Wesleyan University

Summer Courses for the class of 2026


Wesleyan is offering students in the Class of 2026 the opportunity to take a course remotely from home over the summer before matriculating in the University this fall.  The summer course curriculum includes one large lecture course as well as twelve small writing-intensive First-Year Seminars (FYS). All incoming students are encouraged to complete one FYS within their first year at Wesleyan. For more information on the FYS program, see https://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/admittedstudents/first-year.html.

No additional charge will be incurred for incoming students who enroll in one of the courses listed below; tuition for these special courses is included in the regular academic year tuition fee. [Note that this program for the incoming class is entirely separate from Wesleyan's Summer Session, which offers courses every summer with a tuition cost.]

Summer courses for the incoming class will take place from Tuesday, July 5 through Wednesday, August 10. We hope you will join us!


AFAM189F.01 LGBTQ, or LGBT Who? (FYS)


     Nasta,Jesse      Grading Mode: Student Option  Meeting Time: .M.W... 04:00PM-05:20PM, Loc:ONLINE

Beginning with the early-20th-century construction of the "homosexual" as a distinct identity, this course will explore the evolving, complex, and contested history of the queer community over the past century. The course will especially explore how race and gender frequently shaped marginalized yet resilient social movements for the lives, dignity, and rights of trans and other queer people of color, from the drag balls of a century ago through the Black Lives Matter movement.


COL101F.01 Crime Writing (FYS)


     Barber,Charles      Grading Mode: Student Option  Meeting Time: ..T.R.. 01:00PM-02:30PM, Loc:ONLINE

This course will explore a range of crime fiction and nonfiction, from literary classics to genre-based texts. Readings will include classic writers of the genre such as Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, and Dennis Lehane, and nonfiction works such as "In Cold Blood," David Grann's "Killers of the Flower Moon." and Charles Barber's "Citizen Outlaw." A theme of the class will be the duplicitous and elusive nature of truth and objectivity in both the journalistic and fictional accounts. Students will have the opportunity to write a short piece of crime fiction or narrative nonfiction, in addition to analytical papers.


ENGL111F.01 21st Century Amer Lit (FYS)


     Wood,Jennifer Piper      Grading Mode: Student Option  Meeting Time: .M.W... 03:30PM-05:00PM

This course will explore American literature of the 21st century and in so doing, we will consider the portrayals of race, class, ethnicity, religion, trauma, citizenship, migration and sexuality. We will approach these portrayals in engaged class discussion as well as in writing, both analytical and creative. We will also discuss the ways in which these authors conceptualize and problematize American identity.


GOVT157F.01 Democracy & Dictatorship (FYS)


     Rutland,Peter      Grading Mode: Student Option  Meeting Time: ..T.R.. 08:50AM-10:10AM, Loc:NO ROOM

In this introduction to politics in industrialized capitalist, state socialist, and developing countries, we explore the meaning of central concepts such as democracy and socialism, the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of political institutions (e.g., presidentialism vs. parliamentarianism in liberal democratic countries), the causes and consequences of shifts between types of political systems (e.g., transitions from authoritarian rule), and the relations among social, economic, and political changes (e.g., among social justice, economic growth, and political democracy in developing countries).


MUSC119F.01 Jazz in the 1960s (FYS)


     Baerman,Noah      Grading Mode: Student Option  Meeting Time: .MT.R.. 01:00PM-03:30PM, Loc:NO ROOM

The 1960s were a turbulent but stimulating time for the world of jazz. The R&B-based soul jazz movement was at its peak and often at odds with the still-developing avant-garde aesthetic. Certain other influences, such as those of Brazilian and African music, were becoming widespread in jazz for the first time. Older forms of jazz like bebop, big band music, and traditional jazz (aka "Dixieland") were struggling to remain viable and relevant. Rock music's surge in popularity was threatening the commercial solvency of jazz while acting as a musical and cultural force to which all jazz musicians had to react in some manner. Meanwhile much of this decade's jazz is inexorably linked to the political and social upheaval of the era, particularly those aspects relating to Black Americans' sense of identity and struggles for equality.

In this course, we will broadly explore the various movements that made up the jazz of this decade. We will delve more deeply into the music of some of the most important figures in jazz during this time, such as Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Stan Getz, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jimmy Smith, Yusef Lateef, and Sun Ra. We will study musicians who typified a particular movement, those who assimilated several into a personal style, and those who moved freely among factions. All the while, we will be contextualizing the music within the social and political climate of the decade and the broader artistic and commercial landscape of music at the time.