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Fall Seminars 2009 |
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"Freshman Seminars give you a unique opportunity to engage with a small class and material that interests you."
AAD 199 Transformative Desires and Transhuman Culture Artists have long imagined ways to exceed normal human capability. Imagineers are jettisoning the body altogether in favor of living as information patterns on computer networks. In this course, students will examine the ideas, theories, and subsequent products and behavior of people who believe that technological development will soon surpass normal human physical and intellectual capability. Advances in biotechnology, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology have enhanced, amplified, and prolonged human experience. As human beings fuse with non-biological systems, Homo sapiens emerge Techno sapiens. ANTH 199 Crossing International Borders Immigration is an important topic in the United States today. It scores high in national opinion pools and is keenly debated in the political campaigns of presidential candidates. In this course, you will learn about the people who cross international borders to work, escape dangerous situations, and improve their lives. We will examine how countries in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia manage international migration, and we will consider the economic and cultural impacts of immigration. Through reading, writing, speakers, and documentaries, you will be encouraged to critically explore the topics from your own point of view.
ANTH 199 Consuming Agendas: Food and Social Action What’s so political about food? World hunger, nutrition policies, school lunch programs, farmer's markets — all of these are political issues tied to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. In this course, we will examine a variety of issues surrounding the food we eat, including local activism regarding food in schools, menu labeling, eating locally, the obesity crisis, and the definition of hunger in the United States. You will learn how we construct dietary beliefs, study a local organization involved with food production or assistance in the Eugene area, and analyze media presentations of food and hunger issues. ARH 199 Buddhism through Art What can you learn by looking closely at visual art? In this course you will explore Buddhism, particularly Himalayan Buddhism, by studying and discussing paintings, prints, sculpture, murals, textile arts, illuminated manuscripts, and ritual objects. You will see how this study allows discussion of important issues in the study of religion, and learn how to adapt the visual method to analytical writing. Reading material will include art history, religious studies, and Buddhist history and philosophy. The class will include a trip to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on campus.
ART 199 InSight - Visual Literacy Are you visually savvy, consciously aware of the levels of information, and persuasion, in the images that fill your personal visual screen? Being able to “read,” create, and use images well will be as important as mathematical and verbal literacy in the 21st century. By analyzing advertizing, news, art, film, video and television, students will learn what goes into creating visually compelling media and how to dismantle it. Using these skills, students will create their own artistic visual stories. ART 199 Design Think Tank What do a bag of groceries, a bookshelf, or a neighbor’s yard tell us about what issues are important to society? This course is an introductory level studio art course that uses history, theory, and practice to investigate how design can be used within the framework of a Think Tank to obtain a better understanding and resolution of similar issues. The ultimate objective is to use design within a collaborative problem-solving environment to respond to important social issues.
CH 199 What about ESP? What about UFOs? How can we distinguish what is probably true from what is probably not? This course will investigate weird science by examining how the most powerful and successful tool for this purpose tackles difficult problems. Through studies of perception, intuition and belief, along with an emphasis on critical writing, we will learn that science must always contain a degree of uncertainty yet remain a reliable source of knowledge.
ENG 199 Science fiction and mythology question the nature of reality and what might happen at the end of the world. This course will examine how the wonder of science fiction is increased when a new story is based on an older myth. We will read about the creation of monsters and gods, post apocalypse worlds, and human interaction with Otherness. Students will explore these ideas while reading novels and short stories such as Space Merchants, Steel Helix, Canticle for Leibowitz, and Frankenstein. GEOG 199 You are HERE: How Mapping is Changing the Planet and Your Life Satellite images, global positioning systems, “smart phones” and other technologies are rapidly transforming the modern world. The ability to know precisely where things are and how to efficiently connect from one place to another has already changed the conduct of warfare and the management of natural resources. This course introduces students to the techniques of geographic data collection, spatial analysis, and map display that are changing how we understand the world and the ways we find and relate to each other. HIST 199 Soccer and Society in Modern Latin America In most countries of Latin America, soccer is the national pastime. Since its introduction in the late nineteenth century, it has played an important role in the shaping of class, gender, racial, regional, and national identities, including those of Latin Americans living abroad. This seminar will offer students the opportunity to explore the complexities of modern Latin American societies using soccer as a cultural and sociological window. Historical and literary texts, films, and news clips will be used to complement lectures and ignite class discussions. INTL 199 Childhood: Theories, Stories, and Movies Who and what do we believe children “really” are? What do we believe is the relationship between childhood experiences and the adults that children ultimately become? Although we were all children once, even memoirs of childhood are always filtered through (and, indeed, often distorted by) adults’ beliefs about children. In this course, we will pair films about children with scholarly accounts of influential Western theories of childhood. Our discussions will explore the connection between popular culture and academic research on children, with discussions emphasizing increased understanding of child development as well as heightened media literacy. J 199 Travel and Adventure Writing Have you ever read an adventure narrative in Outside magazine and wished you had the skills to tell the story of your own experience kayaking through Class IV rapids or taking a hot air balloon ride? Have you studied the magazine in the back of the airline seat-pocket on a flight and longed to write a piece about snorkeling in Mexico or camping in the Cascades wilderness? In this course, we’ll look at first-person travel and adventure narratives to get a sense of how writers put their experiences on the page and on the screen. Through field trips and films, students will learn how to use vivid sensory details to write about their adventure experience. TA 199 Reinventing Yourself From the court of Charlemagne to Queen Elizabeth, were you sweeping the fireplace or sitting by it embroidering? Did you wear fine silks or wools, traipse through the mud or ride in a carriage? We will begin by studying the time period and lifestyles of people from the Gothic to Elizabethan periods. After defining your historic persona, you will design your character’s clothing and learn the practical aspects of fabric selection, pattern development, and construction techniques. By the end of the term, your new role and wardrobe will be complete. Sewing machines and equipment are provided, and your fabric costs will be covered by additional course fees. Previous sewing experience is required. For more information, please contact Sandy Bonds at abonds@uoregon.edu |
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