Smadar Ben-Natan is an assistant professor of Global Studies in the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages at the University of Oregon. Originally from Israel, her research focuses on human rights, international law, Palestine/Israel, armed conflict, criminal justice, incarceration, and colonialism.

Research Notes:

Michael Allan is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and program faculty in Cinema Studies, Arabic Studies, Comics and Cartoon Studies, and Middle East and North African Studies. He discusses his new book "Cinema before the World: The Global Routes of the Lumière Brothers" published by Fordham University Press in 2026.

At a time when social media and our societal structures demand our constant attention to the rigged algorithm, we’ve stopped paying attention to what really matters, the world around us. Using poetic examples and stories from real life, poet Ada Limón invites us to remember that we are alive and will help us reconnect to what matters.

According to Limón, “Poets often are very good at the myopic and being present, deeply looking, paying attention. But I think we’re also good at the long view, expanding outward, thinking about the planet itself, thinking about what happens when neither you nor I are here. So I think that it’s about witnessing, paying attention, and being curious about who we are as individuals and as a collective.”

Ada Limón is the author of seven books of poetry, including Startlement: New & Selected Poems; The Hurting Kind, which was a finalist for the Griffin Prize; The Carrying, which won the National Books Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award; and Bright Dead Things, which was named a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Award. Limón is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was named a 2024 Time Magazine Woman of the Year. She is the author of two picture books, In Praise of Mystery as well as And, Too, The Fox, and was the editor of the anthology You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World. She served as the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States.

Ada Limón is the former U.S. Poet Laureate. She reads a poem and discusses her work. On April 8, 2026, Limón will give a talk titled "The Unleaving: How Poetry Helps You to Not Miss Your Life" at the University of Oregon.

Research Notes:

Leah Lowthorp, assistant professor of Anthropology and Folklore, discusses her book "Deep Cosmopolitanism: Kutiyattam, Dynamic Tradition, and Globalizing Heritage in Kerala, India."

Show notes:

David Shulman

Heike Moser

Walter Mignolo

Charles L. Briggs

unesco.org/en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifo0xb3uLyc

Ramón Resendiz is an assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon. He discusses his work as a Visual Anthropologist and documentary filmmaker focusing on borderlands and Indigenous voices.

Research Notes:

Amy Swanson is an assistant professor of Dance Studies, Theory, and History in the School of Music and Dance at the University of Oregon. She discusses her book "Dancing Opacity: Contemporary Dance, Transnationalism, and Queer Possibility in Senegal' published by University of Michigan Press in 2025.

https://press.umich.edu/Books/D/Dancing-Opacity2

https://www.dancestudiesassociation.org

Xan Holt is an assistant professor of German and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oregon. He talks about his work on German literature, film, and television; and his project focused on environmental humanities. He also talks about his teaching and the importance of language study for students.

Nina Amstutz is an associate professor of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Oregon. She discusses her ACLS-funded project "A Multispecies Framework for Art: The Bowerbird Across Disciplines, Cultures, and Time."

"The Avian Sense for Beauty: A Posthumanist Perspective on the Bowerbird"

Art History, 2021

"Rethinking the Animal in Art History: Charles Darwin, Karl Woermann, and the Bowerbird" Leuven University Press, 2025

"A multispecies framework for art: the bowerbird across disciplines" in "Methods for ecocritical art history" Edited by Olga Smith and Andrew Patrizio, Manchester University Press, 2026

Fernando Gorab Leme is an assistant professor of Classics at the University of Oregon. He talks about his research on the significance and wedding songs in Greco-Roman antiquity and talks about the classes he teaches.

Research Notes:

Jessica Vasquez-Tokos, professor of Sociology and Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the UO, talks about her new book "Burdens of Belonging: Race in an Unequal Nation" (NYU Press, 2025). The book is based on interviews with people in Oregon from various racial groups, and brings multiple racial groups’ opinions together to weigh in on the ways in which race contours national belonging and affects sense of self, everyday life and wellness, and aspirations for the future. This book highlights the value of inquiring how people from various racial backgrounds perceive their fit in the nation and reveals how race matters to belonging in multifaceted ways.

A Books-in-Print talk with author Joyce Suechun Cheng. In this talk, Cheng focuses on chapter 4 "The Surrealists as Ethnographers: Possession, Aesthetics, Subjectivity" which explores the idea of possession as a form of performative mask, utilizing Michel Leiris's ethnographic study of Ethiopian Zars in the 1930s.

Joyce Suechun Cheng is an associate professor of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Oregon. She is joined in conversation by Edgar Garcia an associate professor of English at the University of Chicago.

Patricia Caicedo is a soprano, musicologist, and physician. Her work redefines the canon of classical vocal music by centering Latin American and Iberian art song. She has authored sixteen books, including the landmark "The Latin American Art Song: Sounds of the Imagined Nations" and "We Are What We Listen To: The Impact of Music on Individual and Social Health." As a performer, Caicedo has established herself as one of the leading interpreters of Iberian and Latin American art song.

She talks about her background and the repertoire she aims to elevate in the world of music.

Caicedo was artist-in-residence at the UO's School of Music and Dance January 20-22, 2026. She shared her expertise in Latin American and Iberian vocal music with lectures, performances, and a masterclass.

Colin Williamson is an Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon. He is a historian of animation, special effects, and nontheatrical film. He specializes in early cinema’s place in international histories of art, science, and technology. Colin is the author of "Hidden in Plain Sight: An Archaeology of Magic and the Cinema" (Rutgers University Press, 2015) and "Drawn to Nature: American Animation in the Age of Science" (University of Minnesota Press, 2025). He is Associate Editor at Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal. He talks about his research and the classes he teaches at the UO.

Research Notes:

Whitney Phillips is an Associate Professor of Information Politics and Media Ethics and the John L. Hulteng Endowed Chair in Media Ethics and Responsibility in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. She talk about her new book "The Shadow Gospel: How Anti-liberal Demonology Possessed U.S. Religion, Media, and Politics" co-authored with Mark Brockway.

Jazz musician Christopher Brown talks about his approach to music and education. He and his band will give a presentation/performance "Beyond the Buzz: Finding the Signal in a Noisy World" on January 29, 2026.

https://blogs.uoregon.edu/oregonhumanitiescenter/multimedia/news/christopher-brown-grabs-our-attention-with-jazz/