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Proposing & Teaching
a First-Year Seminar

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INSTRUCTOR ELIGIBILITY
PROPOSING A FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR
Submission Dates
SYLLABI
Teaching Resources
Academic Technology
FUNDING FOR SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
LIBRARY ASSISTANCE
HARVARD MUSEUMS

A First-Year Seminar is a small-group, discussion-based course open to first-years only. It is designed to intensify the intellectual experience of the first College year by allowing students to work closely with one faculty member on a topic of mutual interest. The seminar format frees both instructors and students from the usual constraints of a lecture course, such as exams and letter grades.

Instructor Eligibility Requirements

All First-Year Seminar instructors must hold an active Harvard University teaching appointment. Instructors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences must hold a teaching appointment at the rank of Lecturer or above. Faculty from other Harvard schools must hold an appointment of Assistant Professor or above, including Clinical Professor. Emeriti Faculty and FAS Visiting Professors are also eligible to teach seminars. At this time, Preceptors, Post-Doctoral Fellows, Visiting Fellows, Adjunct Faculty, and other research (non-teaching) appointments or supervised (non-faculty) appointments are not eligible.

Proposing a First-Year Seminar

Bok Center Guidance for Faculty Teaching First-Year Seminars

Designing your syllabus, best practices, tips & strategies from FAS & OUE.

For additional guidance on designing your First-Year Seminar, please contact our Director, Dr. Ofrit Liviatan at oliviatan@gov.harvard.edu.

Download guidance for teaching seminars

First-Year Seminar Proposal Form

Download the First-Year Seminar Proposal Form and return it to us with your detailed syllabus by email before the deadlines listed below.

download proposal form
CV TEMPLATE
(for non-fas or visiting faculty or lecturer only)

If your appointment is pending, please provide details on your expected date of appointment and your current status at Harvard.  Please attach a current C.V. if you are an FAS Lecturer, Non-FAS Faculty, or Visiting Faculty and edit it to 5 pages if possible.

Submission deadlines for our monthly Faculty Committee Proposal Reviews:
Thurs, January 23 – Tues, March 4 – Weds, April 2
All dates by 12 Noon

Syllabi

Please include the following on your syllabus:

  • Academic Integrity-Honor Code Statements – Examples
    • Including a clear statement on the scholarly standards in your field, your collaboration policy, and your late-assignment/extension policy will go a long way to avoiding issues later.
  • Disability Access Statement
    • Harvard University values inclusive excellence and providing equal educational opportunities for all students. Our goal is to remove barriers for disabled students related to inaccessible elements of instruction or design in this course. If reasonable accommodations are necessary to provide access, please contact the Disability Access Office (DAO). Accommodations do not alter fundamental requirements of the course and are not retroactive. Students should request accommodations as early as possible, since they may take time to implement. Students should notify DAO at any time during the semester if adjustments to their communicated accommodation plan are needed.
  • Generative AI Policy
    • New machine learning and AI technologies, like ChatGPT, are emerging that might be tempting to use for writing and other assignments. We want to therefore remind all students that the Harvard College Honor Code forbids students to represent work as their own that they did not write, code, or create. Submission of computer-generated text without attribution is also prohibited by ChatGPT’s own terms of service (“You may not … represent that output from the Services was human-generated when it is not”).
    • Feel free to modify this statement to suit your seminar.

Sample Syllabi

Humanities

  • Carolyn Abbate, Music and Film (MSWord, PDF)
  • Karen Thornber, Stories of Gender and Justice (MSWord, PDF)
  • Jay Harris, Who Do You Think You Are: The Ethics of Identity (MSWord, PDF)
  • Peter Der Manuelian, Digging Egypt’s the Past: Harvard and Egyptian Archaeology (MSWord, PDF)

Natural Sciences

  • Miaki Ishii, GeoSciFi Movies: Real vs. Fiction (MSWord, PDF)
  • Cumrun Vafa, Physics, Math, and Puzzles (MSWord, PDF)
  • Craig Hunter, It’s a Mystery: Understanding the “Impossible” (MSWord, PDF)

Social Sciences

  • David Armitage, Advice to Young Leaders (MSWord, PDF)
  • William Fash, Clash of Titans, Seats of Empire: The Aztecs, Toltecs, and Race of Giants in Ancient Mexico (MSWord, PDF)
  • Benjamin Friedman, Americans at Work in the Age of Robots and Artificial Intelligence (MSWord, PDF)
  • Mary Waters, Social Science and American Social Problems (MSWord, PDF)

Dates & Deadlines

SEE ALL DATES

Academic Technology

Funding

  • Field Trip Funding
    All seminars receive a budget of $500 for seminar-related expenses. Please notify the First-Year Seminar Program to inquire about further funding. 
  • Trip Waiver Form for Students
    This form should be signed & returned to the First-Year Seminar Program. Please note: if a student is under 18, a parent must sign & return form by mail or fax, 617-496-3262.
  • Concur Instructions for First-Year Seminar-related expenses
    Faculty should submit receipts (out-of-pocket or corporate card) for any expenses to the Concur system within 60 days after incurring expense to allow time for processing. First-Year Seminar-related expenses will be routed to the First-Year Seminar Program for final review and approval. To obtain information about correct coding, please email Nina at nlduncan@fas.harvard.edu.
  • Additional project funding and opportunities for seminars:

Library Assistance

Harvard Museums