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 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.
Some First-Year Seminars are offered for 1 s.h., others for 2 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. For example: Courses for which you earn 2 s.h. of credit generally require 4 hours of out-of-class work each week.
First-Year Seminars use the A-F grading system and plus/minus if the instructor chooses. 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.
This fall, we also have a very special opportunity for entering students, 610:030 Leadership in a Diverse Society. This course is a joint offering of the University's Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This course is offered S/F (Satisfactory or Fail).
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. With the exception of 610:030 Leadership in a Diverse Society, all First-Year Seminar courses are listed as "First-Year Seminar" on your printed schedule, the "subtitle" will not appear.
First-Year Seminar: Leadership-in the University and in Life
610:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Jon Whitmore, Provost
Course Meets: On Wednesdays from 4:00 to 5:00pm in the Provost Office Conference Room (enter through 111 Jessup Hall)
NOTE: Enrollment in this seminar is limited to 10 students
This seminar explores leadership of all kinds-including but not limited to political leadership, university leadership, athletic leadership, artistic leadership, and business leadership-as well as how individuals develop as leaders and as team-members in communities and organizations. Through discussion, reading, and interaction with campus and community leaders, students will learn how education and experience combine to produce leaders. Throughout the semester, students will learn some useful skills-interviewing techniques, library and electronic research, and how to read critically and analytically.
Grades will be based on: Participation/Discussion and a final paper in which students will provide a synthesis of course readings and discussion and their own research to define one aspect of leadership.
Jon Whitmore came to the University in 1996. He is a Professor of Theatre Arts and serves in the administrative position of Provost (chief academic officer of the University.)
First-Year Seminar: Genes and Human Origins
610:029 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Linda Maxson, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Course Meets: On Tuesdays from 4:00 to 5:00pm in 230 Schaeffer Hall (the Liberal Arts and Sciences Conference Room, enter through 240 SH)
On 26 June 2000, leaders of the US Human Genome Project (funded by the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Energy) and the private firm Celera announced completion of a working draft of the human genome sequence. Some commentators called this the dawn of a new age in human knowledge, a discovery that could change how we think about human life. Scientists expect to be able to use the knowledge that is being developed to understand and predict human disease. Researchers will also use comparative studies of the human genome sequence data to look back in genetic history toward a much deeper understanding of the origins of human life.
In this seminar, we will focus on how evolutionary biologists are using new genetic data to probe the questions of human origins. We also will discuss the meaning of race - from a genetic perspective - and examine recent work on the origins and relationships of modern human populations (races). We will read a short book on race and normality and the implications of the Human Genome Project and explore the social implications of the research being done.
Grades will be based on: Attendance, participation, 3 short papers responding to class readings, and a 10-minute class presentation by student groups.
Linda Maxson, UI Alumni Association Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is a member of the Department of Biological Sciences as well as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her research interests have focused on using information from genes to probe the evolutionary history and biogeography of amphibians and reptiles.
First-Year Seminar: Ideas of the University
610:029 Section 003 2 s.h.
Instructor: Frederick J. Antczak, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Course Meets: On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00pm to 5:00pm in Room 4 (in the basement) English Philosophy Building
Since the first Carnegie report, there has been lots of controversy about education in the public "research-1" universities like the UI. Some people say that institutions like ours neglect undergraduate teaching, others claim there is no comparably broad or effective system in the world. This course explores how education works at Iowa. The required "text" is the University General Catalog, although there also will be other readings used to guide discussion.
We'll talk about many different topics including: the purposes of a college education, characteristics of effective and less effective learning, the different kinds of good (and not so good) teaching and what to do in response, the impact of technology on learning environments, and how to get the most out of a course. Class members may also lead us to topics like the integration of research and teaching, tenure, academic freedom, even how administrators like me go about making decisions.
Grades will be based on: class participation; an introductory presentation introducing "a student-oriented aspect of the University you didn't know about--but should"; a team project on learning at the university (details to be discussed in class); and an individual project including two short class presentations (a "project proposal" and a "project update," both of which will be scheduled during the first class period) and a 5 page "project report" due on the first Monday morning of exam week.
