Here you will find a comprehensive list of first-year seminars offered at UMW since Fall 2006. The courses are organized by those most recently offered to those least recently offered, but you are free to arrange them in any other way using the navigation arrows at the head of each column.
In the “Proposal” column, some FSEMs have two dates. The top date indicates when an older FSEM went through the reapproval process (to ensure compliance with the QEP), and the bottom date, in brackets, indicates when the FSEM was originally proposed. For the purposes of this site, we are including only the reapprovals of these FSEMs. If you would like to see one of these course’s original proposal, please contact us.
Please contact us if you would like to see the syllabus for a course.
| COURSE | INSTRUCTOR(S) | DEPT | TITLE | PROPOSAL | LAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FSEM 100A3 | Larochelle (SPAN) | MLL | Writing for a Wounded Planet: Literature and Environment in the US and Latin America | 2014 [N/A] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100A4 | Foss (ENGL) | ELC | Autism in Contemporary Literature and Film | 2014 [2008] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100D3 | Hydorn (MATH), Sheckels (MATH) | MATH | Escher Math: The Mathematics of Pattern and Design / Art of Mathematics | 2008 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100E5 | Marsh (SOCG) | SA | I'm Not a Feminist But... | 2016 [2009] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100E7 | McCluskey (THEA) | THEA | Finding Fashion | 2015 [2009] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100F | Koos (FREN) | MLL | French New Wave: Cinema & Society | 2008 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100F2 | Asper (CHEM) | CHEM | Chemistry and War | 2016 [2009] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100G4 | VARIOUS | CPR | Race and Revolution / James Farmer and the Struggle for Civil Rights | 2014 [2011] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100G7 | Schiffrin (PSYC) | PSYC | Is Trying to be Happier as Futile as Trying to be Taller? | 2014 [2011] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100G8 | Gately (MUSC) | MUSC | Bitches Brew: The Evolution and Development of Jazz | 2014 [2011] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100H3 | Glucklich (GERM), Rotter (GERM) | MLL | Representing the Holocaust in German&US Culture | 2014 [N/A] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100H7 | Garmon (ARTS) | ARTS | Environmental Art: Designing a Better World | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100J9 | Al-Tikriti (HIST) | HIST | History of Genocides | 2013 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100K1 | Nguyen (PHYS), Magrakvelidze (PHYS) | PHYS | Physics for Future Presidents and World Leaders | 2011 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100K3 | Lewis (MLL) | MLL | Digital Don Quijote | 2013 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100K4 | Stebbins (PSYC) | PSYC | Sleep Deprivation & College Life | 2013 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100K8 | Davis (EDUC) | EDUC | Who Am I This Time? Presenting the Self | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100K9 | Gentry (COB), Richardson (COB) | COB | Past, Present, and Future Trends in Commerce | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100L | Housley (THEA) | THEA | Cold Case: Mystery and History in Theatre | 2014 [2008] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100L1 | Rafferty (ENGL) | ELC | Beatles in the 21st Century | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100L4 | Walker (EDUC) | EDUC | So You Think You Want to be a Teacher | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100L6 | Tenner (THEA) | THEA | It's Alive! Horror on the Stage | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100L7 | Brewer (THEA) | THEA | Solo Mio: Solo Performance and You | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100L9 | Finlayson (GEOG) | GEOG | Geography of Religion | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100M1 | Anewalt (CPSC), Hydorn (MATH), Denhere (MATH) | MATH | Numbers Rule Your World | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100M3 | Wilson (PSYC) | PSYC | Comparing Reel to Real: The Portrayal of Mental Health in TV and Film | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100M4 | Rycroft (ECON), Esunge (MATH) | MATH | Game Theory | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100M6 | Kennedy (ENGL) | ELD | The Grail Legend | 2014 [2012] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100M7 | McClurken (HIST), Burtis (ADMIN), Whalen (ENGL), Rao (COMM), Majid (COB) | HIST | Beyond the Selfie: Exploring Digital Identity | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100M8 | Eggenberger, Sanford, Eldridge (ADMIN) | PSYC | Passion to Action | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100M9 | Scanlon (ENGL) | ELC | Down the Rabbit Hole | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100N2 | Singh (PSCI) | PSCI | Politics, Doublespeak, and Building a BS Detector | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100N5 | Greenlaw (ECON), Rycroft (ECON) | ECON | Inequality and the American Dream | 2014 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100N6 | Kayler (ADMIN) | COB | Part Game, Part Play: Gamers and Gaming | 2014 [2012] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100N7 | Dreiss (ARTH) | ARTH | Architecture Now | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100P1 | Hubbard (COB) | COB | Life Auditing: Fiscal Fitness, Resilience and Responsibility | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100P2 | Majid (COB) | COB | Finding Bad | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100P4 | Reno (PHIL) | CPR | A Question of Progress: Thinking Through Human Responsibilities to the Environment | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100P6 | Wynn (BIOL) | BIOL | Science and Technology: Because We Can Should We? | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100P7 | Cooperman (PSCI) | PSCI | US Campaigns and Elections | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100P8 | Rouhani (GEOG) | GEOG | Queer Space: The Geographies of Sexualities | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100P9 | Gupta (PSCI) | PSCI | Shirt Tales: Understanding the Politics and Economics of Global Trade | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100Q | Dolby (BIOL) | BIOL | The Human Animal | 2014 [2008] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100TT | Finalyson (CPSC) | CPSC | Computation: Minds and Machines | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100UU | Henry (HISP) | HISP | Road Trips in America | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100XX | Morealli (EESC) | EESC | Escaping Death: Geologic Disasters and Hazard Prediction | 2016 | Aug-17 |
| HIST 201 | Varies (HIST) | HIST | First-year Seminar: European History | 2014 [2008] | Aug-17 |
| HIST 202 | Varies (HIST) | HIST | First-Year Seminar: American History | 2014 [2008] | Aug-17 |
| FSEM 100C2 | Martin (SOCG) | SA | Borders, Barrios, & Biases | 2016 [2008] | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100E4 | Mellinger (MATH), Helmstutler (MATH) | MATH | Cryptology | 2014 [2009] | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100G3 | Richards (ENGL) | ELC | Broadway Babies: Stephen Sondheim and the American Musical | 2014 [2010] | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100H5 | Mackintosh (PSYC) | PSYC | The Bad Seed? Exploring the Roots of Evil | 2016 [N/A] | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100J2 | Urbanski (ARTS) | ART | Creating Arts and Ideas | 2014 | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100J8 | Stahlman (PSYC) | PSYC | Freedom and Determinism | 2014 [2013] | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100L3 | McAllister (ENGL) | ELC | Jane Austen: Film/Web/Text | 2014 | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100L8 | Snyder (MUSC) | MUSC | Ballades, Beats, & Band Camp | 2014 | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100M5 | Gentry R (EDUC) | EDUC | Seeing Different: Disability in Media and Society | 2014 | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100N1 | Smith (HISP) | HISP | Learning with LEGO | 2014 | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100N3 | Whipkey (ESGE) | EESC | Climate Change and Energy Resources | 2014 | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100P3 | Martinez-Mira (SPAN) | MLL | Just Words? Language and Society | 2016 | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100P5 | Vasey (PHIL) | CPR | The Stone: Racism and Contemporary American Philosophy | 2016 | Aug-16 |
