Ten minutes from downtown Atlanta. Agnes Scott provides a small town feel with big city opportunities.
Symbolized by the black onyx ring, Agnes Scott students share a rich history and communal traditions that bind them together as students and alumnae.
Agnes Scott's 19th century architecture and Arcadian setting provide the perfect backdrop for your wedding, film shoot or next conference or meeting.
Women (and men) can take the next step at Agnes Scott to enter the healthcare field. College graduates can enroll in our post-baccalaureate pre-medical program for additional courses needed to enter a medical career.
Your professors will expect as much from you as the world expects from you. In other words, a lot.
After your first-year seminar, you will be prepared to pursue any one of the 34 majors and 31 minors available at Agnes Scott.
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In the classroom, on the playing field or in a student organization, there is a place for every Scottie to lead.
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Agnes Scott offers exciting and distinctive First-Year Seminars that offer new students an intellectual orientation to college. In a First-Year Seminar, you will learn to write and speak more effectively, think more analytically and develop extensive knowledge of the seminar topic.
The seminar will focus on a compelling question or critical issue selected by your professor. Together, you will conduct a semester-long inquiry into the topic and, along the way, learn how to evaluate information, formulate arguments and develop interpretations. Cultivating these habits of mind in your First-Year Seminar will help you thrive and succeed in all your college courses.
First-Year Seminars are:
A. Chicago: American City, American Myth
Steve Guthrie
T/TH 10 - 11:15 a.m.
This course explores the literary and cultural history of America's Windy City, from its rise in the late nineteenth century as "player with railroads and freight handler to the nation" (Carl Sandburg) to its modern life of power politics, continually shifting ethnic neighborhoods, and a diverse and vital artistic climate. Chicago is America's "Second City" but even more than New York it has been an emblem of national energy and national conflict, from the rise of Swift and Armour and the automation of meat packing to the St. Valentine's Day massacre to the Grant Park police riot and the trial of the Chicago Eight to the early career of Barack Obama. Authors studied will include poets Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn Brooks, oral historian Studs Terkel, and fiction writers Upton Sinclair, Richard Wright, Nelson Algren, Sandra Cisneros, Stuart Dybek, and crime novelist Sara Paretsky. In addition, we will listen to Chicago blues and watch documentary and narrative films on the city and its people.
B. American Poetry Now
James May
T/TH 10 - 11:15 a.m.
If diversity is a sign of health, then American poetry has never been as vibrant and strong as it is now. Small presses, online and independent journals, blogs, creative writing programs, local poetry communities and workshops, and many other outlets have all helped the art evolve by introducing new voices and new media. This seminar will study a small but representative sample of our country's poets by reading, discussing, and analyzing their recent works. In addition to these books and individual poems, we will examine both poetry’s role in America and contemporary critical takes on the art. As we read and discuss poets like Beth Bachmann, Jericho Brown, Farrah Field, Brenda Hillman, Evie Shockley, and Dean Young, we will also push our experience beyond the published page by listening to audio recordings, attending live readings, and trying our hand at our own poetry.
C. Women in Rock
Jason Solomon
TTH 10:00-11:15 a.m.
This course explores the impact that women musicians have had on various musical styles broadly classified as “rock music.” Although rock is often thought to be a male-dominated practice, the female voice has always been present and has become increasingly amplified over time. The course begins with early blues and jazz styles, progresses through country and western, vocal group rock ‘n’ roll, folk, soul, psychedelic rock, heavy metal, and punk rock, and ends with a consideration of contemporary artists. Students will examine the ways in which the collective voice of women in rock has evolved as popular musical practice has progressed and also consider sociopolitical issues that have emerged during this process. Students will read articles by rock historians, critics, and musicologists and will write about the struggles, influence, and reception of women in rock.
D. Biomedicine in the News
Tim Finco
T/TH 10:00-11:15 a.m.
It seems that every day brings with it amazing new discoveries and insights in biology and medicine. But does reality match the hype that often accompanies these breakthroughs? In this course we will focus on recent newsworthy items in the fields of biology and medicine, and examine whether the claims made accurately reflect the underlying facts. We will also explore the process of communicating biological and medical breakthroughs to the general public, and experience first-hand the challenges this often encompasses.
