LEAP 1100 - Freshman Seminar: Community as Idea and Experience - American Perspectives

The first semester of a two-semester sequence that forms the core of the LEAP experience. The course focuses on how concepts of community have developed and been implemented in the American experience, on how community membership is determined, and on the possibility, necessity, or desirability of building bridges between different kinds of communities in America. We examine autobiographical texts that offer a variety of racial, ethnic, class and gender perspectives on this issue. The course also emphasizes writing, critical reading, and the acquisition of library research skills.