Freshman Seminar in the College of Arts & Sciences - COAS

Freshman Seminar in the
College of Arts & Sciences
The Class of 2016
Heirs to a
Tradition of Excellence in Scholarship and Service

The College of Arts & Sciences Freshman Seminar encourages you to become
engaged participants in the intellectual and cultural life of African peoples
throughout the Diaspora by exploring this rich history and legacy and this
legacy’s vibrant contemporary work and institutional life. Carefully planned
lectures, forums, activities and projects, and discussions will help you feel
confident and comfortable in your new role as students at Howard University
and as citizens of the world.

The Research Question
Each year, students seek to answer a
broad question that weekly lecturers
engage. This year’s question is
How have scholars across various fields of
study contributed through research and
praxis to the restoration of human dignity
in the wake of atrocities and traumas over
time?

Learning, Wisdom, and
The African World Experience
Ipet Isut (Karnak): White Chapel of Senusret I
This lecture examines the contribution to global traditions and
innovations in teaching and learning from the classical, medieval,
and contemporary African experience.

“Omoluabi”:
Self Actualization and Communal Responsibility
Omoluabi is the essence of the human person, a
wellspring of good character, exemplified by an
understanding of the self and its responsibilities to the
community. This lecture analyzes the concept of
Omoluabi and its relevance in the project of useful
learning.

Abandonment and Dismemberment:
“Something Torn and New”
This lecture examines the trauma of enslavement and how Africans
created, preserved, and extended their humanity as the foundation for
the contemporary African world experience and the perpetual human
quest for a better society.

Memory, Restoration, and African Renaissance: Social
Consciousness and the Black Imagination
• Ngugi wa Thiong’o has written that “the African
eagle can fly only with his re-membered wings.”
The process of “re-membering”—of reconnecting
historical memory to modern social consciousness
as a renaissance and flowering of imagination,
innovation and problem solving—will lead to
conscious contributions to what Ngugi calls “a
common humanity of progress and achievement.”
The central elements of this intellectual practice are
translation and recovery. This lecture introduces
you to the use of academic research skills to
connect ideas and information across generations
and among cultural communities.

Research and Methodology:
Inscription as a Liberating Practice
This lecture introduces students to
principles of undergraduate research and
offers insight into the methodologies
characteristic of and sometimes unique to
scholarship at Howard.

Practices of Freedom and Justice:
The Black Diaspora
The pursuit of freedom and justice has been a rallying cry of the
educated in this oldest of traditions. This lecture identifies and analyzes
the works of representative thinkers who have contributed to the
tradition of learning for service to the communities of people of African
descent, both on the home continent and in its vast Diaspora,
and to the world.

“The Eloquence of the Scribes”: Initiation, Expectations, and Mastery
Continuing the Legacy of Howard University
This lecture aims at reminding you of the high
expectations of this institution, of your
ancestors, and of future generations; it then
seeks to initiate you into full awareness of the
tradition of Howard students and faculty to
pursue relentlessly the mastery necessary to
fulfill the University’s mission.

The Presidential Address: A Charge to Keep
At the core of the ideas of wisdom, community responsibility,
learning, and service is the expectation that those who have
mastered and served must pass their wisdom and experience on to
the next generation. This lecture, delivered by President Sidney A.
Ribeau, highlights the examples of women and men who, through
their contribution to all forms of human knowledge, have kept the
charge of modeling good character while laboring to build the
beloved community.

