The Ties that Bind: Interweaving Domestic and Civic Life
Over the past few years, many Oregonians have found meaning and connection through what were once known as the domestic arts. Tasks once considered obsolete, such as knitting and baking from scratch, are at the forefront of the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) movement. This renewed interest in the home and handmade things is multigenerational and expanding. Might increased attention to our most personal spaces be connected to the tending of our common civic spaces? Wendy Willis, deputy director for national programs at the National Policy Consensus Center, will examine the connections between domestic life and a healthy civil society, asking participants to consider whether blending together these two notions might help to create a new foundation for civic and political life in Oregon.
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Program available through October 2013
- Wendy Willis | Portland
- wwillis@pdx.edu
- 503-725-9091
Wendy Willis is the deputy director for national programs at the Policy Consensus Initiative and the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University. Prior to joining PCI/NPCC, Willis was the executive director for City Club of Portland. She has also served as an assistant public defender for the District of Oregon and a law clerk to Chief Justice Wallace P. Carson, Jr. of the Oregon Supreme Court. Willis is also a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum Oregon, an active volunteer in the local food-to-school movement, and a poet who has published poems in a variety of local, regional, and national journals. She graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown Law Center and holds a BA from Willamette University.
Brother Against Brother: Pragmatism, Civility and the Civil War
April 2011 marks the sesquicentennial of the first shots fired in the American Civil War. This war changed the way Americans approached disagreement and fostered the birth of the one major American contribution to philosophy: pragmatism. One hundred and fifty years later, how can the lessons of this national crisis inform the ways we conduct our current debates? More often than not, conversations on the radio or cable news surrounding the difficult issues faced by our communities and nation are about hardened positions and talking past one another, rather than real engagement with each other’s ideas. Linfield College associate professor David Sumner will facilitate a discussion that asks how we can look to American pragmatism to help us move past entrenched positions and engage in productive and civil discussions about important issues.
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Equipment required: digital projector, CD player, TV/DVD, chalkboard/whiteboard
Program available through October 2013
- David Sumner | McMinnville
- dsumner@linfield.edu
- 503-434-6614
David Sumner is an associate professor of English at Linfield College where he teaches courses in American Literature, philosophy and literature, and rhetoric. He specializes in American nature writing, rhetoric, Western American literature, and the connection between literature and environmental ethics. Sumner has published in a variety of newspapers, literary journals, and books, including a series of interviews with contemporary nature writers such as Terry Tempest Williams, Barry Lopez, and David Quammen. His most recent article looks at the use of the term “ecoterrorism” in news media. When not teaching or writing, he likes to wander the wild places of the West with his family and a fly rod.
To Cut or Not to Cut: Censorship in Literature
Recent efforts to remove the “n” word in literature—from the new edition of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn in which the word is changed to “slave” to the attempt to halt a high school production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone because of what some considered offensive language—raise questions about censorship. Is censorship ever a good thing? Should accommodations be made considering the difference between a character’s and author’s point of view? Reed College professor Pancho Savery will facilitate a discussion that examines these questions, as well as how language is used in Twain’s and Wilson’s texts.
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- Pancho Savery | Portland
- saveryp@reed.edu
- 503-788-1379
Pancho Savery is professor of English, humanities, and American studies at Reed College, where he teaches courses in American literature post-1850, African American literature, and modern and contemporary American and European drama. He also teaches in Reed’s freshman humanities program on the Ancient Mediterranean World (focusing on Greece, Egypt, Persia, and Rome). For the last eleven years, he has worked with Oregon Humanities on the Humanity in Perspective program. He has given theater talks at both Portland Center Stage and Artists Repertory Theater, and directed Delve Reading Seminars through Portland Literary Arts. He has published essays on Robert Creeley, Ezra Pound, Saunders Redding, Ralph Ellison, Cecil Brown, Tennessee Williams, James Baldwin, Robert Farris Thompson, Albert Murray and others. Recent poems appear in the current issue of Hubbub.
Uniquely Oregon: Native American Art of Oregon
What is Oregon’s Native American history and how is that history and culture represented in Native art? What differentiates Native American art in Oregon from Native art in other parts of the Pacific Northwest, and what might this tell us about our state’s identity? Portland State University scholar-in-residence Tracy Prince will facilitate an interactive program that will examine these questions and others in an historical consideration of Oregon’s Native American art. A brief slide show of Native art from across Oregon will supplement the conversation.
