Academic Team:
Michael Stern (mjstern@uoregon.edu)
FIG Seminar Instructor
Cat
FIG Assistant
Matrix View Schedule
Courses in the FIG:
UGST 109 FIG Seminar
TIME | BUILDING | CRN | 1 Credit
Pairing Scandinavian 251 with Philosophy 101, our FIG engages with stories: how they shape our beliefs, express our hopes, and describe our fears. Since we are already immersed in a world of stories, our task is to understand how stories articulate possibilities for our living, and provide material for understanding not only our own lives, but just as importantly the lives of others. It follows that we will not only learn to analyze stories on a deeper level; we will also learn about the stories we tell ourselves, and perhaps most importantly, we will come into contact with the stories others tell about themselves. Activities in our FIG include visits to sights in Eugene, lunches, and a class dinner. Our goal is to create a sense of community and there is not one community in the world that exists without their stories.
SCAN 251 Text and Interpretation
Arts & Letters (>1) | Cultural Literacy: Global Perspectives | Tuesday/Thursday | 10:00-11:20 | 301 GER | 14807 | 4 Credit
This class is about stories. It is about how we tell them, what they mean to us, and how narrative permeates the very fabric of our understanding of the world. Considering this and remembering that our “universe” of stories includes narratives that we have been told, have read, and have told ourselves; we can safely say that we are not the authors of our entire sense of the world. This raises several interesting questions about the relationship between the “self” and the “other.” Some of these questions include: Are our stories our own? Who speaks for us? How do I know who I am? What obligation, if any, do I have towards others? To what extent are we determined by history? and What is the relationship between speech and experience? In order to approach these questions, we will read and analyze a series of literary and philosophical texts and we will also view film. Our goal is to develop the critical thinking skills that enable us to more accurately read our experiences and understand representations of our environments. With this goal in mind, I have decided to introduce you to a number of works that interrogate the notions of identity, authority, race, nature, home, addiction, immigration, and ethics. This course satisfies the Arts and Letters Group, International Cultures, Global Perspectives General Education Requirements. The emphasis on textual interpretation across periods and genre boundaries enables the student to engage in analytical practices broadly defined, while the emphasis on Scandinavian material introduces the student to understand these texts and films in both the context of Scandinavian and European intellectual history.
PHIL 101 Philosophical Problems
Arts & Letters (>1) | Monday/Wednesday | 10:00-11:20 | 250 CLS | 14278 | 4 Credit
+Dis | Friday | 11:00-11:50 | 254 STB | 14282
Our attempts to make sense of our lives and to find meaning in our existence lead us to ask certain classic philosophical questions. The course begins with the question of the proper role of reason in a life intelligently lived. Is philosophical thinking a necessary and important part of life? Second, we ask what role religion should play for a philosophically reflective person. This leads into questions about whether existence is absurd, without purpose or reason, or whether there is some overarching rationality and direction to our lives. Finally, we examine some of the many conditions that together define our identities as persons, conditions like our biological makeup, social narratives, cultural values, gender, and race. In other words, the key question is 'Who are you?' and 'What makes you who you are?' Our discussions of these issues are centered on classical and contemporary texts in philosophy, literature, and film.