First Year Seminars
First-Year Seminar Courses
FYS 203 Family Stories (1 Credit)
What is a family? What are the stories that are told about family and how do they betray experiences that are at once culturally specific and often universal in their telling? How are we comforted and sustained by constructs of family; how are we limited, for example, by heteronormative and class-based assumptions that constrain the expression of household and kinship? In this course, students explore family stories in various genres (film, memoir, novel, television) to deepen their understanding of how this formative human experience is played out in a broad diversity of cultures.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C009, GEC C037
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Kirk Read
FYS 288 Moral Luck and Social Identity (1 Credit)
Our lives are deeply subject to luck. This course provides an introduction to philosophical analysis and the moral philosophies of Aristotle and Kant. The course also considers social luck: luck in one’s identity and how that identity is regarded by one’s culture. The course focuses on racism, with particular attention to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and slavery in the United States. Students examine ongoing white supremacy in the United States and consider racism as a kind of social and moral luck. Topics also may include moral responsibility for implicit bias, the nature of evil, and responsibility and reparations for slavery.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C031, GEC C042
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Susan Stark
FYS 308 Searching for the Good Life (1 Credit)
What constitutes a good life? How can such a life be achieved and sustained? These questions motivate this seminar. Multidisciplinary in nature, this course draws on psychology, economics, philosophy, political science, and sociology, with an emphasis on quantitative and qualitative empirical analysis. It begins with a focus on the ways that well-being is a function of individual choice, and expands to explore the ways that well-being can be secured collectively, including an examination of the role of government to either undergird or undermine well-being. Students contribute to discussion in each class session, and assignments include quizzes, papers, and podcasting.
Modes of Inquiry: None
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C031
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Michael Sargent
FYS 345 Classical Myths and Contemporary Art (1 Credit)
Movies, comic books, sculpture, painting, poems, and graffiti are some of the ways that modern societies share stories to discuss important cultural values. Not surprisingly, modern artists often invoke ancient myths, which once served a similar function. In this course, students explore the ways in which myths give members of a society, whether ancient or modern, meaningful tools to describe and explore issues, values, and conflicts. Students study ancient myths about figures such as Medea, Pygmalion, Hermaphroditus, Actaeon, and Persephone. They then collect and consider their modern versions in different media.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C054, GEC C067
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Lisa Maurizio
FYS 376 Inequality, Community, and Social Change (1 Credit)
Debates about inequalities linked to race, class, gender, sexuality, and global locations surround us in politics, news, and social media. In this seminar, students explore these social inequalities with a particular focus on community-engaged efforts to advance social change and the role of colleges and universities in those efforts. Students partner with local organizations oriented toward social justice and social change in Lewiston, addressing issues such as educational equity, public health, immigrant and refugee inclusion, housing justice, and family opportunity. Discussions and assignments introduce students to the history and daily life of the local community, and connect what they learn with their partner organizations to readings about social inequality, social change, and the potential contributions of colleges and their students in promoting the public good.
Modes of Inquiry: [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C008, GEC C091
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Emily Kane
FYS 400 The United States in the Middle East (1 Credit)
Since the late eighteenth century, American diplomats, sailors, merchants, and missionaries have been involved in the Middle East and North Africa. This course examines the history of the complex relations between the United States and the Middle East over the last two centuries. How have American perceptions of the Middle East changed over time? How has U.S. involvement influenced state formation, regime consolidation, and people's daily lives in the region? What were the major successes and failures of American foreign policy in the region? Students explore these questions through a variety of sources, including memoirs, documentaries, and U.S. diplomatic documents as well as scholarly books and articles.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C090
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Senem Aslan
FYS 404 On the Road to Spain (1 Credit)
This course examines Spain as a global crossroads, exploring how diverse travelers and migrants have experienced, imagined, and shaped Spanish culture from the 19th century to the present. Students study literature, journalism, film, food culture, and the arts to understand Spain as both a real and imagined place through multiple cultural lenses: American writers seeking artistic inspiration, European intellectuals engaging with Spain's Islamic heritage, African and Asian migrants establishing new communities, and Latin American travelers exploring postcolonial connections. Key themes in the course encompass the evolution of tourism, the role of travel writing in constructing cultural images, food as cultural exchange, and Spain's position in global migration patterns. Students engage with theories of mobility, tourism studies, and cultural exchange while developing writing skills through descriptive, narrative, and analytical essays.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: David George
FYS 423 Humor and Laughter in Literature and Visual Media (1 Credit)
