Overview
In 2026, for select students who are eligible for the First-Year Scholars at Yale (FSY) Program but are unable to attend, we are offering an alternative option of enrolling in English 1014 online in Yale Summer Session (YSS) during Session B. English 1014 is a popular Yale College writing seminar, offered during the academic year and as a part of the FSY Program. Through the course this summer, we seek to provide 24 incoming students with a chance to earn a Yale College course credit, to engage with other incoming students in the classroom, and to learn about many of the resources and opportunities available to Yale College students.
Students who accept this opportunity will be enrolling in a Yale College course, which is offered synchronously online and condensed into a fast-paced, rigorous five-week summer session. Students will have access to experienced instructors, writing partners, librarians, and other staff from across Yale. After successfully completing this course, students will enter Yale College already having earned one course credit toward their degree program and having satisfied one of the two writing (WR) distributional requirements. Completion of one course credit before matriculation gives students a head start on their degree requirements and may provide students with more flexibility to take a lighter credit load in a future term.
Details
The course will be offered in Session B of Yale Summer Session, which runs from June 29 to July 31, and the cost of tuition, online technology fee, and course materials are covered by Yale.
The 24 students who are invited to take English 1014 online this summer will enroll in one of two sections (12 students per section) based on their time zone:
- ENGL S1014 (11): Home, MWF 12-2:15pm (EDT) – intended for Pacific and Mountain time zones
- ENGL S1014 (12): Creatives and the Climate Crisis, MWF 9-11:15am (EDT) – intended for Eastern and Central time zones
Expectations
Attendance at all class sessions (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) is mandatory. Additionally, students who accept this opportunity must attend required programming on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12-1pm (EDT). This programming will include workshops, social activities to connect you with current students, and other events to help you prepare for the fall. There may also be additional activities and events beyond this period that are optional, and you are encouraged to attend if you are able.
To participate in this online class and additional programming, students must have access to a computer where they can log in and connect to a virtual classroom and must have camera or microphone capabilities. To participate in online classes and activities, students must have their cameras enabled. Students will want to connect from a suitable environment where they are able to participate in classroom discussion with minimal distraction (e.g., private room, office, study space at a public library, etc.). If you are interested in participating but have concerns about the technology requirements, please email fsy@yale.edu.
Course Descriptions & Instructor Bios
ENGL S1014 (11): Home
Where do you call home? Is your sense of home fixed to specific places, persons, languages, or memories? Must the idea of home always suggest rootedness? What does it mean to feel at home? In this course, we examine the affective responses elicited by various notions of home, from feelings of nostalgia and familiarity to estrangement, and we consider the ways in which generic and particular spaces enable or constrain individual agency and constitute our relation to others. Unsettling the easy boundary between the private and the public, we will seek to understand what various imaginings of home reveal about our collective and individual desires and anxieties, and we will examine the social and political forces at play in the making of home. Drawing from multiple disciplines and different modes of argument including essays, poetry, song, and film, we will study how home overlaps with spirituality, language politics, hierarchies of gender and labor, and educational opportunities, and how climate crises, pandemics, global economies, and immigration policies impact home. As we examine the debates and contests over space, we will think about who has the right to belong where and what it means—for instance—to belong at Yale. Informed by various theories and poetics of home, at the end of the course, we will revisit the places that make us.
Instructor: Felisa Baynes-Ross. Felisa is a Lecturer in English at Yale University where she teaches courses in expository writing, creative non-fiction, and pedagogy. She writes and teaches on topics including, home and migration, medieval poetry and religion, and historical narratives on the Caribbean.
ENGL S1014 (02): Creatives and the Climate Crisis
Course description
Instructor: Jessikah Diaz. Bio
Next Steps
Please accept or decline your invitation to enroll in ENGL S1014 by May 29.
If you have any questions, please contact us at fsy@yale.edu.