Academic Team:

Matthias Vogel (matvogel@uoregon.edu) 
FIG Seminar Instructor

Emma
FIG Assistant

Meet your FIG Instructor and Assistant!

About the FIG:

UGST 109

TIME | BUILDING | CRN | 1 Credit

Explore the different perspective of one of the biggest political conflicts in recent history. Learn the history and sociology of Germany from the end of World War II to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. This FIG gives an in-depth look into the split of Germany and how that conflict is still relevant today. 

GER 221 Postwar Germany: Nation Divided

Arts & Letters (>1)| Monday/Wednesday | 12:00-13:20 | 245 STB | 12300 | 4 Credit

+Dis | Friday | 12:00-12:50 | 132 GSH | 16316 |

German 221 introduces you to post-WWII German culture and society through the analysis of representative literary and cultural texts and films within the context of German history from 1945 to the present. You will read a series of novels, short stories, non-fictional writings, and watch several films that reveal how Germans in the West and East have viewed the connection between the past and present, and how their ideas about cultural and national identity have developed before and after unification in 1989. The narratives and films address issues that have helped shape the ways in which Germans today approach questions such as political conformity and autonomy, guilt over the past, and the responsibility to create a better Germany. No knowledge of German is required; the course is taught in English.

GLBL 250 Value Systems in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Social Science (>2)| >GP | Tuesday/ Tuesday | 14:00-15:20 | 125 MCK | 12334 | 4 Credit

+Dis | Friday | 10:00-10:50 | 262 LIL | 12336 |

This course uses a case study approach to help students gain a deeper understanding of the powerful roles played by beliefs and values systems in the world today. Students will have the opportunity to think and talk about complex but everyday situations from a range of societies and cultures that challenge their own values systems and that defy easy analysis or simplistic solutions. They will also learn some tools and processes for ethical decision-making, and gain some familiarity with some of the world's influential ethical systems .Issues covered in class include child labor, population control and assisted reproductive technology, organ donation and the international organ black market, and varying international norms about business ethics, to name just a few. Each case study is presented in a historical and cultural context, then analyzed through the lens of different worldviews, including both secular and religious frameworks. Students also are given the opportunity to respond to each from their own ethical perspective; in doing this, they acquire skills and experience for learning to skillfully articulate and communicate their ideas and convictions to others. Information about, and discussion of, case studies is complemented by lectures which include overviews of major philosophical approaches to ethics, overviews of major world religions as well as less well known indigenous religions, basic conflict resolution and mediation, analysis of linguistic semantics and how language use affects understanding of situations and controversies, and psychological approaches to ethical decision-making, including work by experimentalists such as Milgram and Kohlberg.