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Program available through October 2013
- Tracy Prince | Portland
- tprince@pdx.edu
- 503-475-6080
Tracy Prince has taught university classes on Native American art and literature for nineteen years. She studies traditions that have survived the suppression of Native identity and customs. While doing genealogical research, Prince uncovered hospital records listing her great-grandmother's race as "mixed" (likely Cherokee or Choctaw); typical for early twentieth century, her great-grandmother passed for white, hiding her Native heritage. Born in Little Rock, Prince has lived all over the world, teaching in or spending extensive research time in Turkey, Australia, England, Canada, and throughout the US. She has taught in humanities, English, and urban studies and planning departments. Her book Portland’s Goose Hollow (2011) explores the history of Native, Chinese, Irish, German, and Jewish residents of one of Portland’s oldest neighborhoods. Prince holds a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is currently Scholar in Residence at Portland State University’s Portland Center for Public Humanities.
The Voters Have Spoken: Oregon’s Controversial Ballot Initiatives
Oregonians participate in the political ritual of voting on citizen initiatives with more frequency and, at times, more enthusiasm than any other group of citizens in the U.S. Over the past century, Oregon has had more statewide citizen-generated ballot measures than any other state, and, as a result, “direct democracy” has dramatically transformed the state’s political and social landscape. Linfield College associate professor Jackson Miller will lead a conversation about the role of persuasion and communication in the political process, focusing on issues raised by Oregon ballot measures over the past ten to fifteen years, which include abortion, education, gay rights, land use, marijuana, medical liability, obscenity, physician-assisted suicide, taxes, and timber. In order to tailor the conversation to the specific interests of the community, hosts may select up to three issues to serve as focal points.
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Equipment required: digital projector; screen
Program available in Spanish.
Program available through October 2013
- Jackson Miller | McMinnville
- jmiller@linfield.edu
- 503-883-2625
Jackson B. Miller is an associate professor of communication arts and the director of forensics (speech and debate) at Linfield College. Miller’s research interests include political rhetoric, performance theory, persuasive communication, and intercultural communication. As a certified trainer for the International Debate Education Association, Miller has conducted debate-training seminars in Guatemala and Turkey. He also provided critical analysis of the 2008 presidential debates for the International Debate Education Association. Miller has conducted extensive research on the ballot initiative process in Oregon, including campaigns on such diverse issues as physician-assisted suicide, gay rights, medical marijuana, logging practices, and land use regulations. In 2008, he wrote and directed the play 82,769 Signatures, which focuses on five controversial ballot initiatives. Miller holds BS and MA degrees from Ohio University, and a PhD in Speech Communication from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
A City’s Center: Rethinking Downtown
Historically, a city’s downtown core has been the community’s cultural and economic center, expressing shared values and aspirations. Today, however, many downtowns represent a community’s social and economic distress. Cities of all sizes are trying to revitalize their downtowns, but the qualities essential to this revitalization remain elusive. Nan Laurence, a senior planner for the City of Eugene, will explore the changing character of downtown activities, urban forms, and public spaces and lead participants in a conversation about how downtowns can represent a community’s ideals and aspirations.
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Program available through October 2013
- Nan Laurence | Eugene
- planner.nan@gmail.com
- 541-729-4763
Nan Laurence has been a city planner for twenty-five years. Her professional responsibilities have emphasized idea-based planning and public engagement with the goal of creating communities that are truly livable, sustainable, and beautiful. She has led a number of long-range planning and visioning efforts, and helped to identify key issues and decision points for community members and appointed and elected officials. Currently, she manages large-scale downtown development efforts and collaborates on arts and culture projects as a Senior Planner for the City of Eugene. Her role is to help the downtown urban form and activities more closely reflect the community’s vision and opportunities. Laurence has a Master of Architecture from the University of Virginia, a Master of City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology/Sociology from Earlham College.
Break it Down: Exploring Hip Hop’s Musical and Cultural Odyssey
Borne out of one of the poorest sections of New York City, hip hop is complex and contradictory, full of different styles, voices, ideas, and visions. This conversation, led by Portland State University adjunct professor Walidah Imarisha, involves an interactive multimedia exploration of the world’s top-selling musical genre. Participants will explore perceptions of hip hop and take a look at the various political, economic, and social forces that have shaped the music genre in the last century.