What is humor? How do we define what is funny? Is humor a universal phenomenon that works across cultures and different generations of readers and film viewers, or is it place- and time-specific? In this seminar students discuss various manifestations, strategies, and functions of humor in selected literary and visual narratives and they consider existing theories of humor and laughter. Open to students with a sense of humor.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C040
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Jakub Kazecki
FYS 442 Shaking It Out: Writing and Critiquing Personal Narratives (1 Credit)
To "essay" means "to attempt; to try." This course offers students rigorous study and practice of the art of the creative nonfiction essay, looking specifically at the ways writers use creative impulses to write better textual critiques, and vice versa. Readings include classics from writers such as White, Angelou, Baldwin, Thompson, Dubus, Didion, and Wallace, and several contemporary American essays by writers like Hilton Als, Leslie Jamison, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, and John Jeremiah Sullivan.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [CP]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C085, GEC C086
Department/Program Attribute(s): (English: Post-1800)
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Jess Anthony
FYS 447 Holocaust on Stage (1 Credit)
This seminar studies the award-winning Polish play Our Class, by Tadeusz Słobodzianek, which is based on the 2001 book Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland by Jan T. Gross. This controversial book explores the July 1941 massacre of Polish Jews by their non-Jewish neighbors in the small town of Jedwabne during the Nazi occupation. The play raises a question of national collective memory in the aftermath of World War II. Students study the historical events on which the play is based, and examine the dramatic structure of the text in the aspects of staging.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C028, GEC C058, GEC C067
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Kati Vecsey
FYS 454 The Natural History of Maine’s Neighborhoods and Woods (1 Credit)
This course introduces students to the natural history of Maine by exploring the native mammals, fish, plants, and insects, with consideration on how humans have shaped Maine’s natural environments. One overnight trip to the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and one daylong trip to the Maine Wildlife Park are required. Relying upon natural history literature, poetry, and field guides related to Maine as a foundation, students utilize techniques in field studies to observe and document native wildlife and plants. A critical comparison of popular and scientific literature allows an evaluation of current and future health of Maine's natural habitats.
Modes of Inquiry: [QF], [SR]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Brett Huggett
FYS 475 Theorizing the Ku Klux Klan: The White Power Movement and the Making of "America" (1 Credit)
This multidisciplinary course explores the origins and iterations of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the United States from 1866 to the present. In so doing, the course makes larger claims about the core relationship between the white power movement and the making of "America." Drawing on the concepts, paradigms, and intellectual traditions of American cultural studies and Black studies, students consider the shifting narratives, contested ideologies, and the regional and temporal convergences and divergences of the KKK from its violent founding to our contemporary moment. Students learn how to theorize the KKK through frameworks that prioritize the concepts of racialization, patriarchy, cultural hegemony, resistance, citizenship, and counterrevolution.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Christopher Petrella
FYS 476 Coastal Hazards (1 Credit)
Humans have always lived along the world’s coastlines, yet constantly changing coastal landscapes and climate change, combined with increases in coastal populations, present a unique and challenging set of pressures for people and ecosystems at the boundary between land and sea. In this hands-on course, students explore the science of coastal hazards (e.g., erosion, sea level rise, storm events, tsunamis, and harmful algal blooms) by studying beaches, salt marshes, barrier islands, and coastal waters in a variety of settings. The laboratory/field component may include a weekend trip to Acadia National Park, and two late-return laboratories during the week to the Bates Morse Mountain Conservation Area and Saco Bay. The basic principles learned by studying Maine coastal systems facilitate exploration of coastal hazards in other parts of the world.
Modes of Inquiry: [QF], [SR]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C007, GEC C058, GEC C063, GEC C070
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Bev Johnson
FYS 489 Writing Ourselves, Writing With Others: Who Am I In the Age of AI? (1 Credit)
Who are you and who do you wish to be as an academic and creative writer in college? Particularly, in the age of AI–who can you be? To answer these questions, students will reflect on the writers they have become; will imagine the writers they could be; and will engage the nonfiction writing process as a means of self-discovery, critical insight, social impact, and scholarly acculturation while exploring the ways in which Generative AI may be a potential enemy, accomplice, or ally in this process. Examining identity, voice, and language in memoir, poetry, essays, arguments, and other first-person genres, students will learn to compose, share, revise, and polish their own writing–alone, with others, and (maybe) with AI. The final project is a creative autoethnographic (cultural, autobiographical) electronic portfolio. Writers of all levels are encouraged to enroll.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [CP]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Bridget Fullerton
FYS 505 Bates STEM Scholars (1 Credit)
What does it mean to become a scientist or mathematician and how do we build STEM identity? What habits of mind and practice are particularly effective in developing expertise in STEM knowledge and skills? What is the role of a supportive community of scholars? This seminar explores these questions and strategies for creating student success through reflective writing and collaborative engagement in learning. Corequisite(s): one of the following: any 100-level biology or earth and climate sciences course; CHEM 107; MATH 105, 106, 205, or 206; NRSC 160; NRSC/PHYS 117; or PHYS 107.
