Credits: 3

This course examines links between religious experience and romance narrative taking the grail as a focal point. We start with grail legends in the middle ages, explore historical associations of the grail with medieval Christianity, and end with quest narratives and grail motifs in modern occultism, fiction and film. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: RELI 100.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

This discussion-style seminar will consider how Socrates practiced philosophy, how Plato represented Socrates and Socratic philosophy in writing, and what effect Socrates had on Athens and his fellow Athenians. Readings will consist mainly of Plato's Socratic dialogues, with emphasis on the "Apology" and "Gorgias." In addition to papers, each participant will make one presentation and lead one discussion. This course is limited to first-year students only; any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: CLAS 101.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

How do you learn about another tradition? its texts, practices, or art? Its conversations with the modern West? We will focus on all these as we enter ancient Buddhist worlds of India and Tibet, by rading ancient texts and modern treatments, including films and scientific inquiry. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: RELI 102.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

The goal of this seminar is to examine critically -from a (socio) linguistic perspective- what is arguably the most influential and pervasive cultural current among youth today. We will analyze hip hope data, drawing from various media, to take on issues including language and power, differences between cultures, and constructing ethnicities. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: LING 103.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

This freshman seminar is an exploration of the genre of Autobiography, from St. Augustine to the present, and serves as an introduction to critical issues of narrative and how it is deployed within different autobiographical texts. Emphasis on writing clear prose and development of literary analytical skills is also a primary component of this course. Open to first year students only, any and all others will be removed. Cross-list: ENGL 104.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

This course examines the role that gender, biological sex, and sexuality play in the language varieties that people use. We will see that although all cultures have specified gender roles, and all cultures mark gender through language varieties, those differences are not, I promise, what you think they are. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: LING 105, SWGS 105.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

In conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, this course will examine images of war and peace in Renaissance and Baroque Europe. It will explore images of battles, the hero, peace, and the miseries of war, and how the past affects ideas about war and peace today. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HART 106.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

The figure of Jesus has inspired a certain amount of fascination in the modern Jewish imagination, serving as a symbol of political longing, the universality of suffering, and biographic and spiritual displacement. Why did the Christian messiah, who for most of Jewish history was a taboo or vilified character, fascinate so many Jewish writers, artists, and thinkers of the twentieth century? Beginning with background in ancient sources, this course will examine the development of modern Jewish historical philosophical, literary, and artistic understandings of Jesus. We will discuss how Jewish thinkers and writers have viewed Jesus and Christianity, the various political and cultural interests and longings Jesus came to represent for them and why, for certain writers, Jesus became a potent symbol for thinking about Jewish experience. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Musical biography tends to follow stereotypical patterns that depict composers as heroes who rebel against authority and live on the margins of society. This seminar will focus on the life stories and music of selected 18th and 19th century composers. No musical background necessary. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: MUSI 111.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

A study of six famous literary works, from classical civilization to expressionism, and their incarnation in famous musical compositions. Authors include Vergil, Shakespeare, Beaumarchais, Pushkin, Goethe, and Buchner; paired pieces include operas by Berlioz, Verdi, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Gounod, and Berg. No technical or reading knowledge of music is required. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: MUSI 112.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

In this course, we will trace the history and mythology of the Parthenon. We begin with the dawn of sacred tradition on the Acropolis, then explore the classical recreation of the city, the conversion of the Parthenon into a church, its subsequent destruction and the current debate over restoration. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: ARCH 110, HART 110, CLAS 103.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 1

A 7-week seminar course to introduce freshmen prospective biologists to the excitement of research at Rice and the Medical Center and to provide context with which to think about facts presented in biosciences textbooks. Small groups will meet weekly with a graduate student or postdoctoral researcher to explore a published research article by a local lab, gaining background information about the subject and exposure to the research techniques. In the final session, the group will tour the lab that produced the featured article. Additional tours and activities TBA. All first-year non-transfer students are eligible to enroll in BIOC 115/FSEM 115 regardless of AP credit. This course meets in the second half of the semester and features research in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Course organizers: Dereth Phillips and Bonnie Bartel. Cross-list: BIOC 115.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 1

