The First-Year Seminar Program is a special opportunity for first- and second-semester students to take a small seminar class. First-Year Seminars are open only to first and second semester students. Each course is a small seminar (no more than 15-16 students) led or team-taught by UI faculty members. The courses do not offer credit you can apply to the General Education Program and you can't use these courses toward a major, but First-Year Seminars do offer you a chance to focus on unusual and interesting topics chosen by some of our most exciting professors.
First-Year Seminars are offered for 1 s.h. If you choose to take a First-Year Seminar please remember the College's guideline: student preparation time over the 15 weeks of a semester usually averages 2 hours of out-of-class work each week for every hour in class, or for every hour of credit earned. So a First-Year Seminar that meets all semester will probably require an average of 2 hours of work each week; one that meets for a shorter time will require more time each week.
First-Year Seminars use the A-F grading system. Instructors may also choose to use plus/minus grading. All of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences rules on adding and dropping apply to these courses. Talk to your adviser if you decide not to complete a course.
REGISTRATION: All First-Year Seminars are open only to first and second semester students. No special registration numbers are needed, simply add the course when you register. Be sure to check your course-and section number very carefully.
Note: The Honors Program also offers First-Year Seminars, see the ISIS listings for 143:030 and contact the Honors Program for more information.
First-Year Seminar: The Art of Exploration
01H:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Christopher Roy
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
The Art of Exploration: Illustrations from the Travelogues of the Great Explorers from 1600 - 1914 will be a very visual art history course in which we will examine the paintings, photographs, sketches, and published illustrations that accompanied the accounts of European and American explorers who visited Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, Central and South America, Antarctica, and the American West, from the earliest Portuguese and Dutch voyages of the 17th century to the failed but valiant Shackleton expedition to the South Pole in 1914. Images will be discussed based on what they tell us about the artists who created them, about the explorers who commissioned them, and the places and peoples represented. there will be an emphasis on the impact of the first visits by Europeans on the people who were there to greet them. Each student will be asked to lead one discussion of assigned readings (with the support and encouragement of the instructor).
Grades will be based on: Quantity and quality of class participation; effectiveness and ability in leading the class discussion, and a few short quizzes.
Christopher Roy is a professor of Art History who specializes in African Art. He was a member of the Peace Corp in Burkina-Faso, and continues to do research in Ghana and Burkina-Faso. His CD-Rom collections of African Art are widely used by students and art curators.
First-Year Seminar: Synapses: How Brain Cells Communicate
002:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Joshua Weiner
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
Brain cells, or neurons, form connections with each other at specialized structures called synapses. The human brain contains trillions of synapses, and communication between neurons at these synapses underlies our capacities for learning, memory, consciousness, emotion, and sensory and motor functions. In this seminar, we will take a look at how synapses and their mode of action were discovered by scientists, and at what modern neurobiology is revealing about how they function, and how they are modified by experiences, drubs, and psychiatric disorders. We will also discuss whether, or how, to use emerging medical technology that allows us to enhance, correct, or otherwise modify our synaptic transmission. We will explore these topics through readings of recent popular science books and articles, and there will be opportunities for students to use state-of-the-art microscopy to see actual neurons and synapses in brain tissues. All students are welcome, though students considering a major in Biology are especially encouraged to consider this seminar.
Grades will be based on: attendance, active participation in discussion, and a paper on a topic discussed in class.
Joshua Weiner joined the Department of Biology in 2004. His research focuses on how the molecules that mediate adhesion between cells are critical for many stages of nervous system development, including neuronal migration, axon pathfinding, and synapse formation.
First-Year Seminar: Communication Disorders as Seen Through the Arts
003:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Penelope Hall
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
Communication Disorders as Seen Through the Arts will explore how selected types of disordered communication are portrayed in various aspects of the arts. The class will include specific films, books, scripts, and view a collection of children's art.
Grades will be based on: attendance, quality of "reaction papers," discussion questions written in response to the assigned readings, and class participation.
Penelope Hall is an associate professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology whose research focuses on developmental apraxia of speech in children. She often teaches "Introduction to Speech and Hearing Processes for the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology.
