First-Year Seminar Courses 2025-2026

You'll take a FYS within your first two semesters at Xavier. FYS is a rigorous, academic, 3-credit course. In the catalog, FYS is called CORE 100. Search under "Core Curriculum" to find these courses.

Spring 2026

Conserving Nature
George Farnsworth
How should we view and manage endangered and threatened species and ecosystems? In this course we will explore what species we value and how we try to keep them from going extinct. We will examine these issues from a variety of perspectives including science, history, philosophy, and art.

Colonial Shadows
José María Mantero
In this course, we will study works of literature, art, and film to better understand how colonial ideologies are still present today in the Americas and how these relate to our own individual faith and our Jesuit institutional identity. The readings (short stories, poems, essays, and a series of scholarly articles) and works of art (paintings, etchings, graphic art and graffiti, for example) will come from traditional and non-traditional sources as we examine the parallels between literary and artistic expressions within a discrete historical context. We will also study films and include other digital media such as podcasts and video recordings that document and construct the historical perspective. The overall objective of the course is to examine the manner in which specific texts, works, media, and artistic objectives dialogue with a particular historical context and both reflect and transcend broader shifts in ideology and faith.

The Art of Expression
Madeleine Mitchell
Anyone can be an artist, but many people don't see themselves as one. This seminar explores how creative expression is an integral part of being human and how it contributes to personal and intellectual growth, meaningful life work, and stronger communities. In this course, we will examine various roles of artistic expression in society: healer, teller of hard truths, voice of solidarity, and catalyst for social change. Students will study and research examples of art movements, engage with local artists, and create individual works of art.

What We Brought to the Jungle
Lara Dorger
This seminar also seeks to give students the time and space to develop the Jesuit value of magis, the more universal good. In discussions and/or assignments, seminarians will examine how their vocation contributes to the greater good, a concept we’ll explore through the lens of sacramentality and justice.

Great (and not so great) Expectations
Lara Dorger
We live in our own heads most of the time, but we often evaluate our wants mostly in terms of the outcomes rather than what makes the foundations of our wants. Often our sense of success is arbitrary and personal and may depend mostly on preconceived beliefs. Rather than focusing on solely an end result, a more-sound approach would involve understanding our expectations going forward. This seminar has you carefully reading 12 short stories to use as a springboard to foster the practice of asking questions about topics relevant to you at this time: school, career, and relationships, among other subjects. Some of the questions you will have the chance to discuss are "Can I be a good friend if I stop listening to my friend's problems?" "How much work am I willing to do to get an A?" or the age-old question "What is love?" While answers may not be forthcoming for all questions, you will have the chance to create the habit of examining your expectations prior to evaluating your success or failure, a key component to analysis, through the media of short stories and writing.

U.S. in the Eyes of World Literature
Luciano Cruz
This seminar will study the representation of the U.S.A. in a selection of short stories, essays and poetry from Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa. We will examine how American characters, scenarios, and situations are developed by foreign authors and how specific (and eventually complex) narratives and imaginaries about the U.S.A. take shape in foreign literature. Basically, this course will explore how "they" see "us".

Slow Food: We Are What We Eat
Kelly Blank
Slow Food is an international movement that began in Italy in 1986, emphasizing Good,
Clean, and Fair food. In this First Year Seminar, we will discuss the history, philosophy,
and influence of the Slow Food movement worldwide while examining the problems with
the modern agricultural machine both in a local and in a global context. Topics of
discussion will include the importance of local and seasonal produce, the inherent
connections between plate and planet, the water footprint of food, labeling of GMOs
(Genetically Modified Organisms), biodiversity, food deserts, and the ethics of meat
production and consumption.

Markets and Morality
Rachael Behr LaRose
Does capitalism corrupt our morals, or does it heighten our moral development? On one side, authors all the way from Aristotle, to Karl Marx, to Michael Sandel argue that market societies have dehumanizing tendencies, where almost anything, including sex and organs, are up for sale. On the other hand, authors from Adam Smith, to Alexis de Tocqueville, to Virgil Storr and Ginny Choi, argue that markets encourage important societal norms like trust and cooperation due to gains from trading with each other, and market systems also afford us with the leisure to learn and practice virtue in an Aristotelian sense. In this seminar, we will examine all sides of this important and contentious debate.

Bob Dylan
Graley Herren 

This seminar will trace the artistic evolution of Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan. Along with careful analysis of his songs as written and performed, we will examine his work in various contexts: musical, literary, cultural, historical, political, and autobiographical.