Modes of Inquiry: None
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Carrie Eaton, Geneva Laurita
FYS 509 The Sociology of Holidays (1 Credit)
Holidays, both national and religious, occupy a central place in our lives. The United States recognizes ten federal holidays. Holidays shape our social worlds in many ways, including through the observation of traditions, engagement in rituals, and reflection on loss. Sociologically, there is much to be examined, from the history of holidays, to the social meaning holidays hold, to the shared experience of rituals with social groups. This course engages with each of these issues, exploring what social functions holidays serve, variation in social and cultural practices surrounding holidays, and how and why holidays came to be such a social force in modern society.
Modes of Inquiry: [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Mike Rocque
FYS 525 Wars, Plagues, and Revolutions: How Economies Respond to Crisis (1 Credit)
This seminar examines how economies adapt when confronted with the onset of different types of crises, including wars, plagues, and revolutions, and how these emergencies continue to have economic impacts even after they end. Is it true that periods of crisis often lead to periods of greater economic equality? Under what conditions do wars generate higher economic growth, either while ongoing or in their aftermath? Students are exposed to a variety of writing modes including scholarly, journalistic, fiction, and propaganda, while examining how different writing techniques apply to each.
Modes of Inquiry: None
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Paul Shea
FYS 527 African American Religion in American Film (1 Credit)
This seminar examines how significantly religion and cinema have interacted, taking into account the complex ways in which race, religion, and cinema have been interwoven in American movies. These movies include ones from classical Hollywood cinema of the early twentieth century, the “race movies” specifically created by and for African American audiences from the silent era to the mid-twentieth century, and the recent "strong black women" in the sin-and-salvation films of Tyler Perry, T. D. Jakes, and Queen Latifah.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Charles Nero
FYS 551 Purpose, Work, and College: A Holistic Introduction to Purposeful Work at Bates (1 Credit)
What is our Why? How does a sense of purpose relate to our work and studies, our wellbeing, and our plan for a meaningful life? How does the purpose of education relate to our sense of purpose as a student? This introduction to Purposeful Work at Bates centers on students’ exploration of their own purpose[fulness] as they begin their college career and the purpose(s) of education at selected moments in history. Students read and reflect on texts that are foundational to the philosophy of Purposeful Work at Bates, liberal education, and grading practices. They practice reflective writing to learn and argue their own views of purpose[fulness], college, grading, and work. In the practice of Purposeful Work at Bates, they explore the importance of alignment between values, interests, strengths, skills, identity, and their past, present, and future work.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
FYS 560 Economics of the Digital World and Human Society (1 Credit)
This course examines the transformational impact of digital technologies on society. We will explore how the rise of digital technology disrupts traditional industries, how firms adapt, and how consumers interact with businesses and share information. Through readings, lectures, and discussions, students will critically analyze case studies, develop their own questions and arguments, and hone data analysis and evidence-based writing skills. Assessment will include presentations and writings in the forms of research reports, strategy memos, policy position papers, and academic research papers on a topic related to digitization and its impacts. The course aims to equip students to navigate the digital economy responsibly and purposefully.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Leshui He
FYS 566 What is Leadership? Theory, Practice, and Everyday Life (1 Credit)
This course is designed to unpack conceptions of leadership including philosophical foundations, historical evolution, and contemporary leadership problems. Students will engage with diverse leadership theories and frameworks as well as key concepts underlying those theories such as social constructivism and collectivism; identity, power, and positionality; altruism and ethics. Through a mixture of case studies, shared experiences, and self-reflection we will ground our exploration of leadership in the real world–our world. We will observe, notice, question, explore, and strive to answer key questions such as: What defines a leader? What makes leaders successful? How do race, power, and privilege influence leader and follower experiences? What does the future of leadership look like as we approach the middle of the 21st century? Join us as we ultimately try to answer the question: What is leadership?