| FSEM 100B7 | Mathur (ENGL) | ELC | Cinderella/Harry Potter: Fairy Tales and Fantasy Literature | 2014 [2008] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100C5 | Goehring (RELG) | CPR | Lost and Forgotten Manuscripts of Early Christianity | 2014 [2008] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100D6 | Powers (FREN) | MLL | Gender and Sexuality in Francophone Literature | 2014 [2007] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100E1 | McClurken (HIST), O'Donnell (COMM), Rao (COMM) | ELC | TED.com - An Exploration of Ideas Worth Sharing | 2014 [2009] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100F7 | Martin (SOCG) | SA | No Place Like Home: Housing and Society | 2014 [2010] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100G2 | Tomba (BIOL) | BIOL | Parasites: Monsters Within | 2014 [2010] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100H4 | Liss (PSYC), Erchull (PSYC) | PSYC | Feminism from the Second Wave until the Present | 2014 [N/A] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100H8 | Kim (SOCG) | SA | Everyone's a Little Bit Racist | 2014 [2012] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100J6 | Dabb (ARTH) | ART | Alfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense | 2014 [2013] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100JJ | Houghtalin (CLAS) | CPR | Daily Life in Ancient Rome | 2014 [N/A] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100KK | Mikhalevsky (PHIL) | CPR | Banned & Dangerous Art | 2014 [N/A] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100L5 | Russell (EDUC) | EDUC | Superman on the Wire: Perspectives on American Urban Schools | 2014 | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100M2 | Clayton (EDUC) | EDUC | Do You Speak American? | 2014 | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100N4 | Kagan (THEA) | THEA | Theatre and Social Justice | 2015 | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100X | Barrenechea (ENGL) | ELC | Celluloid Vampire: Dracula from Page to Screen | 2014 [2008] | Aug-15 |
| FSEM 100D | Sumner (MATH), Edmunds (MATH) | MATH | Mathematics of Chaos | 2008 | Jan-15 |
| FSEM 100G5 | Hydorn (MATH) | MATH | Infographics | 2011 | Jan-15 |
| FSEM 100J7 | Tweedy (ENGL) | ELC | Octavia Butler: Science Fiction | 2013 | Jan-15 |
| FSEM 100L2 | Martin (MLL) | MLL | Heroes & Lovers on the World Stage | 2014 | Jan-15 |
| FSEM 100C6 | Fernsebner (HIST) | HIST | Toys as History | 2008 | Aug-14 |
| FSEM 100F4 | Stanton (HISP) | HISP | Virtual Vernacular: Recording Community Music | 2009 | Aug-14 |
| FSEM 100H2 | Rafferty (ENGL) | ELC | The Idea of Cool | N/A | Aug-14 |
| FSEM 100J4 | Phillips (BUAD) | COB | The Art of Life's War | 2013 | Aug-14 |
| FSEM 100K5 | Rao (COMM) | ELC | Documentary Filmmaking | N/A | Aug-14 |
| FSEM 100K6 | O'Donnell (COMM) | ELC | Is College Worth It? | 2014 | Aug-14 |
| FSEM 100K7 | Davies (CPSC) | CPSC | Inventions that Rocked the World | 2014 | Aug-14 |
| FSEM 100M | Rochelle (ENGL) | ELC | The Good Society: Exploring Utopia | 2008 | Aug-14 |
| FSEM 100B9 | Gallagher (GEOG) | GEOG | Water Resources | 2008 | Jan-14 |
| FSEM 100B8 | Scanlon (ENGL) | ELC | Ethics and Literature | 2008 | Aug-13 |
| FSEM 100G | McAllister (ENGL) | ELC | Travel Writing | 2008 | Aug-13 |
| FSEM 100J3 | Groom (ADMIN) | ELC | True Crime: America's Most Wanted | N/A | Aug-13 |
| FSEM 100F3 | Tweedy (ENGL) | ELC | Culture Works and the Graphic Novel | 2009 | Jan-13 |
| FSEM 100H9 | Turdean (HISP) | HISP | Cars, Roads, & Cities | 2012 | Jan-13 |
| FSEM 100J1 | Humphrey (ECON) | ECON | Do's & Don'ts for Do-Gooders | 2012 | Jan-13 |
| FSEM 100MM | Helmstutler (MATH), Mellinger (MATH) | MATH | Pirates, Liars, and Pigeons: Not Your Typical Math Course | 2008 | Jan-13 |
| FSEM 100A5 | Rouhani (GEOG) | GEOG | Politics, Culture, & the Global Media | 2008 | Aug-12 |