First-Year Seminar: Poems and More Poems
008:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Florence Boos
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
In this seminar, we will read a cross-section of poems chosen from different times and places, and explore the many meanings they evoke. Working with a chronological sampling of poems written in English and those translated into English, we will examine some recurrent features of the poetic craft -- its language, rhythm, formal patterns, and sequences -- and explore ways in which lyrics have interacted with their audiences and reflected something of the personal and collective history of their times. Students in the seminar will be asked to choose some poems and to help lead discussion.
Grades will be based on: participation, on-line postings, and a short (four-page) paper.
Florence Boos is a Professor of English. She has taught at the UI since 1973. A specialist in Pre-Raphaelitism and other aspects of Victorian art, nineteenth-century social and intellectual history, and marxist and feminist approaches to nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century literature, she is currently president of the William Morris Society in the United States.
First-Year Seminar: College Education and Democratic Citizenship
010:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Takis Poulakos
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
We will begin this course by raising one important question: what, if any, is the relationship between college education and democratic ideals? Framed around this question, the course will explore a variety of views as to whether or not higher education can be said to improve democracy and to contribute to the making of better citizens. In addition to readings that address this question generally, we will also do a number of readings that approach this question from the specific viewpoints of natural sciences, social sciences, the humanities, and the arts. This will enable students to investigate the broader links between liberal education and democratic citizenship from within the specific field of study they are majoring in or are considering to major in.
Grades will be based on: Students will give a 10-15 minute oral presentation on readings of their choice, classical and contemporary. They will also write a 6-8 page paper that extends the breadth and depth of the presentation through additional readings.
Takis Poulakos is an associate professor in the Department of Rhetoric. He has served as President of the American Society for the History of Rhetoric and has received numerous grants and awards for his scholarship on classical rhetoric and the history of rhetoric.
First-Year Seminar: Whiteness and AntiRacism
010:029 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Aimee Carillo-Rowe
Course meets: Check ISIS!
Rhetoric surrounds us. It is the ad on the bus on the way to class, the box selling the hair product we use, the boom in our ear from the cd player. One of the ways rhetoric functions in our daily lives is through race. Through often an unmarked category, whiteness is, in fact, a racialized (or de-racialized!) identity, way of thinking, and historical set of privileges. This course aims to reveal the ways in which "whiteness" functions as an often-unseen rhetorical category that gets played out in our daily lives. As with any rhetorical form, whiteness is often invisible to us. However, whiteness has a tremendous impact on how we live, whom we love, the opportunities available to us, and how we see the world. Our work in this course will be to begin to see and name how whiteness operates. We will consider how whiteness functions in three contexts: popular culture, autobiography, and politics. This awareness empowers us to gain a better understanding of how rhetoric shapes us.
Grades will be based on: attendance, participation, journal entries and "free writing," and response papers.
Aimee Carrillo-Rowe is an assistant professor in the Department of Rhetoric. Her research and teaching focus on feminist alliances, third world feminisms, whiteness and antiracism studies, critical pedagogy, and the politics of spirituality and justice.
First-Year Seminar: History in the Making: Asia in the News Today
016:049 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Stephen Vlastos
In this seminar the focus is on East (China, Japan, Korea) and Southeast Asia. Students will read a major paper daily (free on campus are the NY Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Des Moines Register) and pick stories they want to follow, for example, North Korea's nuclear program, China's booming economy, neo-nationalism in Japan, strains between China and Korea are some possible issues. Students will take turn monitoring and reporting to the class about coverage -- or non coverage of Asia on radio and television news programs.
Grades will be based on: weekly analyses of articles (60%) and class participation and discussion (40%).
Stephen Vlastos: Professor Vlastos is a member of the Department of History, where he teaches courses on Japan, Vietnam and other topics. His research has been focused on early modern and modern rural social movements and political economy. He has written on agrarian protest upheaval in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; "tradition" and modernity in Japanese culture; and Vietnam War historiography. He is currently working on a book on radical agrarianism in the early twentieth century and is researching cultural and racial constrictions of Japan in American cinema. He has also recently led the UI Center for Asian and Pacific Studies.