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
FYS 573 Sex in the Brain: the Neuroscience of Hormones, Sex, and Gender (1 Credit)
How do sex hormones alter behavior? Does behavior influence hormones? To what extent to hormones determine and control who we are and what we do? This course will examine these issues by studying a variety of topics in the field of behavioral neuroendocrinology including: sexual determination and differentiation, sexuality, reproductive behavior, stress, and learning & memory. We will critically evaluate both human and animal research in each of these areas as well as discuss the clinical and societal implications of the findings. While the underlying neuroscientific perspective will be the focus of the course, we will also use an array of perspectives including queer and trans theory, cultural and critical studies, policy, etc, with the goal of fostering multidisciplinary approaches to understanding brain and sex hormone interactions.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [SR]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): GEC C009, GEC C027, GEC C065
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
FYS 574 Creating Community in the Medieval World (1 Credit)
In the Middle Ages, like today, community played an important role in shaping lived experience and in understanding who we, as human beings, were and are. Then as now, community shapes us while we shape it. Using various sources in translation—from poetry and letters to saints’ lives and legal texts—we will examine the diverse ways in which medieval people lived in and sought to create community. As we consider a wide range of communities from across Africa, Europe, and West Asia, we will pay particular attention to the processes of inclusion and exclusion and their impact.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Mark Tizzoni
FYS 576 Asian American and Pacific Islander Forms of Memory (1 Credit)
What forms do memories take? How do processes of remembering hold communities together? This class explores how a range of Asian American and Pacific Islander artists and authors remember and provide perspectives on the legacies of war, incarceration, empire, and migration. Together, we will examine how novels, short stories, plays, memorials, and museums look back in order to forge pathways forward and to fight for justice. Looking at the links between power and memory, we will examine the contours and forms of memory in Asian American and Pacific Islander literature, media and performances.
Modes of Inquiry: [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Amy Huang
FYS 577 Geometry in Ancient Japan: from Shogun to the Last Samurai (1 Credit)
Since the sixteenth century, the field of mathematics has been dominated by ideas developed in the West. What are the mathematical contributions in the non-western world? One example is the traditional Japanese mathematics (wasan) developed during the Edo period (1603 - 1867) when Japan was mostly isolated from the West. Some of the remarkable achievements in wasan predated the same results by western mathematicians. The tradition of hanging mathematical votive plaques in shrines and temples also helped popularize mathematics in ancient Japan. We examine the mathematical contributions from the samuari class, explore how mathematics was taught and how mathematical knowledge was transmitted, and we study the development of wasan throughout the Tokugawa Shogunate era (Edo period) before the Meiji Period when the imperial emperor was restored to rule Japan in 1868. Recommended background: some familiarity with high school level geometry.
Modes of Inquiry: [HS], [QF]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Peter Wong
FYS 578 The History Games: Danger & Dissent in Publishing History (1 Credit)
History is dynamic. Our understanding of the past changes over time as we sift through new material, encounter different voices, and seek out additional contexts. This seminar brings students to the heart of history-making, drawing upon the Reacting to the Past consortium’s role-playing games for initial inspiration. Together, we will immerse ourselves in the past, investigating controversies as historically situated role-players in the contexts of their times, and with critical distance. The fall 2025 seminar will play “Russian Literary Journals, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy in St. Petersburg, 1877,” before examining censorship in other contexts. The semester will end with students producing their own short RTTP-style game.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Caroline Shaw
FYS 579 Beyond the Rainbow: Exploring the Language (and the Science, Art, and Culture) of Color (1 Credit)
What color will the leaves on Maine trees turn this fall? Red? Orange? Brown? It depends on what languages you use, what cultures you know, and how you do or do not perceive certain colors. Oh. It also depends on whether anyone actually sees these trees; color is just a construction of the human brain. No human brain? No color. Color is all around us, but what actually is it? We'll explore how we name, use, and experience color by engaging with physics, chemistry, neurobiology, art, culture, and (of course) linguistics. Through expert guest lectures, hands-on activities, thought-provoking readings, and student-led discussions, we will examine how we have come to categorize and make sense of our world. This work will challenge us to look beyond the rainbow and deepen our understanding of how color shapes our lives. Interwoven with this work, we will practice the skills to be successful at Bates.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
FYS 580 Exploring Animal Intelligence (1 Credit)
This seminar gives first-year students an engaging introduction to the study of animal minds, exploring how scientists investigate and understand cognition across species. We will examine animal language and communication, mental representations, symbolic capacities, tool-making, problem-solving, and creativity. Our discussions will focus on the mental abilities of bees, birds, dogs, dolphins, elephants, and nonhuman primates, offering a glimpse into the rich and varied ways animals make sense of their world.
