First Year Seminar Course List

First Year Seminar courses

* course also fulfills an Indianapolis Community Requirement credit
† course offered as an Honors First Year Seminar option

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Instructor

Melissa Etzler

Course Description

Inspired by the ambiguity of “breaking bad,” this course explores intersections of crime and madness. We will examine texts featuring issues of guilt, justice, abnormality, and deviance to uncover particular and universal social commentaries on moral values and community constructs. Focusing primarily on written and visual texts from the 18th century to the present, multidisciplinary fields will inform our interpretations.

This course is offered as an Honors First-Year Seminar course.

Instructor

Robert Norris

Course Description

This course will examine the power of communication. Down through human history, communication has been used by some to exercise power over others. The evolution of speech, the advent of writing, the invention of printing, the ability to broadcast, the ability to post information on the internet–all these represent more than the exchange of information and messages; they have all been used as tools of influence which some seek to appropriate, and others seek to outwit.

Instructor

Barbara Campbell

Course Description

This course will examine representations of disability in American culture in the 20th and 21st centuries through literary texts, film, art, music, and dance. Our class will use disability studies theory to analyze how artists with disabilities critique ableism and complicate conventional narratives of disability. Stereotypical depictions of the disabled figure in literature, art, and popular culture reinforce, sometimes inadvertently, discrimination towards people with physical, intellectual, and psychiatric disabilities.The disabled subject is often represented as the object of pity, scorn, or as heroic inspiration for ableist culture. Works by artists with disabilities tend to challenge these depictions in content and form in unconventional and radical ways. We will engage with a variety of texts to discuss how artists draw attention to inclusivity, access, and social justice.

Instructor

Jeana Jorgensen

Course Description

Often trivialized as “just for kids,” fairy tales have a centuries-long global history as wonder tales told by and for adults striving to articulate the complexities of power relations within social life: identity, gender roles, sexuality, and more. In this class, we will engage with fairy tales from oral and literary traditions, as well as retold fairy tales in the forms of short stories, novels, and films. Our goals are to learn about the messages fairy tales convey about self and society, as well as understand how narrative structure and story appeal apply to both scholarly writing and real life. In other words, we¿ll study why the fairy tale is a classic template for coming-of-age experiences as well as more sophisticated political commentaries. Disney will provide only the briefest starting point on this journey.

Instructor

Brent Hege

Course Description

Through reading and critical discussion around theological, philosophical, and sacred texts, students will be able to explore the meaning of faith, doubt, and reason and ask big implicated questions, such as: what is faith, how do you know what you know, can divinity be proven, and what is the relationship of science to faith? The first semester of Faith, Doubt, and Reason focuses on developing writing skills. The second semester of Faith, Doubt, and Reason will provide an opportunity for students to write and present on issues in need of action in our world.

Instructor

LuAnne McNulty

Course Description

Food. Food is essential for the survival of all living things. But, it’s more than just a source of sustenance; the idea of food is interwoven with our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions. We celebrate with food, mourn with food, and covet food. From family gatherings to food blogs, the way we talk about food and culture has changed with the rise in social media. How does food nourish our bodies? What should we know about nutrition? What should we know about taste and flavor? How does food impact health, behavior, and communities? How do we reconcile the food culture propagated by social media with the understanding that many live in food deserts and go to bed hungry? We will consider all these things and more in this course.

Instructor

Ashley Mack-Jackson

Course Description

Are you a dancer, musician, visual or multimedia artist, performer, writer, creative of any kind, or an enthusiastic lover of the arts? Explore Butler University and Indianapolis’s diverse arts scene, engage in enriching discussions with local creatives, and join with Indianapolis-based arts organizations and artists to create your own artistic projects in “From the HeARTland.” Throughout this course you will investigate your own artistic identity as it relates to your community of origin and the Butler University and Indianapolis communities, consider how art impacts and is impacted by artists’ identities and the community’s culture, reflect on the role that the arts play in creating more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just communities, and share with and learn from your peers as you all enter together into the vibrant Butler University and Indianapolis arts communities.

This course fulfills an Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR) credit.