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Equipment required: digital projector, Internet access, screen, TV/DVD
Program available through October 2013
- Walidah Imarisha | Portland
- channelzeromedia@gmail.com
- 267-992-2617
Walidah Imarisha has taught in Portland State University’s Black studies department, where she has created classes about topics as diverse as the history of the Black Panther Party, race and the history of prisons, Hurricane Katrina, and hip hop as literature. She has facilitated writing workshops, for students in third grade to twelfth, in community centers, youth detention facilities, and women’s prisons. Imarisha was a founding editor of AWOL, a national political hip hop magazine. She has toured nationally and internationally as part of the poetry duo Good Sista/Bad Sista. Imarisha has been featured on several hip hop CDs, and her work was anthologized in Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop. Imarisha also filmed and codirected Finding Common Ground in New Orleans, a documentary about Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
Why Aren’t There More Black People in Oregon?: A Hidden History
Have you ever wondered why the Black population in Oregon is so small? Oregon has a history not only of Black exclusion and discrimination, but also of a vibrant Black culture that helped sustain many communities throughout the state—a history that is not taught in schools. Portland State University adjunct professor Walidah Imarisha will lead participants through an interactive timeline of Black history in Oregon and will also discuss how history, politics, and culture have shaped—and will continue to shape—the landscape for Black Oregonians.
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Equipment required: a digital projector and enough wall space to hang 20-30 sheets of 8.5 x 11 inch sheets of paper
Program available through October 2013
- Walidah Imarisha | Portland
- channelzeromedia@gmail.com
- 267-992-2617
Walidah Imarisha has taught in Portland State University’s Black studies department, where she has created classes about topics as diverse as the history of the Black Panther Party, race and the history of prisons, Hurricane Katrina, and hip hop as literature. She has facilitated writing workshops, for students in third grade to twelfth, in community centers, youth detention facilities, and women’s prisons. Imarisha was a founding editor of AWOL, a national political hip hop magazine. She has toured nationally and internationally as part of the poetry duo Good Sista/Bad Sista. Imarisha has been featured on several hip hop CDs, and her work was anthologized in Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop. Imarisha also filmed and codirected Finding Common Ground in New Orleans, a documentary about Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
Beyond Bars: Reenvisioning the Prison System
What role do prisons serve in our country? Is it possible to envision a world where people are safe and secure, and where there is accountability, without prisons? Does our prison system, in some cases, actually cause rather than reduce crime? Participants in this program will begin by exploring what they know about prisons. After a brief multimedia history of prisons and alternative justice systems, Walidah Imarisha, author and adjunct professor in Portland State University’s department of Black studies, will lead a conversation about alternatives to incarceration.
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Equipment required: digital projector, Internet access, screen, speakers
Program available through October 2013
- Walidah Imarisha | Portland
- channelzeromedia@gmail.com
- 267-992-2617
Walidah Imarisha has researched prison issues for more than ten years. She helped found the Human Rights Coalition, a prisoners’ family organization in Pennsylvania that now has three chapters. She has also facilitated writing workshops in correctional facilities and public schools. Imarisha was a founding editor of AWOL Magazine and coedited the 9/11 anthology Another World is Possible. She developed and guest edited an edition of Left Turn magazine that focused on alternatives to incarceration and is now part of the editorial collective of Left Turn. Imarisha has taught in Portland State University’s Black Studies Department.
The Tranquil Dedication of a Lifetime: A Practical Exploration of Citizenship
The problem with this country, according to some disenchanted Americans, is that there are no real leaders anymore. What we most need, they say, are people of our Founding Fathers’ caliber, or another Abe Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt, to step forward with the courage and wisdom necessary to solve our daunting problems. An opposing point of view holds that in a state or country with free and open elections, people get the government they deserve. Do the failures of modern governance and politics have more to do with a crisis of leadership or a crisis of citizenship? Join Jeff Golden for a conversation about what we as citizens can do to improve the political discourse and the quality of public life.
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Equipment required: TV/DVD; paper and pens/pencils; screen; Internet preferred
Program available through October 2013
- Jeff Golden | Ashland
- jeffgolden100@gmail.com
- 541-821-8401
Jeff Golden majored in agitation in the Ivy League before dropping out to learn how to take care of himself in the mountains of southern Oregon. After a decade of homebuilding, logging, and river guiding, he began a career as a public broadcasting producer, columnist, radio talk show host, and commentator. He has served as Jackson County commissioner, chief of staff to the Oregon Senate president, and environmental policy aide to the City of Portland. Golden is a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum and a media fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center. He was Oregon’s first nominee for the JFK Profile in Courage Award. His books include Watermelon Summer, As If We Were Grownups, Forest Blood, and Unafraid: A Novel of the Possible. Golden was a Harvard National Scholar and holds a master’s degree in communications from Stanford University.
