University Writing Program

The program offers a range of topic-driven seminars that encourage students to construct well-reasoned arguments, support them with observations and evidence, and express their ideas clearly and persuasively. Reading and writing are integral components of the seminars. Each seminar will feature a selection of readings that align with its themes, stimulate discussion, deepen understanding, and serve as a foundation for writing assignments. Students will engage with writing as a crucial aspect of both academic and professional life, recognizing its role in fostering critical thinking and active citizenship.

Additionally, students will learn to identify the conventions of disciplinary writing, enabling them to apply these skills across their major courses and throughout the broader Brandeis curriculum.

All students must complete a First-Year Seminar during their first year at Brandeis. The seminars will meet the Brandeis Core first-year writing requirement, which aims to improve students’ written communication skills during their careers at Brandeis.

Students who completed UWS prior to Fall 2025 fulfilled the FYS requirement.

Upon completion of the First-Year Seminar, students will be able to:

• Articulate elements of effective writing, including the revision process, and integrate them into their own work
• Identify and assess central ideas, arguments, and concepts in foundational texts
• Generate original questions and pursue independent research
• Construct well-reasoned arguments and substantiate them with observations and evidence
• Identify and evaluate sources and use them responsibly
• Provide constructive feedback to peers and respond to feedback provided by others
• Develop awareness of disciplinary differences in writing and adapt their writing to different genres, contexts, and audiences

FYS 2b: Darwinian Dating – The Evolution of Human Attraction (Elissa Jacobs)

Among animals, individuals choose mates based on biologically informative features such as long colorful tail feathers, large canines, or a red, swollen posterior. We typically assume that human attraction (and love) is much more nuanced and complex… but is it? Many features that humans find beautiful or attractive, such as small waists, curvy hips, and large eyes, can be tied to biological explanations. Even behavioral features, such as nurturing behaviors, may be attractive for adaptive reasons. In this course, we will explore and write about biological explanations for these and many other aspects of human attraction. Using an evolutionary perspective, we will examine global patterns of attraction and challenge stereotypes of beauty. Do nice guys really finish last? Do traditionally attractive features in western cultures, such as low body weight, actually provide an evolutionary benefit, or might some preferences be culturally derived? For the final essay, students will supplement library research with data collection to produce an interdisciplinary research paper.

FYS 4b: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain (Jonathan Decter)

From 711 until 1492, the Iberian Peninsula was populated by people adhering to the three monotheistic traditions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Despite competing claims to religious truth, members of these religious communities lived together and interacted to form a unique society that some have called a “culture of tolerance” while others have decried such an irenic image as a mere myth. In this First-Year Seminar, we will examine the interaction among the three religious communities focusing on political and social development, inter-religious conflict and violence, and intellectual and architectural/artistic production. We will investigate the degree to which “Spanish” (or more accurately “Castilian”) culture can be described as “Christian” or as “Muslim-Christian-Jewish” in character. We will also engage the historiographic traditions that have given rise to contrasting images of the medieval period and consider what is at stake in these debates from a modern and contemporary perspective.

FYS 5a: Sugar in History and Society (Robert Cochran)

Sugar and sweeteners have played a large role in influencing human societies. From its earliest origins as an exotic substance to its commodification and democratization at the hands of capitalism, sugar has shaped empires, fueled systems of slavery, and revolutionized the human diet. Even today, this commodity continues to shape our cultures, our vocabularies, our diets, our health, and our environment in surprisingly pervasive ways. Why and how has this seemingly ordinary substance had such an impact upon our lives, and how can we constructively manage and responsibly enjoy it in the global future? In this course, we will examine the complex history of human interactions with this sweet commodity through scholarship, film, poetry, novels, blogs, and art. We will also engage with current debates over how to manage its public health and environmental impacts and how to remedy the injustices that still accompany its production.

FYS 6a: Understanding Russian Culture: Myths and Paradoxes (David Powelstock)

Russia has given the world renowned cultural luminaries such as Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky. At the same time, the Russian state – in different historical forms – has a long tradition of censoring, imprisoning, or even murdering artists and intellectuals. One scholar suggests that even as the Russian Empire has violently expanded its boundaries, the state has “colonized” its own people. Paradoxically, this very repression has made culture politically relevant – sometimes reinforcing imperial ideology, sometimes subverting it – and charged it with particular urgency. This First-Year Seminar takes us inside the paradox by engaging with some of the most important works of modern Russian literature, film, philosophy, and the performing arts in the context of the country’s troubled history.

