Seminars are open to first-year students only. All first year seminars can be scheduled through LionPATH.
Spring 2021
AFAM 83 (3 cr) First Year Seminar in Applied Linguistics (IL, US, GH)
Class #26305 | MoWeFr 11:15AM - 12:05PM | COVID Remote | Instructor: Janelle Edwards
AFAM 83 has two primary purposes. First, it is designed to introduce students to college life and help them identify the resources and opportunities that will be most helpful to their future personal and professional path. Secondly, this seminar will introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of African American and Diaspora Studies. They will learn about major themes and topics in the field and meet faculty from various disciplines (History, English, Anthropology, Religion, Communication) who are researching those topics. Both aspects of the course will give students a clearer sense of the academic and personal opportunities available at Penn State and in African American Studies.
CAS 83 (3 cr) Communication and Infectious Diseases (GS)
Class #25684 | TuTh 1:35PM - 2:50PM | COVID Remote | Instructor: Erina MacGeorge
This course will introduce students to communication concepts, theories, and research relevant to the prevention and management of infectious disease outbreaks, including epidemics and pandemics.
HIST 83 (3 cr) Counterintuitive Narratives of American Environmental History
Class #25200 | TuTh 10:35AM - 11:50AM | COVID Remote | Instructor: Ellen Stroud
Nature is not always what one expects it to be, and is often the most interesting when it is confusing, surprising, or funny. In this seminar, we will be exploring the quirky side of American environmental history, with an eye toward questioning common assumptions about both the natural world and the role of people within it. We will be reading and writing about ways in which nature has caught Americans off guard, surprised them, made them laugh, and terrified them. In doing so, we will challenge ourselves to think in new ways about the histories of the environments in which we live. What makes something natural or unnatural? What does it mean to be wild? And what do our answers say about ourselves?
PLSC 83S (3 cr) First Year Seminar in Political Science (GS)
Class #17465 | MoWeFr 1:25PM - 2:15PM | COVID Remote | Instructor: Adam Nye
Description forthcoming
WMNST 83N (3 cr) The History of African American Women in U.S. Social Movements (US, GH, GS)
Class #19226 | TuTh 10:35AM - 11:50AM | COVID Remote | Instructor: Dara Walker
In this course, students will investigate the history of African American women's intellectual and cultural contributions to U.S. social movements using the historian's craft: critical analysis of primary historical documents and secondary literature. Marshaling a rich array of sources such as music, film, policy documents, and oral history interviews, this course explores how African American women have made sense of, resisted, and transformed U.S. political, social, and economic structures. Students will investigate topics such as African American women's daily resistance to slavery in the U.S., Black Left Feminism, and the ways in which African American women fought for Civil Rights and Black Power as social movement actors. We will conclude the course by focusing on African American women's experiences with the rise of the carceral state and the #SayHerName movement.