Please carefully read all of the seminar descriptions and then rank your top six choices in your order of preference (1 = top choice). Please use each number only once.
It’s Not Easy Being Green! (CHEM200)
Dr. Andy Eklund
After learning the chemistry of current environmental problems ranging from pollution and acid rain to climate change and the greenhouse effect, we will discuss the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and the benefits of a green approach. Through group presentations, students will teach the class about a current environmental/climate challenge and modern strategies for solving or reducing the problem. We’ll conclude the course with a team trivia final exam.
This course meets the CLAS Scientific Knowledge General Education requirement
Writing I: Thinking on Paper (ENGL 101)
Two sections: Dr. Melissa Ryan and Dr. Sarah Cote
In this course, you’ll explore writing as a way not just to show what you know but to find out what you think. We’ll focus on the fundamentals, like clarity, concreteness, effective organization, and source documentation, but we’ll be particularly interested in the most fundamental of them all: discovering something you really want to communicate. From where you’re from to what you believe to what you want out of your education, you’ll use writing as a way to make sense of yourself and your world.
This course meets the first half of the CLAS Written Communication General Education requirement. Students with SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores of 540 or higher, or ACT English scores of 26 or higher automatically qualify for Writing II. Students without test scores will be placed in Writing I, but if you feel you have strong college-level writing skills, you should contact the Chair of the English Division, Melissa Ryan (ryanm@alfred.edu), to request a placement test.
Writing II: Twenty-First-Century Writing (ENGL 102)
Dr. Juliana Gray
No dead authors here! This course offers intensive experience in reading and analyzing contemporary short stories, poetry, and a novel, and learning how to write about our ideas through informal writing, reflection, formal essays, tweets, and memes, exploring what it means to be 21st-century writers ourselves.
This course meets the CLAS Written Communication General Education requirement. Students with SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores of 540 or higher, or ACT English scores of 26 or higher automatically qualify for Writing II. Students without test scores will be placed in Writing I, but if you feel you have strong college-level writing skills, you can contact the Chair of the English Division, Melissa Ryan (ryanm@alfred.edu), to request a placement test.
Tales of Terror (ENGL 292)
Dr. Allen Grove
If you like women in white, mysterious castles, and dark secrets, this course is for you: an exploration of the conventions and tropes of Gothic literature. Through fiction and film, we’ll trace the history of the genre through works including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Stephen King’s Misery. We’ll not only analyze literature, but also create some of our own by writing original ghost stories.
This course meets the CLAS Literature General Education requirement.
Global History in Times of Crisis (HIST 107)
Dr. Andrew Kless
This course focuses on some of the most pressing global issues and their historical origins. It explores themes that contextualize our current moment, including public health, migration, wars and revolutions, and the globalized economy. Its transnational approach investigates the historical connections between the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. To hone their skills in media literacy, students will immerse themselves in international sources, becoming experts in a particular international topic of their choice by the semester’s end.
This course meets the CLAS History and Global Perspective General Education requirements.
Calculus I – Your Entry Ticket to STEAM (MATH 151)
Dr. Elizabeth Matson
Are you planning to be a biology, mathematics, or chemistry major, or are you just interested in aspects of science, technology, engineering, art (from a mathematical point of view), or mathematics (STEAM)? Calculus I is defined as an introduction to differentiation and integration of functions of a single variable, with applications. Truly though, it is your entry ticket for many STEAM fields (and required for many too). Thus, why not complete your entry point of Calculus I and refresh any gaps in your understanding of Precalculus with other like-minded first-year students in FYE? Hop on the integration train!
This course meets the CLAS Quantitative Reasoning General Education requirement.
Introduction to Ethno/musicology (MUSC 217)
Dr. Heidi Jensen
This introductory course explores ethnomusicology and musicology as students analyze music within social, cultural, historical, and aesthetic contexts. Ethnomusicologists traditionally focus on global music, while musicologists concentrate on European music. However, we will examine the porosity of both fields as we survey a broad range of topics: ethnographic field research; commodification and consumption; music and globalization; music and identity formation; music and gender; and media, technology and popular music. Through readings, listening, discussions, and creative group activities, we will interrogate the beliefs, values, and institutions that intertwine in differing forms of musical expression.
This course meets the CLAS Arts General Education requirement.
Introduction to Philosophy (PHIL 101)
Dr. Paul Butterfield
Philosophy deals with questions that most of us puzzle over at some time in our lives, but it does so in a rigorous way. E.g. Is free will real or illusory? Can you ever really know anything for certain? Does reality in any way resemble what we perceive through our senses? Are religious beliefs rational? Why do we expect the future to resemble the past? Are moral judgments such as “stealing is wrong” anything more than just expressions of personal feelings? What makes one society better or more just than another society? What makes life meaningful?
This course will provide an introduction to the nature of philosophical thinking by examining questions like these–questions that people first asked in ancient times and are still debating today.
This course meets the CLAS Philosophy/Religious Studies General Education requirement.
Life in the Universe (SCIE 115)
Dr. David DeGraff
A class about Aliens? A science class about something that doesn’t exist? Astrobiology is about more than alien life. It’s about the history and future of life on Earth. It’s about the conditions needed for life. It’s about where we can find those conditions, both in our solar system and among the stars. It’s about how we will we look for that life. Science isn’t always about the answers—it’s about asking the questions.
This course meets the CLAS Science and Society General Education requirement.
Hungry for Change: Exploring Social Problems Through Food (SOCI 242)
Dr. Meredith Field
We all think about food daily, because we can’t survive without it. But beyond sustaining our physical bodies, food holds many other positions in our lives and in society. Food connects us to each other and to our environment. It has social, cultural, and economic importance. It is a tool of power and oppression within gender, race, and class relations. It is the focus of many policy decisions. But our food, and the modern food systems that produce it, can be problematic for us and for our environment – with global implications. Weaving sociology, political science, economics, environmental science, and biology, this course explores how our food systems both reveal, and contribute to, various social problems, and asks how our food systems could contribute to solving social problems. PLEASE NOTE: You will be expected to 1) reflect on your relationship with food and its social impacts; 2) hike and forage; 3) go off-campus to shop for, harvest, preserve, and/or prepare food; 4) spend approximately $35 to purchase food ingredients during the semester; and 5) attend two Saturday events.
This course meets the CLAS Social Science Sociology/Anthropology General Education requirement.
Acting I (THEA 240)
Prof. Jonathan Ziese
What do I want? Why am I here? Do I appear to others different than I appear to myself? These, and others, are big questions all new college students ultimately ask themselves. They are also questions actors answer every day! Through studying the characters in plays--in our imaginations, and even ourselves as characters--students discover methods of bringing their full artistic self to their creative expression. Students will engage in improvisation, script analysis, acting exercises, and scene work.
Learn techniques that will empower you to expressively inhabit any character onstage (including yourself)!