Instructor

Julie Johnson Searcy

Course Description

In this FYS on Global Perspectives on Health, our big questions will center around health and illness. We will be thinking about people’s experiences of health and illness across cultures. We are going to be asking questions about health, illness and equality. Consider this quote from the World Health Organization:

The social conditions in which people are born, live and work are the single, most important determinants of good health or ill health, of a long and productive life or a short and miserable one.

What does account for differences in health? Why are there such differences in social conditions? How does power and culture play a role in health and illness? What helps us explain and understand these health differences? As we discover the kinds of gaps and varied access to health resources people experience we will be seeking to understand the nature of this inequality through the lens of medical anthropology which focuses on the human experience.

Instructor

Janis Crawford

Course Description

“Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact—it is silence which isolates.” -Thomas Mann

Speech can be a very powerful medium of persuasion and communication. Just like producing a written paper, a speech must be concise, present a compelling argument, and use the proper tone, and format to have a lasting effect on its audience. We will examine the orations of such great American speakers as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Ronald Reagan, Hilary Clinton, and Barbara Bush. This course will focus on the speech as a template for how to develop effective writing skills. In the course of reading and discussing the works of American orators, students will cultivate the skills necessary for critical thinking, oral communication, and effective writing. Class will involve discussion, student presentations, and writing assignments.

Instructor

William Watts

Course Description

This course will focus on two interconnected problems we face in both the United States and in the broader world today. The first is political: How can we navigate an increasingly fractious political divide, which some informed commentators warn is creating the conditions for civil war? The second is environmental: How can we, in this fractious environment, muster the political will to address the mounting environmental and social problems that follow from climate change? Our approach to these problems will both theoretical and practical. That is to say, we will read books and articles and watch movies that deal with politics and the environment. But we will also consider how we, as engaged citizens, might take practical steps in our daily lives to improve the physical and political environment we inhabit.

Instructor

Brian Day

Course Description

In this class, students will be exposed to the field of Human Factors Psychology, which, broadly defined, examines the relationship between human beings and technology in an attempt to make human-technology interactions safe, effective, and efficient. Students will be presented with background on human factors and various real-world applications before transitioning to thinking about taking what has been learned to design their own life in accordance with human factors principles. For instance, students will be asked to reassess their study routines, sleeping habits, and daily technology usage. Students will also be tasked with making changes in their lives which will impact things like their happiness and state of mind. The goal of this class is for students to learn about the field of human factors psychology, and to take what is being learned and make intentional changes to how they live their lives.

Instructor

Robert Stapleton

Course Description

This class drops the needle on popular music as a significant and vibrant body of literature. We will employ the tools of literary analysis and critical thinking to examine the complex ways that 20th century music reflects cultural and artistic movements. We will consider aesthetic and neurological principles of sound, theoretical framings of lyrics, and the role of storytelling in the lyrical canon. We will engage in intellectual inquiry, debate, and scholarly writing in our investigations of how songs can embody the central tenets of literature and have expanded our cultural canon and informed our collective identity.

Instructor

Alessandra Lynch

Course Description

In this course we will be reading texts from various genres (personal essay, memoir, graphic “novel,” and poetry), each focusing on some aspect of the Self– self-image, self and community, self and culture. We will discuss how self-expression manifests itself in each genre–how each genre reveals or clarifies insights about the self. Many of our writings will be personal in nature. The class will be discussion-based, but students will keep a journal, respond to a variety of writing prompts, and write essays triggered by the readings.

Instructor(s)

Hannah Sullivan-Brown

Course Description

In this course, students will explore the values, choices and goals that inform their decisions and guide their own lives. By reading carefully selected texts — from writers across the vast array of disciplines, students will seek answers to the following questions: how can I do both well and do good in the world? How do I know what I am meant to do, for work and for leisure? How can I find the path in life that is uniquely mine? What are the philosophical and practical goalposts that I should aim for? How do I live a meaningful life?

This course is offered as an Honors First-Year Seminar course.

