The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces students to Dickinson as a "community of inquiry" by developing habits of mind essential to liberal learning. Through the study of a compelling issue or broad topic chosen by their faculty member, students will:
-Critically analyze information and ideas
-Examine issues from multiple perspectives
-Discuss, debate and defend ideas, including one's own views, with clarity and reason
-Develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information, and
-Create clear academic writing
The small group seminar format of this course promotes discussion and interaction among students and between students and their professor. In addition, the professor serves as students' initial academic advisor. This course does not duplicate in content any other course in the curriculum and may not be used to fulfill any other graduation requirement.
All Dickinson first-year students arrive on campus for orientation knowing which seminar they will join.
The following First-Year Seminars are offered in the Fall of 2025:
Black Horror
Arguing about Politics, Society, and Culture in China, Japan, and Vietnam
American History Through Poetry
Blood!: Visual and Material Histories of a Fluid
Narratives of Disaster: Puerto Rico Responds to Hurricane Maria
Body Stories
From Kyoto to Paris to Carlisle: Human Impact on Global and Local Environments
Beekeeping in the End Times—Grappling with Climate Change through Speculative Fiction
Monstrous Japan: Strange and Ghostly Figures from Ancient Times to the Present
Exploring Conflict
Youth, Love, and Rebellion: Growing up in modern Japan
Small Screen, Big Picture: Religion & Television
Contested Campus: Key Issues in Higher Education
Overconsumption Unpacked: The Hidden Costs of Our Overloaded Society
Food, Fuel, and Fumes: How What We Grow, Raise, and Burn Shapes Our Air
Singing Amid Social Strife
Playing the Past: The Archaeology of Games and Gaming
War and Peace
Charcoal, Iron, Environment and Community
The History of Creativity
The Search for Life in the Solar System and Beyond: What are we looking for, and what do we do if we find it?!?!?
Race and Radical Pedagogy
Representation, Resistance, and Free Speech in Stand-up Comedy
Three Views on the "Problem of the Color Line": Du Bois, Baldwin, Coates
The Art of Protest and the Power of Performance
Persephone and Hades through the Ages
Natural Disasters and You
All Roads Lead to Kathmandu: Meditation, Mindfulness, and the Mystical Marketplace
The Not so Beautiful Game? Thinking about Football (Soccer) Culture in Britain
History of Medicine and Public Health
Polyphemus to Pikachu: Making Sense of Monsters
The Multiverse of Mythology
Galileo's Commandment
Narratives of French Imperialism in Africa and the Caribbean
The US Supreme Court for Beginners