First-Year Seminars

A Century of Egyptian Cinema

Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies (JIMES 1022)

This First-Year-Seminar offers a survey of Egyptian Cinema, from silent film to contemporary productions. In addition to regular film screenings, we will be reading articles in film criticism, as well as in history and fiction. This course is designed to enable students to develop their academic and conceptual tools to critically approach national cinemas. Students should utilize and further advance their knowledge of major historical and theoretical themes in cinema studies, cultural studies, and literary studies and apply them to analyze Egyptian Cinema as a case study. Additionally, this course will function as a window to reflect on political, rand critical themes, such as: colonialism and postcolonialism, modernism and postmodernism, class, gender, identity, nationalism, representation among other questions.

Angels, Prostitutes and Chicas Modernas: Women in Latin American History

History (HISTORY 2117)

Women have been active players in the construction of Latin American nations. In the last two decades, leading scholars in the field have taken up the challenge of documenting women's participation. This research explosion has produced fruitful results to allow for the development of specialized courses. This course looks at the nation building process through the lens of Latin American women. Students will examine the expectations, responsibilities and limitations women confronted in their varied roles from the Wars of Independence to the social revolutions and dictatorial regimes of the twentieth century. Besides looking at their political and economic lives, students will explore the changing gender roles and relations within marriage and the family, as well as the changing sexual and maternal mores.

Chinatown: Migration, Identity, and Space

Global Studies (GLOBAL 1104)

Chinatown, as a cultural symbol and a spatial entity, links various topics and studies in this course.  Our survey starts with a historical and geographical glimpse of Chinatowns and ethnoburbs in the U.S. through real-life stories of their residents.  We then expand our horizon to global Chinatowns with selected case studies of Chinatowns in Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Australia.  Our historical and ethnographic inquiries also investigate the ways in which Chinese food has been adapted to each local culture and society. Through the lens of Chinatown, this seminar looks into migration and settlement while tackling questions about representations of identity and culture as well as spatial constructions by immigrant communities.  In doing so, we reconsider popular narratives about Chinatowns or ethnic enclaves in general. The assignments include ethnographic surveys of Chinese businesses.

Classical to Renaissance Literature: Text & Traditions

Comparative Literature and Thought (COMPLITTHT 2107)

Students enrolled in this course engage in close and sustained reading of a set of texts that are indispensable for an understanding of the European literary tradition, texts that continue to offer invaluable insights into humanity and the world around us. Homer's Iliad is the foundation of our class. We then go on to trace ways in which later poets and dramatists engage the work of predecessors who inspire and challenge them. Readings move from translations of Greek, Latin, and Italian, to poetry and drama composed in English. In addition to Homer, we will read works of Sappho, a Greek tragedian, Plato, Vergil, Ovid, Petrarch, and Shakespeare.

Contextualizing Problems in Contemporary Africa

African and African-American Studies (AFAS 1104)

Africa is often depicted as a continent in perpetual turmoil in both the U.S. and international media. This freshman seminar challenges this simplistic and pervasive myth by examining African community-driven innovations in a diverse range of fields, including technology, entrepreneurship, environmental conservation, the creative arts, and youth leadership. African agency will be demonstrated through case studies of grassroots technologies, financially inclusive mobile banking, the Green Belt Movement, which won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, Gen-Z and youth-led movements in Africa, artists as social change agents, and other comparable examples. Students will investigate how these initiatives developed within particular historical, social, and global contexts in each of these case studies. We will look into the effects of inequality in different contexts, including between the global north and south, within Africa, and between generations and genders, and how these disparities influence each case. A wide range of viewpoints on Africa will be presented through the readings, which include historical and political analyses, popular articles, journalistic accounts, and African literature. By the end of the course, students should be able to critically assess the importance of contextual analysis in understanding the misrepresented aspects of contemporary Africa. This class is discussion-based, and students are expected to participate actively. Grading will be based on a series of analytical essays, a final project, and in-class participation.

Cultures of Health in the Francophone World

Romance Languages and Literatures (FRENCH 1100)

Under which socio-historical conditions was the idea of a universal right to health conceived? This complex notion did not spring fully formed from the pen of the jurists who authored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Instead, it gradually emerged from philosophical texts and artistic works that advocated for this right. In the first part of the course, we will examine the origins of this right in France, which took shape during the Renaissance. First conceived by a doctor who wrote a best-seller recounting the tale of a giant, Gargantua, this right was later forcefully proclaimed by Zola, defender of the rights of workers in the mines of northern France. In the second part of the course, we will extend our study of the healthcare system in contemporary France to public health policies in the French-speaking countries of the West Indies (Haiti), West Africa (Senegal), and Quebec. By adopting different cultural perspectives on the right to health from legal texts, literary excerpts, works of art, and discussions with invited guests from the medical field, first-year students who are interested in careers in healthcare will be prepared to question its timeliness and relevance. Taught in English. This course counts towards the French for the Medical Professions track.