Tracking Godzilla: Images of Nuclear Radiation in Film and Media
Godzilla’s emergence from the sea to destroy Tokyo was a potent figure of nuclear annihilation in 1956, when the film appeared on American screens. The film was directly linked to the controversial above-ground hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific Ocean at the time. How is the threat of nuclear radiation being presented today through films and other media? Independent cinema studies scholar Isabelle Freda will facilitate a conversation examining how the imagery of radiation—an invisible and terrifying threat with a long history—is represented in different media contexts, and how these images might help us to grapple with recent events related to nuclear power, including the tragedy at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex and the recent decommissioning and destruction of the Trojan nuclear power plant here in Oregon.
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Equipment required: digital projector, screen, chalk/whiteboard, TV/VCR
Program available through October 2013
- Isabelle Freda | Portland
- isabellefreda@web.de
- 503-367-7567
Isabelle Freda is an independent scholar who has taught at numerous universities and colleges in the US and abroad. She received her PhD in cinema studies from New York University, and her research and publications to date include studies of the modern American presidency, German-American relations, 9/11, the imagination of disaster, the Cold War and the nuclear national security state, the presidential campaign film, ecopolitics, and film. Her work as a teacher and researcher has most recently been characterized by a passionate interest in the natural world and in the state of the endangered environment.
Lessons from Lincoln: Is Political Bipartisanship Possible?
Does Abraham Lincoln’s adept use of bipartisanship during the Civil War offer guidance in dealing with the polarizing controversies of the twenty-first century? This conversation, led by independent scholar and Lincoln expert Richard Etulain, will look at what today’s leaders might learn from Lincoln’s handling of slavery, emancipation and civil rights, political patronage, and reconstruction during the Civil War era. Can these lessons serve as a model of bipartisan behavior as we debate health care, immigration reform, tax policy, and conflicting sources of government power?
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Equipment required: carousel slide projector, screen
Program available through October 2013
- Richard Etulain | Clackamas
- baldbasq@unm.edu
- 503-698-3287
Richard W. Etulain is professor emeritus of history at the University of New Mexico, where he taught American history and cultures and directed its Center for the American West, and has taught at Northwest Nazarene University and Idaho State University. He holds a doctorate in American history and literature from the University of Oregon. Etulain is the author or editor of more than forty-five books, including Conversations with Wallace Stegner on Western History and Literature (1983), Re-imagining the Modern American West (1996), Beyond the Missouri: The Story of the American West (2006), and The American West: A Twentieth-Century History (2007). His most recent book is Lincoln Looks West: From the Mississippi to the Pacific (2010). He has lectured abroad in several countries, including, most recently, Ukraine and Spain. He is currently working on a new book, Abraham Lincoln and the Oregon Country.
Your Land, My Land: Using and Preserving Oregon’s Natural Resources
Oregonians are known for a fierce sense of independence and a rugged individuality, qualities long associated with natural resource vocations such as logging, fishing, farming, and ranching. The state is also known for its progressive environmental policies. Our sense of connection to a place informs our values and our approaches to conflict over resource and land use in our communities. Veronica Dujon, professor of sociology at Portland State University—whose research focuses on gillnet fishermen on the Lower Columbia and the conflict over water rights in the Klamath Basin—invites you to consider the various meanings we in Oregon have come to attach to different places in the state and to explore how these attachments shape our desire both to use and to preserve our natural resources.
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Equipment required: digital projector; screen; microphone; TV/DVD
Program available in Spanish.
Program available through October 2013
- Veronica Dujon | Portland
- dujonv@pdx.edu
- 503-725-8503
Veronica Dujon is professor and chair of the department of sociology at Portland State University. She teaches, researches, and publishes in the area of environmental sociology with a focus on contests over declining natural resources, sociology of globalization, and women in the global economy. One of her major research interests is how to build socially sustainable societies. She has published widely and is coeditor of the volume Understanding the Social Dimension of Sustainability (Routledge, 2009). In Oregon, her research focuses on the conflict over water rights in the Klamath Basin and the adaptation strategies of gillnet fishermen on the Lower Columbia as they respond to declining salmon runs. Dujon received her bachelor’s degree from the University of the West Indies, Barbados, and her master’s and doctoral degrees in land resources/sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
White Out?: The Future of Racial Diversity in Oregon
Although 2010 Census data show Oregon’s population becoming more racially diverse, the state remains one of the whitest in the nation. Although many Oregonians value racial diversity and the dimension and depth it adds to our lives, we remain largely isolated from one another and have yet to fulfill the vision of a racially integrated society. Willamette University professor Emily Drew will lead participants in a conversation about the challenges to creating racially diverse, inclusive communities, despite the accomplishments since the civil rights era. What does the racial integration of place require of us, and how might we prepare to create and meet this opportunity?