E. Music and Ethnicity in the United States
Robert Torre
T/TH 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Drawing on primary sources, music media, as well as selected readings from social history and ethnomusicology, Music and Ethnicity in the United States will invite students to explore and engage in the diverse musical practices and cultures of American music. Each week’s lectures and discussions will be devoted to a specific ethnic group, pinpointing specific instruments, historical narratives, and forms of “musicking.” Writing and speaking assignments will allow students to engage with course content on both creative and analytical levels. For the final project, each student will carry out ethnographic research on a relevant musical event in Metro Atlanta, culminating in a written musical ethnography. By the end of the course, students will not only have a deeper sense of the cultures and musical expressions surrounding them but will also gain insight how they themselves have constructed/mediated their own musical identities.
F. Life, Death, and Meaning
Lara Denis
T/TH 10 - 11:15 a.m.
In this seminar, we will explore a variety of perspectives on the some of the most profound questions with which human beings have grappled: Do our lives have meaning? Is death bad for the one who dies? Would immortality be desirable, or does the inevitability of our deaths contribute to the meaning of our lives? Most of the assigned readings will come from philosophical sources, included in Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions (2nd edition), edited by David Benatar. Students will also have the opportunity to draw from religion, literature, film, psychology, and elsewhere in contemplating these existential questions.
G. A Deeper Shade of Green: Sustainability on Campus and Beyond
Susan Kidd
T/TH 10:-11:15 a.m.
Global attention to sustainability is growing, and while there are successes to point to, there are also many challenges and controversies. In this course we will use a multi-disciplinary approach to learn about the “3 Es of sustainability” – equity, economy and environment. We will focus specifically on how to make sustainable decisions to protect the environment, which is often called the “green” aspect of sustainability. The Agnes Scott campus will serve as our living laboratory where we can test sustainable approaches, both to help the college achieve a deeper shade of green, and also to point us to solutions for larger global issues. Much of our class time will be spent outdoors, either on campus or at nearby locations. In addition, guest lecturers will contribute to the class content.
H. Temple, Text, Image: Buddhist Journeys
Anne Beidler
MWF 9:30-10:20 a.m.
This course will explore literary and artistic manifestations of Buddhism. Students will draw from contemporary and traditional sources on Buddhism and Asian art in order to understand the richness of this tradition. Through writing and artistic work in the studio, each student may chart the text and vision that encompasses her own individual expression. The word and image together, become the culmination of the individual student’s journey amidst the Buddhist monks of Asia.
I. “I Want my Mommy!”: Motherhood and Womanhood in the Italian Renaissance
Yael Manes
T/TH 10:00-11:15 a.m.
What does it mean to be a mother? What expectations, fears, desires, and beliefs does this term entail? What is the relation between idealized perceptions of motherhood and motherhood as it is performed in everyday life? These are some of the questions that people explored during the Italian Renaissance. In this course, we will inquire into the meanings behind these questions by understanding the historical context in which they were being asked. We will examine Renaissance perceptions of motherhood, family, and gender by considering a wide variety of Renaissance texts and cultural products, such as theatrical plays, medical treatises, household-management books, personal diaries, religious texts, sculptures, and paintings. We will also examine how Renaissance women were expected to function as mothers and consider the various ways in which wives and mothers engaged the patriarchal ideology that surrounded them.
J. Social Media and International Politics: New Possibilities or “Slacktivism”?
Eleanor Morris
T/TH 10:00-11:15 a.m.
What role do social media play in international politics? While some are eager to champion the critical role that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., play in galvanizing political movements such as the so-called Arab Spring, others insist that social media are not major factors in explaining why the global public galvanizes for change over some issues and not others. Still others assert that social media, though helpful in disseminating information to the global public (e.g., Kony 2012), actually creates “slacktivists”, individuals who are familiar with a range of international problems and do nothing with their newfound information except to forward it on to their social network. This class will use social media to examine global current events in order to make sense of the changing nature of information, civil society, and political change.
K. Encountering Africa in Popular Texts
Philip Ojo
MWF 9:30-10:20 a.m.
