Fall 2023 First-year Interest Group Courses

Students in this FIG meet BCOM GUR requirements in Computer Mediated Communications. Students learn about entrepreneurial endeavors and innovations that focus on enhancing culture, community, social practice and business. The seminar will explore cases that reveal how activists, artists of color and nontraditional entrepreneurs have used social media, art, music and business practices to catalyze cultural shifts.

Students in this FIG earn some GUR requirements while examining the connections among environment, politics, economics, and identity. We explore questions such as: How are environmental impacts related to racial and other identity experiences? How can maps help us understand patterns of environmental inequality? Are environmental and economic inequality related?

The field of Psychology receives the notion happiness as humankind’s state of emotional well-being. Students will take on psychological life theory and approach to seek a broader understanding of psychological adjustments and the pursuit of happiness.

Drawing on psychology, literature and other creative work, LGBTQ+ community organizing, and holistic wellness scholarship and praxis, we’ll explore many perspectives on what it can mean to thrive as an LGBTQ+ person, and barriers to thriving. Students will deepen their understanding of sexual health and the diversity of human sexuality in PSY 116 (Human Sexuality) and study a range of texts by queer and trans authors in ENG 227 (Queer Literature). In the seminar, students will explore resources within themselves, at Western, and beyond to support multidimensional queer and trans thriving. We’ll invite ongoing reflection about what queer and trans thriving means to students as individuals and as people in community.

This introductory seminar course explores human flourishing through the study of humanities and religion. We consider what it means to flourish and how to flourish through our engagement with various sources—including fiction, non-fiction, and visual art. We also become familiar with campus resources that support flourishing of all kinds. Class time is discussion-based, and assignments are designed to foster the role of self-reflection in personal flourishing.

Does language organize our minds? What about other animals? Bringing in ideas about language from LING 201 and ideas about the mind from PHIL 107, students in this FIG will explore these and other questions about the connections between language and mind.

In this FIG, we will experience the Salish Sea through different disciplinary approaches by reading Coast Salish authors and stories of place, learning about regional ecology, digging into layers of geology and history in the area, examining local issues of justice and equity, and more. We will engage in experiential learning activities like walking tours, scavenger hunts, debates, and storytelling.

Students in this FIG explore the concepts of race, ethnicity and the role of public speaking with a focus on personal empowerment and academic achievement.

Should we pay when we play?

What does it mean to live as a global citizen? Students in this FIG examine the notion of "Other" through art form, narrative, literature, and film to address the question and other questions of global inequity.

Sociology is the study of study of how humans behave and interact in groups--including families, religious organizations, schools and peer groups. Students in this FIG explore opportunities, degree emphases and careers associated with Sociology through the study of the American criminal justice system, US History, and a small, integrative seminar.

What can we learn about our notions of male and female through introductions to the study of mass media, women studies, and masculinity?

Students in this FIG will look at the intersection of sustainability and leadership by bringing together ideas on how best to harness ideas for a more just, sustainable future. What are some of the planet’s most pressing environmental and social problems? What are the traits of a good leader, and how can we maximize those qualities to lead and advocate for communities?

Who can vote in America? This question is the most important in American politics and is at the center of national partisan conflict. This FIG situates our current moment within a broader examination of voting rights in the United States. Students will discuss pivotal moments in negotiating access to the vote, exploring themes of race, gender, economic class, and political power. Methodologies from history and political science will provide our critical frameworks. Objectives: 1. Evaluate how who has the right to vote has changed from the time of our nation’s founding to our current moment. 2. Assess the historical and political context behind major voting rights legislation. 3. Research contemporary topics related to voting rights. 4. Enhance academic skills necessary for a successful college career while also becoming familiar with school resources. 5. Learn the value and benefit of a liberal arts education while forging connections with professors and peers. 6. Identify college career goals and create a plan to achieve these goals.

This introductory seminar offers an exploration of academic content and essential questions within the liberal arts and sciences tradition. It also includes embedded instruction in academic skills and use of campus resources pertinent to exploration of the FIG cluster theme. In this FIG we will study the basics of modern climate science, and then investigate the way that different communities talk about and react to it. This will involve an overview of current frameworks related to climate change perception and an in-depth look at a couple of case studies, concluding in a final research paper looking at the thoughts and actions of a specific cultural or social group with regards to climate change.

Do movies and plays accurately mirror the psychology of human experience, or distort it?

A practice that proposes that marketing strategies and tactics can be used as an effective consumer-oriented approach to promoting change and improved well-being for individuals, communities, the environment via the offerings of companies and organizations. In this cluster we will examine the roles of company, consumer, producer, influencer and evangelist. Exploring the notion that marketing as a discipline can be used to generate significant societal and behavioral change.

Do we experience different forms of art in the same way? When listening to a piece of music, what does a musician hear? Is it different than how a writer hears it? When reading a text, what does a professional writer notice? Students in this FIG explore these and other related questions via popular music.

“America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil…The evil is there waiting.”—William S. Burroughs. Using William S. Burroughs’s quote as a point of departure students in this FIG will earn some GUR requirements while exploring psychological and historical themes in American gothic and horror literature. This FIG will specifically focus on how America’s unique relationship to its history as a country crafts a national psyche to produce something that can be described as “the haunting of America”.

Students in this FIG explore the art, science and power of storytelling across cultures while learning to perform stories themselves and discovering how narrative is central to human identity and communication.

A transition from fossil fuels to a clean, efficient energy system is key to reconciling our economic and environmental imperatives. To understand this challenge, you’ll study the nexus of economic, policy, science and technology questions around energy supply and use. You’ll explore the range of degrees and careers available to graduates with majors and minor in Energy. This FIG is open to all first-year and new transfer students.

In this seminar, which is intended for those interested in elementary teaching and/or middle/secondary science teaching, we’ll examine science as a way of knowing and its relationship to other knowledge generation systems. We’ll explore the history and philosophy of science, interrogate the relationship between science and culture, and critically examine which and whose stories have been highlighted in the science students are taught in schools.

Who should enroll in this FIG?

• Students considering a BAE program with certification in Elementary Education—whether or not science and math are your favorite subjects!
• SCED 201 is a prerequisite for admission to the Elementary certification program and counts as a GUR
• MATH 111 is a prerequisite for admission to the Elementary certification program.

Explore how anthropology, linguistics, and mathematics provide us with tools to discover and describe patterns in the real world. NOTE: Final registration for this FIG will not be complete until the student earns a minimum ALEKS Math Placement Assessment (MPA) score of 35, or appropriate transfer credit.

Explore the study of economic decision making through introductions to psychology, economics and marketing. NOTE: Final registration for this FIG will not be complete until the student earns a minimum ALEKS Math Placement Assessment (MPA) score of 55, or appropriate transfer credit.

Students explore teacher education and human services programs and professions early in their Western experience while gaining a network of academic and social support from Woodring students, faculty, and staff. Future Woodring Scholars is committed to transformational change that supports increased understanding and respect for differences and similarities among people and cultures.