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Equipment required: digital projector, screen, laptop
Program available through October 2013
- Emily Drew | Salem
- edrew@willamette.edu
- 503-364-9654
Emily M. Drew is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Willamette University, where she teaches courses about racism, race and ethnicity, urban sociology, mass media, and social change. Her primary areas of research involve understanding how race and racism operate inside of social institutions. She earned her doctorate from Loyola University Chicago, and has recently published her research on gentrification in northeast Portland in the Journal of Urban Affairs. Drew’s work is driven by a long-term commitment to social justice struggles. She has been actively engaged in anti-racism organizing and activism for almost 20 years, and serves as a co-trainer of “Understanding Institutional Racism” workshops for Crossroads Anti Racism Organizing and Training. She works as a strategic planner with public school districts, universities, and community-based organizations across the country to develop and implement long term commitments to multicultural diversity.
S/he-bop: Making Sense of Gender in American Pop Music
Through popular music, we can understand changing social norms and life experiences. In this conversation, Portland State University adjunct professor Sarah Dougher focuses on how gender is represented in American popular music through historical, political, and social lenses. Participants will listen to music and discuss videos and images from popular music genres and outlets from rockabilly to American Idol, considering the way popular music shapes and reflects values, mores, and aesthetics in our culture.
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Equipment required: digital projector, screen
Program available through October 2013
- Sarah Dougher | Portland
- sarahdougher@gmail.com
- 503-715-6731
Sarah Dougher is an educator, writer, and musician from Portland, Oregon. She holds a PhD in comparative literature from University of Texas, Austin, and teaches on topics of popular music, gender, and activism studies at Portland State University. She is currently working on a book about tween girls and popular music, which examines new media contexts for consuming and creating music in the 21st century. Dougher has taught at colleges and universities including Reed, Evergreen, Linfield and Portland Community College. She volunteers with the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, the Oregon Historical Society and p:ear, and is a composer and musician who for the past 15 years has performed, recorded, and toured both as a solo artist and in numerous bands.
From Print to Pixels: The Act of Reading in the Digital Age
The works of James Joyce are the same whether published in print or pixels. But the question remains: does the Joyce devotee read the same way on page as on screen? Cultural critic Neil Postman said, “Technology always has unforeseen consequences and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose.” In what ways do e-books serve or change the act of reading? As reading becomes a predominantly digital experience, what effects might this have on writing and on our interactions with information overall? Oregon author Mark Cunningham will lead a conversation about what happens when we change our methods of reading.
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- Mark Allen Cunningham | Portland
- m_allencunningham@yahoo.com
- 503-890-0780
Mark Cunningham is the author of two historical novels: The Green Age of Asher Witherow, which was a #1 Book Sense Pick from the American Booksellers Association, and Lost Son, based on the life and work of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He writes occasional book reviews and cultural commentary for the Oregonian and his work has appeared in the Kenyon Review, Tin House, the New York Times, and numerous other publications. In 2007 he co-founded the cultural commentary blog SoulShelter.com. The recipient of an Oregon Arts Commission fellowship and a Yaddo residency, Cunningham lives in Portland.
Slow Learners: Two Hundred Years of Unheeded Warnings
Cogent, compelling warnings—that exponential population growth must be stopped, that faith in technology to solve our problems is misplaced, that consumer culture cannot bring satisfaction, that greed and envy are treacherous underpinnings for an economic system, that violence elicits more violence, that nature bats last—have been ignored for more than two centuries. These warnings have come from some of the best minds of their times and have often been endorsed by other respected scientists and thinkers, yet their influence on public policy and individual behavior has been negligible. Oregon State University professor emeritus Richard Clinton will explore some of these early warnings, discuss them, and pose three questions: 1) Why have we largely ignored these urgent warnings? 2) What will it take to make us heed them? 3) What would be required of us if we did take them seriously?
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Equipment required: laptop computer, digital projector, screen
Program available in Spanish.
