FSEM Courses

This first-year seminar will explore how southern literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries asks you to think about sexuality in both broad terms and regionally-specific contexts. The seminar will: give you a useful critical vocabulary abo …

This seminar will explore issues in controversial novels and plays from former French colonies in Canada, the Caribbean, Northern Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In this course, we will explore the life and work of James Farmer, an exemplary leader of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement who taught at Mary Washington during the 1990s. We will investigate the history of the concept of race and its impact on how we perceive ourselves and the world.

This course begins with the question of how we ought to remember the Holocaust. Some see Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List as kitsch, for example, while others praise it as a monument to humanity. Are the monumental concrete steles of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin an appropriate way to remember the victims? Or do they reduce the victims to an anonymous mass?

This FSEM examines the electoral process in contemporary American politics. The electoral process is how we carry out a fundamental aspect of republican democracy – allowing citizens to select representatives of the people to make decisions on our behalf.

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.

Christmas celebrations have changed as Americans have changed, and in the last century, Hanukkah has become attached to Christmas in uniquely American ways. In this FSEM, we’ll explore how various groups of Americans have understood the birth of a Jewi …

What’s your story?  How do you understand who you are, what your purpose is, how you are impacting others and the broader world around you?  In what ways do stories and storytelling pervade our world—not only as literature (oral and written), but also as a form of both practical and spiritual seeking and understanding? 

Hurricanes. Floods. Tornadoes. Wildfires. Earthquakes. Blizzards. Throughout United States history, natural disasters have redefined the American physical and political landscape. They have also exposed human-made decision-making and social structures that proved disastrous in their own right.

In Arabic culture, food transcends the simple act of nourishment to become a vital thread in the fabric of daily life. It is a cultural touchstone, reflecting a rich tapestry of history and tradition that varies across different regions of the Arab world. Hospitality is a cornerstone value, and meals are a profound expression of warmth and generosity.