Instructor: Stephen Mercier

We will consider how a wide range of animals are represented in non-fiction essays, fictional short stories, fairy tales, films, and art. How do these forms of media shape our conceptions of animals? What cultural values are present as we engage with animals as pets (sometimes “exotic”), recreation (horse riding and goat yoga), and entertainment (aquariums and zoos)? How do humans utilize them for experimentation (rabbits and space monkeys), fashion (silkworms), and for food (factory farms)? How do we develop meaningful inter-species relationships? What are we learning about animal communication, such as chimpanzees’ vocalizations and birds’ and whales’ songs? What species demonstrate special intelligence in their behaviors on National Geographic and Disney Nature? What does the public glean about animals from famous figures, such as David Attenborough and Jane Goodall? How do elephants experience and display emotions? Why do more “beautiful” animals such as giant and red pandas become more cherished than the cephalopod vampire squid? What animals’ furs, feathers, and oil have we historically depended upon to supply the United States’ economy? Thus, the course will also confront animal rights and liberation. The texts we will analyze directly consider the relationship between human beings and animals over diverse habitats and places. In this skills-based class, you will perform research, give speeches, and construct essays based upon course materials and your classmates’ presentations.

Instructor: Nick Lu

This course uses anime as a medium to introduce students to some of the distinguishing values, phenomenon, and social dynamics in East Asian societies, particularly Japan and Taiwan. The anime shows and films we will use as entry points for discussion include Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Dan Da Dan, Chainsaw Man, Bakuman, and Evangelion. With these works, we will explore issues like economic miracles (and busts), human-nature relation, gender relation, social mores, (over)work culture, and the meaning of monsters and ghosts in East Asian cultures. Students can choose to work on a final project that is creative (making your own short anime), translation (making your own dubbing), or analytic (writing a theme-based analysis).

Instructor: Sang Keun Yoo

This First-Year Seminar explores the philosophical meanings of race, gender, and humanity in an era of rapidly evolving technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, space exploration, and global climate change—through the lens of science fiction. Throughout history, humans have regarded ourselves as the sole surviving Homo species after others became extinct. Yet with the emergence of artificial general intelligence, large language models, and autonomous robots—entities that may soon surpass human intellect and strength—the traditional definition and status of “the human” are increasingly under question.  At the same time, the boundaries of who counts as human have always been contested. People of color, women, people with disabilities, and colonized subjects have historically been treated as “less than human.” Science fiction, however, has long interrogated these hierarchies, imagining alternative futures where definitions of humanity shift in the face of colonialism, racism, sexism, and ecological crisis.  In this course, we will examine landmark works of science fiction cinema—such as Contact, Arrival, Ex Machina, Blade Runner, and Westworld—alongside literary utopias and speculative fiction by authors like Ursula K. Le Guin and Ken Liu. We will also engage with global science fiction, including the Korean zombie drama Kingdom and the Buddhist AI narrative “Readymade Bodhisattva.” 

Instructor: Patty Tarantello

In this First Year Seminar course, we will read, discuss, and do research about Gothic literature, paying particular attention to issues of gender. In addition to learning about the conventions of the genre, we will examine the social and historical issues that writers have used dark, mysterious tales to expose and critique, particularly ideas about gender. We will explore how the Gothic genre is both popular and entertaining, but also a useful vehicle for social critique. Our class will start by reading an abridged version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and comparing it to the 1931 film adaptation that helped to popularize the tale. We will then consider a number of short stories that depict monstrous women and villainous men, trying to determine how these stereotypes developed and why they were deployed by Gothic writers. Finally, we will consider several adaptations of Gothic works and their impact on audiences today, as well as come up with engaging ways to introduce these works to new audiences.
 

Instructor: Goretti Benca

Why have fairy tales maintained popular literary and cultural status over the centuries? How do these seemingly simple stories transcend time, geography, and culture? There are so many tales that continue to be a part of our social tapestry that influence our social constructs. Young and old, fairy tales continue to be a favorite genre around the world. This class will explore the tales from a historical perspective as we trace the cultural evolution of this literary genre.
 