Program available through October 2013
- Richard L. Clinton | Corvallis
- richard.clinton@oregonstate.edu
- 541-737-6246
Richard Clinton is professor emeritus of political science at Oregon State University, where he taught international relations, Latin American politics, American foreign policy, and alternative international futures, and currently teaches in the Honors College. Clinton was twice a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Peru and from 1993 to 1995 was the Hanna Distinguished Chair in Latin American Politics at Rollins College in Florida. He is the author of three books and dozens of journal articles, book chapters, and essays; the editor or coeditor of three volumes; and, most recently, the coauthor of Environmental Politics and Policy: A Comparative Approach (McGraw Hill, 2002). Educated at Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina, Clinton served in the US Marine Corps Reserve and was a loan officer of the First National City Bank of New York in New York City, Peru, and Bolivia.
Science Friction: Controversies and Decision Making in a Democracy
Science and its products enrich our lives but also challenge many established ways of thinking. Some of these challenges have become quite contentious in political and cultural arenas. What roles should scientific theory, and personal and moral values, play in decision making in a democratic society? By focusing on critical issues such as global warming, stem cell research, and intelligent design, Southern Oregon University professors Prakash Chenjeri and Charles Welden will facilitate a conversation about the relationship between science, democracy, and decision making.
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Equipment required: digital projector, screen
Program available through October 2013
- Prakash Chenjeri | Ashland
- chenjeri@sou.edu
- 541-552-6034
Prakash Chenjeri is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Honors Program at Southern Oregon University, where he has been teaching since 1995. He was educated both in his native India and the United States. He teaches a wide variety of subjects, including moral philosophy, philosophy of science, and issues at the intersection of science and religion. More recently, Chenjeri’s research and teaching interests have focused on topics related to the role of scientific literacy in modern society and ways to engage in thoughtful dialogues about these and other issues in the context of a democracy. Chenjeri writes and lectures regularly on these issues and has presented papers on these and related topics at conferences across the country. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Association Philosophy Teachers, and serves on the Ethics Committee at Ashland Community Hospital.
- Charles Welden | Ashland
- welden@sou.edu
- 541-552-6868
Charles Welden received a Bachelor of Science degree from Tulane University and a Master of Science and PhD from Colorado State University in plant ecology. He did postdoctoral research at the University of Iowa and Princeton University. Welden’s research interests have centered around the ecology of plant communities, specifically in alpine tundra in the Rocky Mountains, semi-arid shrub lands of western Colorado, and seasonal tropical forest in Panama. He has long been interested in evolutionary theory and the philosophy of science, and has given public presentations on these topics before a variety of audiences. Welden is also interested in improving public ecological and scientific literacy so that voters can make better-informed decisions on environmental and scientific issues.
Life after War: Photography and Oral Histories of Coming Home
When does a war end? Does it ever? Many returning soldiers bring wars back with them, and these wars can reach beyond the battlefield or firefight, infiltrating the very thing that defines comfort and safety: home. The trials of homecoming are vast and complex, often resonating with tales of Odysseus’ journey back to Ithaca from the Trojan War. Photographer James Lommasson has collected oral histories from returning soldiers and documenting their struggles at home. In this conversation, participants will consider the wars at home faced not only by returning veterans, but also by communities at large.
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Equipment required: digital projector, screen, microphone
Program available through October 2013
- Jim Lommasson | Portland
- jim@lommassonpictures.com
- 503-939-1939
Jim Lommasson is a freelance photographer and writer living in Portland, Oregon. He received the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University for his first book, Shadow Boxers: Sweat, Sacrifice & The Will To Survive In American Boxing Gyms. In 2009 Oregon State University Press published Lommasson’s Oaks Park Pentimento: Portland’s Lost and Found Carousel. Lommasson is currently working on a book and traveling exhibition about American Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, and their lives after their return from war called Exit Wounds: Soldiers' Stories—Life After Iraq and Afghanistan. The book will include Lommasson's photographs, as well as photographs and writing by the participants. He is a recipient of numerous grants and has exhibited his work nationally.
Debating Fairly: Civility, Disagreement, and Democracy
Healthy debate and disagreement are at the heart of a vibrant democracy. Yet contemporary culture seems to be marked by increasing incivility. If civility defines the standard of behavior expected in human interaction, how can we promote a greater respect for one another? Recent and upcoming elections—as well as the current state of public discourse in general—offer a unique opportunity to examine critically and discuss this important and timely topic. Southern Oregon University professors Daniel Morris and Prakash Chenjeri will facilitate a conversation exploring what it means to be civil and to examine the related ideas of civil society, civic life, and citizenship.