First-Year Seminar: History Through the Novel
016:049 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Jeffrey Cox
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
Students in this seminar will read some important novels as a way to learn about history. The focus will be on the history of India and Africa during and after the period of British imperial rule. We will spend 2-3 weeks on each of six novels, three of them from the colonial period and three from the post-colonial period. The only out-of-class assignment will be reading the novels and thinking about them. In class, students will discuss the novels, make short presentations on their thoughts and do some short in-class writing exercises to improve their rhetorical skills.
Grades will be based on: attendance, class participation, and short in-class writing assignments.
Jeffrey Cox is a professor in the Department of History where he regularly teaches the Western Civilization general-education approved survey, surveys of modern British history, and graduate courses in European History and British Imperial History. He has published two books one on the dramatic decline of religion in the European heartland of Christianity and one on the very rapid expansion of Christianity in the non-western world, and is now working on a general survey of the British missionary movement from 1700-2000.
First-Year Seminar: What is News?
019:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Dan Berkowitz
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
What is news? Why does news turn out like it does? This course takes on these deceptively simple questions through readings based on social and cultural perspectives for explaining the nature of news. It begins with the premise that news is a human construction shaped by the social world from which it emerges. A framework for thinking about news beyond the journalist's viewpoint forms the foundation for connecting ideas. Concepts from readings will, in turn, be connected to current examples in popular culture and local/national/world news accounts.
Grades will be based on: class participation in discussion of weekly readings and examples, weekly ICON discussion board postings, and three short papers connecting concepts to examples.
Dan Berkowitz is an associate professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, where he teaches courses on the sociology of news, media & terrorism, public relations, and computer-assisted reporting. His research interests center on the sociology of news, including local television, media and community, news and myth, and news of terrorism. His most recent research has focused on the interface of news, terrorism, and myth.
First-Year Seminar: From CAT Scans to Google: Great Ideas in Computing
22C:002 Sections 001
Instructors: James Cremer and Guests
Course Meets: Check ISIS !
From 3-D Movies and game animation to medical imaging, "Googling," and text messaging, computing concepts have had enormous societal and economic impact over the past thirty years. In this course -- which requires no prior computing background -- we will study and discuss some of the great scientific ideas that made these things possible.
Grades will be based on: class participation and occasional readings-related homework assignments.
James Cremer is a professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science. Professor Cremer is interested in virtual environments and how they can be used to study perception. He has worked recently with faculty members in his department and in the Department of Psychology on how bicyclists perceive the environment. Here's a link to more information about his research.
First-Year Seminar: Improvisational Thinking
025:009 Section 001
Instructor: Jeffrey Agrell
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
A good deal of university study is concerned with the successes of the past: recognizing trends and principles, learning organized groups of facts. All well and good, but it is incomplete in preparing us for the present or the future. What is missing? Improvisational thinking, which responds spontaneously to the exigencies of the moment -- be it in art, playing the saxophone or chess, practicing emergency room medicine, making a fourth and goal, driving in traffic, public speaking, cooking, even ordinary conversation. In this course, students will read and discuss books and articles on creative thinking, hear lectures from guest presenters from various fields, and have the chance to practice improvising.
Grades will be based on: an in-depth examination of some kind of improvisational activity, most likely presented in the form of a term paper (33%); and participation in and preparation for class discussions and activities (66%). NOTE: Students will not be graded on improvisations or creative activities -- you will be free to explore and generate answers, ideas, and solutions that may seem fanciful or even silly.
Jeffrey Agrell joined the School of Music faculty in 2000 after a 25 year career as symphony musician. He teaches horn, directs the UI Horn Choir, coaches chamber music, and performs with the Iowa Brass Quintet and the Iowa Horn Quartet. Besides performing, he is a writer and a composer.
First-Year Seminar: The Organ: How it is built and what it plays
025:009 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Delbert Disselhorst
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
This course is designed as a music appreciation course for the Organ. Organs in the School of Music and around Iowa City will be visited to compare different approaches to building and sound. There will be guided listening to standard organ repertoire and readings related to basic characteristics of the instrument.
Grades will be based on: regular attendance, responses to the examples from the listening list, and a reading exam.
Delbert Disselhorst is the organ professor for the School of Music. He has played in Denmark, Germany and France as well as in the United States.
First-Year Seminar: Intimate Voices in Music
025:009 Section 003 1 s.h.
