Contact
Phone
512.863.1567The Advanced-Entry Seminar Program (AES) brings new students into the Southwestern community. Each seminar cultivates a sense of belonging and inclusion among students, and exposes them to SU’s expectations for their academic work. Though each faculty member organizes a seminar around a different topic, all of the seminars work towards developing a common set of skills. These include information literacy, reading critically, writing cogently, and participating in informed discussion and debate. In their seminars students engage in a liberal arts mode of learning, which exposes them to a wide array of disciplinary approaches and topics. AES is the student’s first introduction to the Paideia philosophy of making connections. They learn how seemingly disparate ways of thinking can be fully interwoven and how to connect liberal arts learning with the extra- and co-curricular activities and organizations in which they engage.
First-Year Experience Workshops
As part of your First-Year Experience, you’ll take part in a series of six interactive workshops that support your transition to Southwestern and count as a 1-credit course. Held during your regular AES class time, these sessions are led by Professional First-Year Advisors and AES faculty.
Learn more about FYE Workshops
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As you read the AES summary, you will discover that the topic is engaging and sometimes even edgy. But don’t be fooled. Seminars are real courses designed to introduce intellectual skills common to the liberal arts: formulating cogent questions, forging connections between methods of inquiry, recognizing and challenging assumptions, seeking out and listening to multiple perspectives, and rethinking the role of reading, writing, and discussion in inquiry and student-centered learning. Questions related to your Advanced-Entry Seminar assignment should be directed to 512.863.1567. |
Fall 2026 Seminar Summaries
Food, Health, & the Environment
Many Americans are preoccupied with healthy eating, yet are plagued by food related health problems. Concurrently, the industrial agriculture we rely on for most of our food production is undermining our precious environment, which in turn further hurts people’s health. In this seminar, students actively research how unhealthy ingredients found in processed foods affect human health, how industrial agriculture wreaks havoc on ecosystems, and what solutions or alternatives exist.
Oh! The Places You’ll Go: Perspectives on Travel and Tourism
This seminar explores different perspectives on travel and tourism to explore the business, cultural influence, colonial roots, and environmental impact of going places. Students will discover how places are constituted through public communication by comparing different tourist destinations and places of public memory using travelogues, travel guides, social media, and web sites. Our goal is to become more informed and informed travelers.
Cultural Masks: Festivals, Tribalism and Identity
The masks we wear are not new; however, the meanings they carry and the cultural identities they represent change over time. Masks have been used across societies for ritual, protection, performance, and disguise, and forms of masking appear in everyday life through practices such as makeup, tattooing, body modification, and prosthetic adornment. This seminar engages students in an interdisciplinary exploration of masking as a lens for examining identity, festivals, and cultural tribalism. Drawing on artistic, cultural, and biological perspectives, students will critically consider how masks function to both reveal and conceal the self across diverse historical and social contexts.