FSEM Courses

Do you think your race colored your high school experience in any way? Do you expect that your race will affect your academic and social life at University of Mary Washington? Does racism exist in higher education? If so, what forms does racism take? We will explore these questions by first reading scholarly works on race and higher education.

This First-Year Seminar explores the art, ideas, and enduring influence of Andy Warhol. Through close looking, discussion, reading, writing, and creative experimentation, students will examine how Warhol reshaped ideas about art, authorship, celebrity, media, and everyday life. Or students will learn how to speak and write about contemporary art. We will examine artistic practices since the 1970s alongside the critical discourses that shape how contemporary art is made, understood, and debated.

To survive today’s increasingly complex and volatile world, we each should develop financial literacy.  While auditing was originally the sub-discipline of accounting dedicated to expressing an opinion as to the fairness of corporate financial statements, it has now become the art and science of gathering evidence for a host of different disciplinary objectives. 

Is science going too far? Is it pushing the boundaries of what should be done by what can be done? This FSEM will examine some of the greatest scientific advances in the last 50 years, the impacts they had on society, and the cost of these advancements.

This course explores the multifaceted dimensions of leadership, including an in-depth examination of various leadership based on the extraordinary work and achievement of key corporate CEOs and their respective organizations. Students will analyze the importance of decision-making and the role perspective plays in effective leadership.

This course explores the geography of the global food system, examining food production and consumption models around the world and investigating the reasons why malnutrition persists.

Entertainment design and technology has a rich history of development extending back as far as the first performance. In this FSEM students will investigate the past, and they will also explore contemporary theatre companies and how they utilize today’s technology.

This FSEM is an exploration of forbidden texts, defined broadly, through in-depth examination of texts which were banned at some point, somewhere, in some fashion.

I have been involved with the study of languages since I decided that I would take English as my college language requirement. Learning English proved more difficult than I anticipated (I thought I would learn it in a semester!), but it showed me how intricate and fascinating languages can be (i.e., messy). Ever since I started learning English, I became interested in other languages, how adults learn a second language, and lately, how our attitudes towards languages and dialects are shaped by our own ideas about the people who speak them.

The amusement park is a timeless symbol of leisure, thrill, fantasy, and entertainment and it is a pastime enjoyed by generations of guests the world over.  Today, it is a perfect mix between a time-honored pastime that spans the generations and a mode …