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Through May 31, 2012, Oregon nonprofits may apply to host Conversation Project programs taking place between July 1, 2012 and October 31,... More
Jul 15
Race and change in Oregon. Life after war. Censorship in literature. Rethinking downtown. These are just a few of topics available during... More
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.
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 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.
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