Fred Antczak came to the University in 1987 after having taught at the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Virginia. He is a Professor of Rhetoric, and does his research on American political rhetoric; you may have heard him on NPR's All Things Considered. He has won two teaching awards, and has served the University in a variety of administrative positions, including currently serving as the College of Liberal Arts and Science's Associate Dean for Academic Programs.
First-Year Seminar: Reading and Writing About the College Scene
610:029 Section 004 2.sh.
Instructor: Mary Trachsel, Department of Rhetoric
Course Meets: Mondays and Wednesdays, from 1:30 to 2:20pm in 216 English-Philosophy Building
This two-semester hour course invites students to investigate university life through readings, guest speakers, and first-hand observation and to reflect upon their own college life experiences in writing and discussion. Topics we'll cover include:
- Residence Hall life
- Greek Organizations Student-Teacher Relationships
- The Ethics of Academic Life
- Grades
- Alcohol and Campus Life
- The Purpose of Higher Education
Grades will be based on: weekly informal journal entries on assigned or self-chosen topics and two short (fun!) essays as well as on class participation (attendance and discussion).
Mary Trachsel is an associate professor in the Department of Rhetoric. She has taught other sections of First-Year Seminar and recently taught a graduate course on Feminist Ethics.
First-Year Seminar: Equality in America
610:029 Section 005 2 s.h.
Instructor: Tom Lewis, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Course Meets: On Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 - 10:20 am in 217 Jessup Hall
The goal of this First-Year Seminar is to encourage students to ask basic questions about contemporary society and to develop a greater awareness of their values and beliefs. We will read short selections focused on the experience of social class in the United States. These readings will explore the many dimensions of class in America:
- Race relations
- Relations between the sexes
- Politics
- Career patterns
- "messages" in popular entertainment
- and other ways in which "class" is defined and operates in U.S. culture.
Grades will be based on: attendance and participation (20%) An informal discussion with the instructor during an office appointment early in the semester (10%) Two brief oral reports on the assigned readings (10% each; 20% total) Six two-page responses to the readings (30%) and An informal group project (20%)
Tom Lewis is a faculty member in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese where this semester he is teaching courses on 19th and 20th century Spanish literature. He is also a local activist on issues involving civil rights, labor, and social change.
First-Year Seminar: Trees, Not the Forest
002:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Diana Horton, Department of Biological Sciences
Course Meets: On Wednesdays from 2:30 to 4:00 pm in 510 Chemistry Building
Note: This course involves significant amounts of field work that needs to be done before the onset of winter. The course meets from August 29th through November 14th.
Trees are a remarkable architectural achievement that first evolved 300 million years ago. Presently, trees are represented in many different plant groups. Trees shape and modify our immediate environment, and they may play a critical role in mitigating the effects of global warming. Yet many people never really see either the trees or the forest. In this course, students will focus on learning to identify tree species commonly planted in the Midwest. During the course, you will learn how to use both dissecting and compound microscopes and how to prepare scientific specimens. By the end of the course, each student will have collected, prepared, and identified specimens-leafy branches-of at least 50 different tree species.
Grades will be based on: attendance and participation (10%); short exercises and quizzes in class (20%), your collection of specimens (60%), and a twig identification project (10%).
Diana Horton loves plants and teaches a variety of courses about them in the Department of Biological Sciences. She is the director of the UI Herbarium, a repository for approximately 175,000 specimens of vascular plants, 82,000 bryophytes, and 5,000 fossil plants from all over the world, but focusing on Iowa and the Midwest. Learning about plants transformed her perceptions of the world, and it gives her tremendous pleasure to share this experience with others.
First-Year Seminar: James Joyce
008:029 Section 001 2 s.h.
Instructor: Douglas Trevor, Department of English
Course Meets: Wednesdays, from 10:30 am to 12:20pm in 212 English Philosophy Building
James Joyce was one of the most influential and challenging writers of the twentieth century. Born in an impoverished home, he exhibited an early, and enduring, love of reading and writing, a complicated and vexed relationship to his Catholic religion and heritage, and a distraught and impassioned understanding of what it meant to be Irish.