A 5-week seminar course to introduce freshmen prospective biologists to the excitement of research at Rice and the Medical Center and to provide context with which to think about facts presented in biosciences textbooks. Small groups will meet weekly with a graduate student or postdoctoral researcher to explore a published research article by a local lab, gaining background information about the subject and exposure to the research techniques. In the final session, the group will tour the lab that produced the featured article. Additional tours and activities TBA. All first-year, non-transfer students are eligible to enroll in EBIO 116/FSEM 116 (formerly BIOS 116) regardless of AP credit. This course meets in the first half of the semester and features research in the Department of Ecology and Environmental Biology. Course organizers: Strassmann, Phillips. Cross-list: EBIO 116.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Following the 1917 Revolution, Soviet society initiated radical experiments not only in political and governmental structures but in all aspects of culture and everyday life. This class will examine these developments focusing on avant-garde experiments in cinema, literature and the visual arts, as well as philosophical and political debates around the meaning of revolution itself. This course is limited to first-year students only, any other students will be removed from this course. This course is limited to first year students only, any other students will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HART 118.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Comprising some of the greatest Hollywood productions of the 1940s and 50s, film noir is characterized by its despairing moods, violent protagonists, femmes fatales and intricate criminal plots. This class will examine the formal and narrative conventions of film noir and explore its cultural and political contexts. Students will be introduced to different modes of filmic and cultural analysis. Films will include "The Maltese Falcon," "Double Indemnity," and "Scarlet Street," among others. This course is limited to first year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HART 119.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

The beginnings of modernity have to be seen in the context of the sociopolitical and intellectual upheavals at the end of the 19th century. Whereas extreme reactionism eventually led to fascism, progressive literature advocated artistic experimentation as manifested in a discourse of alienation (expressionism, dada, Kafka). Holocaust literature reflects the ultimate clash between progressiveness and reactionism. The primary readings will be from Wedekind, Trakl, Kaiser, Kafka, Hesse, Remarque, Brecht, Celan, Werfel. Taught in English. This course is limited to first year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 121.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

The course presents an overview of German history via contemporary German feature films from World War I, through the Weimar and Nazi periods, the postwar years as a Divided Germany into East and West and finally a look at the new generation in Post-unification Germany. Taught in English. All films are subtitled in English. This course is limited to first year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 122.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

A travel story stands at the beginning of European Literature: Homer's Odyssey. Since ancient times, literary travel accounts of all sorts, to all destinations, by all means and undertaken with a wide range of different purposes have kept Europeans on the move. First attracted by the exotic and the unknown in the far distance, the interest moved ever closer to the self, and the exploration of the human mind became the most exotic and intriguing journey. Readings include Homer, Swift, Voltaire, Goethe, Heine, Twain, and Verne. Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 123.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

A historical introduction to central themes of legal and political thought in the Western tradition from Immanuel Kant to John Rawls, this freshman seminar provides an overview of trends and controversies in modern political thought and society. Topics discussed include "civil rights", "morality", "liberalism", "natural law", "political theology", and "freedom". Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 124.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Focus on individuals' behavior in Nazi Germany/Austria. Issues of ideology and ethics as Germans and Austrians faced them between 1933-1945. Reflection on values such as courage, civil disobedience, and human rights in today's global society. Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 125.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

In the 1100's people began writing down stories of Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, and the Knights of the round table using sophisticated techniques of literary composition. Today, these stories count among the great writings of Europe. This course examines the spectrum of medieval stories and histories of Arthur that arose in England, France, and Germany from the beginning to the age of printing, plus some recent revivals. Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 126, MDST 126.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Using the film "The Matrix" as a point of reference, this course presents celebrated explorations of servitude and emancipation -- from religious mysticism to Marxism and artistic modernism. Texts by Lao Tzu, Farid ud-Din Attar, Plato, Freud, Marx, Baudelaire, J.S. Mill, Proust, de Beauvoir, Malcolm, Baudrillard. Course taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: FREN 127.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Focusing on the experience and representation of war in German and European literature, theory, and visual arts. Covers the period from 17th-20th century. Special emphasis on the First World War. Not for the faint-hearted, topics included: destruction, ruins, refugees, massacres, terrorism, victims, spaces of battle, the logic of war. Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 128.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

According to the Geman philosopher Hegel, love-stories are usually about a young man who seeks the ideal girl, finally gets her, and becomes as good a Philistine as others. Students examine this philosophical wisdom by reading stories and theoretical texts about love and passion by European authors from the time of Shakespeare to the present. Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 129.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Introduction to the Nazi idea of "womanhood" and the actual roles women played during National Socialism. Female perpetrators, Mitlaufer, a multiplicity of victims, and to resistance fighters. Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 130, SWGS 130.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

