First Year Inquiry Courses

2025-2026 Course Descriptions

• An Appetite for History

  This class examines the historic relationship between food and humanity. We will focus on several major eras throughout history by observing how culture, religion, gender, economy, technology, morality, and historical events influenced and shaped the acquisition, preparation, and consumption of food. Both primary and secondary sources will be used to create context and allow us to investigate and sometimes re-create the diets of the past.

• Black to the Future

  Afrofuturism is a speculative movement that uses art, philosophy, film, literature, and a host of other resources to imagine a future in which black bodies and souls confront, challenge, and even change the dominant social paradigms of today. We'll look at some of the classics of Afrofuturism--the novels of Philip Schuyler and W.E.B. Dubois, the films Black Panther and Attack the Block, the music of Sun Ra and Parliament Funkadelic, and a host of critical essays--to examine this movement and its relevance in the age of Trump and rising white nationalism

• Bodies in Performance

  How do we present our bodies to be read and understood by others? How do we read and understand bodies that are different from our own? When crafting and witnessing theatrical performances how do our imaginations work to construct new narratives about bodies in performance? In this course, we will begin our inquiry with William Shakespeare’s Hamlet which poses the question, “To be or not be?” We will reframe this question through a lens of theatrical performance—what does it mean “to be” someone or something, “or not to be,” to pretend or seem? We will then read two contemporary responses to Hamlet (Bernhardt/Hamlet and Fat Ham) that feature less “traditional” bodies in the role of Hamlet. We will also engage creatively with the literature, specifically in designing our own interpretations of Hamlet as we work to answer his question for a 21st-century audience.

• Constructing the Self

  Who are you, really? What makes you unique? What do you and all other humans have in common? How do you learn and form judgments? What makes you peaceful or violent, conservative or liberal, competitive or collaborative, truthful or deceitful? What is the nature of friendship, love, and loyalty? How does technology affect your sense of Self? This section of the FYI will address these and many other questions by bringing together biology, neuroscience, ethics, history, psychology, philosophy, religious studies, the latest findings in genetics and epigenetics, to explore the complexities of the Self. Students will watch movies and talks, as well as read about consciousness and free will.

• Dealing with the Nazis

  Nazism was and remains one of the most important events in recent human history. Who joined or sympathized with the Nazis? Who rejected them? Who suffered at their hands? After the war, how have the victims, bystanders, perpetrators, as well as the descendants of these respective groups, dealt with the legacy of Nazism? You will hear from all of these people in this class through their essays, diaries, books and testimonies.

• Dismantling Caste

  On Feb. 21, 2023, Seattle became the first U.S. city to ban caste-based discrimination by incorporating it into its anti-discrimination laws. Today, human rights activists and lawyers are fighting against caste-based discrimination in the US workforce, particularly in Silicon Valley. What is caste, and how did this form of discrimination historically entrenched in South Asia become urgent in the United States? Embracing the works of anti-caste thinkers in India and in the United States through the twentieth and the twenty-first century, we will understand what caste is, how does its study help us understand South Asia and the South Asia diaspora, and how colonialism and globalization transformed the concept of caste. By the end of the course, we will be able to understand how these anti-caste philosophers defined freedom, equality, and democracy, and how their works continue to push the limits of political thought globally today.

• Dreaming

  Many cultures, including our own, have wondered about the nature of dreams and their significance. Key questions that arise are: What is dreaming? Do dreams have a purpose? Do dreams have meaning? How has dreaming been understood historically and cross-culturally? Studies in Cognitive Science have emphasized the importance of dreaming, and of sleep more generally, for mental health and wellbeing. But do dreams have a function beyond that? This class examines a variety of classic views on ‘dreams’, considers dreams in historical and cross-cultural perspectives, and reflects on how the modern scientific study of dreaming relates to the study of dreams from psychological, philosophical, anthropological, and religious perspectives.

• Free Will

  We tend to have a powerful and immediate conception of ourselves as free agents. We think we determine the course of our lives. Even mundane everyday actions like getting out of bed in the morning strike us as performed out of our own free will. Our sense of free will is not a trivial phenomenon, but is at the heart of our practices of holding people morally responsible for their actions. And yet, there are also convincing reasons to think that we are moving pieces in a physical system where everything is fully determined by physical laws. Our thoughts and actions are not exceptions to this deterministic order. If so, is our sense of free will simply an illusion, and is nobody actually morally responsible for what they do? In this course, we will explore the rich, millennia-old philosophical debate on this question. We will use the debate as a springboard to intensively practice our reading and writing skills.

• From Nature to the Environment

  How have ideas about Nature changed over the past two centuries? When did Nature become the "Environment"? We will read very different kinds of writing - long, short, fiction, journalism, essays - by very different authors to answer these and other questions.