Instructor: Christine Rutledge
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
This seminar will introduce the historical roots of classical chamber music (both musical and sociological), the various forms of chamber music and chamber ensembles, and the chamber music repertoire. Students will discuss and observe the various chamber music combinations with a particular emphasis on those involving string instruments. We will attend various music concerts, observe some rehearsals, and independently listen to recordings. No previous musical experience or training is required.
Grades will be based on: attendance, class participation/effort and reviews of each concert attended.
Christine Rutledge is an associate professor in the School of Music, where she teaches Viola. She also continues to play the viola as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician throughout the United States and abroad.
First-Year Seminar: Understanding Weapons of Mass Destruction
030:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Brian Lai
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
After the events of September 11, 2001, a great deal of discussion among policy-makers, the media, and academics has been over the possible use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the United States. President Bush even highlighted the growing threat of weapons of mass destruction in a state of the union address. What are these weapons? Historically, when have they been used? Who has used them, and why? What efforts have been taken to prevent and prepare for a possible attack by states or terrorists using these WMD? How have these efforts fared? Finally, what is the threat that these weapons pose to the US? This seminar will address these questions in the context of the current policy debate about how the US should prevent and prepare for a possible WMD attack. We will also examine the development and use of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons over time. We will also examine efforts by states to prevent the development and use of these weapons as well as prepare for a possible attack. Finally, we will examine the current threats posed to the US and what measures the US can take to address those threats.
Grades will be based on: participation, a short research paper, and a class presentation.
Brian Lai is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, where he teaches courses on International Relations.
First-Year Seminar: The Effect of Electoral Systems on Political Outcomes
030:029 section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Gerhard Loewenberg
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
This seminar will investigate how differences among the electoral systems that are used in democratic countries affect the representation of women and minorities, and influence the number and types of political parties among which voters can choose. Students will compare the effect of the single-member constituency system used in the United States and the United Kingdom with the proportional representation and mixed-member systems used in most of Europe. With a set of data on elections in 23 European countries, students will be introduced to methods of comparative political analysis and will learn how to present research results in statistical tables and short research papers.
Grades will be based on: the research papers and on participation in seminar discussion.
Gerhard Loewenberg is UI Foundation Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science. He is also a former dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has done much research on electoral systems and has been a consultant to countries developing new constitutions.
First-Year Seminar: Power, Status, and Leadership in a Diverse Environment
034:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Michael Lovaglia
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
This seminar examines the challenge of effective leadership in organizations with increasingly diverse memberships. Students will read and discuss the best current research on effective leadership and then apply their new knowledge to help develop an effective leadership training program for young leaders of groups in which women and minorities are well represented as both members and leaders.
Grades will be based on: Participation in class discussion that demonstrates an understanding of the assigned readings; contributions to group activities, and two short essays.
Michael Lovagliais a professor, and chair, in the Department of Sociology. He frequently teaches first-year seminars, and also the large introductory sociology courses. His research interests include exploring power in exchange networks, group process effects on IQ scores, the effects of emotions on status processes, and explaining why more women than men now attend colleges and universities.
First-Year Seminar: A Close Reading of the Bhagavad Gita
039:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Philip Lutgendorf
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Please note this is a 10-week course.
The Bhagavad Gita or “Song of the Blessed Lord,” is a slim volume of seven hundred couplets that originally constituted one sub-book of the mighty Sanskrit epic, Mahabharata. Set just before the start of the great battle that climaxes the epic, it consists of a poetic dialog between the warrior prince Arjuna and his charioteer and friend, Krishna. Although initially about the reasons why Arjuna should fight in the war, it expands into a “song-sermon” by Krishna about the meaning and goal of life and the nature of God. Long revered in India as one of the seminal scriptures of the Hindu tradition, the Gita has assumed a remarkable role during the past century as one of the world's most translated texts (with some 300 renderings into English alone), and has inspired and fascinated generations of artists, intellectuals, and spiritual seekers of all backgrounds. Deceptively simple in language, it is complex and multi-faceted in its ideas, and hence rewards close reading. A First Year Seminar should offer an ideal opportunity to enter the world of this challenging text through two English translations — one relatively straightforward and “easy,” and one more complex and challenging. Meeting for ten one-and-a-quarter-hour sessions, we will focus on assigned passages (since the Gita has eighteen chapters of varying lengths, there will be some overlap of chapters from week to week), discussing their ideas. Each week (after the first) one or more students will be assigned to open this discussion by commenting on or raising questions about the reading. The instructor will help guide this discussion, and will also provide enhancing contextual information about the narrative and didactic function of the Gita within the Mahabharata, and the history of its reception in India and worldwide.