Instructor: Cara Messina

Everyone is a fan of something. You may be waking up at 2am to catch an artist's latest album release, participating in fantasy sports, singing along at your favorite band’s show, connecting with other fans online, attending a game wearing your favorite athlete’s jersey, rewatching a cult classic film for the seventh time, or attending a convention in cosplay. Researching fandoms provides a gateway to explore gender, race, sexuality, community, and why we love what we love. What does it mean to be a “fan?” How do fandoms and identity intersect? What are the political, social, economic, and cultural concerns of fandoms? This course will explore the theories and research around fandoms, first defining them broadly and looking more closely at different types of fandoms. You will reflect on your own fan activities; conduct research on specific fandoms; engage in multiple fandoms and fan activities; and better understand how fandoms, cultures, identities, and politics intertwine.  

Instructor: Safa Al-Saeedi

In this First Year Seminar course, we will learn about the ways in which media and politics intersect. We will examine how media platforms impact regimes’ ability to influence society and societies’ ability to articulate preferences, organize political action, and diffuse information. In so doing, discussions will explore different democratic and authoritarian contexts around the world. Part of the course will also engage with timely questions related to AI and its potential effects on the aforementioned regime-society dynamics. By the end of the seminar, students will have a grounding in the key concepts in the political communication area of study. Students will also have the basic theoretical and empirical tools that enable them to engage critically with academic and journalistic conversations on technology and politics. Class assignments and discussions are designed to ensure that these learning objectives are achieved.

Instructor: Elizabeth Reid

Mathematics influences many of the decisions we make every day.  This course explores how people make choices and how analytical thinking helps us navigate challenging situations and better understand the world around us.  Students will examine optimal strategies in games, learn about and compare different voting systems, and discuss common stereotypes associated with mathematics.  In this course, students will develop tools for thinking critically about choices, fairness, and decision-making in everyday life.

Instructor: Fungisai Musoni-Chikede

For some people, Africa is a country. For others, it is a country filled with poverty, diseases, warfare, and corruption. Some who identify Africa as a continent, including Welsh journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley, have named it the “Dark Continent.” This FYS aims to disrupt these misconceptions, demonstrate the continent’s true nature, and highlight the dangers of these misconceptions for Africans and non-Africans. Ultimately, students who take this class will be challenged to engage with the African continent in a way that makes them empathetic citizens of the world in the twenty-first century. Students completing this course will be able to write upon, discuss, and present major themes in African history with contextual sensitivity to that past and the issues that arise in the present.

Instructor: Steven Garabedian

This course uses the music and history of the late 20th-century American rock band, the Grateful Dead, as a point of reference for investigating the modern United States. Today, more than fifty years since its founding, and almost thirty years since the death of its iconic member Jerry Garcia, the band is more popular than ever. But, what does this mean? Are we closer to utopia or dystopia in the U.S. today? Students need not have any prior knowledge or appreciation of the band to succeed in the course. But, you will need to be willing to listen to a fair amount of music, do a fair amount of reading, and talk seriously about U.S. culture, politics, and history.

Instructor: Robyn Rosen

In this course we will examine fiction as a tool for social reform and as a lens to understand conflict, marginalization, and activism in U.S. history. Specifically, we will be reading ‘speculative fiction’ written from the 19th century through the present, in which authors imagine and build worlds different from their own. While some writers imagine worlds where problems have been solved (utopian fiction) others offer cautionary tales about what might happen if current trends spin out of control (dystopian or apocalyptic fiction). We will consider the propaganda value of stories and connect their vision to actual events, people, and ideas at the time of their publication, moving chronologically through the most important social movements in our nation’s history, from women’s suffrage through Black Lives Matter.

Instructor: Sally Dwyer-McNulty

In her 1969 song, “Woodstock,” singer/song writer Joni Michell repeated “and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” What does it mean to be in the garden? Where can we find examples of people looking toward the land or gardens for answers? Which individuals and groups have done it and why? This FYS explores the economic, therapeutic, utopian, political, and cultural impulses that have inspired people to look for answers in a life organized around a close relationship with the land. We’ll also spend time in the Marist Garden to explore what cultivating vegetables, herbs, and other plants stir in us.

