The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces students to Dickinson as a "community of inquiry" by developing habits of mind essential to liberal learning. Through the study of a compelling issue or broad topic chosen by their faculty member, students will:
-Critically analyze information and ideas
-Examine issues from multiple perspectives
-Discuss, debate and defend ideas, including one's own views, with clarity and reason
-Develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information, and
-Create clear academic writing
The small group seminar format of this course promotes discussion and interaction among students and between students and their professor. In addition, the professor serves as students' initial academic advisor. This course does not duplicate in content any other course in the curriculum and may not be used to fulfill any other graduation requirement.
All Dickinson first-year students arrive on campus for orientation knowing which seminar they will join.
The following First-Year Seminars are offered in the Fall of 2023:
Atomic Peril: The History of the Atom Bomb
Playing to Learn: Harnessing Technology in K-12 to Facilitate Deeper Mathematical Understanding in the Post-COVID Era
Pinnacles and Pitfalls: Basic Science in the Service of Human Health
State of Denial: Recognizing, Understanding, and Responding to Science Denialism
It’s Not Easy Being Green: The Psychology of Sustainable Behavior
HIP, HIP, Hooray! Three Cheers for Impactful & Transformative Experiences
Home Sweet Home: Reading the Home in 1920s
I Am Not Who You Think I Am: Fictions of Self, Identity, and Difference
America in the Eyes of the World
Don Quixote in the Twenty-First Century
From Kyoto to Paris to Carlisle: Human Impact on Global and Local Environments
Ethics and the History of Economic Thought
Fictions of Migration in Global Perspective
Inequalities and Social Justice in Sports: How Unequal Power and Privileges Make Leveling the Playing Field Impossible
Beyond Baklava, Belly-Dancing, and the Burqa: Arab Women in Film, Literature, and History
Mass Incarceration, Race, and the Politics of Abolition
Fright Night: Perspectives on Halloween and the Supernatural
Composing Disability: How Identity and Power Shape Diverse Understandings of Ability
Calling Bullshit: Fighting for Facts in a Post-Truth World
“Jackpot”: Surveying the End(s) of the World
Ideas That Have Shaped the World
'Old World,' New Problems? Europe in the Twenty-First Century
Memory, History, Story in the Fiction of Kazuo Ishiguro
Ideas the Shaped the World
What Role Should Anger Play in Speaking Truth to Power?
Banned Books
Consuming Mountains: Balancing the “Future We Want” with the Rocks We Need
Local Poverty and Food
Calling Bullshit: Fighting for Facts in a Post-Truth World
The Beauty Myth: A March Towards Perfection
Living with Algorithms
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Migrants in History, Media, and Popular Culture
Calling Bullshit: Fighting for Facts in a Post-Truth World
Galileo’s Commandment
Wade in the Water Project – Using Music to Examine Human Interactions with Place and Water
Art is Money, Art is Power: The Myths of the “Masterpiece” in World Art
The Middle Ages on Screen