Disability Studies is an important and growing interdisciplinary academic field. If you have or think you may have an interest in disability issues and/or the Disability Studies Minor at UO, this is the FIG for you. Both courses within the FIG, PHIL 335 Medical Ethics and WGS 221 Bodies and Power, take disability as a major theme (among others) and both count toward the minor. Even if you are not interested in the minor, however, the two classes will connect in interesting ways that will make your first term at UO a memorable intellectual journey.
Meetings of the FIG will also feature guest speakers and discussions that encourage reflection on the lived experiences and institutional realities of students with disabilities on the UO campus. Finally, Brilliant Imperfection FIG students will be encouraged to sign up for the intramural Unified Indoor Soccer League, which brings UO students together with local Special Olympics athletes. All skill levels are welcome, but those who don’t wish to play can still come and cheer the rest of us along.
Deep-Dive FIG: Please note this FIG contains an intermediate course at the 300-level. This course has been vetted by First Year Programs to ensure first-term students can achieve success. The instructor will be available to assist students along the way.
Students explore the intersection of topics by taking the following course package:
UGST 109 First-Year Experience Seminar - 1-credit
PHIL 335 Medical Ethics- CoreEd or major satisfying course, 4-credits
Medical Ethics (or, more broadly, Bioethics) is the branch of ethics that studies moral values in the biomedical sciences. Some approaches to medical ethics seek to apply ethical rules and principles according to which various actions and practices in the realm of the biomedical sciences can be deemed ethically permissible, impermissible, obligatory or neutral. This course introduces theoretical tools and concrete case studies for formulating, analyzing, and evaluating ethical judgments raised by contemporary biomedical practice.
WGS 221 Bodies and Power - CoreEd or major satisfying course, 4-credits
Focuses on gender, the body, and dis/ability as a particular nexus of experience and social meaning, influenced as well by race, sexuality, age and class. This course considers bodies and how we understand them within contexts shaped by social relations and systems of power.