Instructor: Nicholas Marshall

How do we understand ourselves and our place in the world?  This course will look at the relationship between personal events/attitudes and the larger forces of culture and history that shape an individual's understanding of their experience.  Americans have written about themselves in many ways, through letters, diaries, journals, and formal autobiographies.  The cast of characters for this class will include the famous and the ordinary, and stretch from the colonial period to the near present.

Instructor: Jacqueline Reich

What is a star? What is a celebrity? We may not know how to define them exactly, but we can agree that we live in a world dominated by stars and celebrities, from media to fashion, to politics and beyond. In this course we will learn how stardom and celebrity developed, shaped, and altered American and Global culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. We will explore these issues through case studies of various stars and celebrities in cinema, television, digital media, and more. Our objects of analysis will range from films (fiction and documentary), TV series, social media, and critical essays to examine the role of stardom and celebrity today.

Instructor: Darren Cosgrove

In this course students will explore issues related to social inequity in the United States, and the ways in which groups of people have experienced marginalization and oppression within both a historical and contemporary context. As a class, we will utilize theoretical frameworks to understand the ways in which social, political and health disparities can be linked to systemic and structural oppression based upon race, gender, sexuality, class and ability. We will also learn about and discuss anti-oppressive social justice movements and consider the current and future implications of social justice work.

Instructor: Brian Loh

This religious studies and philosophy course is an exploration of the way in which our minds shape the realities in which we live, love, and pursue happiness. After examining why our knowledge of reality might not be reliable or complete, we will explore the ways in which personal and social imagination fill in the gaps in our knowledge.  This is sometimes to our benefit and sometimes to our detriment, so we will also examine how to choose our lenses of perception so that we can steer our lives towards coherence, meaning, and flourishing.  In this process, we may explore several types of games, parasocial relationships, fandom “head canon,” religious realities, the nature of empathy, the self, and our concepts of sameness and difference. Students in this class will be invited to participate in varied forms of experiential learning, including games and N4 storytelling.

Instructor: Alessandro R. Moscaritolo Palacio

This course provides a philosophical examination of human sexuality, with particular emphasis on ethical questions about sexual conduct, norms, and attitudes. Through readings and discussion, we will analyze a range of issues in the philosophy of sex, including the moral status of various sexual practices, the concept of sexual perversion, the ethical evaluation of sexual orientations and proclivities that may differ from our own, and the moral status of practices such as pornography and sex work. The course will also consider broader social and philosophical questions about why sexuality is often regarded negatively in many cultural contexts. Content Note: This course addresses sensitive and important topics in a candid and analytical manner typical of philosophical inquiry. Readings and discussions will include explicit references to sexual practices (e.g., masturbation, vaginal, oral, and anal sex, as well as polyamorous sexual practices), sexual wrongdoing (e.g., rape), and topics such as sexual orientation, paraphilias (e.g., pedophilia and zoophilia), pornography, and sex work. These subjects will be examined for the purpose of philosophical analysis and ethical evaluation. Students should be prepared to engage respectfully with challenging material.

Instructor: C. R. Muller

We all have families, whether adoptive, biological, or chosen, and many of us might have families in the future. Although we don't always consider them, families raise many philosophical questions, which we will explore in this class. Through reading, discussion, presentations, journals, and papers, this course will challenge and enrich your thoughts about parenthood and family. The course is also aimed at developing skills for your college career and beyond: writing, public presentation, and information literacy.

Instructor: Kristian Sheeley

In this course, we will examine the nature of love and friendship by studying some of humanity’s finest philosophical and literary texts on these subjects. We will compare the philosophical analyses of love to works of literature that contain rich, concrete examples of both healthy and unhealthy ways of handling the love we experience. The course is organized around three different ancient Greek terms, all of which can be translated as the single English word “love”: er?s, philia, and agap?. Broadly speaking, er?s is erotic or romantic love, and philia is the type of love we feel for our family and friends. Finally, agap? (“charity” or “divine love”) can be described as the love humans can feel for the divine and/or all beings. Authors we will read include Sappho, Plato, Aristotle, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Søren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Herman Hesse, Aldous Huxley, Simone De Beauvoir, and Arthur Miller.