Instructor

Susanna Foxworthy Scott

Course Description

In this class, we will explore such topics as mental illness, birth, death, the AIDS epidemic and addiction by reading works that offer ethical, historical, cultural and scientific perspectives. By reading patient and physician memoirs and literary works, we will gain an understanding of how the experience of illness as well as the experience of treating illness can be influenced by socio-economic and cultural factors. We will learn about the ethical, economic, and political dilemmas facing patients, doctors, and communities. Suffering comes not only from medical condition itself but from injustices, unequal access to care, stigma, neglect, and isolation. As patients and perhaps future health care providers, we need a fuller understanding of these dimensions of illness and health care.

This course fulfills an Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR) credit.

Instructor

Tonya Bergeson

Course Description

Is music the universal language? Is music independent of language? This class will examine the relationship between music and language from the perspective of philosophy, psychology, communication science, and neuroscience. We will explore the relevant data and theories from various perspectives such as linguistics and music cognition, and we will investigate music and language across the lifespan and in different populations, such as aphasia and amusia.

Instructor

Michelle Stigter-Hayden

Course Description

Innocent question or microaggression? Who is asked? Who is not asked? Does anyone really know where they are from? How does “knowing” where we and where others are from influence our own concept of identity? During the semester our exploration of immigration, identity, and marginalized life in the United States will take a three-pronged approach. Through analyzing a wide variety of texts, reflecting on our own identities, and serving the immigrant and refugee community we will crystalize our own beliefs about what it means to be a member of our community.

Instructor

Carol Reeves

Course Description

When you enter the university, you want to make friends. You fear that you won’t make friends. You aren’t sure that you can reach out to strangers and establish connection. You feel the loss of friends you left behind. In this class, we will learn all about why humans need friendships, how we define and classify friendships, what barriers prevent us from making friends, and the reasons why we lose friends as well as keep them throughout our lives. We will learn the skills of making friends, which include the art of conversation, the ability to interact with people who are different from us, and the ability to give advice without insult and to listen. We will explore male and female friendships, intersexual and interracial friendships, childrens’ friendships, and friendship we form throughout our lives for different reasons. The class is interdisciplinary because friendship can be examined through Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Literature and Film. Hopefully, we will leave the class with new friendships!

Instructor

Angela Hofstetter

Course Description

From drawings of horses, stags, and bulls on the caves of Lascaux to enduring classics like The Call of the Wild and Black Beauty, animals have captured our imagination as symbols, companions, workers, food, and fellow warriors: our path to modernity tells the tale of a relationship paradoxically fraught with violence and affection. This interdisciplinary First Year Seminar examines how the burgeoning fields of anthropology, psychology, and criminology converged with biology, zoology, and economics in taxonomies of class, race, sex, and gender whose legacy still governs our conversations about which lives matter. Most importantly, we will discover how Writing for Wellness (W4W) helps us grapple with making meaning of nature, nurture, and justice in the new millennium.

This course is offered as an Honors First-Year Seminar course.

Instructor

Karly Keiper

Course Description

Many people do not realize that the laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability are younger than most of our grandparents. In this course, we will explore the life of the “mother of the disability rights movement”, Judy Heumann. We will analyze how her unique personal story, life experiences, and fierce advocacy have shaped the law-making around disability and civil rights. We will discuss the evolution of the movement beyond Judy’s “birth” of it, exploring what accessibility meant, currently means, and what Judy (and many, many others) hope for it to one day mean.

Content warning: abuse, neglect, and violence against people with disabilities

Instructor

Undraa Maamuujav

Course Description

Delving into the rhetoric of auto ethnography and other creative nonfiction genres, we will explore the many dimensions of our lived experiences: the complicated web of identities, actions, thoughts, feelings, memories, imaginations, and encounters that shape our sense of who we are and what our place in society is. We will examine written and multimodal texts of various genres, encompassing both creative nonfiction and fiction writing, to understand how self-expression manifests itself in these genres and how these genres illuminate insights about the interplay of self and society. Through creative remixing of multimodal elements and multiple genres(e.g, poetry, memoir, podcast, infographic, digital storytelling), we seek to understand how our personal identities and experiences are intricately and inextricably linked to the larger cultural, political, economic, historical, and social structures within which we live. This course will help students develop critical thinking, close reading, persuasive writing, academic research, and digital literacy skills while tapping into their creativity.

