Alcott's treatment of these issues and compare their works to other popular novels of the time. Other authors we will read could include Mark Twain, Harriet Wilson, William Wells Brown or Susan Warner. After taking the seminar, student will have a greater appreciation for the work of these influential American writers and a better understanding of the role the novel played in both popular and political discourse of the mid and late 19th-century.

FYS1101.20 - Nutrition Truth in Advertising

This seminar addresses issues in the area of nutrition and health: how the public understands nutrition information as well as policies and initiatives that are important for human welfare and how the public can implement social change in these areas. Students analyze how people learn about food and nutrition, especially as they relate to health, and assess the relevant scientific truth. The competing interests of health, economics, free speech, integrity, and human rights are considered. Controversial issues in nutrition are examined from multiple viewpoints. The impact of the media on our information, nutritional status and health is examined. Advertisements, promotions and claims are analyzed. Policies and nutritional concerns in nations beyond the US are studied as well. The values and complexities of competing interests in the global arena of nutrition and health are discussed. Students examine the roles of consumers to effect social change, such as influencing laws, the Food and Drug Administration, the food industry, and international agencies.

FYS 1101.24 Democracy or Idiocracy?: Media, Sensationalism, and Social Change

In the 2006 black comedy, *Idocracy*, Mike Judge paints a desperate and dystopian picture of the future of democracy in America. The film suggests that, after centuries of exposure to a sensational media, Americans are driven to depths of ignorance and lethargy that destroy a once vibrant commonwealth. In this class, we will critically examine the nature of this claim. Is our corporate-owned, mediated culture negatively impacting the public's ability to be informed, engaged, and enlightened citizens? If so, what conditions are necessary for creating a mass media (including TV and the Internet) capable of fostering and sustaining positive social change?

FYS1101.27 Social Entrepreneurship: How to Change Your World

This seminar will explore the lives and actions of social entrepreneurs (men and women whose stories may serve as inspiration to others) and the dynamics of social entrepreneurship (to include developing a vision, building and sustaining commitment, practicing leadership, garnering resources, and overcoming resistance). In class, we will talk about important social issues like education, poverty, and healthcare. We will learn about individuals who tackled such problems and were able to bring about social change and to enhance the lives of people in many parts of the world. We will explore the dynamics and the context of social entrepreneurship - looking at what inhibits and what fosters effective social entrepreneurship. Students will be challenged to think about how one person can make a difference and how they might develop as change agents, as well.

FYS1101.28 - War: What is it good for?

This course will ask why human beings engage in warfare. Perspectives from a variety of disciplines, including military science, evolutionary biology, economics, archaeology, primatology, sociology, and developmental psychology, will be introduced in an attempt to address the question. The course will begin with the viewing of the movie "Patton," and students will be asked for their first assignment to evaluate the attractiveness of warfare. Using the perspectives introduced in the course, students will be asked for the final research paper to analyze a current war and provide an explicit and original recommendation for halting the war. The topics covered during the course will be the archaeological evidence of warfare, chimpanzee warfare, the young male syndrome, polygyny versus monogamy, the social structure of cooperation, individual versus group competition, women's roles in warfare, territoriality, pleasure in killing, motor movements, and finally economic altruism and peacemaking.

FYS1101.30 - Clash of Civilzations

In 1993 through the "Clash of Civilizations" thesis, Samuel Huntington came to the conclusion that a Confucian-Islamic axis would challenge the West in his prediction of the inevitability of the "West versus The Rest." In January 2002, in his first State of the Union Address, the President of the United States identified the threat to the United States and the civilized world as an "Axis of Evil" comprised of the Islamic Iran and Iraq and Confucian North Korea. Theory had seemingly met reality. In this seminar we will examine and evaluate the arguments before and after September 11, 2001 in order to understand, and to assess the extent that Huntington is an astute observer of international politics or was his theory an convenient approach to analyze the post-September 11th international system.

FYS1101.32 - Computers in Society: Global Connections

The "machines" at the center of the technology age have revolutionized our lives and digitalized our world, making previously unthinkable tasks automatic and linking people from around the world. Students will analyze, construct arguments, and engage in research on how technology has revolutionized the way the way we work, play, travel, and communicate. The course will begin with a history of the personal computer and then travel to the 21st Century to discover the social implications of computing by exploring the social, philosophical, ethical implications of computing in today's world. The seminar will also reflect the principles that drive contemporary practice in open and flexible learning using WebCt., wikis, podcasts, blogging and home web pages.

FYS1101.33 - Inspiring the Self while Exploring the Globe: Purposeful Narratives in Travel Literature

Discover the important genre of travel literature and the potency of travel as an inspirational force. Learn how international travel in particular has profoundly transformed the lives of our travelers and/or others whose lives they reached out and touched afterwards, in meaningful ways.