FYS 6b: American Political Violence from the Founding to the Present (Daniel Kryder)

This First-Year Seminar will use a variety of scholarly approaches to explore the centrality of political violence to American political development. The course will focus on violence that Americans explicitly aim at achieving domestic political goals – for example, an anti-colonial rebellion, the ethnic cleansing of native peoples, violent enslavement and racial domination, assassinations, labor/anarchist protests and authorities’ efforts to defeat them, 1960s-era Black, women and anti-war protests and their repression, domestic terrorism and mass shootings, anti-abortion clinic violence, and police violence generally. The content is transdisciplinary: archival materials and government documents, novels, movies, documentaries, academic research in history, psychology, sociology and political science, etc. This course will survey the social science and historical literatures for concepts, crucial cases and useful theories which help us make sense of these kinds of episodes.

FYS 7b: Big Tech Under Fire: Power, Platforms & Policy in the Digital Age (Benjamin Shiller)

This course investigates how powerful tech giants and breakthrough innovations are fundamentally transforming the global landscape – upending traditional economic systems and rewiring the fabric of society – while confronting the delicate balance between rapid technological advancement and essential protections for human welfare. The course examines central issues including: balancing AI advancement with existential risks to humanity; market concentration in digital platforms and debates about breaking up tech giants; algorithmic fairness in healthcare and how AI-driven decisions affect insurance access; how technological advances shape inequality and mitigation strategies; tradeoffs between innovation, healthcare quality, and consumer privacy; implications of technological advances for national security; and strategic career planning in an AI-transformed economy. Through class discussions, targeted readings, and structured writing assignments, the course aims for students to develop analytical and communication skills needed to address these complex issues effectively and articulate solutions to emerging challenges.

FYS 8a: Chinese Poetry: Desire and Form (Pu Wang)

This course is an introductory course on classical Chinese poetry that serves as a First-Year Seminar. In this course we will explore the great tradition of Chinese poetry. Following a development of poetry in ancient China, this course will revolve around a central question: how do personal, erotic and socio-political desires find their literary forms? How do the Chinese represent their desire through figurative language? Aimed to train students to understand a poetic tradition through translation, this course emphasizes transcultural encounters and develops the skills of comparative critical thinking (all readings are in English).

By exploring Chinese poetry, this course will help first-year students construct well-reasoned arguments, support them with observations and evidence, and express their ideas clearly and persuasively. In developing the students’ skills of literary analysis and humanistic inquiry, this course attaches importance to academic writing. Engaging with writing as a crucial aspect of critical thinking, students will learn how to conduct close reading and how to compose essays of literary studies.

In so doing, we will raise the central question as to how we read, interpret, discuss, present and criticize poetic transformations both orally and in writing. We will then confront, more concretely, comparatively and comprehensively, the issues of poetic culture, literary translation, and transcultural interpretation. 

NEW: FYS 8b: Stories of Illness and Healing (David Sherman)

In this interdisciplinary course, we will explore the literary imagination in the face of illness and healing. How do the creative arts offer ways to understand bodily suffering, the social effects of illness, doctor-patient relationships, the ethics of care, and ideas of health? And how has the craft of medicine been a rich resource for literary invention -- how might we explore the medical imagination? In your ongoing and intensive attention to your own writing craft, we will approach the intersection of medicine and literature across several themes: the representational challenge of pain, the voice of suffering, and the social marginalization of the ill; the fashioning of doctor identities and the ethical construction of medical authority; medicine as a realm of cultural analysis, social critique, and political investigation; and the enigma of health, as more than simply the absence of illness.

FYS 10b: American Scholars: Public Intellectuals in American Life (Maura J. Farrelly)

This course examines the role and the influence of public intellectuals in American society. The primary focus is on the 20th and 21st centuries, although students also explore the work of America’s first “home-grown” public intellectuals in the 19th century. Students are asked to consider what constitutes an “intellectual” body of work and how and why that body of work might be rendered relevant to a mass audience. In addition to exploring the ideas put forth by some of the most influential public intellectuals in American life (people like Walter Lippmann, Jane Addams, Cornel West, and Heather Cox Richardson), students are challenged to explore the impact the modern university has had on public intellectualism; the role the broadcast and internet media are playing in the making of public intellectuals; whether and how pundits are different from public intellectuals; and the benefits and drawbacks to taking one’s work to the public, or venturing outside one’s established and credentialed discipline.

