Considering Your First-Year Seminar

An introduction to acting combining practical exercises with study of contemporary texts on acting. Emphasis is placed on scene analysis and scene work, as well as written exercises in performance analysis and acting theory.

This course is taught by Professor Gene Fouche.

An introduction to the analysis and appreciation of theatre, the student receives an overview of dramatic theory and practice by reading and attending plays, studying critical evaluations of professionals, and participating in classroom discussions.

This course is taught by Professor Shana Joslyn.

Be a man! That’s not very ladylike! We’ve all heard statements like these, but what do they really mean? What is “masculinity,” what is “femininity,” and how have these concepts changed over time? This course will examine the social construction of masculinity and femininity over the last century or so. We will read literature and examine cultural artifacts from early twentieth century Boy Scout manuals to contemporary magazine advertisements, and from a sex manual to popular movies and books in an attempt to chart some of the changes in the social construction of gender over the course of the twentieth century. How much have things changed? Have books, movies, television, and advertisements helped advance new gender roles, or have they reinforced traditional ones?

This course is taught by Professor Becky Carpenter.

This course is a study of global biodiversity losses caused by human activity. We will study biodiversity hot spots where biodiversity levels and biodiversity losses are also high and the root social causes that are involved in these losses. There will be an emphasis on solutions such as sustainable development that have been proposed for conserving the Earth's remaining biodiversity.

This course is taught by Professor Randy Morrison.

George Washington, Winston Churchill, Queen Boudica, and Genghis Khan. The annals of human history are filled with examples of these and other valiant leaders and vile dictators. But how can we assess the positive and negative qualities of leadership that make leaders great, terrible, or merely mediocre? This course will examine theories of leadership that stem from multiple disciplines, including political science, communication, business administration, and military science, while also examining a rich diversity of political and senior wartime leaders, both past and present.

This course is taught by Professor Francis Grice.

Do you like to solve puzzles and play games? This is a hands-on, active-learning style course where we will play games and solve puzzles and along the way discover interesting ideas in mathematics. Students will be introduced to elementary ideas in college mathematics by looking for patterns. The mathematics in this course is designed to be accessible to all incoming students. Topics we explore will include introductions to graph theory, topology, probability, and cryptography.

This course is taught by Professor Michele Gribben.

Football is America’s most popular sport. It’s a cultural phenomenon that brings together family, friends, and communities, while providing a source of “friendly” competition between towns, cities and states. At the professional level, the NFL is a multi-billion-dollar industry that’s essential to national media, local journalism, and many other areas of the economy. But for all its popularity, football remains a source of persistent social and political controversy. In this course, students explore the virtues and vices of America’s game, including a central focus on the problem of player safety and head trauma. Students will also explore issues surrounding youth football safety, player activism, racial justice, gender equity, LGBTQ rights, domestic violence, public funding of stadiums, players unions, ownership power, sports betting, pay for college athletes, sports journalism, the role of analytics, and more. This course focuses primarily on the NFL; students will be asked to stay up to date on the current football season and to participate in a class fantasy football league. Students will not be asked to play football or attend games in person.

This course is taught by Professor Matthew Mongiello.

There are many activities in life that take us out of our comfort zones (e.g., giving a speech in class, interviewing for a job, studying for an exam, singing on stage). Most of these activities have one thing in common: a performance. This course will examine the psychology of performance - or the ways in which we can systematically apply mental skills in a variety of domains (school, music, sports, business) to enhance our performance and embrace feeling "comfortable in the uncomfortable." Throughout the course students will pick a performance activity of their choice and apply the appropriate mental skills and strategies learned in class (and informed by relevant theory) to improve their performance in the chosen activity. Sample performance activities include but are certainly not limited to: an upcoming music performance, a public speaking endeavor, an aspect of sport performance, mock interviewing for a job or internship, general assertiveness training, test taking strategies, etc.

The Highway Don't Care. But we do. We do. In this class, we won't Shake it Off just because there may be Bad Blood between Taylor Swift and a Heartbreak Prince, Harry Styles, Tom Hiddleston, or Travis Kelce. Nah. This class isn't aaaaalllllll about that. We are gonna critically (lovingly, despairingly, and fairingly) appreciate Taylor Swift's Multimedia Universe (TSMU) and its cultural significance. We'll learn a little bit about Swift's history; we'll examine the TSMU's representation practices, including the ways Swift depicts relationships, love, morality, and politics in her songs, among other things; we'll even examine how value systems are expressed and complicated in her works and how they are connected (e.g., songs, documentaries, and, actions). "And life makes love look hard. The stakes are high, the water's rough. But this love is ours" (T. Swift, 2010 & 2023). And for a semester we'll be figuring what that love is-the love of/for/around Taylor Swift and thinking critically about that love-taking a hard look at it. And, FYI, I (your professor) am pretty "meh" about Swift. Not yet a Swiftie. I do have an open heart and am ready to be Enchanted.

This course is taught by Professor Paul Muhlhauser.

In this course, students will explore several historical public health crises by engaging in role-playing simulations. Students will examine three or four key historical health crises including Cholera and the AIDS epidemic. As a culminating project, students will research other public health issues and "pitch" games that could be created. This course will not only allow students to think deeply about the history of health care but will also develop the skill of empathy through considering opposite viewpoints as crisis points are navigated.

This course is taught by Professor Heather Gable or Professor Jennifer Ort.

This course will serve as an introduction to the role of the professional in the helping fields.  We will explore the capacities in which helpers function and the types of settings in which they do this work though both lectures, readings and visits from practitioners in the field.  In addition, the course will provide an overview of generalist social work practice in both direct and macro settings, an introduction to the National Association of Social Work (NASW) Code of Ethics and several influential theories used in the helping professions. This course will also explore the history of social services in our country and other parts of the world, as well as the founding of the Social Work profession at large. We will also discuss the charge of Social Work to challenge social injustice and to work for social change. Students will also see how theory informs practice by being involved in experiential learning through volunteering in a community setting over the semester. 

This course is taught by Professor Michelle Young.

Do we really need a government?  All of us have grown up under the authority of a government, which claims the right to make and enforce laws.  Many of us tend to take the government's existence for granted and believe that it keeps us safe.  But the government's failure to prevent a wide variety of harms challenges this belief: police brutality; environmental degradation; poverty and inequality; imperialism and colonialism; mass incarceration.  Does a government genuinely protect us and our rights?  Are we more free under the protection of a government than without it?  And if not, what are the alternatives?