Detective Fiction From Poe To Doyle

English (ELIT 1104)

An introductory survey of the pioneers of the modern detective story. Works will range from those by Edgar Allan Poe in the 1840s to Arthur Conan Doyle´s Sherlock Holmes stories from the late nineteenth century. In between we´ll read works by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and a few less remembered writers. The broader historical context for our readings include the urbanization and mechanization of society, technological transformations that seemed to both empower and confine, shifts in social norms regarding sexuality and gender, and a grave concern about the ability of alien, exotic or bestial agents to penetrate domestic space-what is often called 'the homeland' in the mass media of our day. 

Environmental Justice and Public Health

Public Health and Society (PUBHLTHSOC 1011)

Justice has become a pervasive conversation topic as the effects of climate change become more and more prominent in daily life. Yet environmental justice has a longer history, one that is closely related to the global health developments. In this course, we will explore what environmental justice means, how it functions as a form of public health and health activism more broadly, and why the future of public health so heavily depends on it. Through these questions, students will further learn about how issues of environment and health are deeply intertwined with social, racial, and gendered inequities. As we will explore together, this relationship has led to conflicting political and economic priorities as well as the deliberate placement of environmental hazards next to or within working-class, Black and Brown, and other marginalized communities. 

Imagining and Creating Africa: Youth, Culture, and Change

African and African-American Studies (AFAS 1105)

The goal of this course is to provide a glimpse into how youth reshape African society. Whether in North Africa with the Arab Spring, in West Africa with university strikes, or in East Africa through a linguistic full bloom, youth have been shaping social responses to societies for a long period.  In this course, we will study social structures, including churches, NGOs, developmental agencies as well as learn about examples of Muslim youth movements, and the global civil society.  The course will also explore how youth impact cultural movements in Africa and how they influence the world. In particular, we will examine Hip-Hop movements, sports, and global youth culture developments that center on fashion, dress, dance, and new technologies. By the end of the course, students will have enriched ideas about youth in Africa and ways to provide more realistic comparisons to their counterparts in the United States.

Immigrants and Exiles

English (ELIT 1103)

Literature has traditionally been a welcoming space for people who, by choice or history, do not fit easily in the mainstream of community life. The widespread changes and upheavals of the last century have vastly expanded the ranks of such people, accelerating the processes of immigration and exile while fundamentally altering traditional notions of home and belonging. This course will examine fiction by writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Albert Camus, Jean Rhys, Franz Kafka, and Teju Cole, who write from and about the position of outsider, exploring what such texts have to say about living in an unsettled, diasporic modern world - a world in which real belonging seems an increasingly elusive goal. In reading these texts, we will investigate how their authors have portrayed the journeys, hopes, and hardships of dislocation and alienation, as well as the role literature might play in creating a sense of community for immigrants, refugees, and people living in various forms of exile.

Introduction to Critical Thinking

Biology (BIOL 1122)

This course is for first-year, non-transfer students only. This course uses thought-provoking questions in biology to develop analytical skills, at the same time understanding what level of content is needed to address such questions. Each class will involve discussion of the questions as well as lecture material as background. It will thus provide an early exposure and springboard into the translation of biology content to problem-solving. The skills learned will be applicable to future challenges The course focuses on molecular biology and processes central to all organisms on earth. The last component of the course will focus on microbiological research, gaining knowledge of the research enterprise to generate new knowledge and the primary literature (published manuscripts). Prerequisite: Limited to 10 students. Freshman with an interest in biology career (e.g. graduate or health professions). The course is also designed to help students prepare for Biology 2960, which is offered each spring semester. Intended for students without strong AP Biology preparation, which is helpful for success in Biology 2960. Credit 3 units. 

Introduction to Environmental Humanities

Environmental Studies (ENST 2310)

In this environmental humanities course we will explore the human and ecosystem impacts resulting from Euro- American colonization and agricultural settlement of the U.S. Our reflection will include the social, political and economic factors which shape individual relationships with and experiences of nature in Indigenous, enslaved and newly-arrived immigrant communities. Topics will include: the fragmentation of the Sioux American Indian ecosystem and subsequently the dispersion of Sioux people into settled, disparate reservation lands; agrarian democracy, including plantation agriculture, improvement farming and Homestead farming on the Great Plains; and the Dust Bowl.

