First-Year Seminar
First-Year Seminars play a central role in the lives of incoming students at Stockton. First-Year Seminars are courses drawn from across the General Studies curriculum, so that each class has a different content area and academic focus.
This is one of the things that makes our program unique, so that students can take courses on a range of topics including sustainability issues, mythology, diversity, the history of Paris, American stories, health care, the political economy, or detectives in literature. Whatever the focus, the seminars are carefully designed for new students, who will work on the essential skills of critical thinking, college-level reading practices, information literacy, and communication skills cultivated through writing, speaking, and listening.
First-year Seminars also include a common reading that is taught in all of the program’s various classes, which bring their own particular intellectual perspectives to the book. This book represents a student’s first shared intellectual experience with the incoming class, and engaging with the common reader is a cherished tradition at Stockton. The university provides the book for each new student and faculty plan opportunities to think about the text both inside and outside of the classroom. A Convocation Lecture presented to the entire first-year class culminates the student’s sustained engagement with the text, and is usually given by the author of the featured book.
Incoming students must sign up for a First-Year Seminar during their first semester, and cannot take more than one of these classes as part of their course of study. The credits earned count toward a student’s graduation requirements for every major and program, and all of the seminars are designed to help students practice the skills needed to be a better college student and achieve their life-long learning goals. First-year Seminars are an essential part of the First Year Experience (FYE) at Stockton, and the coordinators of both programs work closely to ensure that our new students have a welcoming and challenging first year.
First Year Seminar Fall 2026 Registration
For new students whose DegreeWorks says FRST 1002 Critical Thinking and Reading is
needed, please see the link below for the Fall 2026 course offerings and descriptions.
FRST 1002 Critical Thinking and Reading Courses and Descriptions
For students whose DegreeWorks says FRST 1002 Critical Thinking and Reading is NOT needed, please see the link below for the Fall 2026 course offerings and descriptions.
The Common Reading
Housemates
by Emma Copley Eisenberg
Four housemates, looking for a fifth, the ad read. Queer preferred (we all are).
This is how Bernie, a film photographer, meets Leah, a writer, and from opposite sides
of a thin bedroom wall in West Philadelphia, the two become closer than they ever
could have imagined. When Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie on a road trip to settle
a complicated inheritance, what ensues is an unexpected journey into the heart of
America as the duo try to make sense of the times they are living in—falling in love
with each other and rediscovering the power of making art along the way.
With humor, warmth, and beautifully observed characters, and told through two generations
of queer artists reflecting on the question of how a person should be, Housemates
is a glorious celebration of creativity, body liberation, chosen family—and of finding
your place in an uncertain world.
--Taken from Penguin Random House
Convocation Lecture for First Year Students with Emma Copley Eisenberg
Followed by an author's reception and book signing.
Emma Copley Eisenberg is the bestselling author of the novel Housemates, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize, as well as the nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl, a New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice and a finalist for an Edgar Award and an Anthony Award. Her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in such publications as Granta, Esquire, VQR, The New Republic, and The Cut, and she writes the popular Substack Frump Feelings. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts.
For questions, please contact Geoffrey Gust: geoffrey.gust@stockton.edu
First-Year Seminar Program Convenor:
Geoffrey Gust, Ph.D.
geoffrey.gust@stockton.edu
609-652-4491