Modes of Inquiry: None
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Todd Kahan
FYS 581 Taste, Memory, Narrative: Digestible Memories of Food (1 Credit)
The food narrative is an increasingly popular subgenre of autobiography; as Ruth Reichl explains, "People are writing their lives in food. They are actually looking at the world food-first." This unit explores the intersections of writing, memory, and the book. Food books (e.g., cookbooks, food memoirs) are not only instructional manuals for the culinary arts and repositories for traditional dishes; they also reflect the food habits of a population, act as historical markers of major events, and record technological advances in society. They also provide narratives of self-development, racial and cultural awareness, interpersonal engagements, and intercultural negotiations as they recount relational life stories. We examine contemporary and historical food memories, food reviews, and cookbooks as historical texts.
Modes of Inquiry: None
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Myron Beasley
FYS 582 Skating Away from the Binaries (1 Credit)
At a time when some people are doubling down on gender segregation in sport, others are working to challenge the interconnected binaries that affect how people understand and practice sports: binaries like female/male, artistic/athletic, human/nonhuman, mind/muscle, and serious/fluffy. In this course, we will engage with analytic, creative, and activist approaches to binarism in sport. Using tools from queer and trans sports studies, with attention to matters such as race, sexuality, gender, ability, nationality, colonialism, and economic status, we will consider sporting activities ranging from figure skating to basketball and from recreational sports to the quest for international medals.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Erica Rand
FYS 583 Undocumented Migration (1 Credit)
An examination of the processes and consequences of migration to the United States with a special focus on peoples from Mexico and Central America. Special consideration will be given to the cultural impacts on migrants, socioeconomic factors at play, and the human consequences of such migration. Governmental and non-profit responses to migration will be critically examined.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Joyce Bennett
FYS 584 Speak Global: Understanding Languages in a Connected World (1 Credit)
Why do we use the languages we do to communicate? How does your primary language/s relate to your conceptualization of the world? This course will explore the global societal and cultural changes that have impacted the languages we learn and use to communicate. By exploring concepts such as globalization, lingua franca, colonization, and the impact of technology the course will expand on our understanding of language development over time and language learning. Together we will examine how language has developed and predict how it will develop globally. Students will connect with these concepts through intentional writing activities, engaging with language gamification programs, and exploring their own relationships with languages. Prior world language study is not required to participate in this course. Registration in a Bates taught world language course is encouraged but not required.
Modes of Inquiry: [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Darren Gallant
FYS 585 How Democracy Dies (1 Credit)
Since 2006, a third of the world's democracies have experienced democratic backsliding—processes of political change in which countries that enjoy a certain level of democracy become significantly less democratic What explains this recent wave of democratic erosion? More specifically why has democratic backsliding occurred under the leadership of freely elected governments? Students answer these questions by comparing the cases of democratic breakdown in Italy and Germany in the mid-20th century with backsliding in more contemporary cases including Turkey, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Hungary. Drawing on books, research articles and reports, films, and speeches, students identify common patterns and variations across these cases. They also consider the cases' implications for protecting democracy in the future.
Modes of Inquiry: [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Clarisa Perez-Armendariz
FYS 586 Musical Europe and the Jew: Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and Antisemitism in Euro Musical Culture (1 Credit)
Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Mahler, Finzi. Each a successful composer, but each of their stories marred by one commonality: antisemitism. Using the lens of nationalism, detailed study will be afforded to each of the composers, revealing how nineteenth and twentieth-century European politics and social theory rendered these and other artistic Jews as "cosmopolitan" threats. Students will engage in informed debates on the complexities of the Jewish diaspora at this time, fostering a nuanced understanding of antisemitism in nineteenth and twentieth-century European musical culture. Further, this course aids in developing a personal voice through modes of writing and communication appropriate to the disciplines of Jewish studies, music history, and European studies.
Modes of Inquiry: [AC], [HS]
Writing Credit: [W1]
GEC(s): None
Department/Program Attribute(s): None
Class Restriction: Not open to: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior students
Cross-listed Course(s): None
Instructor: Zen Kuriyama