AAD 199
Controversies in the Visual Arts

Catherine Ballard and Michael Bukowski

The small class size of the Freshman Seminar helps create a sense of community - a chance for students to get to know one another as well as us as the instructors, and a chance for us to gain insight into students' experiences, perspectives, and ideas. The opportunity to speak with students, rather than "at" them, allows generational differences (and similarities) to become part of the discussion. It also provides an avenue for pushing beyond the "what" of differing viewpoints and prying open the "whys."

Controversies over the visual arts - visual imagery, especially the visual world humans create - open windows onto our views of Self and Other, onto what people believe is important to them, and what people believe is important about the actions and beliefs of other people. Like it or not, we all have beliefs about what Other people should do, what would be best for them to believe, how their actions should affect our lives (or not affect us at all), etc. Controversies over visual imagery allow us to explore this darkness in the human soul, the “better angels” of our nature, and the vast grayness in between.

DAN 199
History, Spirituality, and Dance in Africa

Rita Honka

I enjoy building a small community with incoming students.

GEOG 199
Landscapes of Hollywood

Shaul Cohen

One of the things that I strive to do in my life is see the world with fresh eyes.  I’m always looking and trying to interpret what I see – that’s what makes me a geographer.  When we watch a film together we are presented with an opportunity to look at the same thing, but we view it as individuals, our vision influenced by our experience, our interests, our identities.  Films offer powerful images of things in our world, and I try to look beyond the story of a movie to understand what messages are being transmitted to those that constitute the audience.  The filmmakers are trying to shape my vision, and their effort informs me about their vision.  A film transmits a cultural landscape, and geographers try to find and decode the meaning of the landscape to get a deeper understanding of society.  Freshman are a great group with which to undertake such a project because the experience of seeing the University with fresh eyes is still recent, thus they are awake to the power and potential of learning from the landscape.

Susan Hardwick

This seminar explores life and landscape in today’s evolving global cities. Challenges and opportunities in our local urban area (especially downtown Eugene) provide an “up close and personal” case study throughout the class to illustrate some of the larger processes that shape North American metropolitan areas. As an Urban Geographer interested in the intersections of cultural, social, and political processes that shape urban patterns and morphologies, teaching this class gives me the chance to use my own research in a classroom setting as well as in the “real world.” Students in the class are asked to participate in field excursions, analyze textual materials and census documents, and conduct interviews with community leaders who are playing a role in shaping Eugene’s evolving urban landscape. The ultimate goal of this class is to learn more about how our local urban scene can be used to understand more about other related places and spaces in North America and beyond.

HIST 199
The Iraq War 2003-

Alex Dracobly

One of the main attractions of teaching a Freshman Seminar is the opportunity to engage with students in a small-class setting on a topic of great urgency and controversy. To the historian the Iraq War poses the problem that it is not yet in the past. Any treatment of the war as history moreover inevitably leads to questions of politics and political bias. Most of have some ideas about the war in Iraq, why the U.S. decided to engage in the war, what it is about, where it is going. But what are the implications of those ideas for the history of the war? On what basis is it possible to establish such a history? Must all such histories be biased? Or are there criteria according to which we can establish the truth of the war? I do not offer any easy answers to these questions. But such questions offer an entryway into the difficult and contentious topic that is the Iraq War.

HIST 199
Uncovering the Past of the "Real" Wild West

Kevin Hatfield

One of the most common refrains I have heard from my non-traditional students (ages 30 through 70) was that they “hated” history in high school, but since then they have developed a keen interest in and occasionally love for history.  In my conversations with these students we invariably determine it was the presentation of history, rather than its content or even its process, that derailed their initial enthusiasm.  These students typically recall history class consisting of passive listening, rote memorization, and multiple-choice textbook quizzes.  Yet, the history they have experienced in their lives since high school – researching family genealogy, investigating a family heirloom, exploring a particular topic through documentaries and books – has reignited their fascination with history and returned them to my class.     

My motivation for offering this Freshman Seminar is to present history to entry-level undergraduates in an engaging format that hooks them from the beginning.  This primary-source centered seminar cultivates a learner-centered environment that fosters active and collaborative learning, and encourages student participation and peer interaction.  Students will assume temporary apprenticeships in the historian’s craft and receive “hands-on” experience with document analysis, critical thinking, explanatory writing, and oral communication – an invaluable skill set with inter-disciplinary and cross-occupational application.  Rather than learning the history of the American West through a textbook, students will explore microfilm materials, manuscript collections, government documents, historical maps, and museum artifacts outside the classroom in local libraries, archives, and museums.

INTL 199
Think Globally, Eat Locally

Stephen Wooten

Stephen Wooten is a socio-cultural anthropologist whose research and teaching focuses on the exploration of the connection between economic and cultural life. Over the last 15 years he has conducted extensive ethnographic research on "the art of livelihood" in rural Mali, West Africa. More recently Dr. Wooten has begun to study the way economy and culture interact in western contexts, especially in the process of the "relocalization" of agriculture. His "Think Globally, Eat Locally" course is an exciting manifestation of his new research interests. Over the years Professor Wooten has built a reputation as a passionate and dedicated instructor in such courses as "Culture, Capitalism & Globalization," "Africa Today," and "Africa in Anthropological Perspective," and has served as a mentor to scores of students across campus.

PPPM 199
American Philanthropy

Paul Elstone

The opportunity to be involved with the Freshman Seminar Program is very exciting. As Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations for the UO, I am fortunate to be able to work with many corporations and foundations that support the university and its students, faculty, and programs. This course will provide the students with a window into the increasingly influential world of philanthropy. For universities and many nonprofit organizations, private gifts from individuals, corporations, and foundations can be both a necessity to keep the lights on as well as a vehicle for organizational transformation.

Just talking about the power of philanthropy can be thrilling. People who have not witnessed the impact of a private gift on both the recipient and the donor can be truly moved by the experience. I hope this course will provide just a taste of this experience for the students.

PS 199
Theories of Leadership

Dave Frohnmayer

I teach a Freshman Seminar so I can stay in touch with freshman life and the UO experience. I also like to keep honing my teaching skills. The course allows me to continue to explore highly relevant subject matter for my own professional pursuits. It was great to watch students grow, tangibly, in intellectual and social skills.