Introduction to Problem-Based Learning in Biology

Biology (BIOL 1112)

In this course, students take responsibility for their own active, inquiry-based learning on biological problems. Instructors will guide small groups of 8-10 students in researching issues of biological importance using primary literature as their principal resource. Learning to read and interpret research articles from scientific literature is emphasized. Topics covered in this class have included: neurological disorders, infectious diseases, CRISPR, cancer, and stem cell therapy among others. Students should have a strong background in general biology. They will be challenged to use critical and creative thinking in both independent and group work. Enrollment limited. Intended for but not limited to prospective biology majors. Prerequisite: high school biology, preferably an Honors or AP class.

Jewcy: Jewish Culture in the 21st Century

Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies (JIMES 1800)

This course will examine cultural expressions of American Jewish identity within an ethnographic context. We will analyze processes of assimilation, Americanization, and innovation, as well as Jewish contributions to popular American culture and entertainment, from Irving Berlin to Madonna, and the 'The Joys of Yiddish' to 'jewlicious.com.' Moving from tradition to modernity, pluralism and trans denominationalism and back to tradition (sometimes with a vengeance) we explore challenges to Jewish identity and creative responses through the cultural lens.

Literature of Addiction

English (ELIT 1106)

This course investigates literary representations of addiction, from Thomas De Quincy's CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER (1821) to Ottessa Moshfegh's MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION (2018). We will study the development of familiar stages in narratives of substance abuse-i.e. experimentation, transcendence, downward spiral, "rock bottom," and recovery/sobriety-posing questions like: What symbolic and literal positions have people with addictions occupied in their societies? How has the modern pharmaceutical industry and the War on Drugs impacted perceptions of "typical" drug use? How do race, gender, age, class, and sexuality factor into the imagination and realities of chemical dependency? To what non-narcotic substances-e.g. media, gambling, sex, adrenaline-do we consider people addicted? We will read diverse selections of poetry, fiction, scholarship, and memoir from authors like Samuel Coleridge, William Burroughs, James Baldwin, Sherman Alexie, Denis Johnson, Irvine Welsh, Paul B. Preciado, Melissa Broder, Tao Lin, Michelle Alexander, Laurie Weeks, Mian Mian, Reginald Dwayne Betts, and Nico Walker. Through discussions and short writing assignments, we will explore various imaginations of people with addictions as tortured souls, creative geniuses, immature party-goers, and/or depraved monsters, seeking to better understand the way experiences of addiction shape perception, and in turn, how perceptions of addiction shape human experience.

Mapping the World: Introduction to Human Geography

Global Studies (GLOBAL 1109)

What is human geography and why is it important? This course addresses these questions by introducing students to the fundamentals of the discipline of human geography. A geographic perspective emphasizes the spatial aspects of a variety of human and natural phenomena. This course first provides a broad understanding of the major concepts of human geography, including place, space, scale and landscape. It then utilizes these concepts to explore the distribution, diffusion and interaction of social and cultural processes across local, regional, national and global scales. Topics include language, religion, migration, population, natural resources, economic development, agriculture, and urbanization. In addition to providing a general understanding of geographic concepts, this course seeks to engender a greater appreciation of the importance of geographic perspectives in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world.

Medieval and Renaissance Venice

College Office (GENST 1810)

This course will introduce students to the unique culture and artistic achievements of the Venetian republic from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance.  After establishing the governmental, social, and religious foundations of the republic and the economic basis of its fabulous wealth, we will look at the expression of its religious and historical identity in architecture, painting and sculpture, its response to the humanistic movement, its literature, the role of music in society and in the church, and the unique role of Carnival in Venetian life.

Modern Political Thought: Text & Traditions

Comparative Literature and Thought (COMPLITTHT 2109)

What is power? Why are societies divided along lines of race, class, and gender? When did politics become split between the right and the left? Can religion be reconciled with the demands of modern life? Can democracy? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this survey of modern political thought. Thinkers covered will include Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, WEB Du Bois, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault.

Pleasure and Pain: European Fashion as (Art) History

Art History and Archaeology (ARTARCH 1061)

In the words of Louis XIV, fashion is the mirror of history. This first-year seminar will explore what fashion in (art) history can tell us about gender, sexuality, class, race, and revolution. Incorporating a global perspective (although concentrating primarily on the West), further themes to be considered include the textile trade, commerce and empire, identity politics and nation-building. From the chopine to the corset, the pannier to the Pompadour pump, we will incorporate surviving examples of material culture as we explore the art and history of European fashion from the 15th to the 19th century. 