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Equipment required: digital projector, laptop computer, screen, microphone
Program available through October 2013
- Prakash Chenjeri | Talent
- chenjeri@sou.edu
- 541-552-6034
Prakash Chenjeri is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Honors Program at Southern Oregon University, where he has been teaching since 1995. He was educated both in his native India and the United States. He teaches a wide variety of subjects, including moral philosophy, philosophy of science, and issues at the intersection of science and religion. More recently, Chenjeri’s research and teaching interests have focused on topics related to the role of scientific literacy in modern society and ways to engage in thoughtful dialogues about these and other issues in the context of a democracy. Chenjeri writes and lectures regularly on these issues and has presented papers on these and related topics at conferences across the country. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Association Philosophy Teachers, and serves on the Ethics Committee at Ashland Community Hospital.
- Daniel Morris | Ashland
- morris@sou.edu
- 541-552-6740
Daniel Morris is professor of French and Director of the Arts and Humanities Council at Southern Oregon University, where he has taught since 1982. Active in international education, he served as the director of the Oregon University System study abroad programs in Poitiers and Lyon, France and taught in Angers, France. In 1997, he formed the Southern Oregon Foreign Language Articulation project, a regional collaborative of language teachers, which he directed through 2007. A certified ACTFL OPI tester/trainer in French, he has served on state, regional, and national language boards and has written a book on French author Georges Bernanos as well as articles on French literature and culture, globalization, and language teaching. Between 2006 and 2007, Morris served as interim dean of the School of Arts and Letters at SOU. A member of several professional organizations, he has a PhD in Romance languages (French) from the University of Oregon.
American Character: The Power of Individualism and Volunteerism
Individualism and volunteerism have special significance for Americans, and yet the two ideas are often topics of animated debate. According to the author Alexis de Tocqueville, individualism rightly understood and a healthy sense of volunteerism may be keys to democracy’s success and to good citizenship. Drawing on Tocqueville’s discussion of these ideas in his Democracy in America, and several contemporary discussions as well, this program provides Oregonians with both a model and an opportunity to engage in thoughtful conversations about community issues. Some of the questions explored will include: Has American individualism gone overboard? How does individualism affect one’s participation in a democracy? What are some ways in which one can combine individualism and volunteerism in pursuit of a stronger democracy?
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Equipment required: digital projector, screen, microphone
Program available through October 2013
- Prakash Chenjeri | Talent
- chenjeri@sou.edu
- 541-552-6034
Prakash Chenjeri is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Honors Program at Southern Oregon University, where he has been teaching since 1995. He was educated both in his native India and the United States. He teaches a wide variety of subjects, including moral philosophy, philosophy of science, and issues at the intersection of science and religion. More recently, Chenjeri’s research and teaching interests have focused on topics related to the role of scientific literacy in modern society and ways to engage in thoughtful dialogues about these and other issues in the context of a democracy. Chenjeri writes and lectures regularly on these issues and has presented papers on these and related topics at conferences across the country. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Association Philosophy Teachers, and serves on the Ethics Committee at Ashland Community Hospital. He lives in Talent, Oregon.
- Daniel Morris | Ashland
- morris@sou.edu
- 541-552-6740
Daniel Morris is professor of French and Director of the Arts and Humanities Council at Southern Oregon University, where he has taught since 1982. Active in international education, he served as the director of the Oregon University System study abroad programs in Poitiers and Lyon, France and taught in Angers, France. In 1997, he formed the Southern Oregon Foreign Language Articulation project, a regional collaborative of language teachers, which he directed through 2007. A certified ACTFL OPI tester/trainer in French, he has served on state, regional, and national language boards and has written a book on French author Georges Bernanos as well as articles on French literature and culture, globalization, and language teaching. Between 2006 and 2007, Morris served as interim dean of the School of Arts and Letters at SOU. A member of several professional organizations, he has a PhD in Romance languages (French) from the University of Oregon.