NEW: FYS 14b: Solving “Big” Problems (Emily Tiberi)

Imagine encountering a problem so difficult you don’t know where to start: Can local actions have global climate effects?, What is beyond our visible universe?, Why can’t we predict traits from genes alone?, or Why do similar policies produce different outcomes? With the rapid advance of sophisticated technologies like AI, it is vital to not only acquire knowledge, but to develop the ability to ask creative and insightful questions, and to assess the validity and limitations of proposed solutions. Borrowing techniques from physics-minded approaches, this course will probe difficult questions spanning many disciplines, from physics to biology and beyond. Students will develop critical reading and writing skills, practicing writing as an iterative process, and mirroring the skeptical and provisional nature of scientific and academic thinking. In this way, this course seeks to cultivate habits of curiosity and intellectual resilience, in particular when answers are difficult or even impossible.

NEW: FYS 16a: Literature and the Problem of Evil (Jerome Tharaud)

Why do good people suffer? And how do people use stories to make meaning out of suffering? In this course we will consider how literature has served to represent and make sense of injustice and suffering in the modern world, a world in which traditional religious explanations of suffering (often known as “theodicy”) have ceased to satisfy many people. Starting with the Book of Job, we will read classic literary works that stage arguments with God (or the universe) about the meaning of human existence and earthly suffering. In the process we will explore some 500 years of literary history spanning American, British, and global Anglophone literature, including a variety of literary modes (drama, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose) and media (print, graphic novels, and film). You will hone your close-reading skills, practice asking the sorts of questions literary scholars use to unlock the texts they study, and learn how to write an effective literary analysis. As we build skills to become more lucid, persuasive, and graceful writers, we’ll also explore how the process of writing can help bring us more fully into the mysterious inner lives of literary texts.   

NEW: FYS 17a: The Global African and Black Diaspora (Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso)

Between 170 million and 350 million Black and African people live outside the African continent today and constitute its diaspora. A large diaspora is in the Americas (the Caribbean; Central, South and North America) but there are also significant numbers in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and Oceania. But what is/who are the ‘African’ or ‘Black’ Diaspora, and how do we map, explain, and represent these categories and their experiences? This course tells the intricate story of where, why and how it all started, leaving no angle untold, and centering the experiences of the peoples and groups that have been part of these global journeys through time. Ever present in these conversations are themes of race, colonialism, identity, migration, resistance, solidarity, culture, globalization, transnational networks and the transformation of African and Black futures. In this class, we will engage with critical debates, foundational academic texts, films and documentaries, museums, archives, historical sites, music, personal narratives, and guest speakers. We will practice how to use writing to sharpen our understanding of scholarly debates, to assess texts from multiple media, and to make meaning in interdisciplinary global studies.

NEW: FYS 18b: Money in Politics: How It Matters & What Should Be Done (Zachary Albert)

Everybody knows that money influences politics. But does that mean American democracy is ‘of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich’? This First-Year Seminar will unpack when, why, and how much money matters in American elections and government, drawing on a wide range of materials including academic research, philosophical writing, legal texts, public opinion pieces, and documentaries. Topics include historical and legal views on the role of money in politics and how it should be controlled; who spends money and why they are motivated to do so; how socioeconomics relate to the candidates who run for and win elected office; how money influences elections and governance; whether money determines who gains representation and policy; and whether and how America should regulate money to attain a more democratic polity. Students will develop core research and writing skills through a mix of assignments: an op-ed, an argument-driven literature review, and a data-driven research paper. In the end, students will gain a more nuanced understanding of the role of money in politics and a better sense of its representation-distorting features – and what should be done about them. 

NEW: FYS 19a: Palestine in America (Yael Kenan)

Palestinians living in the U.S. are similar to other immigrant groups living in the diaspora in some ways, but the conditions of their dispersal also make them distinct. They are part of the larger group of Arab Americans, but likewise have unique characteristics owing to their culture and history. The U.S. is home to some 200,000 Palestinians, many of them concentrated in urban centers in California, Illinois, Michigan and Texas, among others. Diverse in their religious and political affiliations, Palestinians in the U.S. often maintain a complex relationship with their country of origin. In this course, we explore the conditions of Palestinians’ exile in America in the context of global migration as well as specific geopolitical events in the Middle East. Through the writing of authors and scholars who are themselves exiles or children of exiles, we focus on both their longing for the homeland they left not by choice, and their attempts to find belonging and community in their new home.

