Course Description
UNIV 190 is a first-semester course required for all incoming first year students at Clarkson. It is part of Clarkson’s Common Core. It has two central aims:
- Hone student sophistication in reading, writing, and critical thinking.
- Provide an opportunity for small-sized, discussion-based classes on big-picture themes important to our daily lives outside the classroom.
Seminar classes are thematically structured, and themes are interdisciplinary in nature. This is not an English class. UNIV 190 is taught by professors who specialize in disciplines across the humanities and social sciences, including literature, film, history, political science, sociology, and anthropology.
The work assigned in UNIV 190 classes will vary, but all UNIV 190 classes will have:
- At least 3 expository essays.
- A chance to revise and resubmit at least one of those essays.
- 30-40 double-spaced pages of writing over the course of the semester, of which at least 20 are formally graded.
Click here for a list of sample course themes.
Students presenting UNIV 190 projects at the 2014 Clarkson Humanities and Social Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference:
Samantha Crosby and Sufia Bakshi present papers on a panel titled “Utopias”
Rachel Janshego and Tyler Discenza present a monument to the Trail of Tears
Michael Austin and Jianhui Li present a memorial to the Tiananmen Square massacre