Scribner Seminars
The Scribner Seminars are the centerpiece of the First-Year Experience, taught by faculty from virtually every discipline, who design seminars to highlight their own intellectual curiosities and passions. Scribner Seminars will help you begin to explore ideas, challenge assumptions, and gain first-hand experience of faculty expectations of academic rigor and excellence.
The Scribner Seminars are interdisciplinary courses with the following goals:
- distinguish among, and formulate, types of questions asked by different disciplines
- read critically, and gather and interpret evidence
- distinguish among the evidence and methodologies appropriate to different disciplines
- consider and address complexities and ambiguities
- make connections among ideas
- recognize choices, examine assumptions and ask questions of themselves and of their own work
- formulate conclusions based upon evidence
- communicate ideas both orally and in writing
- relate the results of the course to their educational goals
Scribner Seminars for the incoming class are released mid to late March, however some courses are pending final Curriculum Committee Approval. These are noted on the list.
FALL 2026 SCRIBNER SEMINARS
Getting our hands dirty and watching ideas grow in our first-year seminar
Teaching Professor of Biology Erika Schielke reflects on her Scribner Seminar, Pollinators in Peril, and describes how hands-on learning helps first-year students cultivate the curiosity and confidence that will grow throughout their Â鶹ŮÀÉ experience.