INT 101: Understanding Self and Others

The Integrated First-Year Student Experience

Jigsaw ManMercer students and faculty are passionate about learning.  As the term integrated implies, first-year students do not take individual courses on composition, grammar, and speech, but enroll in an interdisciplinary Understanding Self and Others course.  (Students can also fulfill this course requirement by taking GBK 101 – Understanding Self and Others: Among Gods & Heroes as part of the Great Books Program.)

INT 101 courses are intentionally small seminar-style classes with the student: faculty ratio limited to 18:1.  Students focus on enhancing critical thinking ability, communication skills (written and oral), critical analysis of arguments, and inquiry.

First-year students are placed in one of over thirty INT 101 sections taught by a diverse array of dedicated, full-time faculty.  The courses explore a variety of topics and subtopics.  Some recent example topics include:

  • What Does It Mean to Be Human?
  • Race & Identity
  • Monsters
  • Humor & Laughter
  • Shaping the Self through Food & Culture
  • Free Will in Human Nature
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