Academic Team:
Derek Brandow (dbrandow@uoregon.edu)
First-Year Experience Seminar Instructor
Aubrie Cross (aubriec@uoregon.edu)
FIG Assistant
9 credits
UGST 109 First-Year Experience Seminar - 1 credit
CRN: 16287: W: 10:00am-11:20am, LIL 175
JCOM 201 Media and Society - 4 credits
CRN: 16747: TR: 2:00pm-3:50pm, LIL 282
PSY 202 Intro to Psychology II - 4 credits
CRN: 14679: 10:00am-11:50am, STB 156, +LAB: CRN: 16361: F: 11:00am-11:50am, LIL 185
Matrix View Schedule
About the FIG:
This course is designed to give students opportunities to experience how to believe and behave in a way that aligns with their values. We will unpack how decision making away from the security of home has a huge impact on how we live and relate to others. Some experiences we will incorporate to help students realize and understand their values and embrace the confidence to live their values are: presenting, improv, various comfort zone challenges, deep dives into vulnerability and self-worth. This course will be influenced by the work of Dr. Brené Brown.
JCOM 201 Media and Society - CoreEd or major satisfying course
Nearly every facet of human life today—work, play, study, relationships, and more—involves media. This course examines how this came to be, why it matters that media are so thoroughly infused in our lives individually and collectively, and how we can become more thoughtful and engaged media consumers and creators. Making sense of media means grappling with the social, cultural, economic, interpersonal, and political implications of this current moment: one in which people have increasingly expansive and near-instantaneous access to an abundance of information—social media, entertainment, games, news, and more—in a way that is unprecedented in the history of communication technologies. Media consumption has been transformed, but so has media production: People can create and disseminate their own content, receive and share files, and closely monitor the activities of friends and others. At the same time, networked communication platforms have forged new relationships between institutions and individuals and between social movements, states, and corporations. Over the course of the term, we will explore some key transformations in media over the past century, paying close attention to the interplay of meaning and power and the way media contributes to both shaping our identities and facilitating self-expression. We will also explore the rise and development of media professions, and examine some of the central tensions in the media world today: How can we tell whom or what to trust via media? What does verification look like in a world of fakes and misinformation? And how can we avoid being fooled by the use of numbers, data, and visualizations? In all, this course will equip students with a foundation in media literacy for the 21st century.
Intro to Psychology II - CoreEd or major satisfying course
Psychology is the systematic study of experience and behavior -- how we think, feel, and act. This course introduces psychology by considering many of the sources of influence that produce the variations and commonalities we see in human psychology. The scope includes topics relevant both to the understanding of "normal" human functioning and to mental illness. Mental illness is an important part of psychology, but many of the influences on the mind that produce mental illness are at play in mentally healthy minds too. Topics covered in this course include:
Development - Over time, how do the physical and cognitive changes that occur in humans affect their abilities, activities, and emotions, and how are these changes similar or different to those that occur in other species? Events and influences at one point in time can predict outcomes later in life.
Personality - Our behavior often reflects stable and enduring traits that make us uniquely us. Some of these traits we are born with, others are encouraged by our environments, and some reflect the interplay of both nature and nurture.
Social influence - Human behavior rarely occurs in isolation. Much of what we do everyday involves coordination and communication with the rest of the "pack," concern about how other people regard us, and a desire to influence others' behavior.
The course takes a research-based approach to psychology, considering at every step along the way how psychologists can best empirically test their theories and add new knowledge about human behavior. Students are given a chance to hone their own observation skills, to develop and test hypotheses, and to become critical consumers of research findings.