The Humanities Extended: Senior Seminars
Photo courtesy of Carmen McQuistion (‘24)
Isabel Zedlitz (‘24), Co-Editor-in-Chief
As we head into the final stretch of the school year, students will soon select their courses for next year. While many classes will remain the same, every year a few switch around and change, especially in the English and History departments. These two departments offer semester-long courses for seniors called Senior Seminars, and these can vary wildly from year to year. The purpose of a senior seminar is to do a deep dive into a specific topic or theme, like Mr. Banecker’s “The Psychopath in Literature” course or Dr. Wardrop’s “Genocide in the Modern Era” class. These two courses focus specifically on one topic and do a deep dive into related content, with a specific focus on research, analysis, and writing. These senior seminars are designed to provide students with interesting choices and diverse topics, while also maintaining Casady’s goal to discern meaning from and analyze different texts, research, draw, and defend conclusions, and leave Casady as deep critical and analytical thinkers.
For my Fall semester, I took Mr. Banecker’s “Psychopaths” course and Dr. Wardrop’s “Genocide” course, both of which make me sound incredibly unstable when casually referring to them in conversation. Despite their dark titles, these classes were often the highlight of my day. Even though the subject matter was often dense and discouraging, my teachers were so genuinely passionate about their courses that they made it hard not to be engaged with the material. One of the first things Mr. Banecker will tell you in his “The Psychopath in Literature” course is: “Don’t be the freshman in college who takes one Psychology course and starts labeling everyone he knows with personality disorders. Definitely do not do this with psychopathy, as what if you’re right?” These humorous moments are littered throughout the class, making it easy to manage the darker material. My favorite part about my senior seminars is the more intimate environment, as the classes are usually smaller. Because of this, the students and teachers bond over the material and their shared interests, and the conversations and mentorships that arise out of the classes are very special.
In the past, the English seminars have happened during the same time block, and the History seminars have happened during the same time block. While students who gravitate towards the STEM subjects have easily been able to double up in Math and Science courses, Humanities-inclined students have not been able to do the same. For the 2024-2025 school year, the seminars may be scheduled differently, so students may be able to double up on English and History seminars. According to Mr. Addington: “In our current schedule, it is very hard to accomplish this, but we will do our best to make this happen for students who are interested.” This offers Humanities students the same opportunity to grow in their areas of interest as STEM students, and overall will open up the seminars to a wider audience.
Another new element added to these seminars is the fact that seminars in both History and English are now open to the junior class, whereas this was just true of History last year. If there are openings left in the History and English seminars after seniors are done slotting in where they want, juniors will be able to apply and enroll in these usually senior-exclusive classes. Because of this, more and more students will be able to enjoy the depth and breadth of these seminars, and students will leave Casady with a strong background in the Humanities as well as the STEM fields. Mrs. Crossno shared that with these new options and more flexible schedule, she hopes students will have a “bigger field to gravitate in” during their exploration of the Humanities.
As a departing senior, I can say that some of my favorite classes at Casady have been my Senior Seminars, and I enthusiastically encourage all rising seniors and juniors, now, too, to sign up for the ones that interest you.
