First Year Experience Seminars

Cryptography! The Mathematics of Code-Making and Code-Breaking. Join our "Black Chamber: bolted, hidden, guarded, sees all, hears all" (Kahn, 1967). Learn how code-makers and code-breakers cost Mary, Queen of Scots, her head; Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of Pearl Harbor, his life; and Samuel Tilden the Presidency of the United States. Use probability, statistics, algebra, matrices, congruences, and prime numbers to study cryptosystems such as substitution and pemutation, the affine cipher, le chiffre indéchiffrable, the Hill cipher, the rotating grille, the one-time pad, RSA, and public key ciphers. Examine the Playfair cipher John F. Kennedy used to avoid capture by the Japanese after they sank his PT-109, and try to solve the unsolved Beale cipher that pinpoints the location of an undiscovered cache of $40 million in gold. Now, about that credit card number you typed into iTunes… Prerequisite: appropriate score on placement test. 

Sex, Death and Intrigue: Shakespeare's Tragedies in Performance. Think Shakespeare's tragedies are boring old plays about things no one cares about any more? Think again. Would you be interested in a play in which a military hero and his wife try to murder their way to political power only to be drawn into fear, madness and death? That's Macbeth. How about one about the son of a murdered king who seeks revenge against the murderer (his uncle/step-father) but destroys his entire family and himself in the process? That's Hamlet. We'll study those two plays along with Othello and King Lear--four of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. We'll look into the nature of tragedy and how these plays are not only cracking good stories but also profound explorations of timeless issues, such as: duty, power, revenge, love, honor, self-knowledge, and rebirth in destruction. We'll see and compare performances by some of the finest actors of the past fifty years. And we'll even enact some scenes from the plays ourselves.

Oh Pioneers! The Frontier in American Literature. Clint Eastwood’s “spaghetti westerns”? John Wayne’s epic narratives? Gunsmoke, Bonanza or Blazing Saddles? The idea of the frontier has been integral in shaping our ideas about heroes, heroines, and American identity. This seminar explores the role of the frontier in imagining what it means to be American with respect to gender, ethnicity, race in popular and classic works of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Readings may include captivity narratives, autobiography, poetry and prose from Catherine Maria Sedgwick to Zitkala-Sa or Willa Cather, Herman Melville to Owen Wister and Zane Grey.

Genesis: Text and Context. Genesis means "beginning," and this biblical book describes many beginnings: the beginning of the world, the beginning of civilization, the beginning of religion. It is the beginning of sin, deception, war, and sex. It is also the starting point of much biblical scholarship and the genesis of heated contemporary debate about how the Bible should be interpreted and applied in the world. Essentially, however, it is a book of family relationships: the beginning of God's relationship with the people who became Jews, Christians, and Muslims. In this class we will look closely at this foundational text, study and apply the principles of biblical scholarship, and examine some of the societal controversies this book has generated.

Inventing the Captain: Group Process in Teams . In sports, the team captain is usually the sport's fans hero. They lead our favorite teams to the biggest victories. They make mesmerizing, breathtaking, and fantastic plays as well as make others around them perform even better. From Derek Jeter and LeBron James to Ray Lewis and Sidney Crosby, these sports heroes provide the leadership that their teams need to win. This seminar explores the role of leadership in group process. Are leaders born or are they made? How does one define effective leadership? And how do leaders emerge? As we answer these questions and others, our main focus will be on the ways communication—within the group or team context—contributes to and inhibits effective problem-solving, decision-making, and the development of group cohesion. To do so, we will read and discuss the memoirs of some of our most effective sports leaders and watch sport films that dramatize their greatest accomplishments.

The Meaning of Life. What is the meaning of life? Is it worth living? Why? In this seminar we will explore various responses to questions like these. Those who believe in God often claim that apart from God life would have no meaning. Is that true? Atheists, on the other hand, think that’s all just a crutch. They point to all the senseless suffering and cruelty found in life. What about Haiti? The Tsunami? The Holocaust? Many also argue that science shows that there is no intelligent design behind the universe. Is that true? We will read and discuss the work of a wide range of authors that relate to these questions. We will read both fiction and non-fiction, including some science fiction. We will watch a movie or two, even a few clips from Monty Python. At the end of the day we may not all agree about what the meaning of life is, but we will have explored a number of interesting and thought provoking answers to what is perhaps the most fundamental question in the universe.

Mods, Rockers, and the Music of the British Invasion. The British Invasion of 1964 and 1965 introduced American youths to a new style of rock and roll that immediately captured their interest. Not only did audiences purchase recordings in droves, American musicians changed their styles in order to compete with British rock and roll. But, what were the sources of British Invasion rock? What roles did post-World War II economic conditions in Britain and the British class system play in the development of this music? How did British youths take American musical forms and adapt them for their own needs? What was the commercial and cultural impact of the British Invasion on the United States? How can scholars research questions such as these and others?

Social Problems: More Than Reality TV. Mass media often portrays social problems as things that are unique problems of individuals. Yet, a sociological investigation of these issues reveals the societal dimensions behind these individuals’ problems. What are the dimensions of pet overpopulation, poverty, racial inequality, gender inequality, crime, gangs, interpersonal aggression, substance abuse, and environmental issues from a sociological perspective?

Knights and Ladies in the Arthurian Tradition. Knights and Ladies. Quests and Conquests. Love and Marriage. Leadership and Authority. Narratives about King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and the Knights of the Round Table will provide the basis for our exploration of the powerful impact that the chivalric code and courtly love have had on our modern understanding of romantic love and gender as well as our ideas about honor and leadership. How have these medieval traditions inspired our cultural assumptions about masculinity & femininity, authority figures, romantic relationships? Through a variety of readings in modern English--texts ranging from medieval to modern-- and in film adaptations, we will examine how the cultural values in these stories and their re-tellings have shaped us and been shaped by us.