Difficult Women
Niamh J. O’Leary
This seminar explores the concept of the "difficult woman," throughout history. Beginning with Medea and Eve, we consider these prototypes of difficult women--imperfect, vengeful, different visions of maternity, hypersexualized, and more. We will look at how stereotypes of the difficult woman operate differently for BIPOC women, and how they intersect with racism, classism, and more. We will trace these ideas about difficult women from literature, to film, to news media, to the criminal justice system. The course asks how a more nuanced notion of femininity, gender, and power can contribute to the greater good, and how humanity is ill-served by fixating on ideas of difficult women.

Marriage: Crisis & Renewal
Marita von Weissenberg
How do we know what marriage is? How, when, and why does marriage challenge or renew the greater good, and how can we even know? This course seeks to complicate our assumptions of marriage by exploring what marriage has been, is, and might yet become within the Western tradition. We will examine notions of marriage by examining ways history, law, psychology, and literature – to name a few – study marriage.

A Jesuit, Catholic University: What’s the Point?
Daniel Dwyer
During a time in which many no longer believe in the value of any university, for us the more pressing concern is the question in the title of this seminar. To make sure everyone is ready to discuss contemporary philosophical, theological, scientific, and literary issues of “faith and reason,” we first attend to how a 20th c. author addresses the inescapable human need to believe in something rather than nothing: “At the foundation of well-founded belief lies belief that it is not founded.” (Wittgenstein, On Certainty §253) Along our journey we reflect upon the following questions: (1) Are you at a Jesuit, Catholic university merely to memorize and regurgitate facts, data, and information that will get you a “job”? (2) Are you here (also?) to learn something about yourself as a believing being that helps you process your unique contribution to the Xavier community?

Karl Marx and Communist Revolution
Gabriel Gottlieb
Why not communism? What's wrong with capitalism? Is one better? These questions are at the heart of Karl Marx’s philosophy, a figure vilified by both liberals and conservatives. This course will introduce students to Karl Marx’s philosophy through The Communist Manifesto, historically situating his thought, and wondering whether communism or some form of socialism could work in the United States.

China from the Inside
Bin Yu
Description coming soon

Ireland, Culture, & Film
Timothy White
This course explores Irish culture since the late nineteenth century focusing on the development of Irish identity and how this identity has been challenged by those not included in the historic conception of Irish national identity.

Migration and Exile
Mich Nyawalo
This course introduces students to the topic of migration and exile from a global perspective. Throughout the semester, students will engage the following questions: what are the permutations of exile, migration, and immigration policies across cultural and national contexts? What are the social, political, and economic conditions that lead to processes of migration and exile? How do experiences of exile and migration affect those who endure it (within one generation or across several generations)? How do the social dynamics of class, race, gender, and nationality inform experiences of exile and migration? How do people whose loved ones have left their homeland for foreign countries process their loss and transformed relationship with the departed? How are images and cultures of the homeland constructed, revised, and reinvented in the diaspora? What are the experiences of those who return to countries they had left behind for many years?

Black Women’s Resistance
ShaDawn Battle
Description coming soon

Government’s Role in Healthcare?
Rick Browne
Description coming soon

Global Citizenship
Tammy Zilliox
Description coming soon

 

Fall 2025

Conserving Nature
George Farnsworth
How should we view and manage endangered and threatened species and ecosystems? In this course we will explore what species we value and how we try to keep them from going extinct. We will examine these issues from a variety of perspectives including science, history, philosophy, and art.

Ethics and the Environment
Brent Blair
We all rely on the environment in both apparent and nuanced ways. However, our perceptions of nature and our choices in how we interact with it are shaped by various factors, such as the time period, culture, and one’s economic status. In this course, we delve into these concepts and examine how deteriorating environments can affect human well-being disparately based on individual characteristics (e.g., race, class, and gender) and geographical location. The curriculum encompasses an exploration of fundamental economic, ecological, and environmental science principles, alongside discussions on topics related to environmental ethics.

The Art of Expression
Madeleine Mitchell
Anyone can be an artist, but many people don't see themselves as one. This seminar explores how creative expression is an integral part of being human and how it contributes to personal and intellectual growth, meaningful life work, and stronger communities. In this course, we will examine various roles of artistic expression in society: healer, teller of hard truths, voice of solidarity, and catalyst for social change. Students will study and research examples of art movements, engage with local artists, and create individual works of art.

What We Brought to the Jungle
Lara Dorger
This seminar also seeks to give students the time and space to develop the Jesuit value of magis, the more universal good. In discussions and/or assignments, seminarians will examine how their vocation contributes to the greater good, a concept we’ll explore through the lens of sacramentality and justice.