Power and Persuasion: The Courts and Laws of Ancient Athens

Classics (CLASSICS 1190)

In ancient Athens, each citizen had the power to prosecute others for wrongs committed not only against him but also against society as a whole. Each citizen defended himself without aid of lawyers and judges. This system depended upon an intensely democratic structure of jury courts and laws and upon the development of rhetoric as an artful speech by which to persuade fellow citizens to find one way or the other. Nearly 100 speeches survive from the Athenian courts. and they provide a remarkable window into Athenian society, politics, and law. In addition to reading translations of many of these speeches, we will examine the physical setting of Athenian courts and explore the manner in which this legal system was integral to Athens' democracy.

Renaissance Florence From Dante to Machiavelli

History (HISTORY 1133)

The city of Florence has long held an important place in the history of the western world. Hailed as the birthplace of the Renaissance and of the modern state, Florence exerts a seemingly natural appeal as an object of study. But why did these things happen in Florence and why at this particular time? This course will explore these issues as well as others through the close reading of a wide range of texts produced by Florentines who left enduring marks on the history of Europe and the world. 

The Literary Life

English (ELIT 1101)

This class approaches literature from many angles: the creative to the scholarly, the personal to the ethical, the edifying to the entertaining. At the heart of our study will be a survey of literary values such as invention, emotion, style, subversion, beauty, humor-those fundamental reasons readers come to literature in the first place. Through readings and discussion, we will consider the great variety of ways literature expresses these values, and will explore them ourselves via creative assignments. Along the way, we will learn about literary life today through discussions with nationally renowned writers who will visit the class, and through units on literary scholarship, book reviewing, and magazine and book publishing. In the midst of it all, you will write and workshop your own stories, poems, and non-fiction works.

Unearthing the Science of Climate Change

Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (EEPS 1410)

How and why does the climate change? How does the climate system interact with human systems? This course investigates the physical principles of Earth's ever-changing climate, with a special focus on the present-day. Topics include Earth's energy balance; the components of the climate system, including the atmosphere; oceans, cryosphere, geosphere, and biosphere; natural and anthropogenic causes of climate change; climate change detection and attribution; weather extremes; and climate adaption/vulnerability in past and present human societies. Students will explore the science behind hot topics in climate change and learn how peer-reviewed science is communicated to popular audiences. The course format will be a mixture of lectures, demos, facilitated discussions, and student presentations. In addition to gaining scientific background on climate change, students will develop skills in scientific writing and communication to a variety of audiences. No prior coursework in earth science is necessary. This course is open to students of any background who wish to gain literacy in the science of climate change.

Who Deserves to be at WashU? Meritocracy and Inequality in Schools and Society

Education (EDUC 1101)

In the United States, we share a foundational belief that people have (and develop) certain capabilities, those capabilities can be measured, and demonstrated capabilities should be rewarded in particular ways (e.g., grades, admissions, jobs). We know these systems to be imperfect; racism, classism, sexism, ableism, and more shape experiences and outcomes in unequal ways, so we try to take into account myriad qualities—like perseverance, intelligence, creativity, ability to work with others, civic engagement—that we think of as constituting “merit.” We at times critique specific metrics of merit, like standardized test scores. However, we seldom consider how meritocracy, and our very ideas about merit, may perpetuate inequality. In this seminar, we will use academic texts, mainstream media pieces, and the Netflix show 3% to dig deep on components of merit, like intelligence, possession of cultural capital, and performance on particular types of assessments, all in service of answering one question: who deserves to be at WashU (and similarly elite institutions and spaces)? Situating our constructions of merit in historical, cultural, and social context, we will assess our understandings of what merit is and reflect on how our understanding of merit affects how we understand the world and our place in it. This class will require students to be brave, imaginative, introspective, and willing to work through discomfort as we, individually and collectively, arrive at a deeper understanding of what merit is, what it could mean, and if we can build a truly just society around it.

Word & Image: from Collage to Comics

English (ELIT 1105)

Can a poem be painted? Can it be sculpted or enacted? This creative/critical class explores multi-arts writing practices such as collage, comics, and performance. Throughout the semester, students will investigate the relationship between language and visuals by creating zines, cut-up poems, and so much more! As a class, we will visit the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum and collaborate on artistic projects, considering how acts of creation strengthen and inform scholarship. Students need not be experienced writers, performers, or artists; they need only bring their imagination and curiosity. At the end of the semester, students will compile a portfolio featuring an artist statement alongside creative pieces and two revised works of critical writing. Readings include the work of writers and artists such as William Blake, Guillaume Apollinaire, John Cage, Hannah Weiner, Yoko Ono, and Bianca Stone.