NEW: FYS 19b: The Making of the Modern Physician (Darren Zinner) - cancelled

Being a doctor requires intensive medical and scientific knowledge, paired with strong communication skills to treat and educate patients and coordinate care. In this first-year seminar, we will examine the changing role of physicians in the United States from the founding of the country to the present. The course will examine how the growing base of medical knowledge, ranging from genetics to the social determinants of health, has influenced the profession. In addition, we will examine the impact of new members of the healthcare team, changes in economics and reimbursement, and the advent of information technology, including electronic health records and AI. The course will use historical texts and modern editorials to discuss trends and current shortcomings to ask ourselves: what will be the future role of physicians in the second half of the 21st century and how do we train current students to successfully fill those responsibilities?

FYS 23a: The Bible and Contemporary Arts, Literature and Film (Lynn Kaye)

The Bible is a foundational text for contemporary art, literature, and political discourse as well as a sacred text for several religious traditions. This course teaches how to read narratives from the Hebrew Bible in translation from a literary perspective. At the same time, we study how modern artists and authors have used the texts of the Hebrew Bible in literary, poetic, artistic and cinematic productions to reflect moral, familial and societal successes, struggles and confusions. By looking at old texts and new interpretations, the course aims to provide students opportunities to see their own cultural contexts anew and to determine how the Bible might or might not be considered relevant to our time. 

As a writing seminar, the course introduces the concept of “intertextuality” from literary studies to help reflect on the relation between Bible and art and the idea of originality. On the one hand, we see that different texts and art works relate to one another – is anything ever new? On the other hand, writing in the age of generative AI demands that we consciously cultivate our own voices, so we are not limited in our thought and expression to what computers can produce from what has already been said. There will be readings on writing process, originality, the pace of life and the cultivation of focus, and writing style, interspersed with materials on the Bible and arts.

NEW: FYS 38a: Fantasy Worlds: From Gilgamesh to Romantasy (John Plotz)

Fantasy is as old as storytelling and as new as LARP (Live Action Role Play). It appeals  to both young and old readers as few other genres do. We explore its historical roots in satires like Gulliver's Travels, its modern rebirth in Middle Earth and Le Guin's Earthsea.  The course also explores recent participatory fantasy realms, including online gaming and live action role-playing. The class begins by testing scholarly ideas about  “subcreation,” “secondary worlds” and the theological/spiritual underpinnings of modern fantasy. It offers a genealogy that goes back to ancient times and takes a satirical turn with Jonathan Swift before landing in the recognizably modern form with modernists such as Stella Benson and the distinctive worldbuilding of JRR Tolkien. We explore better and lesser known 20th century prose fantasy before turning towards the fascinating range of virtual and live-action fantasy role-playing that has made fantasy less a genre than a way of life, and a subject of ethnography as well as literary analysis. 

FYS 43a: Storytelling in Business (Katrin Fischer)

Storytelling plays a crucial role in our lives. We draw on stories to make meaning of ourselves and others, to shed light on our experiences, and to express who we are or would like to be. The same holds true for businesses. Storytelling is not only a core competency of business leaders but an indispensable component of functional organizations. Successful companies take pride in compelling stories; troubled companies tend to lack institutional stories and a culture of storytelling. Capable business leaders are effective storytellers, and strategic storytelling has been a proven means of initiating change and of turning companies around. This course invites students to investigate the power of stories and storytelling in business contexts. By analyzing texts from various media, we will discuss questions such as: What characterizes effective stories? What is the importance of storytelling and story-making in companies? How can storytelling bring about organizational change? Which traits do storytellers and business leaders share? What is the connection between storytelling and leadership?

FYS 56b: Romanticism in European Music and Literature: Breakups, Breakdowns, and Beauty (Emily Frey)

Romantic art abounds in depictions of hallucinators, madwomen, obsessives, and other individuals whose thoughts and behaviors deviate sharply from societal norms. In this course, we will seek to understand the cultural and historical significance of the ways in which late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music and literature portray exceptional emotional, mental, and physiological states. We'll investigate the connections among madness, genius, physical illness, and the supernatural in the Romantic imagination and think about the artistic techniques contemporary writers and composers used to represent 'extreme' psychology. By examining works written and composed in different countries and at different times within the Romantic period, students will develop their close reading, critical thinking, and analytical writing skills.

