ISP First Year Seminars

The First Year Seminars in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program (ISP) are for students interested in exploring fairness and systemic issues of oppression and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, immigration status, and other forms of identity through interdisciplinary and humanities perspectives.

Step 1: Select your ISP First Year Seminar

ISP 100 FY39 | Justice: Who’s In and Who’s Out? | Mon 10:50-1:30pm, In Person | Professor Adriana Perez | Registration Code: 35147
Academic Community: Social Systems and Justice

ISP 100 FY40 | Justice: Who’s In and Who’s Out? | Mon 10:50-1:30pm, In Person | Professor Bibi Calderaro | Registration Code: 35146
Academic Community: Law and Humanities

ISP 100 FY41 | Justice: Who’s In and Who’s Out? | Mon 10:50-1:30pm, In Person | Professors Wendy Barrales and Katie Gentile | Registration Code: 35145
Academic Community: Human Behaviors and Cultures

ISP 100 FY42 | Justice: Who’s In and Who’s Out? | Mon 10:50-1:30pm, In Person | Professors Jessica Cortez and Monise Valente Da Silva | Registration Code: 35144
Academic Community: Public Service and Safety

This course will explore how justice—as a word, an ever-changing concept, and a shifting reality—affects and controls individual lives within and outside of carceral systems. Reading a variety of texts from the social sciences and humanities, it will consider such crucial issues as the scope of justice, the definition(s) of what is just, and how individuals respond to injustice. A trip to the world's first prison system, Eastern State Penitentiary, centers our ongoing discussions and projects through an interdisciplinary experiential form of learning, exploring what justice has been, is now, and could be.

Step 2: Select an ISP course in the track that best fits your interests

Track 1: Criminal Justice

ISP 140-01 | Murder: Historical and Cultural Perspectives | Wed 10:50-1:30pm, In Person | Professors David Green and Monise Valente da Silva | Academic Community: Criminal Justice | Registration Code: 34646
ISP 140-02 | Murder: Historical and Cultural Perspectives | Wed 3:05-5:45pm, In Person | Professors David Green and Monise Valente da Silva | Academic Community: Criminal Justice | Registration Code: 34645

Murder is the ultimate crime and yet an enduring source of fascination. This course examines murder across different time periods and cultures as a form of entertainment, social rupture, and analysis, as well as an act committed by individuals. Through a variety of artistic, humanities, and social science texts, students explore the history, ethics, social appeal, and civic costs of murder on individuals and the societies in which they live.

Track 2: Immigration Justice

ISP 115-01 | Voices of Migration | Mon 3:05-5:45pm, In Person | Professors Jessica Cortez and Meghan Duffy | Academic Community: Immigration Justice | Registration Code: 34641

Migration is one of the central facts of human history. As a species, we move to escape, to embrace, to learn, and to seek opportunity, often to change something fundamental about our lives. This course explores migration through essays, films, photographs, art, and history from interdisciplinary and personal perspectives. Students read, discuss, and analyze a wide range of migratory experiences while researching and piecing together journeys that have shaped their own lives.

Track 3: Social Identities and Justice

ISP 122-01 | Those People! Stereotyping in America | Tue 10:50-1:30pm, In Person | Professors Sarah Meister and Susannah Crowder | Academic Community: Social Identities and Justice | Registration Code: 35149
ISP 122-02 | Those People! Stereotyping in America | Tue 3:05-5:45pm, In Person | Professors Sarah Meister and Susannah Crowder | Academic Community: Social Identities and Justice | Registration Code: 35148

This course examines the origins, history, and psychosocial effects of stereotypes in American culture. Through literature, art, drama, and film, students explore the nature of American stereotypes and the many ways they reflect and shape the political, social, and cultural landscape of the United States..

Step 3: Select either an ISP ENG 101 or MAT 106 class (if still needed)

ENG 101 ISP-02 | Exploration and Authorship: An Inquiry-Based Writing Course | Mon 9:25-10:40am, Hybrid | Professor TBA | Registration Code: 36329
ENG 101 ISP-03 | Exploration and Authorship: An Inquiry-Based Writing Course | Tue, Thu 9:25-10:40am, In Person | Professor TBA | Registration Code: 36328

This course introduces students to the skills, habits, and conventions necessary for inquiry-based college research. Students learn techniques for invention and revision, expectations for college-level research, academic methods for exploring ideas, and rhetorical strategies for investigative writing. Through a sequence of manageable assignments leading to a final research paper, students develop confidence with the research and writing process. The course grade is based on the quality of revised writing collected in a final portfolio.

MAT 106-01 | Liberal Arts Mathematics (Math and Quantitative Reasoning) | Fri 10:50-1:30pm, In Person | Professor Alvin Estrada | Registration Code: 35730

In this historic period marked by COVID-19 and continued struggles for racial justice, this course explores the mathematics shaping identity, health, safety, and political choices. Unlike traditional math courses focused mainly on solving problem sets, this section also emphasizes writing about what happens when human stories are translated into equations and variables. Students consider the gains and losses involved in moving between qualitative and quantitative thinking, and why it is important to understand both.