Dubliners, a collection of short stories, is one of Joyce's earliest publications. It explores the lives of many residents of Joyce's hometown, ending with "The Dead," considered by many to be the greatest work of short fiction in the English language. In this seminar, we will read all of the stories in Dubliners, examine how Joyce constructed a series of short stories that together tell a larger story about his country and his religion, and learn about the difficulties the author faced in not only writing the collection but publishing it. We will also read Joyce's first novel, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, in which Stephen Dedalus-Joyce's alter ego-first appears in print. Portrait traces, as its title suggests, the self-conscious path of a young writer who rejects a clerical career for a far more uncertain life as an artist. We will supplement the readings with selections form Richard Ellman's biography of Joyce.
Grades will be based on: class participation and short papers.
Douglas Trevor joined the Department of English at the University of Iowa in August, 1999. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is working on a book entitled The Reinvention of Sadness: Writing Learned Selves in Early Modern England and is co-editor (with Carla Mazzio) of Historicism, Psychoanalysis, and Early Modern Culture. His last First-Year Seminar was on Hamlet.
First-Year Seminar: How Continents Grow
012:029 Section 001 2 s.h.
Instructor: CT Foster, Department of Geoscience
Course Meets: Tuesdays, from 12:30 to 1:20 pm in 135 Trowbridge Hall
Note: This seminar includes a required 5-day field trip from September 13 through September 17. The estimated total student cost of the trip is approximately $150.00. The trip involves moderate hiking and outdoor camping in Colorado; students without such experience may wish to talk with the instructor before registration.
This seminar examines the processes that extended the North American continent southward from its early beginnings in Wyoming and Minnesota to form most of the continental United States. We will focus on rocks formed during a remarkable period of crustal growth between 1.8 and 1.6 billion years ago. This formation resulted in the addition of 1000 km of new continent south of Wyoming, South Dakota, and Minnesota. It is an assemblage of highly deformed and metamorphosed lava flows, sandstones, shales, and granites that comprise the present day crust in the Rocky Mountains and Midwestern states, including Iowa.
We will read current literature in geologic journals on this topic, and evaluate the hypotheses that have been advanced to explain this period of crustal growth. During the field trip, students will keep a field notebook.
Grades will be based on: participation in class, weekly one-page written summaries of the topics discussed in class, and students' field notebooks.
Tom Foster and his students in the Department of Geoscience have conducted extensive research in the structural and petrological evolution of the Park Range over the past several years.
First-Year Seminar: Politics and Culture of the Cold War in Asia: Japan under US Occupation 1945-52
016:049 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Stephen Vlastos, Department of History
Course Meets: Mondays, from 2:30 to 4:20 pm in 137 Schaeffer Hall
Note: While some screenings will take place during class, students will also meet occasionally outside of class to view films.
This course looks at the unique relationship that developed between the United States and Japan during the seven-year U.S. occupation of Japan at the conclusion of the Pacific War. We will look at this relationship with the help of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (1999), a book that has won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. We will investigate how the Cold War in Asia shaped the United States' grandiose goal of social and political engineering to remake Japan into a loyal and democratic ally, and examine how Japan was transformed in the U.S. media from a ferocious, implacable enemy into a clever and almost comically dutiful pupil eager to please its new mentor. In addition to Embracing Defeat, we will use as our classroom "texts" a number of Hollywood movies set in the occupation period. We will decode how the political relationship between the U.S. and Japan was enacted in the construction of race, gender, and national character.
Grades will be based on: class participation and attendance, "response" papers, and two short essays.
Stephen Vlastos, professor in the Department of History, teaches courses on Asia, especially Japan. His most recent book is Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan (1997). He has also written about the history of the relationship between the US and Vietnam.
First-Year Seminar: Computation as Deduction
22C:002 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Arthur Fleck, Department of Computer Science
Course Meets: On Wednesdays from 12:30pm to 1:20pm in B13 MacLean Hall
Note: Although computer programming experience is not necessary for this seminar, students should have had four years of high school mathematics as preparation for the course.