• Humor, Laughter, and Literature at Wit's End

  German philosopher Helmuth Plessner argues that man's inherently comic nature is the result of his doubled nature; he is entwined in the world, subject to social order, and yet "eccentric" to it, forever seeking freedom and clashing with social norms. In this course we will read selections of twentieth-century literature, theatre, and humor essays in the light of psychoanalytical, physiological, and philosophical observations about humor and laughter. We will ask what special insights might emerge from reading comic portrayals of colliding horizons, identity crises, social disorder, and, of course, people at their wit's end. Literary authors read and comedians watched may include Kurt Vonnegut, Allie Brosh, Zora Neale Hurston, Trevor Noah, and Hannah Gadsby.

• Just and Unjust Wars

  Warfare is a human activity as old as recorded history. Arguments about why, how and by whom wars may be fought are almost as old. The goal of this course is to understand and evaluate the contemporary views on these questions. These views are usually divided into three moral traditions: realism or the argument that states should seek to maximize their military power to better pursue their national interests; international law or the view that states are morally obligated to observe international agreements (treaties) that govern armed conflict; and human rights or the claim that individuals must enjoy certain universal, inalienable rights even in times of war. The class will then examine and evaluate these traditions' approaches to such topics as wars of national self-defense, wars of national liberation, civil wars, humanitarian interventions and asymmetrical wars.

• Media and the Environment

  This course investigates relationships between media and the environment—looking not just at representations of nature in the media but also at the material interaction of media technologies with the built and natural environments. Engaging a range of disciplinary perspectives and methodologies, we will consider the role media plays in galvanizing environmental advocacy movements and in shaping our perception of the environment more broadly.

• Media F.A.R.C.E.

  The mainstream mass media have been a farce when it comes to informing people about important issues. A Gallup’s study shows that “Americans' Trust in Media Remains at Historical Low”. People who rely on the mainstream mass media, as the only source of information, are at a disadvantage when it comes to important issues that affect their lives, rights, health, and pocketbooks, while they are kept busy with trivial issues. In this course, the students learn how to become critical thinkers who can intelligently analyze the effects of ownership, advertisement, advertisers, logical fallacies, and other tricks of the mass media trade. They will become better informed citizens that won’t be easily bamboozled by the mainstream mass media sound bites.

• Medi(a)val

  In every media form, the medieval pervades. Our modern fascination with the Middle Ages is peculiar given that this period feels so distant from our contemporary values, morals, and ethics. Yet popular video games like The Witcher and TV shows like Game of Thrones show us that medieval stories have remained a popular source for creative expression even in the 21st century. Examining various media forms—anime, music videos, and movies—this class will consider how and why the Middle Ages are continually reproduced and transformed. Together, we’ll examine how and why artistic representations of this period remain relevant to our individual and collective experiences of the world.

• Moral & Ethical Dilemmas

  Life would be different from the way we know it if making decisions about issues we face in our daily living was as clear as black and white. A binary choice from two options, one of which is totally right and the other is completely wrong would be extremely easy. With many layers of complexities in our society today, limitless shades of gray are the themes of almost every human interaction. Problems faced by individuals may also have moral or ethical dimensions, which require deeper examination and careful dissection before passing a judgment. Moral and ethical dilemmas arise when reasonable people cannot agree on a singular solution or a sole outcome for a given problem. In such a case priorities have to be established and compromises have to be made to ameliorate the outcome of the dilemma. Students in this course will be introduced to many such scenarios through actual case studies. Class discussion and listening to various viewpoints will help students develop a sense of appreciation that would ultimately contribute to finding an acceptable resolution to the dilemma at hand.

• Music & Politics

  This course explores the multiple points of contact between music & politics in modern American music (from ragtime to hip hop). Themes include (1) the conception of sound as power; (2) the role of music in social movements, (3) dilemmas involving artistic authenticity vs. commercial imperatives, (4) cultural appropriation, (5) issues of identity, home, & freedom, (6) misogyny in rock & hip hop, and (7) genre transitions.

• Natural Resources and Environmental Justice

  From water to sunlight, from fossil fuels to mineral deposits, most of our modern world relies on natural resources. Where do the components used to build your cell phone come from? What new issues arise as we build a greener, less hydrocarbon dependent world?

  In this course, students probe how the uneven global distribution of Earth's natural resources has consistently led to conflict, and how the exploitation of these resources has consequences for those who live and work in local communities. As a class we will read and discuss different perspectives on environmental justice and study how resource production affects local populations. To accomplish this we will examine both modern and historic case studies in a variety of fields including water resources, hydrocarbon extraction, and the mineral deposits still required to build the green economy.

• Pursuing Happiness

  What brings you happiness? How do we create meaning, value, and joy in our lives? Are we all free to shape our own destiny—to pursue our own happiness—or are there limits to such freedom? What is the role of education in the pursuit of a meaningful, purpose-driven life? In this seminar, we’ll explore these questions through a combination of reading, classroom discussion, and writing. We’ll share our writing and writing practices, and we’ll provide feedback for our peers. If you’re a writer, or if you just want to learn something about writing, this course is for you!

