First-Year Seminars
Small Classes, Big Ideas
As an Arts and Social Sciences student, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in a First-Year Seminar (FYSM), designed to explore captivating topics in out-of-the-box ways.
Carleton’s FYSMs are capped at 30 students, allowing you to forge close-knit bonds with your classmates and receive personalized attention from professors.
FYSMs help build essential skills like essay writing, critical thinking, problem-solving and media literacy, and they also enhance your communication skills through teamwork, presentations and vibrant discussions.
Past FYSM course titles include Social Justice and the City, Psychology and Criminal Justice, Indigenous Reclamation and Resurgence and Understanding Environmental Discourse.
Student Testimonial from Gaming the Middle Ages
“In the first couple weeks of the course, we learned about how surprisingly diverse medieval society was and the misconceptions that we have of it now. From there, we embarked on a role-playing game set in the Middle Ages. We learned that while games can be purely for entertainment value, they can also be used to portray information in an engaging way. Throughout the game, my classmates and I heavily relied on one another for negotiations, debates and alliances. It helped me grow closer to some of my friends in the class and offered an opportunity to engage with other students I didn’t know as well.”
– Trinity Cochrane, History student