FYS 62a: Video Games, Gaming Cultures, and the Study of Play (James Heazlewood-Dale)

Video games afford opportunities to immerse ourselves in virtual worlds in an interactive and engaging manner. The creativity and imagination behind game design necessitate the interaction of a wide range of skills: coding, graphic design, storytelling, musical composition, and sound design. How is it that we can spend hours picking up virtual weeds in Animal Crossing, be fearful of turtle shells in Mario Kart, or experience immense satisfaction when leveling up our Pokemon or beating a boss in Dark Souls? This course addresses these questions by tracing the development of video games from the early pixelated heroes of Mario and Pac Man to online spaces that involve the global participation of millions of people, such as League of Legends and Call of Duty. Students are required to think critically about the virtual worlds they inhabit and consider how video games implement play, immersion, and engagement and how their unique function as an interactive medium has evolved throughout the latter half of the 20th century to the present day. The interdisciplinary nature of game studies allows students to think and write critically on an array of topics concerning narrative, immersion, gender, music, technology, and game design.

FYS 76a: Musical Storytelling in Film, Television, and Video Games (James Heazlewood-Dale)

In 1975, Steven Spielberg made a film about a shark that terrorizes summer tourists in Martha's Vineyard. What music did his collaborator, John Williams, compose to underscore the shark as it attacked its unsuspecting victims? Two notes. In screen media, music plays an integral role in stirring emotions, depicting characters, and structuring narrative. We may not see the shark in Spielberg's Jaws, but William's music proclaims its terrifying presence. "Musical Storytelling in Film, Television, and Video Games" focuses on the sounds and music emanating from your speakers or headphones when you watch television shows or movies or play video games. While this seminar does not require any formal musical training to participate, students are required to engage with scholarly discourse and critical thinking, express their unique perspectives, and hone their writing skills by examining how audiovisual relationships bring the stories, characters, and locations in screen media to life.

FYS 6a: Understanding Russian Culture: Myths and Paradoxes (David Powelstock)

Russia has given the world renowned cultural luminaries such as Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky. At the same time, the Russian state – in different historical forms – has a long tradition of censoring, imprisoning, or even murdering artists and intellectuals. One scholar suggests that even as the Russian Empire has violently expanded its boundaries, the state has “colonized” its own people. Paradoxically, this very repression has made culture politically relevant – sometimes reinforcing imperial ideology, sometimes subverting it – and charged it with particular urgency. This First-Year Seminar takes us inside the paradox by engaging with some of the most important works of modern Russian literature, film, philosophy, and the performing arts in the context of the country’s troubled history.

NEW: FYS 17a: The Global African and Black Diaspora (Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso)

Between 170 million and 350 million Black and African people live outside the African continent today and constitute its diaspora. A large diaspora is in the Americas (the Caribbean; Central, South and North America) but there are also significant numbers in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and Oceania. But what is/who are the ‘African’ or ‘Black’ Diaspora, and how do we map, explain, and represent these categories and their experiences? This course tells the intricate story of where, why and how it all started, leaving no angle untold, and centering the experiences of the peoples and groups that have been part of these global journeys through time. Ever present in these conversations are themes of race, colonialism, identity, migration, resistance, solidarity, culture, globalization, transnational networks and the transformation of African and Black futures. In this class, we will engage with critical debates, foundational academic texts, films and documentaries, museums, archives, historical sites, music, personal narratives, and guest speakers. We will practice how to use writing to sharpen our understanding of scholarly debates, to assess texts from multiple media, and to make meaning in interdisciplinary global studies.

FYS 17b: Bodies of Evidence: Forensic Science in Fact and Fiction (Katrin Fischer)

Forensic science has helped to identify the dead, to solve crimes, and to bring culprits to justice. Forensic techniques, later discredited, have also led to false convictions: a man was found guilty of rape and spent decades in prison before DNA tests confirmed his innocence; a convicted arsonist was proven innocent but had been executed years earlier. This course invites students to explore the achievements and shortcomings of forensic science. We will investigate the work of forensic scientists, take a look at real-life cases to learn about the history and effectiveness of investigative techniques, and analyze how forensic science has been portrayed (and transformed) in popular television series such as CSI or Bones.

