FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR
Students enrolling in the Bachelor of Arts/ Bachelor of Science degree program are required to take one first year seminar course as part of the new general education requirements. Students transferring to UMW with 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. Transfer students with fewer than 30 credits may take a first-year seminar course as an elective, if so desired.
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 nontraditional 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):
Please note that all of these topics may not actually be offered in the 2009-2010 academic year.
Banned and Dangerous Art
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
Cryptology
Daily Life in Ancient Rome
Disability Studies: Representations of Autism in Contemporary Literature and Film
Economics of Everyday Life
Elizabeth I: Representations of the “Virgin” Queen
Energy Resources in the 21st Century
Environmental Justice
Escher Math
Ethics and Literature
Finding Fashion
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
I’m Not a Feminist, but . . .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
Lies of Spies: Espionage as Fact, Fiction and Theatre
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
Scientific Discoveries
Six Degrees: the Science of a Connected age
TED.com - An Exploration of Ideas Worth Sharing
The Videogame Canon: The Most Important Videogames Ever Made
Travel Writing
Water resources
When Americans Came Marching Home: The Veteran in US History