FYS1101.34 - Classical Key to the 21st Century

Nike, Asics, Mars/Venus, Marathon, Achilles: This seminar will provide students the opportunity to come to an appreciation of the foundational influence that Greece and Rome have had on 21st century America and the indelible imprint that words and pictures (literature, art and history) have made on our times. This is a course that explains the meanings and significances of visual and verbal allusions from the ancient world that continue to be part of the texture of human discourse in the West, even and especially in the Unite States in 2007. (No previous knowledge of Greek or Latin required.)

FYS1101.35 - Matters of Life and Death

The nature of ethical decision making is first discussed. Concepts and skills acquired are then applied to several moral problems concerning matters of life and death. These include abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, stem cell research, animal rights, world hunger, war, and terrorism. Students will read articles by contemporary philosophers and scientists who have staked out various and conflicting views about how these tough choices should be made. They will also read news articles about these topics as well as perform journal and Internet searches for additional information. Papers will be written on each topic defending a view, and debates will be presented which require defending one side or another of the topic.

FYS1101.36 - Women of the Bible

This seminar will examine in detail several of the more and less famous women of the Bible. Each story will be examined in its literary, historical, and cultural context. By careful and detailed analysis, we will attempt to recover their voices and assess how their portrayal in the Bible affects the understanding of women today. Through individual research papers and team projects, students will have the opportunity to research two additional women of their own choosing. The goal is to acquaint students to some of the Bible's important women, to introduce them to the discipline of biblical research, and to challenge them to see how these ancient stories illuminate and inform current perceptions about women in the Church and in society.

FYS1101.38 - One Small Planet

Roughly half the world lives on less than $2 a day. Most have inadequate access to safe water, immunizations, and education. Economic growth is essential to improving the human condition, yet the environmental consequences of rapid growth in countries like China and India is alarming. Must growth entail such damage? Can we find a way to improve standards of living without jeopardizing the planet? This seminar focuses on whether there is a tradeoff between economic growth and environmental conservation. Many economists argue that a cleaner environment requires the sacrifice of other goods, like housing and health care. Because resources are scarce, the environment may be a luxury that poor countries will only invest in as they become wealthy. Political activists have long challenged this, along with the policies that promote 'dirty economic development.' They argue, a healthy planet is a prerequisite to economic well-being, not an alternative. Where else will we live? Corporate forecasts of the cost of environmental protection often prove to be gross overestimates, as technology makes it possible to produce the same goods using fewer resources. And besides, our current model yields benefits that are unfairly distributed: we wear our gold status symbols, without thinking about the cyanide that mining companies dump into community water supplies. Greener development might benefit the poor. This alternative perspective is often labeled 'sustainable development.' It sounds good - and indeed, some activist organizations coach their members to "keep the message positive." Even the grocery stores have figured out that we like fair trade and organic labels. But is it realistic? In this course, we will look at the extent to which technology, strong economic incentives and good social values can move us forward.

FYS1101.39 - Periodical Culture: Then and Now

This First-Year Seminar will contemplate the role periodicals (newspapers and magazines) play in the production of cultural values and meaning. Considering the history of and reading short newspaper articles from two extraordinarily popular eighteenth-century English newspapers, The Tatler (1709-1711) and The Spectator (1711-1714), students will begin the semester reading about the periodical and coffee-house culture that emerged in eighteenth-century England. This culture is in fact strikingly similar to the "Starbuck's Coffee" culture that one experiences walking down almost any street in Boston! But newspapers and magazines, standard reading material in most coffee shops, do more than provide an idle mode of entertainment to enjoy with a caffeinated beverage. They educate readers about culture-they tell us what to wear, who to like, who's "in," who's "out," what's important, what's not important, what to read, etc. In fact, as Richard Steele "humbly," albeit quite explicitly, suggests in the first issue of The Tatler, periodicals serve as a subtle form of mind control: "it is both a Charitable and Necessary Work to offer something, whereby such Members of the Commonwealth may be instructed, after their Reading, what to think." To develop an understanding of periodical culture's importance, then and now, students will read and compare articles from The Tatler and The Spectator to articles from twenty-first century periodicals (The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The New York Times and Cosmopolitan) and think about how print media influences the lives of twenty-first century readers in America.

FYS 1101.40 Documentary Photography

Documentary photography has traditionally been viewed as a vehicle for capturing the "truth" by a neutral observer. In this course, we will challenge these assumptions about photography through a close examination of the ways in which documentary photographs are used as evidence by individual photographers and society as a whole to construct specific types of "truth." With this in mind, we will consider the ethical responsibility of the photographer in choosing her or his subject, the power relationship between photographer and subject, and the ways in which images are used in society to achieve both ethical and unethical goals.

FYS 1101.41 Understanding Diversity and Social Justice

This course is designed to introduce students to general aspects of diversity at work and to highlight the diversity challenges and opportunities that are present in the modern workplace. This course takes multiple perspectives on diversity including race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, and disability. Students' understanding of diversity and its relevance at work will be enhanced through a variety of readings, class discussions and class exercises, and assignments that illustrate/illuminate the reality of today's diverse workplace.