FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR

Students enrolling in the Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree program beginning in the fall 2008 semester and beyond are required to take one first year seminar course as part of the new general education requirements. Students transferring to UMW with more than 30 transfer credits earned after the student had matriculated to another college or university (in other words, not through high school “dual enrollment” courses) do not have to meet the first year seminar requirement.
Any course listed as FSEM 100 (First Year Seminar) fulfills the first year seminar requirement, as does History 201, First Year Seminar in European History, or History 202, First Year Seminar in American History. (See the History section of this Catalog for descriptions of these courses.)

100 – First-Year Seminar (3)

Prerequisite: Freshman standing (30 credits or less). The first-year seminar introduces students to the pursuit of intellectual inquiry. Students will study a non-traditional topic in a non-traditional way while exploring the concept of a liberal arts education. Specific topics will vary from course to course. Students in their first year of college/university work who have more than 30 credits (as a result of AP, IB, dual enrollment, and similar sources) may take this course, and students who transfer in as freshmen may also take it. Transfer students enrolling at UMW with more than 30 credits may not take this course.

List of FSEM 100 topics approved for offering in 2008 - 2009 (as of May 1, 2008):

Biological Terrorism: Threat or Reality?

Borders, Barrios, and Biases

Can Machines Think?

Celluloid Vampire: Dracula from Page to Screen

Cinderella to Harry Potter

Cold Case: Mystery and History in the Theatre

Computers, Culture, and Thought

Daily Life in Ancient Rome

Disability Studies: Representations of Autism in Contemporary Literature and Film

Energy Resources in the 21st Century

Ethics and Literature

French New Wave: Cinema and Society

Freud

From Cinderella to Harry Potter: Fairy Tales and Fantasy Literature

Games that People Play

Globalization

Human Animal

I, Robot: the Pursuit of the Synthetic Mind

Imagining Africa

International Short Fiction by Women

James Farmer, the Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement, and the Great Debaters

Journey to the Underworld in Greek Myth and Modern Film

Kitchen Chemistry

Literature of the Francophone World

Lost and Forgotten Manuscripts of Early Christianity

Mad Scientists, Bad Scientists, and Evil Geniuses

Maps and Politics

Mashup and Remix: the Future of Creativity in Cyberspace

Mathematics of Chaos

Mozart and Amadeus

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of Mexico

Pirates, Liars, and Pigeons: Not Your Typical Math Course

Politics, Culture, and The Global Media

Profit and Accountability

Radical Environmental Activism

Rock/Soul/Progressive: Transatlantic Crossings in Popular Music, 1955 – present