The Mark E. Mack New York African Burial Ground Tour
The “African Burial Ground project began in 1991, when, during
excavation work for a new federal office building, workers discovered
the skeletal remains of the first of more than 400 men, women and
children. Further investigation revealed that during the 17th and 18th
centuries, free and enslaved Africans were buried in a 6.6 acre burial
ground in lower Manhattan outside the boundaries of the settlement
of New Amsterdam, which would become New York. Over the
decades, the unmarked cemetery was covered over by development
and landfill.”
In May 2012, the tour was named after Professor Mark E. Mack
(1962-2012), a master teacher, scholar, and mentor who served as
the Curator of Howard’s W. Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology
Laboratory, which houses the skeletal remains data of the New York
African Burial Ground.
Dates: September 15 and September 22

www.coas.howard.edu/freshmanseminar

Course Evaluation
• Freshman Seminar classes are taught under the Pass/Fail
system. Through this arrangement you will receive a
designation of “P” if your work is evaluated at the satisfactory
level (80% or higher). Although pass (“P”) grades are not
recorded in the overall GPA, you must pass Freshman
Seminar in order to graduate. Fail (“F”) grades are, however,
factored into the overall GPA.
• Students will be evaluated in the following manner:
• Attendance/Class participation 50%
• Blog entries 30%
• Multi-media group project 20%

Check Blackboard Daily

Attendance and Participation (50%)
Students will be required to complete and submit weekly
Mbongi evaluation forms that identify key concepts taught,
strengths and limitations of the ideas conveyed, the
effectiveness of the lecturer’s presentation style, and selfreflections
on readiness for and contributions made to the
class session. Generally, students with undocumented,
unexcused absences from two (2) of the seminar periods
must repeat Freshman Seminar. In particular, students with
any undocumented, unexcused absences from any of the
major lectures of the seminar must repeat Freshman Seminar.

Mbongi
• Class period assessment (1-10)
• Presenter’s teaching effectiveness (1-10)
• Your preparation level (1-10)
• Summarize this class session topic, in one paragraph.
• What contemporary topic was discussed today?
• Indicate, by region, some material (concepts, figures, events)
mentioned/discussed today (Africa, US, Caribbean, Latin America…).
• List two new things you thought about during today’s intellectual work.
• What could your instructor have done better to assist your learning
experience today?
• What could you have done to improve the learning experience today?

Blog Entries (30%)
Students will submit blog entries weekly that offer summaries
and responses based on seminar topics, class discussions, and
attendance at events.

This Week’s Assignment
• Read the syllabus carefully;
• Log-on to Blackboard; Review the FAQs;
• Take the required Blackboard tutorials;
• Editing Your Personal Information
• Taking a Test Online
• Checking Your Grades
• Working in Groups
• Sending Email from Your Course
• Customizing Your Group Homepage
• Take the syllabus quiz;
• Read chapter 1 of Something Torn and New and Dr. Carr’s overview;
• Bookmark the Freshman Seminar portal; and
• Post your first blog entry by 6pm Sunday

This Week’s Blog Post
• Your first blog post (at least 150 words) should offer a
reflection of your first week at Howard and your early
thoughts about Freshman Seminar. What do you think college
will be like after going to class for a week? What do you
expect of Freshman Seminar? Which of the lectures seems
most interesting? Which do you feel most comfortable about,
or which are you looking forward to the most? How do you
think Freshman Seminar and/or its goals and objectives help
you meet your academic goals? Have your expectations for
life at Howard been met? Answer any or all of these
questions, and your first entry will be great.

Multi-media Group Projects (20%)
Each group of students will apply the Seminar’s broad research
question—How have scholars across various fields of study
contributed through research and praxis to the restoration of human
dignity in the wake of atrocities and traumas over time?—to their
multi-media research projects. Projects can take the form of
a web pages, hypermedia, PowerPoint or Prezi presentations
(using voice narration), or videos.
Groups will be arranged in Blackboard, and each group will be
assigned a group leader, who will be responsible for
convening the group before September 10.

The 2012 Freshman Seminar Leadership Team
• Dr. Segun Gbadegesin, Interim Dean
• Dr. Dana A. Williams
• Dr. Marcus Alfred
• Dr Linda Jones
• Dr. Greg Carr
• Dr. Mario Beatty
• Dr. James A. Donaldson, Dean Emeritus
• TAs: Wallis Baxter (Monday and Tuesday) and Jasmine
Watkins (Wednesday and Thursday)