Instructor

Nii Kpakpo Abrahams

Course Description

What does Pixar’s Monsters University tell us about starting school? How does Tik Tok’s viral #BamaRush inform how we makesense of Greek life? What does Pitch Perfect get right (and wrong) about college friendships? We all have expectations enteringcollege, mostly coming from family or through entertainment. This FYS course is all about deconstructing the first year ofcollege…all while you go through it! We’ll engage with a variety of past and present voices to garner a deeper understanding oforientation, friendships/relationships, academics, mental health, and other areas of the higher education system students encounterin their first year as you gain a deeper understanding of yourself and how you fit into the Butler ecosystem. As a course thatfulfills the Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR), students will have the opportunity to engage in, learn from, and servealongside different education-based organizations in the community.

This course fulfills an Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR) credit.

Instructor

Andrew Levy

Course Description

In contemporary culture, science fiction is everywhere: it is one of the most popular forms of prose and graphic fiction, film, television, and videogames. This course offers students the opportunity to see familiar stories—the space opera of Star Wars, the dystopia of Hunger Games, the superheroes of Marvel/DC, the AIs of Black Mirror—in new and deeper ways, and will provide a substantial introduction to lesser known but captivating science fiction from all over the world, as well as rising movements from traditionally under-represented communities, and significant authors from past and present such as H.G. Wells, Ursula LeGuin, Philip K. Dick, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, N.K. Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders and Liu Cixin. The course will be multi-genre, exploring literature alongside science writing and various video formats. Assignments will mix creative and critical, as well as individual and group, approaches. Taken together, you will learn how science fiction enables you to interact with ideas, language, and politics from the broader culture, explore and express psychological states, and more confidently and ambitiously imagine the future– both yours and ours.

Instructor

Bryce Berkowitz

Lincoln El-Amin

Course Description

Have you ever wondered how the screenwriting industry works? In this course, we will evaluate TV pilots and feature scripts, but we will also learn about show bibles, treatments, film reviews, agencies, production companies, as well as how social justice and climate change intersect with screenwriting. Finally, we will attempt to find our own voices within this rich tradition of cinematic writing.

This course is offered as an Honors First-Year Seminar course.

Instructor

Tom Paradis

Course Description

Along with its roles in contemporary pop culture, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games can be interpreted through numerous disciplinary perspectives. This FYS invites you to “unpack” numerous layers of meaning embedded within Collins’ dystopian tale and her most recent prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. We will first examine this allegory as a cultural and literary phenomenon before moving into connections with our own world. While sampling a variety of academic perspectives including sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, feminism, political science, media studies, and psychology, we will highlight the human geography of Panem and especially the central Appalachian home of an unlikely heroine, Katniss Everdeen.

Instructor

Felicia Williams

Course Description

I chose this topic because it is important to be cognizant of our individual process and habits. It is imperative that one knows how to articulate their voice and be comfortable doing so. I also think it is important that we seek to hear the voices of others. Listening to and thinking about others can be both educational and transformative on multiple levels.

This course fulfills an Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR) credit.

Instructor

Natalie Carter

Course Description

This seminar introduces students to critical thinking and a discussion of values, and develops oral and written communication skills through an investigation of contemporary women’s literature written in a variety of global cultures. Through contemporary literary texts, the course will explore women’s perspectives on current issues influencing women’s sense of self, relationships, worldviews, opportunities, and challenges; we’ll consider the ways that sexual politics intersect with the politics of race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, nationality, and other markers of difference. By examining literary texts and other cultural materials, we’ll consider possibilities for understanding and changing the cultural, political, and social systems that define women in the world.

This course is offered as a Social Justice and Diversity course.

This course is offered as an Honors First-Year Seminar course.

Instructor

Christopher Bungard

Course Description

The journey of the hero is a story as old as humans have gathered around to tell stories. In this course, we will start with stories from the Trojan War in order to think about what it means to be heroic. How is one called to be a hero? What does the hero gain? Sacrifice? From our initial foray in the Greek world, we branch out to consider hero stories from a variety of cultures and what the similarities and differences to the heroes of Homer tell us about what we as humans find inspirational about heroic stories.

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