The Art of the Possible: Jazz and Community-Building
Jazz is a highly democratic art form that is deeply concerned with participation and community, where risk, collaboration, and individual voice are all highly valued. This conversation will look at the literature, economics, and history of jazz, as well as invite participants to think about the social values, such as unity, equality, integrity, and freedom, inherent in the genre. Independent scholar and professional jazz musician Tim DuRoche will explore how jazz represents an “art of the possible” where, as communitarian Peter Block has written, “diversity of thinking and dissent are given space, commitments are made without barter, and the gifts of each person are acknowledged and valued.” The conversation will also consider how jazz as a “community of memory” might inspire us to embrace cooperation once again as an important cornerstone of our culture.
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Equipment required: CD player, digital projector, screen
Program available through October 2013
- Tim DuRoche | Portland
- tim@timduroche.com
- 503-720-6171
Tim DuRoche is the Director of Programs for the World Affairs Council of Oregon. Prior to his work with the council, he worked for Portland Center Stage, where he developed initiatives and programs connecting sustainability, civic engagement, historic preservation and the arts. He is on the boards of the state's Cultural Advocacy Coalition, Oregon Creative Industries, and Coalition for Livable Future and is a member of the State Commission on Civic Engagement, the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, and the Right Brain Initiative's Governing committee. His writing about visual culture, jazz and performance, planning, urban history, and cultural policy has appeared in a number of print and online publications, including IDEA Magazine, Oregon Humanities, Willamette Week, the Oregonian, Portland Spaces, and Metroscape. DuRoche is a frequent public speaker, interviewer, and moderator for cultural organizations including Wordstock, the City of Portland, the Portland Center for Public Humanities, the Multnomah County Library, Pacific Northwest College of Art, the Portland Jazz Festival, and LiveWire Radio.
Friendship: Reviving, Surviving, or Dying?
Friendship is a foundational relationship in human life and society. But, what is friendship, and why is it important to us? In this conversation, Oregon State University professor of philosophy Courtney Campbell and associate professor of philosophy (ret.) Lani Roberts will address these questions. Relying on the wisdom of the philosopher Aristotle, as well as related questions of friendship, the conversation will consider a number of questions including: can friendship occur between men and women?; can parents and adult children can be friends?; can friends can be lovers or lovers, friends?; and—given the prevalence of social media—can we live in what a writer from The New York Times calls the “faux-friendship age”?
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Equipment required: chalk/whiteboard
Program available through October 2013
- Courtney S. Campbell | Corvallis
- ccampbell@oregonstate.edu
- 541-737-6196
Courtney S. Campbell is Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture and professor of philosophy at Oregon State University, where his primary teaching and research interests focus on ethical issues in medicine, concepts of peace and war, theories of death and dying, and comparative religious ethics. He has been on the OSU faculty since 1990 and has received numerous awards for teaching and scholarship. Prior to joining the OSU faculty, Campbell was a research associate at the Hastings Center in New York, a think tank for ethics in the life sciences and biotechnology. While there, he was editor of the Hastings Center Report, the premier academic journal of biomedical ethics. Campbell received his master’s and doctoral degrees in religious studies at the University of Virginia and his bachelor’s degree in religious studies at Yale University.
- Lani Roberts | Hood River
- robertsl@onid.orst.edu
- 541-250-9027
Lani Roberts is a fifth-generation Oregonian who grew up near The Dalles in a house her great-great-grandfather built in 1868. She recently retired after teaching philosophy at Oregon State University since 1989. Roberts specializes in ethics, or moral philosophy. She researches, writes, and teaches about the intersection between some of our most deeply held values and our actual daily practices. She holds bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Oregon.
Yesterday’s News: The New Economics of Local Information
In 2009, American writer Clay Shirky predicted that “every town of 500,000 people or less in this country was likely to sink into casual, endemic, civic corruption,” fostered by the decline of local newspapers. Throughout the past decade, the collapse of some newspapers has created openings for smaller-scale innovators, such as online think tanks and blogs. These news outlets, however, have dramatically different audiences and frameworks than yesterday’s media giants. Portland entrepreneur and journalist Michael Andersen will facilitate a conversation that explores the forces behind, and the implications of, this shift from mass to niche media.
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Equipment required: digital projector, screen
Program available through October 2013
- Michael Andersen | Portland
- michael@portlandafoot.org
- 503-662-2871
Michael Andersen is a Portland-based entrepreneurial journalist. He's the publisher of Portland Afoot, a nonprofit newsmagazine and website about low-car life in Portland, and his work has also appeared in the Oregonian, Crosscut, the Columbia Journalism Review, and elsewhere. He studied at Grinnell College and Northwestern and is a pretty big fan of bread. He reads, writes, and argues regularly about local journalism and its white-water future.