NEW: FYS 20a From Rousseau to Taylor Swift: French Modernity and Global Celebrity Culture (Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche)

Our cultural and mental landscape is saturated with celebrities. They inhabit, influence, and inflect our lives. We form intimate relationships with those distant deities; we approach them from afar with a passion for imitation.

While celebrity culture is often associated with 20th-century mass media and Hollywood stars, its history goes much further back. It emerged in the 18th century, and France played a central role: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the author of the first modern autobiography, became the rock star of literature, adulated by thousands of readers, who would write to him, stalk him, and emulate his lifestyle. Paris, the glamourous “capital of modernity,” produced the first global stars. In fact, Beyonce has paid tribute to 1920s French-American dancer, singer, and actress Joséphine Baker, one of the great predecessors to our contemporary icons.

While tracing this glitzy history through literary texts, films, and paintings, the course will focus on developing solid writing skills and argumentative strength, through varied writing assignments, exercises in close reading and textual analysis, group discussions, and an introduction to rhetoric.

NEW: : FYS 20b Writing Walden (Caren Irr)

This First-Year Seminar will investigate the ways that writers observe and research the natural world. Using Henry David Thoreau’s enormously influential book Walden: A Life in the Woods as our central case, we will visit nearby Walden Pond at least once to make our own observations, examine passages from Thoreau’s journals and some of his philosophical influences, and figure out how he put his thoughts together in the final version of Walden. To get a sense of Thoreau’s context, we will probably get to Walden Pond by train and walk to the site, possibly taking a detour through Brister’s woods. The latter will introduce reflection on black history during the period.

The course should be of interest to students with an interest in science, philosophy, history, and/or literature. Writing assignments will include one essay responding to a chapter in Walden, one that uses a secondary source to illuminate a theme in Walden; and a research paper on an issue raised by Walden. Sample research paper topics might include indigenous land use, the history of ice, the uses and purpose of satire, economic measurements of natural beauty, and so on.

NEW: FYS 21a: Slow Reading Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (Stephen Dowden) 

This seminar focuses on Thomas Mann’s classic novel of illness, love, time, music, sex and death. Originally published in German in 1924 and soon translated worldwide, The Magic Mountain has received two new English translations this year – an occasion to ask why it endures, what we mean by a “classic,” and how the book’s meanings have shifted over time and place. Our exploration will unfold as sustained close reading and will be supported by key essays on Mann and his era. We will also ask about reading itself as a social practice shaped by institutions, markets, and power. Where do pleasure and serious inquiry meet? What truths can fiction offer about the human condition? A central theme will be the relation between scientific and artistic truth: science and technology aim to change the world; art seeks to understand it.

If the novel is a way of understanding the world, how do we learn to understand a novel? Our answer will be slow, deep reading: sustained, immersive attention to long-form prose. Students will be asked to purchase a print copy of The Magic Mountain because reading on paper differs from reading on screens. Like strong writing, slow reading is not an innate talent but an acquired skill that develops with practice. We will consider whether digital environments encourage skimming and multitasking, and ask if such reading weakens concentration and comprehension – and why that question matters for literature, education, and the life of the mind.

NEW: FYS 21b: Education as Social Control (Joshua Lederman)

This seminar examines education as a social institution deeply entangled with power, governance, and inequality. Drawing on philosophy, sociology, history, and education studies, the course explores how schooling has been used to shape citizens, regulate behavior, and reproduce social hierarchies – while also serving as a site of resistance, liberation, and democratic possibility. Students will analyze key texts, reflect on their own educational experiences, and develop college-level writing and research skills through sustained, scaffolded assignments.

NEW: FYS 22a Modern Sephardi History and Culture (Yuval Evri)

In contrast to the widely taught history and culture of European (Ashkenazi) Jewry, the histories and cultural worlds of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa and their descendants in Israel and beyond have often received less attention. This First-Year Seminar introduces students to the rich cultural, linguistic, and intellectual traditions of Mizrahi and Sephardi communities through history, literature, film, music, and visual culture. The course also serves as an introduction to academic writing at the university level. Students will learn how to develop arguments, analyze sources, conduct research, and revise their writing through sustained practice, peer review, and feedback. No prior background in Jewish Studies or Middle Eastern history is required.