This seminar explores the link between analytical thinking and computer-generated solutions to problems. Specifically, we will be looking at how computation can be conceived of as logical deduction performed by a computer. We will discuss the elements of precise logical thinking, and reveal how logical assertions can effectively serve as a computer program. During the first part of the semester students will learn how to use the University's computing facilities and get specific training in the use of the Prolog programming language. Each student will learn to read, write, and analyze small Prolog programs.
Grades will be based on: use of computer software tools and projects involving reading and writing small Prolog programs.
Arthur Fleck has a special interest in alternative programming language designs. Logic programming attracts him because of the directness it provides for progressing from conceptual solutions to computer programs. More information is available on his web page: http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~fleck
First-Year Seminar: The (Mis)Information Society
030:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Douglas Madsen, Department of Political Science
Course Meets: On Tuesdays from 9:30am to 10:20am in 137 Schaeffer Hall
American Society is awash in misinformation-much of it flowing through the mass media and dressed up in what appears to be scientific (and numerical) clothing. Such misinformation gets incorporated into public discussion (and fears) and, in the worst cases, into public policy. This course focuses on claims found in the mass media on topics ranging from public opinion to health risks. Students in the course will learn some basics of how to evaluate research, with particular attention to quantitative evidence and the inferences derived therefrom. Each student will take one published report for an independent assessment and present the assessment to the class.
Grades will be based on: class participation and the independent assessment and presentation.
Douglas Madsen, is a professor in the Department of Political Science, where he studies political behavior and its causes.
First-Year Seminar: Lawyers in the American Political System
030:029 Section 002 1 s.h.
Instructor: Tim Hagle, Department of Political Science
Course Meets: On Wednesdays from 12:30pm to 1:20pm in 177 Schaeffer Hall
This seminar will introduce students to several topics and issues related to the roles of lawyers and the legal community in the development of the law and, more generally, the American political system. We will look at legal education, the "legal culture," types of lawyers and legal jobs, how different types of lawyers influence the law in different ways, and how lawyers influence public policy and political institutions. Students will learn how to use internet resources to find information on legal developments -- court decisions, advocacy projects, and so on.
Grades will be based on: class participation and a few short essays and class presentations.
Tim Hagle is and associate professor in the Department of Political Science. He is also the prelaw advisor for Political Science. More information about this course can be found at his web site, http://www.uiowa.edu/~030116/
First-Year Seminar: The Social Roots of Academic Ability: Who is "Good" and Why
034:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Michael Lovaglia, Department of Sociology
Course Meets: On Tuesdays, from 2:00pm to 2:50pm in W113 Seashore Hall
This course investigates the reasons for academic ability and performance. Students will learn why so much importance is placed on academic achievement and its relationship to success in our society. They will learn how opportunities for success are structured in the dominant culture, and investigate the fairness of current practices that decide who gets those opportunities. Through discussion, short essays, and group activities, students will learn social-psychological techniques that can increase or inhibit individual academic performance.
Grades will be based on: participation in class discussion (based on assigned readings), contributions to group activities, and two short essays.
Michael Lovaglia is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology, where he teaches courses on Sociological Theory, the Sociology of Science and Social Psychology. His book Knowing People: The Personal Use of Social Psychology was published in 1999; his textbook on Social Psychology (written with Jeffrey Lucas) was published last year.
First-Year Seminar: Disasters and Catastrophes
036:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Randy Hirokawa, Department of Communication Studies
Course Meets: On Thursdays from 1:05pm to 2:20pm in 106 Becker Communication Studies Building
Well-publicized tragedies like the bonfire accident on the campus of Texas A&M University and the recent airplane crash that killed members of the Oklahoma State University basketball team are grim reminders that man-made disasters and catastrophes are an ever-present aspect of everyday life. This seminar focuses on man-made disasters and catastrophes to promote an understanding of why they occur and what, if anything, can be done to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
Grades will be based on: a group project. Two-three member research teams will investigate a man-made disaster and write a detailed report that describes, analyzes and explicates their findings. The written and oral presentation will be graded separately.
