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Fall/Winter 2011 : Encore
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Oregon Humanities: Fall/Winter 2011
Why I Give
Retired professor Phil Hanni gives monthly to protect ideas and conversation
Phil Hanni moved to Oregon in 1963 with his wife, Erin, to take a teaching position. After almost fifty years, Hanni says, “We are very much Oregonians.” Now retired, he is active in Willamette University’s Institute for Continued Learning. “I’m almost eighty, and I’m more of a learner than I’ve ever been before,” he says.
Hanni first heard about Oregon Humanities in the late ’80s when he became interested in the organization’s First Oregonians project. He was later appointed to the board. As a professor of religious and ethical studies and the chaplain at Willamette University, he was drawn to the organization on a fundamental level.
“In religious studies, the only way you can proceed is to have a conversation,” he says. Hanni fears that, as budgets are cut and resources become scarcer, people will take shortcuts and move away from the exchange of ideas.
Because of his belief in the importance of conversations and ideas, Hanni became a monthly donor to Oregon Humanities. As a retired person, he calls the monthly gift a “mathematical choice” that helps him plan his bills, but adds that Oregon Humanities is a good way to invest energy and money.
“It was—and is—one of those places [where] you can still talk about ideas,” he says. “I give because I want to be sure there’s still a place where ideas get talked about.”
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Oregon Humanities magazine examines topics of broad public interest from a variety of perspectives and approaches. Recent issues of this publication have focused on stuff, nostalgia, and civility. Through good and thoughtful writing, Oregon Humanities magazine enriches our understanding of important subjects and stimulates conversation and reflection among readers, their friends, families, colleagues, and neighbors.
Contributors
Dmae Roberts
Dmae Roberts is an award-winning independent radio producer and writer based in Portland.
Eric Gold
Eric Gold is a freelance writer in Portland and regular contributor to Oregon Humanities.
Jennifer Ruth
Jennifer Ruth is a professor of English literature at Portland State University and the author of Novel Professions, a book of literary criticism.
John Holloran
John Holloran lives in Portland and teaches at Oregon Episcopal School. His last essay for Oregon Humanities was “After the Fall” (Spring 2011).
Leigh van der Werff
After ten years in Oregon, Leigh van der Werff now lives in central California, where she runs a record store with her husband and their dog, Edgar. When she’s not at the shop, she’s writing essays and music criticism.
Rebecca Hartman
Rebecca Hartman is an associate professor of history at Eastern Oregon University. She received her PhD in history from Rutgers University in 2004. Her current research is focused on twentieth-century U.S. rural history.
Richard J. Ellis
Richard J. Ellis is the Mark O. Hatfield Professor of Politics at Willamette University. In 2008 he was named Oregon Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and in 2007 he was chosen as Oregon Scientist of the Year by
the Oregon Academy of Science. His book The Development of the American Presidency is forthcoming from Routledge in January 2012.
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