• Radical Thinkers

  This course surveys engages with the works of some eloquent advocates of ideas that in one way or another challenge the foundations of traditional Western culture. After looking at Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” we will turn to Machiavelli, who argues that the ethical principles of Christianity and Humanism are incompatible with effective political governance. We will read Rousseau, who argues that civilization has led not to progress but to the moral debasement of the human species; Karl Marx, who attacks capitalism and calls upon the poor to revolt and establish a communist society; Friedrich Nietzsche, who assaults (among other things) Judeo-Christian theology and ethics, rejects every form of metaphysics, and substitutes “perspectivism” for eternal truth; and Sigmund Freud, who claims that the price of order and civilization is the purposeful mutilation of our instinctual desire. We will conclude with two modern writers: Ta-Nehesi Coates, who offers a stinging indictment of the American Dream and of structural racism in America, and Chimanda Ngozi Adichie, a global feminist icon, who challenges our complacent assumptions about what and who a feminist is.

• Reason & Passion in the Ancient World

  This course is concerned with the archetypal categories of reason and passion. Several texts crucial to the classical tradition will be analyzed, and for each one, we will try to assess how they contributed to the constitution of arguments that are still relevant to the modern discussion of the topic. What follows is a partial list of the many issues that will be targeted:

  • Reason and emotions are opposite or conciliable categories?
  • The creation of orderly systems can be seen as a product of cold reason or is it rather a balanced regimentation of emotions?
  • Are passions detrimental or beneficial for the individual? And for the collectivity?
  • Is beauty something that can be created and fully experienced by reason, or does it pertain and involve solely our emotions?
  • What do atomic theories have to do with fear and emotions?
  • What is madness?

  Regular discussions will develop from the problems presented by the texts at hand. Participation and attendance in class are therefore of paramount importance. Participation will be assessed based on reading assignments (with quizzes), in-class discussions, and in-class presentations. The student will be responsible for writing 4 papers concerned with a range of themes targeted in class. For each paper, the student will be provided with extensive feedback.

• Scared Witless

  People in horror stories do stupid things and pay the price. Why? Because they aren’t paying close attention and thinking clearly. Horror stories can thus help teach us to do the things their characters don’t and avoid disastrous consequences. Those are the goals of this course, and they seem particularly important for the times we live in.

• The Quest for King Arthur in the 21st Century

  King Arthur has captured our collective imaginations, despite possibly never having existed at all. According to legend, Arthur emerged from the wreckage of the Roman Empire in the late 5th or early 6th century to lead the British defense against Germanic invaders, only to die (or maybe not!) in the noble but doomed endeavor. He appears in no written records until the early 9th century. From that point on, however, this once and future king features prominently in Western and even global culture. According to Arthurian mythology, he will return in our hour of greatest need, but in a way, he never left. In this course, we will consider why his image has proven so durable and endlessly adaptable, particularly in the contexts of films, television series, and YA fantasy novels released since 2000.

• The Rules of Madness

  You often feel sad—do you suffer from depression? You are obsessed with not eating too much—are you anorexic? You cannot concentrate—do you have ADHD? In the last two centuries, moral flaws, existential difficulties, and idiosyncratic traits have regularly been reinterpreted as psychiatric diseases. But are these diseases real, and in what sense of “real”? Have they been discovered or invented? Do they describe us or do they shape us? And how do we draw the line between the normal and the pathological? History shows that this line has been constantly redrawn under the influence of broad cultural changes, business decisions, or personal interests. After a very brief survey of the history of psychiatry followed by a look at some big issues related to psychiatry, this course will focus on a select number of mental disorders and debate the proposition that they are historically constructed.

• Unmasking Gender In(Equality)

  Can snow-clearing and car airbag design be sexist? Why do women always wait in line longer for the restroom? Should trans athletes be allowed to participate on gendered teams? How can we explain disparities in access to abortion and sex education? What’s up with all the talk about toxic masculinity and the ‘alpha male’ in online spaces? Are gender pay gaps and other workplace issues still a real problem? What do the witch trials have to do with gender-based violence today? Why are men diagnosed with heart disease at higher rates than women, but much less likely to be diagnosed with depression? What explains the increase in LGBTQ+ identification (around 1 in 4) among Gen Z and Gen Alpha?

  In this course, we will examine these and other current issues related to gender and sexuality to unpack two central questions – How has gender and sexual (in)equality changed in recent years, and how does it impact us all? Students will be asked to reflect on issues that might impact them and consider diverse perspectives from academic and popular media sources, ultimately forming their own answers to the existence of (in)equality and how it might be addressed.

• Who Goes There? Encounters With and In Nature.

  We will consider and explore the intersections of human cultures and the natural environment, with an emphasis on the social and cultural dynamics of the environment and environmental action. We will consider the concept of “nature” as we consider the concept of human culture. Some questions we will explore: What questions arise when we consider who has access to outdoor natural spaces, and who might not have the same access? How does the language we use when writing about nature affect what we do in, for, and to nature? Do literature and art change our minds about social issues; or, do they just express what we already think? What are the ethical questions that we pose and wrestle with as we interact with and within our environment? We’ll put these questions into play while we think about the place of literature and art in community and environmental activism, and while we think about the ethical connections between race, class, and gender when it comes to thinking about our interactions with nature. We’ll explore our own local spaces and consider global perspectives, as well, as we explore art and literature about nature.