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First Seminar Program, 2008-2009

The First Seminar enables first-year students to be engaged in an intellectually exciting and challenging experience in a small, seminar-style class. Topics are selected by instructors and announced in advance so students can choose according to their interests.

Announcements

Video Transcript for Choosing Your Preferences for First Seminar (FSP)

Coordinator of the First Seminar Program

Glenn Steinberg

E) gsteinbe@tcnj.edu


Seminar on Mexico and Field Experience

This seminar continues to develop student proficiency in Spanish (from Spanish 102 taken in Fall 08) while at the same time examining the country of Mexico from numerous perspectives including geography, history, biology, economics, business, language, culture and Mexican-US relations.

First Seminars Listed By Interdisciplinary Concentration, F 2008

To see a page with first seminar courses linked to particular Interdisciplinary Concentrations, click on one of the links below. On the same page you will find a link for an Interdisciplinary Concentration Preference Form that will allow you to sign up for the concentration of your choice. For general information about interdisciplinary concentrations, go to: http://www.tcnj.edu/~liberal/concentrations/index.html for details.

First Seminars Listed By Course Number and Title, Fall 2008

artsLiterary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Students should cultivate a love of human expression in the arts.

FSP 10101 This is Your Life on Music
FSP 10102 What Makes Great Literature Great?
FSP 10103 Incarceration Nation: The Literature of the Prison
FSP 10104 Law, Film and Literature
FSP 10105 The Cultural Phenomenon of Harry Potter
FSP 10106 The Movie That Changed Your Life
FSP 10107 Our Town and Other Works by Thornton Wilder
FSP 10108 The Worlds of Moby-Dick
FSP 10109 The Matrix and Philosophy
FSP 10110 A Literature of Flesh and Blood: Concert Dance of the 20th Century in America
FSP 10111 -12 To See the World in a Grain of Sand: Reading and Writing the Short Story
FSP 101H1 Paradise Lost and Found
FSP 10201 Race, History, and the Fictive Imagination
FSP 10202 Harlem Renaissance:  Black Paris
FSP 10203 The Evolution of African American Gospel Music
FSP 10302 Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in American Literature and Film
FSP 10303 Inside Out: Gay and Lesbian Studies
FSP 10401 Irish Cinema
FSP 10402 Global Ecocinema and Ethics of Environmentalism
FSP 10403 Africa and the West: From Monologue to Dialogue
FSP 10404 The Classical World in Global Context

world viewsWorldviews and Ways of Knowing

Students should think critically about what it means to be human, and to explore and interpret the human place in the universe.

FSP 11101-02 Mortality, Mind, and the Meaning of Life
FSP 11103-H4 Menace to Society: The Condemnation of Philosophical Ideas in the Bertrand Russell Case
FSP 11105 Can Morally Wrong Be Politically Right?
FSP 11106 Conflicts in Morality: Technology and Ethics
FSP 11107-08 Making Sense of Life, For Life
FSP 11109 The Nature of Human Nature
FSP 11110 The Social Documentary
FSP 111H2 Mind, Morality and Free Will
FSP 111H3 (Some) Great Books I
FSP 11401-02 Humanity’s Quest for Meaning and Justice
FSP 11403-04 Buddhism and Hinduism
FSP 11405 Social Justice, History and Practice

prisonBehavioral, Social, and Cultural Perspectives

Students should understand the social context within which they live, and understand how the social dynamics of human behavior and the structures of social institutions influence beliefs and actions.

FSP 12101 Living in a Virtual World
FSP 12102

Popular Culture, Power, and

Identity
FSP 12103 Exploring Amish Culture
FSP 12104 Human Ability – Unplugged
FSP 12105 Deconstructing Autism: A View from the Inside
FSP 12106-07 How Much Work?
FSP 12108 Voting with Our Fingers and Electing a President
FSP 12109 Friends Forever: Examining Online Socializing
FSP 12110 Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Remedies
FSP 12111 Holistic Wellness and Self-Care
FSP 12112 Simplicity, Society, and Sustainability
FSP 12114 Schools and the American Dream
FSP 12115 Being Me, Knowing You: The Foundations for Human Encounter
FSP 12116 Advertising & Society: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
FSP 12117-18 Pandemics and Politics
FSP 12119 Leadership Matters: Advancing the Public Good Through Leadership in Business, Government, and Nonprofit Organizations
FSP 12120 Strong Democracy and Student Leadership
FSP 121H2 Protecting New Jersey's Pinelands
FSP 12201-02 Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in the Anglophone Caribbean
FSP 12301 American Masculinities
FSP 12401 Seminar on Mexico and Field Experience
FSP 12402 The Impact of Globalization
FSP 12403-04 International Crime and Human Rights
FSP 12405-06 Contemporary Egypt, It's Culture and Its Women
FSP 12503 Leadership for Social Justice (Reserved for Bonner Community Scholars)

citySocial Change in Historical Perspective

Students should understand how social contexts change over time and how human events have been, and continue to be, shaped by social and historical forces.

FSP 13101 Evolution of the Evolution Controversy
FSP 131H1 The Beatles and Their World
FSP 13201 Multicultural New York: The City from its Beginnings to the Present
FSP 13401-02 Encountering China
FSP 13404 Women and the Family in Modern China
FSP 134H1 What Happened to Yugoslavia?
FSP 13405-06 Music and the Holocaust: Culture, Identity, and Ideology

scienceNatural Science

Students should understand the process of scientific investigation and the major features of scientific reasoning as they develop a selected, substantive knowledge of basic natural science content.

FSP 14101 Genetics: Blame It on Your Parents
FSP 14103 How Things Work
FSP 14104 What is Evolution?
FSP 14105 Human Survival and the Challenge of Science in the Twenty-First Century
FSP 14106 Color
FSP 14401 The Geology and Tectonics of Africa

dataQuantitative Reasoning

Students should understand quantitative reasoning so they can respond effectively to claims deriving from quantitative arguments.

FSP 15101 The Mathematics of Voting, Apportionment, and Fair Division
FSP 15102 Super Crunching: Google Data Mining and Beyond
FSP 15103 Learning to Program: What Makes it Difficult?
FSP 15104 Social Computing and Collective Intelligence
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For Honors Students

In addition to participating in the Honors learning community, students may choose from six Honors First Seminars.

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For Bonner Scholars

Bonner Scholars are actively involved in community engaged learning with local social service agancies and are enrolled in: Leadership for Social Justice

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Civic Responsibilities

TCNJ students should seek to sustain and advance the communities in which they live.

Coordinator of the First Seminar Program

Glenn Steinberg

E) gsteinbe@tcnj.edu