Instructor: Patrick Boylan

The intersection of faith and fashion reveals much about religion and society and how we tell our faith stories. This course aims to explore the function and ritual of apparel in faith practices while examining the influence of religion and spirituality on fashion and its cultural impact. Starting with the fig leaf in the Garden of Eden, students will trace the origins of fashion through the lens of religion. We will study how iconic designers and brands have both celebrated and misappropriated faith through fashion and how sacred garments and symbols have been used to promote propaganda and persecution throughout history. By exploring how fashion can be both sacred and profane, students will gain a greater understanding of the power of faith and fashion.

Instructor: Stephanie Conover

Since the birth of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s, fashion and popular music have shared a dynamic and culturally significant relationship. This course explores how their ongoing interplay has shaped youth identity, attitudes, taste, and patterns of consumption over the past seven decades. Drawing on a range of media including music, magazines, and video, the course examines the visual and cultural language of rock style and its influence on fashion trends and subcultures. Through this exploration, students will develop critical college-level skills in information literacy, research, public presentation, and writing.

Instructor: Julin Sharp

From personalized recommendations to deepfakes and misinformation, artificial intelligence is shaping how we learn, communicate, consume information, and make decisions. In this course, we will examine the rapidly changing landscape of AI by exploring how this technology is shaping the world. We'll evaluate the promises and pitfalls of AI, investigate ethical dilemmas, explore the role of algorithms in media, and develop the skills to become informed digital citizens who can navigate an AI-powered future with awareness and agency.

Instructor: Victoria Ingalls

How do you know what you know?  Do you ever wonder about what you hear reported, and how do you investigate information that interests you?  Radiolab, a program that use investigative journalism to “go on a curiosity bender,” will be used as a starting point for our conversations and inquiries.  This show weaves personal stories with information from experts to explore a different topic each week, giving the class an introduction to such subjects as stress, sleep, self-esteem, and cooperation. Students will ask questions based on what they have heard, discuss their ideas with others, and examine areas they find interesting.  In this way, each student will be encouraged to think deeply and critically about the information presented to them from all sources while increasing their understanding of topics that interest them.    

Instructor: Malgorzata Oakes

In this creative course, students will analyze the artistic and historical context of the architecture and the landscape of Marist University along with its surroundings. Students will explore the cultural aspects of the Hudson Valley area, focusing on its past and the present. From recognizing and honoring the Indigenous people, their land, culture, and traditions, to spending time in different campus locations surrounded by nature that both inspire and impact the creativity of young individuals. Space for learning and engagement will create a welcoming atmosphere in the classroom (indoors and outdoors, within the campus grounds and the riverside area).Throughout the course students will take part in lectures, discussions, presentations, perform their research, and attend field trips. They will draw on location at sites of historical significance and visual interest. Visits to the on-site Marist Archives and the library will take place. Writing components will be part of the course, in addition to the formal analysis assignments. Students will develop individual sketchbooks with the aim of interactive hands-on activities that challenge and engage in the cultural environment which will contribute to personal enrichment and growth.

Instructor: Richard Feldman

In the course text Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer eloquently describes multiple strands of relationships that we can have with nature, creating tight bonds like in a braid. She also describes where and how the strands have frayed and how the symmetrical, reciprocal relationships between us and nature have weakened.

Instructor: Mark Gildard

This course will explore the intersections of human anatomy with the arts, wellness, and culture. Anatomy has long served as an underpinning of societal progress, reaching new heights during the renaissance as great artists like Da Vinci and Michaelangelo dedicated years trying to gain a deeper understanding of the human form. Modern science continues to make new discoveries regarding the centuries-old study of the human body in an effort to advance our lives and well-being. Students in this class will discover how anatomical knowledge shapes contemporary perspectives on health, creativity, and social frameworks through research, writing, and creative work.