Tutorials

In the tutorial every entering student explores a topic of interest to the student and the instructor in a small group, discussion-intensive setting. The objectives of the tutorial are to illuminate methods of inquiry rather than to cover topics comprehensively, focusing particularly on writing, critical reading and oral communication. In addition, the tutorial initiates the process of planning for a liberal education at Grinnell through advising conversations between students and their instructors. By promoting close working relationships between tutorial instructors and their students and by combining the roles of instructor and academic adviser, the College provides students with academic advisers attuned to the interests and abilities of their advisees.

A tutorial (4 credits) is required of all students who enter Grinnell as first-year students and of all transfer students below third-year student standing whose previous work does not qualify them for an exemption. A student must complete the tutorial with a grade of C or higher to meet the tutorial graduation requirement and to be eligible to enroll in a “Plus-2” or independent project. Students who receive a D or F in the tutorial must earn a grade of C or better in a course designated or approved by the Dean’s office as Intensive Writing (IW).

The following tutorials are offered in 2024–25: 

• Can Machines Think? (Autry)

• BANNED: Challenges to Creative Expression in the United States (Bacon)

• Mindfulness: Making Positive Changes in Life (D. Chen)

• Searching for Life in the Universe (Christensen)

• Stalin and Stalinism (Cohn)

• Persona (Dixon)

• Flourishing (J. Dobe)

• African-American Literary Ties to Russian Intellectual Thought (Greene)

• The Black Athlete: Changing 20th and 21st Century Society (Hamilton)

• Gambling (Hebbar)

• Making Sense of Succession (Herold)

• Moods and Microbiomes (Hinsa-Leasure)

• Inventing Traditions (Hiranmayena)

• The Experience of Water: Healing and Hardship (Hurley)

• Illustration (C. Jacobson)

• Divining Difference in Iowa (P. Jones)

• Ghost Stories (Kapila)

• In Our College Era: Are You Ready For It? (Kelly)

• Place (Lacson)

• What is Student Engagement? (Larson)

• Afrofuturisms (Lavan)

• Solitude (C. Lewis)

• Sound Stories: The World of Film Music (McIntyre)

• From Text to Image: the French New Wave and the Transformation of Cinema (Moisan)

• Chinatowns Around the World (Ng)

• The Mechanical Horse: A Survey of Mankind’s Noblest Invention (Ortiz)

• Ma-ya Blon – At the Vestibule of Humanity (Sanou)

• Start of Fashion: Historical Textiles across Europe and Asia (Shea)

• I Want to Translate the Globe: Adventures in World Literature and Culture (Sun)

• Restoration of Art Frescoes from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling to the Last Supper: Chemistry and Controversy (Trimmer)

• Just Stats (Wells)