This course explores films made in Nazi Germany as well as films about Nazi Germany and the corresponding crisis of justice in the mid-twentieth century. We will analyze cinematic responses to the rise of the fascist movement, World War II, the Holocaust, and the post-war years. Particular attention will be paid to the value of film as propagandistic tool, ways in which it can configure and contest our image of national identity, and the relation between mass manipulation and mass murder. Taught in English. This course is limited to first year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 132.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

The United States has always been a source of fascination -- both attraction and revulsion -- for the French. This course aims to understand American culture and identity as revealed by transatlantic encounters with the French. We will study French intellectuals' observations from Tocqueville to Simone de Beauvoir as well as images of America in French popular culture. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: FREN 133.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Critical introduction to the history and theory of modern media--including photography, film, and radio--with a focus on problems of representation, cultural perception, and the simulation of reality. What are media? How are media linked to the experience of modernity and post modernity? How do media construct "reality?" Do modern media generate a crisis of perception? How has the emergency of modern visual culture shaped the social and political imaginary? This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 134.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

"From Caligari to Hitler" -and beyond. In the vein of the title of a well-known study on German film during the Weimar Republic the course offers a cinematographic history of German and European politics and culture from the early Expressionist silent movies on the award winning "Life of Others." Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: GERM 136.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

This course explores contemporary strategies for developing distinctly female cinematic voices and gazes, including Varda's cinematic language, Dura's use of silence, and Djebar's lyricism, Films by Akerman, Benguigui, Denis, Kurys, and Serreau illustrate other approaches; readings provide theoretical underpinnings to notions of the gaze and the role of the spectator. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: FREN 137.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

What is "writing"? How did it emerge in human history? How did it emerge in human history? How does it relate to human cognition? Beginnings of writing in early civilizations for commercial transactions; development into linguistic representation systems. Logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic systems. Spread of literacy and its role and effects or society and human cognitive processing. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: LING 138.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

In this course we will investigate the issues surrounding language endangerment, loss and revitalization. Using a seminar format, we will explore topics that include linguistic diversity, the implications of language loss, how researchers approach language documentation and description and look at revitalization efforts. This course is limited to first year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: LING 139.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

This course uses a seminar format to investigate the multiple ways in which the psychological and social worlds of bilinguals and multilinguals may differ from that of monolinguals. It covers a large range of topics from the purely cognitive, (how the various components of language are stored and accessed), to more socio-cultural (cultural identity and role switching) or political ones (bilingual education). This course is limited to first-year students only; any others will be removed from the course. Cross-list: LING 140.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Course focuses on political, cultural, social, economic, and polemical interactions among medieval Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 143.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Seminar traces the history and politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, delving into both Palestinian and Israeli understandings of the past and present using books, documentaries, and films. The course seeks to understand how and at what costs Israeli and Palestinian nationalism's have been constructed and analyzes U.S. involvement in the conflict. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 144.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Readings of classic works of short fiction by modern Latin American masters, with special emphasis on the stories of Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar. Close reading, interpretation and appreciation of stories (in English translation) will be the focus of class discussion, presentations and short interpretive essays. Taught in English. Open to first-year students only, any others will be removed. Cross-list: SPAN 150.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

How does presentation of heroic action illustrate the basic values of society? Historical sources including ancient texts, modern mystery stories, and two "western" movies, show the development of a style of community service linking heroism with alienation. The extent to which women participate will be traced. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 151.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Readings in English from major modern Spanish and Latin-American essayists, including Miguel de Unamuno, Jose Ortega y Gassset, Maria Zambrano, Jose Marti, Jose Enrique Rodo, Alfonso Reyes, Jorge Luis Borges, Victoria Ocampo, Fernando Savater, Ariel Dorfman, Roger Bartra, et al. Close reading, discussion and short interpretive papers. Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: SPAN 152.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

The class will involve close reading and interpretation of Cervantes's immortal novel, "Don Quixote de la Mancha," voted "the best book of all time." Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: SPAN 153.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Readings of intimate, first person fictions (short stories, novels) by modern Latin American writers, including Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and other, lesser known authors from the Southern Cone, Colombia, and Mexico. Critical approaches will include anthropological, feminist, and post-modern readings. Close reading, interpretation and appreciation of (fictional) autobiography - in English translation - will be the focus of class discussion, presentations and critical essays. Taught in English. Open to first-year students only, any others will be removed. Cross-list: ARCR 154.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Freshman seminar course traces Western perceptions of Africa as a geographic, political, and racial entity, from ancient times to the present day through a variety of media, including ancient texts, travelogues, maps, slave narratives, novels, films, museum exhibits in Houston, and journalists' reports. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 155.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

