All entering Middlebury students take a First-Year Seminar during their first semester on campus. These seminars are writing intensive courses, limited to 15 students each, and they are taught by regular, full-time faculty members who also serve as students' academic advisers for their first three semesters at Middlebury. Seminar topics, which change from year to year, are selected by the individual professor and generally reflect that faculty member's research interests or an area of expertise not directly addressed in departmental courses. These are not survey courses. Rather they are designed to prick students' intellectual curiosity in a particular subject, and to encourage them to pursue a focused interest in depth. Many of the seminars offer interdisciplinary perspectives; most include activities outside the classroom; all seminars help students develop their reading, thinking, writing, and speaking skills.
Cook Commons-based Seminars, Fall 2007
This year, seven first-year seminars are based in Cook Commons. Students enrolled in Commons-based seminars all live in the same dorm, sometimes on the same hall. Animated discussions from the classroom can continue on in the dorm, bringing the academic and residential worlds together naturally and productively.
Here is the list of our Commons-based seminars and their professors:
FYSE 1217 Animal Cognition
Can animals use language? Are animals self-aware? Do animals try to deceive others? Are animals able to reason and make decisions? Can most of animals' behavior be explained with simple learning mechanisms, making humans uniquely cognitive beings? In this course we will explore similarities and differences between animals and humans with regard to their mental abilities. In considering this issue, we will read and discuss scientific studies as well as popular literature anecdotes that examine various aspects of animals' ability to think, with the goal of assessing how animals' cognitive abilities compare to humans'. 3 hrs. sem./disc. (J. Arndt)
FYSE 1056 The Black Death
In this seminar we will examine the great plague of 1348, the Black Death, as an epidemiological, cultural, and historical event. What was the plague? How did it affect European society in the short term, and what were its repercussions? Was the Black Death truly a turning point in European history, or have its effects been overrated? Finally, we will look at the role the plague has played as a metaphor in society and will discuss modern plagues like the hemorrhagic viruses and AIDS using fiction and film as well as the works of modern scholars. 3 hrs. sem. HIS EUR (L. Burnham)
FYSE 1184 The Journey Within: The Spiritual Pursuit in Literary and Mystical Traditions
A fundamental teaching of the world's religious traditions is that the source of love, the fulfillment of life, and the treasure of heaven are found within. With texts from antiquity to the present as our guides, we shall explore themes such as the concept of the soul, the discovery of a deeper self, the spiritual awakening, and the nature of the mystical experience. We shall consider questions related to religious and psychological experience such as: Where does the self reside? Why is it important to "know thyself"? What is the state of consciousness described as enlightenment? How does one rise above the sorrows and struggles of the world? Finally, we shall try to understand how turning within does not mean fleeing from the world, but engaging in the world around us in a more profound and meaningful way. Readings from the Upanishads, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, and St. Teresa of Avila, Tolstoy, Emily Dickinson, Herman Hesse, and J.D. Salinger. 3 hrs. sem. PHL (M. Hatjigeorgiou)
FYSE 1206 Double Takes: French Films and Their American Remakes
In this course we will compare French films to their American remakes. We will pinpoint the cultural differences that shape French and American versions of the same story by reading reviews and articles, and by examining variations in structure, techniques, plot, and audience expectations. In some cases, we will extend our comparison to the text that inspired the original French film. Our study will cover a variety of genres (e. g. comedy, historical film, and drama). 3 hrs. sem. ART CMP EUR (B. Humbert)
FYSE 1212 Mathematics for All
What kinds of mathematical knowledge are necessary for full participation in contemporary democratic society? How well, and how fairly, do our schools educate students in quantitative skills and reasoning? By what measures might we judge success? We will learn about different approaches to mathematics education in light of these questions. Readings will include Radical Equations by Robert Moses and selections from Mathematics for Democracy: The Case for Quantitative Literacy (L.A. Steen, Editor), as well as recent articles by education researchers. To connect the theory with actual practice, we will conduct a service-learning project in a local elementary school. All are welcome, regardless of mathematical background. 3 hrs. sem. (P. Bremser)
FYSE 1208 Cities in Crisis
"I imagine the American city to be a growing tree," the historian Sam Bass Warner has written. "As it bursts forth each spring, it is set upon by clouds of parasites." In this seminar we will expand upon Warner's insight and explore how American cities have coped in the past with natural disaster, environmental degradation, racial and class tensions, poor design, and terrorist attack. We will turn to case studies of individual cities in crisis (such as Detroit, New Orleans, New York, and Boston) as we seek a broader understanding of the particular vulnerabilities and sources of resiliency of urban America. 3 hrs. sem. HIS NOR (J. Ralph)
FYSE 1188 Story and Ritual
In this seminar we will explore the varied roles that stories and rituals play in our personal and public lives through selected literature and community service learning. We will examine instances in which the cultural and spiritual construction of stories and rituals overlap and investigate the power of social norms in our interpretation and representation of stories. Texts and films include Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony, Barry Lopez's Landscape and Narrative, and Akira Kurosawa's Dreams. Students will write reflective and critical papers, participate in online discussions, and create multi media projects based on their service learning work with local non-profit organizations. LIT SOC (C. Wright)