CLA Freshman Seminars
A freshman seminar is a small, discussion-oriented class that is designed just for first-year students across the University. The seminars cover a variety of fascinating topics in the arts, behavioral sciences, global issues, politics and culture, and more. Seminars are offered both fall and spring semesters.
What to Expect in a Freshman Seminar
- A small class (15-20 students) of first-year students where it is easy to talk, participate, and engage in class discussions
- A professor who is an expert in the subject matter who has created the course specifically for first-year students
- An opportunity to work with faculty who will introduce you to a variety of new research and creative topics
A History of the Drug Wars
All About Music: Its Meaning, Reality, Communication, and Embodiment
America in Crisis
Analysis of the Intersection of Communication and Sport
Arab Spain: Then and Now
Arguing with Authority: The Past, Present, and Future of Higher Education
Art Laboratory: A Place to Play
Asian Americans in the First Person
Attending (to) Theater
Autobiography through History/History through Autobiography
Beyond Sounds and Words: Social Communication Across the Lifespan
Black Reality in Television
Brain Science, Drugs and Society
Brexit and Decolonization: Empire, Race, and Belonging in the 21st Century
Changing Human Adaptations
Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies: History, Culture & Identity
College, Sex, and Society
Contemporary Latino Drama: Human Rights and Theater
Cultural Heritage and Environmental Change in Gullah/Geechee Nation
Cultures of Resentment: Understanding the Politics of Hate in the 2000s
Cyborg Ethics and Digital Selves
Dictatorship and Violence in Central Asia and Afghanistan
Food, Wine, and Sport in the Creation of French Identity
Freaks and Aliens: Race, Gender, and Sex in Science Fiction
From “O Brother Where Art Thou?” to “12 Years a Slave”: American Cinema and American Roots Music
From Fashion to Fashioning a World: Magazines and Literacy
From the Tea Party to 9/11: Historical Memory in the United States
Globalizing the “Middle Ages”
Guitar Heroes
Homer’s Odyssey and Politics
Hop-Hop as Academic Inquiry
Humor and Laughter in Interaction
Invented Languages
Language, Food, and Identity
Living Well with the Dead: Afterlives and Ethics in Contemporary Culture
Living with Innovation
Magazines and New Media
Making Minnesota
Media Emotions
Music in Nazi Germany
Music, Language and the Brain
Natural and Artificial
New York of the 1970s: Punk, Hip-Hop, and Salsa
Our Monsters, Ourselves
Performing Latina/o/x Identities: Media, Art, and Popular Culture
Place Matters: Seeing the Mississippi
Political Discussion and Deliberation in the 2016 Election
Politics of Hunger: Food, Development, and Cold-War Politics
Politics, Arts, and Propaganda: A Century of Film in Berlin
Psychological Perspectives of Women at Work
Race in Everyday Space
Representation in the Time of Pandemics: Culture and Politics from AIDS to COVID-19
Say Something, Make Something: Transforming Language in Visual Art
Silencing the Gods: Divine and Human in the Hebrew Bible
Social and Cultural History of Blacks in Sports
Sounds of Social Justice
Space and Time: from Aristotle to Einstein
Sports, Reason, and Society
The American Digital Revolution: Music, Media, and Gaming in American Culture
The Art and Science of Persuasion
The Border Crossed Us: Latinx Life and Justice in the City
The Color of Music
The Dragon Slayer in Epic and Film
The Freshman 15: Stress and Health Management for Students
The Great Actresses and Divas of Theatre, Films, Opera and Musicals
The Immigrant and the Refugee
The Politics of Hunger: Food Security, Aid & Diplomacy
The Psychology of Design: Smart Products, Graphics, & Logos
The Symbolic Meanings of Money and Property
The U.S. Role in the World
The Worlds We Have Made: Some of Us Are Already Living in a Dystopia/After the Apocalypse
This is Your Brain on Drugs
Trauma and the White Racial Frame: Disrupting Whiteness and White Body Supremacy in Everyday Life
Urban Love, Fear, and Uprising
Violence against Women in Opera
What is the Human Mind
What’s So Great About Classical Music?
Whites, Whiteness, and Racism
Winning People Over: The Art and Science of Persuasion
Woman, Rage, and Politics
Words at Work
World War II Revisited: Britain at War