Randy Hirokawa is a professor in, and Chair of, the Department of Communication Studies. His research interests include group decision making, organizational communication, and interdisciplinary health care team education. In all of his research, he asks the question, "how does a group's decision-making communication affect its decision-making performance?"
First-Year Seminar: Gandhian Solutions: Can They Solve Today's Problems?
042:029 Section 001 2 s.h.
Instructor: Tom Walz, professor emeritus, School of Social Work
Course Meets: Mondays 10:30 am to 12:30pm in room 301 North Hall
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known as Mahatma Gandhi, was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. The independence of India from Great Britain might not have occurred without his efforts, and he influenced both Nelson Mandela's approach to South African apartheid and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s philosophy of non-violence during the United States civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
This seminar will explore the experiences that shaped Gandhi's thinking and introduce students to the core concepts of his philosophy. We will discuss whether Gandhi's ideas are still relevant and whether they could be applied to current social problems.
Grades will be based on: class participation, a book review, and a short paper.
Tom Walz recently retired from the University of Iowa. He is an international traveler and a former director of Peace Corps operations in Honduras. He was the first North American social worker to teach social work students in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
First-Year Seminar: Improvisation for the Theatre
049:029 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Ralph Hall, Department of Theatre Arts
Course Meets: Wednesdays from 3:30 - 5:20pm in room 172 Theatre Building
Note: Because many improvisations are done with partners, enrollment will be open to 16 students.
Improvisation is an invaluable tool. Through practicing improvisational skills, you will become more effective in presentations before an audience, more creative in your approach to problem solving, and more able to analyze the principles underlying any disciplined study. Also, it's fun.
Each class will begin with a short warm-up activity leading into a further exploration of specific improvisational techniques. As the semester goes on, the exercises will gain a deeper layering of interrelated practices, culminating in acts of spontaneous dramatic play.
Students will also attend at least one performance of No Shame Theatre and view one episode of Drew Carey's Whose Line Is It Anyway. Each student will also create a personal "resource notebook" with a record of class activities, your reflections on the process of and comments on the out-of-class activities.
Grades will be based on: Attendance and participation: 75% (note-you will not be judged on how well you are able to perform, but how much effort you put into the class, as both audience and actor) Resource Notebook: 25%
Ralph Hall worked as an actor, puppeteer and vaudeville artist in Oregon, Iowa and New Orleans before studying mime theatre with Carlo Mazzone Clementi, Etienne Decrous, and Jacques Lecoq. After graduating from Ecole Jacque Lecoq he worked as a teacher, school director, writer, show director and actor with the Dell'Arte Players Company in California and also performed with the San Diego Repertory Theatre and the Caravan Stage Company.
Leadership in A Diverse Society
610:030 Section 001 1 s.h.
Instructor: Diane Finnerty, Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity
Course Meets: Tuesdays, from 11:00am - 12:30pm. in C208 Pappajohn Business Building
Note: Unlike the other First-Year Seminars, this course is graded "Satisfactory/Fail" rather than letter graded (A-F).
In today's increasingly diverse society, students of all backgrounds and disciplines must be adept at assessing the difference that difference makes in their interactions with people from varied backgrounds. Students in this course will participate in exploring numerous elements of diversity and culture, including:
- Race/ethnicity
- Gender
- Class
- Disability
- Sexual identity
- Religion
- Geography
Through the use of multidisciplinary perspectives and materials, this interactive course will encourage students to deepen their understanding of self and other with the goal of developing skills necessary in today's world.
Grades will be based on: Students will earn an "S" grade for this course by keeping a journal during the semester and attending class. Active participation will be expected. Students who do not attend, actively participate, and complete journal entries will not pass the course.
Diane Finnerty is an adjunct lecturer in the Henry B. Tippie College of Business and the Diversity Resources Coordinator in the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. Her research and practice include understanding Iowa in the global context, including issues of race/ethnicity, immigration and "globalization." Born and raised in Iowa, she has focused on the development of social justice curricula which address the needs of Midwestern organizations and communities.