Texts: Barbara Stoler Miller (translator), The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna's Counsel in Time of War (Bantam Books); R. C. Zaehner (translator), The Bhagavad-Gita (Oxford University Press)
Grades will be based on: Each student will be expected to keep a journal incorporating notes on the weekly readings and thoughts or questions that they generate. For the week that a student opens the discussion, these notes should be in a form that may be submitted to the instructor. A final paper (of roughly 7 to 10 pages) will focus on a passage from the Gita selected by the student on consultation with the instructor. The course grade will reflect the instructor's assessment of attendance and participation in discussion (roughly 40%), the paper (40%) and the role of discussion inaugurator for one class session (20%).
Philip Lutgendorf teaches courses on Hindi language and on Indian literature and popular culture, including “Bollywood” cinema. He is especially interested in the great epic traditions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata and their ongoing reception and performance. He has spent many years in India learning from traditional scholars and storytellers.
For further information, call 335-2157, or e-mail: philip-lutgendorf@uiowa.edu
First-Year Seminar: Digital Film Boot Camp
048:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructors: Sasha Waters Freyer, Franklin Miller, Leighton Pierce
Course Meets: Check ISIS! Note: This course meets for 3 hours/week for the first six weeks of the semester.
As part of this "boot camp" for potential cineastes, students will meet three hours a week over six weeks to plan, script, stage, cast, shoot, edit and complete a short narrative film on digital video. Working in teams of three, students will collaborate on an original work, sharing all aspects of its creation and completion, while acquiring introductory skills in
- writing for motion pictures
- basic video camera operation
- lighting, sound, casting, editing
No previous technical experience is necessary, but a willingness to collaborate and go with the flow is essential, as is the ability to manage the time commitment at the beginning of the semester.
Grades will be based on: participation and acquisition of the different skills, as represented in the final film.
Sasha Waters Freyer, Franklin Miller, and Leighton Pierce are faculty members in the Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature and makers of films. For more information on their work, click here.
First-Year Seminar: The Energy Future
052:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructors: Alec Scranton and David Murhammer
Course Meets: Check ISIS !
Modern day society is dependent upon an abundant supply of inexpensive energy to sustain our way of life. Today fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, and coal) are used to provide the majority of this energy. However, the supply of these fossil fuels is limited, and there are a number of political, economic, and environmental consequences for their use. In this seminar we will examine the current state of fossil fuel supply and demand, and will explore the political, economic, and environmental impact of a dependence upon fossil fuels (notably, the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on global climate change). We will then explore the advantages and disadvantages of alternative energy sources that could lead to a sustainable energy future that includes the use of wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, hydoelectric, and biofuels to satisfy our energy needs. Furthermore, the topics of energy conservation and future use of nuclear energy will be discussed. Each student will be required to choose a specific topic related to our energy future for a written report and a brief presentation to the class.
Grades will be based on: attendance and discussion (40%), a written report (30%), and an oral presentation (30%).
Alec Scranton and David Murhammer are Professors in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in the College of Engineering. They both work both in "pure research" and in cooperation with industry.
First-Year Seminar: The Mind and Body of Yoga
137:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Charlotte Adams
Course Meets: Check ISIS!
This studio coursewill involve the physical practice of yoga while examining the mental and anatomical aspects associated with yoga postures and breathing techniques. The course will include active physical participation for strength and flexibility, discussions of the benefits of mental focus, and an investigation of the anatomy of the postures.
Grades will be based on: class participation, discussions of class material and assigned readings, weekly writings in a yoga journal, and a final project/paper.
Charlotte Adams is an Associate Professor in the Department of Dance. She is a dancer and a choreographer who also has taught Pilates for the department. She has recently began an intensive study of yoga techniques and theory.