Great (and not so great) Expectations
Lara Dorger
We live in our own heads most of the time, but we often evaluate our wants mostly in terms of the outcomes rather than what makes the foundations of our wants. Often our sense of success is arbitrary and personal and may depend mostly on preconceived beliefs. Rather than focusing on solely an end result, a more-sound approach would involve understanding our expectations going forward. This seminar has you carefully reading 12 short stories to use as a springboard to foster the practice of asking questions about topics relevant to you at this time: school, career, and relationships, among other subjects. Some of the questions you will have the chance to discuss are "Can I be a good friend if I stop listening to my friend's problems?" "How much work am I willing to do to get an A?" or the age-old question "What is love?" While answers may not be forthcoming for all questions, you will have the chance to create the habit of examining your expectations prior to evaluating your success or failure, a key component to analysis, through the media of short stories and writing.

Growing Pains
Kelly Austin
Welcome to college, that space between adolescence and full-blown adulting. That means the freedoms and responsibilities of adulthood, without the experience. It's a time to explore who you want to be (identity) and what you want to do (vocation). Some psychologists call this developmental phase emerging adulthood. In this section of First-Year Seminar, we'll study theories of development, identity and belonging to see what makes this phase of life unique and interesting and challenging—and sometimes terrifying. After all, they're called "growing pains" for a reason. We'll examine literature that highlights adolescence and emerging adulthood and use those discussions to investigate your own journey on the path to adulthood. 

Pursuit of Happiness
Rita Rozzi
​The United States Declaration of Independence states that one of our “unalienable Rights” is the “pursuit of Happiness.”  If we are guaranteed such an absolute freedom to obtain it, why aren’t we all happy? What does it even mean to be happy? Although we will work to define happiness and explore the latest research on this topic through reading and discussion, we will also be putting into practice what we discover. The hope is that by doing so, we will learn how to cultivate happiness in ourselves and in others.

Thoreau: In Search of a Simpler Life
Nate Windon
If you have ever gone outside to escape the anxiety and strain of the modern world, then you have something in common with Henry David Thoreau, the famous nineteenth-century American author of Walden. There’s a lot we can learn from Thoreau, who dedicated his life to writing about his experiences in nature. We’ll not only read Thoreau (as well as some of his literary descendants) but we’ll try acting like him, too: as part of this class you’ll take walks, make a map, identify some plants, and mend something in need of repair. Thoreau did not think we should, or could, totally retreat from civilization, but he did think we could cultivate a simpler life in the midst of the busyness of the world, which is what we will read about, write about, and practice doing.

Pride and Prejudice Then & Now
Jodi Wyett
In the year of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, we will study her most enduring novel, Pride and Prejudice (1814), and some of the myriad ways it has been adapted. We will focus on the novel’s concern with the greater good both in relation to Austen’s social and cultural conditions and to our own. Assignments include curating and editing a historical artifact from late- eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain and creating adaptations of Pride and Prejudice for our own time to be posted on a course website.

Uprising: Slave Rebellions in the Atlantic World
Randy Browne
From the early 1500s through the end of the nineteenth century, millions of Africans and their descendants were enslaved throughout the Americas. In this seminar we will explore enslaved people's armed resistance to slavery, during the Middle Passage and in American slave societies.

Food, Farming, Eating
James Wood
This seminar explores issues related to the production, distribution, and consumption of food from philosophical, anthropological, and biological perspectives. Topics include food ethics, agricultural models, the culture and anthropology of eating, and human nutritional needs.
Authors include philosophers, biologists, anthropologists, historians, journalists, and farmers, and there will be opportunities to engage with people involved in various aspects of the food scene here in Cincinnati.

Games and Virtue
Greg Braun
This course looks at games of all types, with a focus on board, card, and role playing games. What can games today and throughout history tell us about humanity? What virtues & skills are valued by games, and by society? What does the mathematical field of game theory tell us about how people make decisions, particularly important ethical decisions? How do probability and the mechanics of games affect what we take away from them? What is the nature of play itself? Students will design a game as a group project throughout the semester.

Ireland, Culture, & Film
Timothy White
This course explores Irish culture since the late nineteenth century focusing on the development of Irish identity and how this identity has been challenged by those not included in the historic conception of Irish national identity.

Political Theory of Democracy
John Ray
The course is a detailed reading of parts of John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, the Federalist Papers, and Tocqueville's Democracy in America with a view to understanding the political theory of modern liberal democracy. Emphasis will be on student discussion of the moral, political, and economic issues discussed in the texts. .

Government's Role in Healthcare?
Rick Browne
In the US, healthcare is for many families their second most expensive monthly budget item (next to housing), and is therefore a major concern and stress. Our healthcare system is unusual in this way and many others. This course explores the question of the role government should play in healthcare. It examines different models of government involvement in healthcare, health systems from a variety of countries, and the advantages/disadvantages of different models and systems.

Spring 2026