| FSEM 100DD | Whipkey (ESGE) | EESC | Energy Resources in 21st Century | 2008 | Aug-12 |
| FSEM 100E3 | Whalen (ENGL) | ELC | A Video Game Canon: The Most Important Video Games Ever Made | 2009 | Aug-12 |
| FSEM 100F1 | Reddy (ENGL), Groom (ADMIN) | ELC | American Detective Fiction | 2009 | Aug-12 |
| FSEM 100RR | McClurken (HIST) | HIST | When Americans Came Marching Home | 2008 | Aug-12 |
| FSEM 100C9 | Ekey (PHYS), Wessels (PHYS) | PHYS | Science, Sound, and Music | 2008 | Jan-12 |
| FSEM 100D8 | Matzke (PHIL) | CPR | Radical Environmentalism | 2008 | Jan-12 |
| FSEM 100G6 | Rettinger (PSYC) | PSYC | Intuition | 2011 | Jan-12 |
| FSEM 100G9 | Schleef (SOCG) | SA | Media Images of Mothers | N/A | Jan-12 |
| FSEM 100BB | Meadows (EDUC) | EDUC | Reading and Writing About Weird Things: Critical Thinking and the Internet | 2010 | Aug-11 |
| FSEM 100D4 | Aminrazavi (RELG) | CPR | Revolution and Cinema in Iran | 2008 | Aug-11 |
| FSEM 100F8 | Zaidman (CPSC) | CPSC | Beauty and Brains: Women in the Sciences | 2010 | Aug-11 |
| FSEM 100J | Greenlaw (ECON) | ECON | Globalization: Panacaea or Deal with Devil? | 2008 | Aug-11 |
| FSEM 100V | Romero (CLAS) | CPR | Sex and the Ancient City | N/A | Aug-11 |
| FSEM 100AA | O'Donnell (COMM), Rafferty (ELC) | ELC | James Farmer Civil Rights | 2010 2007 | Jan-11 |
| FSEM 100B4 | Pitts (CLAS) | CPR | Journey to the Underworld | 2008 | Jan-11 |
| FSEM 100G1 | Crowder (CHEM) | CHEM | Consumer Chemistry | 2010 | Jan-11 |
| FSEM 100C7 | Richards (ENGL) | ELC | Sexuality in Southern Literature | 2008 | Aug-10 |
| FSEM 100D5 | Szulczewski (ESGE) | EESC | Scientific Controversies in the Media | 2008 | Aug-10 |
| FSEM 100D7 | Smith (HISP) | HISP | Cities of Nightmare | 2008 | Aug-10 |
| FSEM 100F5 | Harris (HIST) | HIST | The Russian Novel | 2010 | Aug-10 |
| FSEM 100LL | Hanna (GEOG) | GEOG | Maps and Politics | 2008 | Aug-10 |
| FSEM 100A2 | Riegger (SPAN), Chichester | MLL | Strange Sightings: Learning about Hispanic Culture through Latin American Science Fiction Texts | 2008 | Jan-10 |
| FSEM 100B3 | Slunt (CHEM) | CHEM | Food Chemistry | 2008 | Jan-10 |
| FSEM 100NN | Martiez-Mira (SPAN) | MLL | Language in Globalization | 2009 | Jan-10 |
| FSEM 100R | Smith (PSYC) | PSYC | A Question of Mind | 2008 | Jan-10 |
| FSEM 100ZZ | Giancarlo (CHEM) | CHEM | Mad Scientists, Bad Scientists, and Evil Geniuses | 2008 | Jan-10 |
| FSEM 100B6 | Zacharski (CPSC) | CPSC | Mash-up & Remix: The Future of Creativity in Cyberspace | 2008 | Aug-09 |
| FSEM 100E6 | Rycroft (ECON) | ECON | Economics of Everyday Life | 2008 | Aug-09 |
| FSEM 100E9 | Citeroni (SOCG) | SA | Environmental Justice | 2008 | Aug-09 |
| FSEM 100D1 | Rettinger (PSYC) | PSYC | Sight & Sound: Experiencing the Physical World | 2008 | Jan-09 |
| FSEM 100EE | Zies (BIOL), McGhee (BIOL) | BIOL | Famous Scientific Discoveries / Biology and Culture | 2008 | Jan-09 |
| FSEM 100GG | Citeroni (SOCG) | SA | Society & Environment | N/A | Jan-09 |
| FSEM 100VV | Anewalt (CPSC) | CPSC | The Science of a Connected Age | 2008 | Jan-09 |
| FSEM 100YY | Rao (COMM) | ELC | Rhetoric: Documentary Filmmaking | 2008 | Jan-09 |
| FSEM 100B5 | Vasey (PHIL) | CPR | Freud: Texts and Representations | 2008 | Aug-08 |
| FSEM 100C1 | Hubbard (COB) | COB | Profit & Accountability | 2008 | Aug-08 |
| FSEM 100A1 | Gable | SA | American Idea of Equality | N/A | Jan-08 |
| FSEM 100A7 | Davies (CPSC) | CPSC | I, Robot: The Pursuit of the Synthetic Mind | 2008 | Jan-08 |
| FSEM 100WW | Lewis (BIOL) | BIOL | Biological Terrorism | 2007 | Jan-08 |
| FSEM 100CC | Polack-Wahl (CPSC) | CPSC | Games that People Play | 2008 | Aug-07 |
| FSEM 100HH | Goehring (RELG) | CPR | Lost Manuscripts of Christianity | 2008 | Aug-07 |
| FSEM 100A | Hubbard (COB) | COB | Profit Acct:Iss Corp Citiznshp | N/A | Jan-07 |
| FSEM 100N | Fallon (LING) | ELC | Minds, Brains, Machines | N/A | Jan-07 |
| FSEM 100S | Mathews (CPR) | CPR | Breaking the Davinci Code | N/A | Jan-07 |
| FSEM 100T | Vasey (PHIL) | CPR | Metaphor Politics Truthiness | N/A | Jan-07 |
| FSEM 100B | Schleef (SOCG) | SA | Measuring America | N/A | Aug-06 |
| FSEM 100H | Scott (CHEM) | CHEM | Science Behind CSI | N/A | Aug-06 |
| FSEM 100I | Powers (FREN) | MLL | Representing Extreme: French Literature | N/A | Aug-06 |