2023-2024 Course Catalog

Please note: The information displayed here is current as of Wednesday, May 8, 2024, but the official Course Catalog should be used for all official planning.

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Freshman Studies

ProfessorJ. Clark (Geosciences) (on leave term(s) III)
Associate professorM. Smith (Religious Studies, chair)

First-Year Studies has been the cornerstone of the Lawrence curriculum for over 70 years. Originally designed by Nathan Pusey, who left Lawrence for the presidency at Harvard, it was first taught in 1945 and is still best understood as an introduction to liberal learning.

Students take First-Year Studies in their first two terms on campus. Each section of the course includes about fifteen people, allowing for close relationships between students and teachers. Because each section uses the same reading list, First-Year Studies also helps students join in the life of a larger intellectual community, one that now includes generations of Lawrentians.

In keeping with such goals, First-Year Studies is expansive and inclusive. Instead of endorsing a single point of view, the course embraces works from many different traditions. Every division of the curriculum is represented on the syllabus, and recent versions of the course have included writings by Natasha Trethewey and Tony Kushner, Plato's Republic, the periodic table of the elements, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Miles Davis's Kind of Blue.

Through their encounters with such works, students gain an appreciation of different approaches to knowledge. They also join each other in exploring a host of important questions: What does it mean to be human? Are there limits to human knowledge? How should we respond to injustice and suffering?

In addition to raising these questions, First-Year Studies serves more immediate and practical goals. The course encourages lively discussion and introduces students to the conventions of academic writing. In all of these ways, the course helps students to develop the skills needed for success in college and in later life. 

Transfer students should plan to take FRST 201: Studies in the Liberal Arts to fulfill the Freshman Studies requirement.


Courses - First Year Studies

FRST 100: First Year Studies I

Required of first-year students. Through the study of works representing a variety of intellectual and cultural traditions, students develop fundamental skills: the ability to read closely, to speak and write clearly, to persuade a reader and express themselves. Regular class work is supplemented by lectures and performances by Lawrence faculty members or by visiting scholars or artists. PREREQUISITES: Registration Assigned by First Year Studies Program Director
Units: 6
Prerequisite: Registration Assigned by First Year Studies Program Director

FRST 101: First Year Studies II

Required of first-year students. A continuation of First-Year Studies I, this course is designed to help students refine their abilities as readers, writers, and thinkers. As in First-Year Studies I, instructors stress close reading, cogent discussion, and clear writing. Regular class sessions are again supplemented by lectures and performances by Lawrence faculty members or by visiting scholars or artists. PREREQUISITES: Registration Assigned by First Year Studies Program Director
Units: 6
Prerequisite: Registration Assigned by First Year Studies Program Director

FRST 201: Studies in Liberal Arts

Required of qualified transfer students. Through the study of works representing a variety of intellectual and cultural traditions, students refine fundamental skills: the ability to read closely, to speak and write clearly, to persuade a reader and express themselves. Regular class work is supplemented by lectures and performances by Lawrence faculty members or by visiting scholars or artists. PREREQUISITES: Admitted as a transfer student by the Office of Admissions.
Units: 6
Prerequisite: Admitted as a transfer student by the Office of Admissions.