This course examines Latin American Art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the eras of independence and revolution. We will examine such topics as art and nationalist discourse; legitimation/appropriation of the past; gender; art, dictatorship and revolution; surrealism; indigenism and social realism; the politics of muralism; plus modernism and alternative modernisms. Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: SPAN 156.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Team-taught by an historian and a cultural-critic, this seminar explores the exchanges and tensions between the U.S. and Latin America, from the early 19th century to the present day, aiming at connecting diverse narratives and presenting opposing perspectives through the counterpoint of documents, paintings, essays, and movies. Taught in English. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: SPAN 157.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Exploration of popular myths surrounding larger-than-life figures like Davy Crockett and Harriet Tubman. Specific figures vary. Through scholarly readings and analysis of cultural artifacts like songs and films, we will consider why and how such figures become iconic and explore the relations between history, biography, and memory. This course is limited to first year students only; any other students will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 159.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Seminar will focus on three dimensions of Thomas Jefferson's life and legacy: first, what he said and did in the American Revolution; second, how he has been understood by historians; and third, how his words, ideas, and actions have been used by successive generations of Americans. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 160.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Seminar analyzes how selected historical events are interpreted at different times and contexts. Sources include history books, novels, movies, court cases and political debates. Specific events studied will vary according to student interest from ancient times to the present. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 161.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

A first year seminar examining the origins and legacies of the civil rights case that all but defined the parameters of modern American society and race relations. Where did the case come from? How was it argued and decided? What have been its consequences? This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 163.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Explore problems with identity--ethnic, political, spiritual-- in the case of the other Jew. Consider themes of anti-Semitism and philosemitism, insider and outsider, tradition and innovation. Examine competing views purveyed through diverse media such as literature, film, art, and music. Selected texts from St. Paul, Shakespeare, Dickens, Marx, George Eliot, Freud, Chagall, Cynthia Ozick, Bob Dylan, and Woody Allen. This course is limited to first year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: RELI 164.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Freshman seminar will focus on the French Revolution and the era of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1789-1815. Lectures address three main topics: the history of the Revolution and its main actors; the diverging interpretations offered by historians; and the multiple legacies of the revolutionary period in the modern era. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 165.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

How do scientists read and write? This course examines how scientists, like fiction writers, persuade audiences that their version of reality is interesting enough to read and plausible enough to convince. Through class discussions and written assignments, students will improve skills in observing, writing, reading, and persuading. This course is limited to first-year students only; any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 166.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Newton was the indispensable starting point for 18th century thought from the physical sciences to medicine and the so-called Ahuman sciences. Seminar will consider Newton and the complex legacy of his thought in other 18th century thinkers: Locke, Leibniz, Boerhaave, Voltaire, D'Alembert, Hume, Maupertuis, Buffon, Kant, Priestley, Blake and Goethe. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 167.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

What shaped medieval Christian notions of the body? How did common experiences of pain, sexuality, childbirth, and death refract the grasp of larger concepts - God, time, and the cosmos? This seminar will explore the issues connecting body to cosmos through close reading of medieval literary, mystical, and autobiographical texts. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: RELI 171.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

What do we mean by religion, philosophy, and the philosophy of religion? How can we reflect critically and cross-culturally upon them? How do happiness and suffering help or hinder the Good Life? Responses from ancient Eastern and Western sacred texts to today's popular culture will be explored. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: RELI 172.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Class examines race in American history by juxtaposing supposedly rigid definitions of racial difference prior to the mid-20th century with individuals, families and groups whose lives crossed racial boundaries. Focus will be on people of African, American and European descent in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 175.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

From the 1880's to 1968, lynch mobs murdered nearly 5,000 African-Americans Terror and black responses to it have shaped nearly every aspect of African American history. Seminar examines black society, politics, gender, and culture in 20th century America against the backdrop of racial violence. This course is limited to first year students only, any others will be removed from this course. Cross-list: HIST 176.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

Part history of cartography; part historical detective work, this seminar will examine the first maps of the Americas and consider if an anonymous map of c. 1502-1506 might have been drawn by Amerigo Vespucci, whose influential letters shaped European thinking about the new world. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed. Cross-list: HIST 177.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar

Credits: 3

This course proposes to survey major moments and movements in European history from the medieval period through the twentieth century. The operatic reception of history will be explored in order to understand how European artists have viewed their own historical narrative, and so that together we might come to some conclusions concerning the dramaticity of history. This course is limited to first-year students only, any others will be removed from this course.

College: School of Humanities

Department: Freshman Seminar