The Global Conversation of the 20th and 21st Centuries
Welcome to Seminar 104
The Collegiate Seminar addresses literary, philosophical, religious, and historical texts through dialogue and shared inquiry. Accordingly, the required coursework includes close, careful reading and active, collaborative participation in class discussion. Initially, students may feel apprehensive, puzzled or even overwhelmed by these requirements, as some of these texts are the products of times and cultures quite different from contemporary society. Feeling this way is eminently reasonable. Allowing such feelings to dictate behavior and undermine success in this course is not. Through practice, engagement with other seminar students and the professor, puzzled reticence yields to coherent questions, collaborative insights, and surprising perspective. As students develop their ability to interpret and engage with even the most difficult texts, they gain confidence in understanding, expression, and collaboration.Please read through all the information on this site.
About this site:
Every semester, as students matriculate into their chosen courses, they are given a syllabus that is meant to be a kind of guide to the course, informing students of the course expectations, the rubric, the outcomes and objectives and the important dates. Syllabi are valuable documents, and it can really hamper a student’s progress if it gets lost. This site has been made with these thoughts in mind. I want to help you all as much as I can by making sure that you have access to all the available information and tools, that will help you successfully complete this course. An added benefit to transfer students is that the resources collected here will aid you in becoming more familiar with Saint Mary’s campus and capacities. Often, I find that helping students means providing access. In this case, access is enabled simply by making a phone/tablet-ready website that houses all the important information about the course. This will mean that you will always be able to stay up to date on the schedule, readings and homework messages. This site will be used in addition to SMC’s Moodle learning platform, which will be used to disseminate and collect homework and assignments.