Showing 33 results for tag Values

Softening Sharp Teeth: Getting Curious about Conflict

Interpersonal conflict and disagreement are part of being in relationship with others, but many of us fear conflict. Motivated by many factors, including cultural norms, concern for social consequences, and personal safety, many of us avoid it. What might we learn and how might we grow by making more room for conflict? What skills do we need to responsibly engage in conflict? How can shifting our relationship to conflict offer us new perspectives about ourselves and the groups we belong to? This community conversation is an opportunity to reflect on our relationships to interpersonal conflict outside of where we might most often encounter it, like the heated context of an argument at the dinner table or online. Facilitator Emily Squires will lead a judgement- and jargon-free discussion of what we mean when we say conflict, considering how interpersonal conflict shapes our lives and tools to use when experiencing it.

Event | February 26, 2026

Softening Sharp Teeth: Getting Curious about Conflict

Interpersonal conflict and disagreement are part of being in relationship with others, but many of us fear conflict. Motivated by many factors, including cultural norms, concern for social consequences, and personal safety, many of us avoid it. What might we learn and how might we grow by making more room for conflict? What skills do we need to responsibly engage in conflict? How can shifting our relationship to conflict offer us new perspectives about ourselves and the groups we belong to? This community conversation is an opportunity to reflect on our relationships to interpersonal conflict outside of where we might most often encounter it, like the heated context of an argument at the dinner table or online. Facilitator Emily Squires will lead a judgement- and jargon-free discussion of what we mean when we say conflict, considering how interpersonal conflict shapes our lives and tools to use when experiencing it.

Event | June 1, 2026

Democracy in Motion

The constitution grants congress the power to establish post roads and regulate interstate commerce. For 250 years, political decisions rooted in these powers have shaped how we travel from place to place and even who can travel from place to place. For some, transportation is a mundane issue: the vehicles and routes that are needed to get where they need to go are available and convenient, even if they might not work perfectly sometimes. For others, getting around can be difficult and exhausting, or even impossible. Some find joy in getting around and others face barriers. How does transportation reflect our democratic values? Does how we get around foster democracy? If not, could it be made so?

Event | July 18, 2026

Glassed In

Wendy Wagner on seeing, being seen, and choosing not to see.

Beyond the Margins | December 17, 2020

Virtual Think & Drink with Kali Thorne Ladd, Alex Sager, and Paul Susi: What Are Schools for?

A live conversation on the purpose of school for students, parents, teachers, and the community at large. Watch the recording of this August 2020 program here.

Think & Drink | July 24, 2020

Consider the Wedding—2004

Jamie Passaro considers why women who know better still buy into the Big Bucks White Wedding industry in the 2004 “Marriage” issue.

Magazine | December 23, 2019

Out of the Woods

Ruby McConnell on meeting a lost boy in a Cascades forest

Magazine | August 30, 2018

Episodes in People Watching

Dionisia Morales on teaching kids to be wary of their surroundings in an excerpt from her book, "Homing Instincts"

Magazine | August 30, 2018

Invite in the Stranger

Adam Davis on radical hospitality

Magazine | August 22, 2017

Who is Not at the Table?

Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell reflects on the making of “Future: Portland 2”

This Land | May 18, 2017

Unbuttoned into the Blow

Conversation Project leader, poet, and essayist Wendy Willis defends human fragility.

Magazine | December 6, 2016

The Golden Hour

The collective strength of strangers after a horrifying accident. An essay by Jason Arias

Magazine | December 6, 2016

Wonder, Bread

Seeking the sacred in the mundane world. An excerpt from Great Tide Rising: Toward Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change by Kathleen Dean Moore

Magazine | August 11, 2016

Making Men

Writer Bobbie Willis Soeby on raising her sons to not rape

Magazine | August 11, 2016

Between Ribbon and Root

Hope and a history of tragedy live together in a Cowlitz woman's son. An essay by Christine Dupres

Magazine | April 11, 2016

Mothers to Daughters

Mothers give advice to their daughters about living bravely in an unsafe world in this film produced by Sika Stanton for Oregon Humanities.

Beyond the Margins | March 7, 2016

What We Pass On

Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, writes about cultural inheritance.

Magazine | December 18, 2015

David and Goliath

Remembering a friend from a hospice house. An excerpt from What the Dying Have Taught Me about Living: The Awful Amazing Grace of God by Fred Grewe, an Oregon Humanities Talking about Dying community discussion leader.

Beyond the Margins | September 23, 2015

A Return Passage

Reporter Putsata Reang and photographer Kim Nguyen share their stories of leaving their home countries as refugees, meeting as students at the University of Oregon, and returning to Southeast Asia as journalists. A film produced by Dawn Jones for Oregon Humanities.

Beyond the Margins | August 5, 2015

Life's Winter

The opportunities seem endless, but the season is not. An excerpt from Building a Better Nest: Living Lightly at Home and in the World by Evelyn Searle Hess.

Beyond the Margins | July 27, 2015

Stepping Backward

Hearing lessons from a bomb. An essay by David Naimon

Beyond the Margins | June 30, 2015

Searching for Fire in the Belly

Talking about Dying | April 10, 2015

Kansas in Technicolor

After a mastectomy, finding beauty in loss. An essay by Gretchen Icenogle

Magazine | April 7, 2015

A Temporary Insanity

Torn between the pull of family and the pull of home. An essay by Gail Wells

Beyond the Margins | January 22, 2015

Feel-Good Feminism

Bitch Media cofounder Andi Zeisler wonders if feminism's pop-culture cachet has doomed the movement.

Magazine | December 8, 2014

Gone Astray

A humanitarian aid worker in Sri Lanka finds herself caught up in a race to harvest the tusks of a dead elephant.

Magazine | December 8, 2014

What's the Use?

Why bother with history? Why bother at all? An essay by Robert Leo Heilman

Beyond the Margins | October 16, 2014

One Giant Step

Coming of age during the hopeful days of American space exploration. An essay by Dmae Roberts

Magazine | November 8, 2013

Firing a Friend

It's hard to be a good citizen during an election year. An essay by Jennifer Ruth

Magazine | December 10, 2011

The Artist as Worker

Rilke would never have understood the current desire to merge commerce and creativity. An essay by M. Allen Cunningham

Magazine | August 10, 2010

Abnormal Beauties

Portlanders don't fair well in a national magazine's beauty ratings. So what? An essay by Karen Karbo

Magazine | March 17, 2010

Designing the Good Life

Beauty is a desirable bonus when design improves our lives. An essay by Lisa Radon

Magazine | March 17, 2010

Irreconcilable Dissonance

The threat of divorce as the glue of marriage. An essay by Brian Doyle

Magazine | November 23, 2009