First-Year Studies

All freshmen are enrolled in a First-Year Studies seminar, offered in a variety of disciplines, as one of their three courses. In addition to covering a body of knowledge, the First-Year Studies teacher introduces the methods of thinking and working on which a Sarah Lawrence education is founded. Students consider how a subject is investigated, as well as its relevant facts and theories. They are encouraged to relate and integrate old experiences with new ones and are helped to communicate their thoughts effectively, both orally and in writing. Students have individual weekly conferences with the teacher of their First-Year Studies course, who also serves as their don. Students are assigned to First-Year Studies courses on the basis of academic background and student preference.

Senior Seminars

The Senior Seminars are designed for seniors and graduate students interested in advanced work in various areas. A Senior Seminar constitutes one-third of a student’s program and consists of two interrelated semester-long segments, each either taught by a different member of the faculty or co-taught by two members of the faculty. Students participate in a monthly colloquium, interdisciplinary in nature.

Service Learning Seminars

These courses combine classroom instruction with work in a community organization committed to social service or social change. The student’s community placement constitutes part of his or her conference work for the course. The syllabus weaves together readings and themes that are explicated by the community-based work. This combination of classroom and community experience enables students to delve deeper into the realities of their academic work while simultaneously providing a needed service at a community agency. Students scure placements through either their faculty member or the Office of Community Partnerships and Service Learning. Please check your registration packet for a list of service learning courses offered.

Lecture Courses

Each year Sarah Lawrence offers approximately ten lecture courses distributed throughout the curriculum. These courses are designed to offer a broad view of a subject. They may focus on a historical period (Twentieth-Century Europe, for example), a country or geographical area (Chinese History: Tradition and Transformation), a literary form (The African American Novel), or an introduction to a discipline (Introduction to Film Interpretation). Lecture courses have a maximum of 45 students and are usually supplemented by group conferences. With faculty permission, students have the option of taking two lecture courses as one-third of their program.

Language Third

In an attempt to encourage students to study more than one foreign language at the same time, Sarah Lawrence offers sophomores, juniors, and seniors the option of taking a Language Third. This allows students to study two languages as one-third of their program. Students also have the option of combining a language course and a lecture course as one-third of their program.

Science and Mathematics Third

A similar option is available to appropriate students in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics. They may take two courses in science and/or mathematics as one-third of their program.

Conference Courses

Conference courses are available to all but first-year students and first semester transfers. Together with a faculty member, advanced students may design an individual course to study subject matter not covered in the regular curriculum that year. Conference courses are conducted through weekly meetings between the student and faculty member and must be approved by the student’s don and the Committee on Student Work. Recent conference courses have included “Dance Criticism,” “Revolution in Physics,” “Shakespearean Scene Design,” “Studies in Film Noir,” “Experimental Genetics,” “Plato’s Symposium,” “Women and The Decameron,” and “The Modern Middle East.”

Independent Study

Independent study is intended for juniors and seniors with strong academic records who seek to develop more fully an individual project of research, creative work, or intensive reading. Such study may result in a major work such as a thesis, a literary work, or a musical composition. Permission for independent study is granted by appropriate committees, and the work must be planned with members of the faculty.

Fieldwork and Internships

Many students supplement their academic work with the practical experience gained through internships. Students may choose to earn academic credit for internships by combining them with independent academic study under the supervision of a Sarah Lawrence teacher, an arrangement called fieldwork. Recent fieldwork projects have included work in government agencies, in residential agencies for emotionally disturbed children, in film projects, in foundations, in performing arts festivals, in museums and galleries, and in television.

The Office of Career Counseling has developed extensive listings in the metropolitan New York City area, and many students will pursue internships around their academic schedules during the year. In addition, the ION (Innovative Opportunities Network) Consortium has enabled the office to expand upon local offerings, thus providing students with opportunities around the country closer to where they may live and making it easier for students to intern during the summer. The Venture Consortium offers students seeking a semester-long break to access a world of unique and exciting opportunities developed especially for liberal arts students.

Senior Thesis

Students in their senior year may choose to devote one-third of their program to a senior thesis. The thesis is interdisciplinary and is completed under the supervision of two or three faculty members, one of whom serves as the principal sponsor. The student has regularly scheduled conferences with each faculty member, and all three read and evaluate the completed thesis. Examples of recent theses are:

• “Immigration: Gender, Social Roles, and Mobility Patterns” (supervised by anthropology and psychology faculty members);
• “Religion and Scientific Reality” (supervised by biology and philosophy faculty members);
• and “The Institution of Marriage in Capitalist Society” (supervised by members of the history, political science, and economics faculties).