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The Conversation Project offers Oregon nonprofits free programs that engage community members in thoughtful, challenging conversations about ideas critical to our daily lives and our state's future. Conversations are facilitated by some of Oregon's most respected humanities scholars.
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 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 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.
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