Seminars
It's a good idea to choose some small classes so that you have chances to express your ideas and respond to others'. Although places in seminars are often given first to students in the major, who are usually juniors or seniors, don't hesitate to try for a place in a seminar that interests you. Just keep in mind as you plan your course schedule that you cannot count on finding a place in a seminar. Make sure you have a backup plan.
Some departments have a fall-term deadline to register for seminars in the spring and a spring-term deadline to register for seminars in the fall. Check with the office of the DUS for deadlines.
About fifty seminars are limited to freshmen, but there are some designed for both freshmen and sophomores. Specific listings appear below.
Special seminars for sophomores
Enrollment in the following four seminars is limited to sophomores.
*ENGL 131a, Versification
Penelope Laurans MW 1–2.15
A historical study of the evolving technical aspects of English verse from Anglo-Saxon through modern times. Regular exercises in writing meters and stanza forms and regular readings in poetry. Intended principally for aspiring poets who wish to learn the history of their craft, but open also to students of poetry who wish to have a firmer command of historical and technical poetic matters.
*ENGL 133b, Dickens, High and Low
Janice Carlisle TTh 2.30–3.45
Charles Dickens's novels viewed both as examples of Victorian narrative art and as popular culture. A number of Dickens's works—principally Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and Great Expectations—from so-called high and low perspectives in their status as literary art and in their role as sources of popular entertainment, including that offered by comic books and movies.
*PLSC 169a, Classics of World Politics
Bruce Russett T 1.30–3.20
Examination of classic political theory from Sun-Tzu and Thucydides to the present. Attention to historical context.
*PLSC 228b, Perspectives on the City
Harry Wexler M 5.30–7.20
Introduction to the range of disciplines and methods appropriate to exploring the character and evolution of cities. Each week a scholar from a different field discusses that discipline's approach and methodology in its study of urban life.
Additional seminars limited to sophomores and freshmen
*E&EB 171a, The Collections of the Peabody Museum
*MCDB 107a, Human Biology
*PSYC 129a, Statistics as a Way of Knowing
*MATH 101b, Geometry of Nature
*MCDB 109b, Immunology and Microorganisms
*MCDB 135b, How the Brain Works
*PHYS 101b, Movie Physics
