FYSEM class led by Kassandra Miller. Photo by Chris Kayden
First Year Seminar 2024
2024–25 Theme
“The Republic Revisited”
The current moment presents a historical juncture in which assumptions about government and public life, in the United States and beyond, are being challenged in renewed and disconcerting ways. Economic and political stability, once regarded as the dividend of the ending of the Cold War, can no longer be taken for granted, even in the so-called mature liberal democracies of the North Atlantic region. Faith in democracy as a form of government, and in free speech, cosmopolitanism, and a separation of religion and politics as supporting pillars of such a government, are in decline. International challenges, associated with climate change and global public health, press a world system built upon independent nation-states. Against such a backdrop, students across the world are confronted with an urgent need to re-examine, articulate, and perhaps rejuvenate, what it means to live together in a shared society.
This incarnation of First-Year Seminar explores the challenges that arise from membership of a democratic community, the obligations and possibilities of citizenship, and the very notion of a collective society. Students read important works from across history—drawn from literature, philosophy, political theory, science, and the arts—that have shaped how people think about citizenship and civic membership across time and space. In the process, students develop the core skills needed to succeed at Bard, from engaging in active, critical reading and conversation to writing original, thought-provoking, and persuasive essays. The fall semester takes Plato’s Republic as an anchoring text to focus on the idea of the Republic as a commitment to organizing society and political life as a shared endeavor. The spring semester will build from the constitutional documents of the United States and elsewhere to address the obligations and possibilities that arise for individuals as a consequence of membership of such a community. Authors including Aeschylus, Plato, Burke, Douglass, Wollstonecraft, Locke, Hobbes, Montaigne, Qichao, Ellison, Rousseau, and Achebe, as well as challenges to existing constitutional orders, such as those offered by the Suffragists, Native American groups, and others, will aid our thinking.
First-Year Seminar is a two-semester course taken by all first-years. Its goal is to create a basis for shared conversation among the first-year class and build foundational skills for success in college—attentive close reading of challenging texts; respectful and inclusive dialogue with others; the ability to ask profound and interesting questions about what you read; and developing your academic voice through writing. During First-Year Seminar, students develop a clearer sense of their own intellectual goals and priorities, which will inform their work during the rest of their time at Bard. A shared reading list addresses a specific theme for the year; recent themes include “What Is Freedom? Dialogues Ancient and Modern” and “What Is Enlightenment? The Science, Culture, and Politics of Reason.”
Leon Botstein, president of Bard College.
Welcome Letter for Students
Dear Members of the Bard College Class of 2028,
I want to welcome each of you to Bard and extend to you the best wishes of the faculty and staff of the college. We are here to assist you as you pursue your undergraduate education over the next four years through Bard’s curriculum.
Welcome Letter for Students
Dear Members of the Bard College Class of 2028,
I want to welcome each of you to Bard and extend to you the best wishes of the faculty and staff of the college. We are here to assist you as you pursue your undergraduate education over the next four years through Bard’s curriculum.
Among the elements that distinguish a Bard education are the singular components of the first year: Language and Thinking (L&T), First Year Seminar (FYSEM) and Citizen Science (CS). This note to you concerns FYSEM.
FYSEM is a year-long course that all students take in their first year. FYSEM provides an experience in learning shared by all first-year students in the expectation that all entering students, no matter the wide range of places they come from, the variety of interests they have, and the different sorts of schools they attended and life experiences they gained, will find a common basis for meeting one another as students and forming friendships through the sharing of ideas. FYSEM is also designed to pick up where L&T leaves off, in helping to strengthen one’s skills in writing and close reading.
The core readings that define FYSEM are revised periodically. This year marks the first year of a new cycle in the syllabus. The subject we have chosen for FYSEM will not come to you as a surprise. Here in the United States, as well as throughout the world—in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe—the fundamental purposes and principles of government and social organization—and therefore the nature of justice and the relationship between and among individuals and group—are under intense scrutiny in word and action. In our contemporary world, in the context of modern technology, a global economy, climate change and migration, what is justice? How might politics and government gain legitimacy and help curtail the spread of hate, violence and war? How can progress in the quality of our lives be achieved? How might we account for and bridge the myriad differences, both objective and subjective, that seem now only to separate and divide us? Answering these and other similar questions can only benefit from study, learning and curiosity about our common human condition. Among the issues we will confront is the connection between education, science and politics, religion and politics, and the arts and politics. The FYSEM syllabus has been designed to inspire our thinking.
Crucial to FYSEM—a multi-disciplinary course—is its capacity to help us begin conversations with one another and join in the long conversation that has gone on for generations about justice, politics, ideas of rights, the nature of law, equality, difference, freedom and about types of governments, from those that claim to be democracies, to those that are oligarchies, monarchies, theocracies, and dictatorships of single parties and individuals. Given the election that will take place in the United States in November, and the political turmoil around the world, there can be no more significant and pressing discussion to be had among ourselves as students and scholars.
The Fall Semester of FYSEM is designed around Plato’s Republic. We chose that text as the main core text not only on account of its resilience and historical influence. Its form—a dialogue with many participants—lends itself to forcing the Republic’s readers to think for themselves and not only to try to ferret out what Plato thought. Studying the Republic helps us consider the alternatives and explore what we ourselves believe and why, and even change our minds and act as individuals and citizens. The Spring Semester 2025 syllabus will use the Constitution of the United States as a basis, and engage concepts of citizen rights and obligations and investigate contrasting political theories and historical interpretations of representative democracy.
The Fall FYSEM syllabus is outlined in an attachment to this letter. It is made up of core readings and an anthology compiled by the faculty members that put together this FYSEM curriculum. Individual instructors will choose selections to widen and deepen the range of discussions framed by the core readings.
I suspect that all of you have heard endlessly perhaps about how polarized our society has become, how impoverished and simplified our political rhetoric is, and how difficult it has become to listen to things we do not wish to hear. How might we counter intolerance and welcome serious conversations with sharp differences of opinions? The FYSEM curriculum has been put together in the hope that we can better understand others with empathy, examine our beliefs, even adjust our views and at the very least, learn, by using language in speech and writing, to agree to disagree with affection and respect.
All of us who are teaching FYSEM look forward to meeting you and sharing a memorable time together grappling with powerful ideas and texts.
Welcome to Bard College, Leon Botstein
President Leon Levy Professor in the Arts and Humanities
The program directors hold regular office hours throughout the semester. We welcome the chance to meet with you about the course and your experiences.
Fall Semester Office Hours: Wednesdays from 12:15 - 1:15 pm in the Kline Dining Room Please note that this is in addition to your own FYSEM instructor's office hours, which you should attend with specific questions / concerns about your own FYSEM section and your own personal progress in the course.
For further information, contact Program Assistant Julie Cerulli [email protected] | 845-758-7514