Bard High School Early College DC (Bard DC) – College Year 1 Seminar I

Apr 2026 · 2nd Semester

This course interrogates the origins of civilization in the Mediterranean region by exploring a wide variety of primary sources from the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Islamic cultures. Drawn from antiquity through the 15th century, the course materials encompass a wide variety of media, including fragmented and intact written texts; architectural structures, sculptures, paintings, and other visual representations; musical selections; and recited sacred and secular texts. Writing-intensive in nature, this course helps students discover what they themselves think about the materials and situate their views in relation to those of their classmates. The key skills developed in this course are critical reading, including the 'reading' of non-textual materials, and written and oral expression of ideas gained from such reading.