L&S First-Year Pathways

The history, chemical nature, botanical origins, and effects on the human brain and behavior of drugs such as stimulants, depressants, psychedelics, analgesics, antidepressants, antipsychotics, steroids, and other psychoactive substances of both natural and synthetic origin. The necessary biological, chemical, and psychological background material for understanding the content of this course will be contained within the course itself.

This introduction to the study of Buddhism will consider materials drawn from various Buddhist traditions of Asia, from ancient times down to the present day. However, the course is not intended to be a comprehensive or systematic survey; rather than aiming at breadth, the course is designed around key themes such as ritual, image veneration, mysticism, meditation, and death. The overarching emphasis throughout the course will be on the hermeneutic difficulties attendant upon the study of religion in general, and Buddhism in particular.

This writing seminar satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The course is designed to offer students structured, sustained, and highly articulated practice in the recursive processes entailed in reading, critical analysis, and composing. Students will read five thematically related book-length texts, or the equivalent, drawn from a range of genres, in addition to various non-print sources. In response to these materials, they will craft several short pieces leading up to three longer essays–works of exposition and argumentation.

A lecture/seminar satisfying the second half of the Reading & Composition requirement, R4B offers structured and sustained practice in the processes used in reading, critical analysis, and writing. Students engage with thematically-related materials from a range of genres and media. In response, they craft short pieces leading to longer expository and/or argumentative essays. Students develop a research question, draft a research essay, gather, evaluate, and synthesize information from various sources. Elements of the research process–a proposal, an annotated bibliography, an abstract, a works cited list, etc.–are submitted with the final report in a research portfolio. Students write a minimum of 32 pages of prose.