Welcome to Freshman Seminar!
This course will introduce students to academic life at the university and help them become a part of our community at St. Edward鈥檚. Although the seminars are focused on very different topics, they all share a common goal: students join a community of learners and actively engage in academic and co-curricular exploration. As they do so, they will develop the critical thinking skills necessary to become successful students and lifelong learners by meaningfully confronting questions of social justice through the course materials and co-curricular experiences.
What is Freshman Seminar?
Freshman Seminars are not lecture courses, but are instead classes where students and faculty actively engage with one another as they discuss course materials. In addition, students and faculty will participate in a variety of co-curricular experiences over the course of the semester where they leave the classroom. For example, a seminar might go to an art opening, attend a book festival, or work on a service project with a local non-profit organization.
What is unique about Freshman Seminar?
Something that makes these seminars different from other classes you will take at St. Edward鈥檚 is that they are each part of a group of seminars clustered around a particular topic; for example, Sustainability, Social Justice, or Global Engagement. Students will attend co-curricular events with others from these Learning Communities.
Common Theme
Every year, St. Edward鈥檚 chooses a Common Theme that guides programming and discussions across campus. You will discuss the theme in your Freshman Seminars and some of the events you and your classmates attend will be related to the theme. For Fall 2024 we're excited to announce that the theme is Defending Democracy and our incoming students will read You will receive a copy of the book at Orientation.
For more information, contact Alex Barron, Director of Freshman Seminar.
The search for truth is not only an academic exercise, but a foundation of democracy. Autocrats rely on the spread of misinformation to gain and hold power. Those who wish to undermine democratic systems deliberately suppress access to history. We find ourselves in a 鈥減ost-truth鈥 era, in which democracies across the globe are in decline. As a university community, we must take responsibility for the role that the exchange of facts and ideas plays in the pursuit of a more equal and just society. As a starting point, we invite you to read Timothy Snyder鈥檚 in preparation for our Common Theme, Defending Democracy, and related conversations in the fall.
One of the most important things we hope to do as a university is create a love of learning in our students, and the first part of that happens with the Freshman Seminar common text, a book we ask you all to read over the summer. Our committee of faculty, staff, and students has chosen On Tyranny as this year鈥檚 common text.
As you read the common text this summer, don't read as if it is a textbook. There's no need to memorize any facts. Instead, think about the issues On Tyranny raises. Make notes in the margins, mark passages that stand out to you, and write down questions you have. That way you will be well prepared to write about the book this fall and to participate in discussions in class. You will also have opportunities outside of classes to think about the book and the common theme by attending screenings of documentaries, hearing lectures by experts and going on field trips.
Email Alex Barron, Associate Professor of English and the Director of Freshman Seminar, with any questions about the common text or Freshman Seminar. And again, welcome to St. Edward's.
More information will be coming soon regarding Fall 2024 events. To get a better idea of the types of events related to Common Theme take a look at some of our featured past events.
Fall 2023 Events
- All students participated in an accessibility tour of campus
- Sept 7 at 5:00 p.m.: Film screening of and discussion led by DSO
- Oct 18 at 6:00 p.m.: New Directions in Disability Justice with scholar/activists Emily Shryock and Alison Kafer
Fall 2022 Events
- All students went on the
- Sept 30 at 5:00 p.m.: Film screening and discussion of Paris is Burning
- Oct 26 at 5:00 p.m.: Film screening and discussion of Get Out
- Nov 10鈥20: These Shining Lives at the MMNT
Fall 2021 Events
- Sept 29 at 6:00 p.m.: Conversation with Stamped author, Jason Reynolds
- Oct 19 at 5 p.m. Film screening and discussion of 13th
- Nov 19 at 5 p.m.: Film screening and discussion of In the Heights
Fall 2020 Events
- Sept 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Sept 20 at 2:00 p.m.: GIZMO play reading by Anthony Clavoe (directed by Sierra Sterling 鈥20)
- Oct 20 at 5 p.m.: How Data Can Win (and Lose) the Presidential Election
presentation and Q&A with Dr. David Thomason, Assistant Professor of Political Science - Oct 26鈥揘ov 1: A Strange Design: A Haunting Virtual Escape Room in the Age of Data
Presented by Timothy Braun, Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
Fall 2019 Events
- Sept 16 at 6:00 p.m.: What Is Citizenship? A Panel Discussion
- September 24 at 6 p.m.: Film screening of Documented
- October 10 at 7 p.m.: Speaker and author
- Nov 14鈥24: Marisol at the MMNT
- Nov 20 at 6:00 p.m.: Film screening of Children of Men
2023鈥2024: Accessibility
Book: Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century by Alice Wong
2022鈥2023: Reckoning with History
Book: How The Word is Passed by Clint Smith
2021鈥2022: Stamped
Book: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds
Speaker: Jason Reynolds
2020鈥2021: Data & Justice
Book: Hello World by Hannah Fry
2019鈥2020: Immigration
Book: Dear America: Notes From an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas
Speaker: Jose Antonio Vargas
2018鈥2019: Identity
Book: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Speaker: Eli Kimaro
2017鈥2018: Immigrant Voices
Book: Detained & Deported: Stories of Immigrant Families Under Fire by Margaret Regan
Speaker: Erika Andiola
2016鈥2017: Food Justice
Book: Where Am I Eating? by Kelsey Timmerman
鈥婼peaker: Kelsey Timmerman
Trip: Costa Rica
Students explore the Common Theme in Just Food
2015鈥2016: Justice
Book: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Speaker: Bryan Stevenson
Trip: 28 students and three faculty members traveled to South Africa to explore justice, mercy and how these issues relate to race.
2014鈥2015: Hearts and Minds: Changing the Conversation about Mental Health
Book: Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
Speaker: Susannah Cahalan
Trip: London
2013鈥2014: Expanding Human Rights
Book: Half the Sky by Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Speaker: Jackson Katz
Trip: Three students built on their Common Theme trip to Bangladesh by continuing to stand up for human rights.
2012鈥2013: How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse: Dystopias and Sustainability
Book: World War Z by Max Brooks
Speaker: Max Brooks