NEW: FYS 23b Documentary Techniques and Controversies (Emilie Diouf)

This course is an introduction to documentary as a genre that seeks to depict the real. It specifically focuses on films that portray African Diaspora conditions. We begin with readings about various conceptions and conventions of the documentary genre. We then explore cinema verité, postcolonial subversion of the latter through reverse anthropology, and documentary essays. Students will read scholarship on documentary films, including discourse on African documentary styles; compose reflexive essays about their favorite documentary film mode; critically analyze films, and conduct research on their favorite documentary film on the course list. While doing this, they will learn to develop their own authorial voice.

NEW: FYS 24b: The ‘West’ Through Eastern Eyes: East Asian Overseas Travelogues (Matthew Fraleigh)

This course examines Japanese, Chinese, and Korean narratives of overseas travel and life abroad in the modern era, focusing on texts from roughly 1860–1940. We will think about the variety of strategies through which East Asian travelers inscribed themselves, their travels, and the scenes and peoples they encountered. We will read castaway reports, personal diaries, diaries intended for circulation, travelogues composed with and without stated literary intent, official overseas mission reports, reports from writers investigating conditions in Japan’s colonies, and some fictional texts as well.

NEW: FYS 25a: What is Genocide? (Laura Jokusch)

Few concepts have been as overused and poorly understood as the concept of genocide. It is at once a narrow legal category used to prosecute a very specific kind of crime – namely the intentional destruction of national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups – and an all-encompassing synonym for mass violence. This First-Year Seminar sheds light on the history of the term itself, coined in 1944 by the Polish Jewish international lawyer Raphael Lemkin to describe and outlaw a wide range of actions aimed at the destruction of groups. While students learn how to define genocide and identify its causes and preconditions, its dynamics, and its consequences, they also study individual historical and contemporary cases: the genocides of the Hereo and Nama, the Armenians, the Holodomor, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, among others. As students acquire critical thinking, reading, and writing skills, the study of genocide also familiarizes them with core questions about human behavior and agency, ethics, justice, and human rights that lie at the heart of the humanities.

NEW: FYS 25b: Coffee, Chocolate, and Bananas: Global Environments and Environmentalisms (Prakash Kashwan) 

This First-Year Seminar introduces students to holistic and diverse perspectives on the environment and environmentalism. The course is centered around learning about the production, processing, circulation, and consumption of highly salient food items, such as coffee, chocolate, and bananas, and other environmental gifts. In doing so, it considers humanity to be a part of – instead of being separate from – the environment. This First-Year Seminar includes three main parts: 1) Kaleidoscope of human-nature relations; 2) How social, economic, and political systems mediate our relations with the environment; 3) Diverse forms of global environmentalisms for a healthier and happier planet. By discussing a plurality of human-environment engagements, this course addresses the broader questions of how diverse groups and societies engage with and shape the global environments. This class is designed for a discussion-driven approach to learning in which students take a central role in the conduct of classroom proceedings. By engaging students to explore nature as a source of human nourishment and joy, this class offers a holistically hopeful understanding of environmental stewardship.

FYS 32a: Pursuing Truth in a Post-Truth World (Joshua Lederman)

In an age where seemingly every fact is in dispute – from the shape of the earth to the impact of vaccinations – how do we know what’s true and what isn’t? How is it that the same available information leads some to believe an election was free and fair, while others fully believe it was fraudulent? This course focuses on the concept of Truth in today’s post-truth world. We will explore principles of rhetoric, epistemology (the philosophy of knowledge), and the interplay of social identity with the concept of truth. Through critical analysis, students will examine their own (and others’) belief systems and develop tools for navigating the complexities of evidence, persuasion, and misinformation.

FYS 37a: The Biology of Morality (Elissa Jacobs)

Humans often consider themselves to be "the moral animal," distinguished from other animals by our complex and socially derived systems of morality, characterized by empathy and cooperation. However, when comparing humans with the rest of the animal world, are we really so different? In this course, we will examine through discussion and writing the degree to which human morality is grounded in our evolutionary past. We will explore the development of human morality during childhood and adulthood through the lens of evolution and will look at classic scientific tests of morality/ethics (e.g., the trolley problem). Additionally, we will engage with evidence for morality in non-human species and probe the degree to which our primate relatives engage in altruistic, empathetic, and moral behaviors. During the final paper, students will have the freedom to choose their own topic and to utilize interdisciplinary literature in their exploration of the nature and nurture of morality.

FYS 62a: Video Games, Gaming Cultures, and the Study of Play (James Heazlewood-Dale)

Video games afford opportunities to immerse ourselves in virtual worlds in an interactive and engaging manner. The creativity and imagination behind game design necessitate the interaction of a wide range of skills: coding, graphic design, storytelling, musical composition, and sound design. How is it that we can spend hours picking up virtual weeds in Animal Crossing, be fearful of turtle shells in Mario Kart, or experience immense satisfaction when leveling up our Pokemon or beating a boss in Dark Souls? This course addresses these questions by tracing the development of video games from the early pixelated heroes of Mario and Pac Man to online spaces that involve the global participation of millions of people, such as League of Legends and Call of Duty. Students are required to think critically about the virtual worlds they inhabit and consider how video games implement play, immersion, and engagement and how their unique function as an interactive medium has evolved throughout the latter half of the 20th century to the present day. The interdisciplinary nature of game studies allows students to think and write critically on an array of topics concerning narrative, immersion, gender, music, technology, and game design.

FYS 76a: Musical Storytelling in Film, Television, and Video Games (James Heazlewood-Dale)

In 1975, Steven Spielberg made a film about a shark that terrorizes summer tourists in Martha's Vineyard. What music did his collaborator, John Williams, compose to underscore the shark as it attacked its unsuspecting victims? Two notes. In screen media, music plays an integral role in stirring emotions, depicting characters, and structuring narrative. We may not see the shark in Spielberg's Jaws, but William's music proclaims its terrifying presence. "Musical Storytelling in Film, Television, and Video Games" focuses on the sounds and music emanating from your speakers or headphones when you watch television shows or movies or play video games. While this seminar does not require any formal musical training to participate, students are required to engage with scholarly discourse and critical thinking, express their unique perspectives, and hone their writing skills by examining how audiovisual relationships bring the stories, characters, and locations in screen media to life.

FYS 76b: Narratives of Migration (Yael Kenan)

Why do people migrate? What is the impact of the circumstances and context of such moves? How do immigrants write about moving to new locations – leaving their old home and arriving at a new one? In this seminar, we explore patterns of human migration, the political and cultural significance of such movement and the ways in which people narrate their experience. In exploring multiple types and contexts of migration, we consider multilingualism and translation, identity, borders, and cultural encounters and differences – topics that continue to pervade our public discourse. Our sources include literary texts, historical and legal documents, journalistic writing, personal narratives, and film. We discuss these readings and the choices made in them in terms of tone, word choice, audience and more, and use them to formulate our own critical ideas on topics such as home, belonging and navigating cultural differences.

FYS 77a: Jerusalem, Then and Now (Yael Kenan)

Jerusalem is a city with multiple names, a long and tumultuous history, and myriad admirers. For millennia, it has been conquered, destroyed, and rebuilt. People have killed and died for it, traveled from afar to see it, dreamed about it, and written poetry and prose commemorating it. Why has this city captured so many people’s imagination for so long? And what is it like to actually live in a city that has long been a symbol? In this course, we ask how Jerusalem became sacred and to whom, trace recurring instances of exile and of longing to return and discuss the city’s symbolic and political importance in the violent national conflict of the past 100 years. Our journey through Jerusalem’s many lives includes an array of texts and artifacts depicting the city across centuries and perspectives: religious texts, poetry, short stories, paintings, film, and television.

Yes and no. On the one hand, each First-Year Seminar has the same Learning Goals. On the other hand, each seminar uses a different topic and approach. 

Both options are viable, but students who take the First-Year Seminar in the fall can then apply what they’ve learned to their spring courses. Consult Academic Advising if you have further questions.

First-Year Seminar is a full-credit course. It counts as one of the 32 courses required for graduation.

First-Year Seminars instructors work closely with their students, providing one-on-one tutorials, sustained attention to individual development, and extensive comments on drafts. With larger classes, instructors could not give this kind of individualized attention.

Depending on availability, students may change their First-Year Seminar to another in the same semester.

First-Year Seminars are a first-year requirement. If you do not fulfill it during your first year, you may be placed on academic probation.

An online writing assessment, taken in the spring before entering Brandeis, helps the Writing Program reach out to students who might most benefit from what the Composition Seminar has to offer. (Students wishing to enroll directly into CSEM without taking the online assessment may do so.)

The Writing Center offers support for all students, including those enrolled in First-Year Seminars, with 30- and 60-minute one-on-one tutorials available by appointment. The Writing Center also offers workshops on each of the major First-Year Seminar assignments.