UO Today

Kirby Brown (Cherokee Nation), associate professor of English and Native American Studies at the University of Oregon, and Jennifer O'Neal (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde), assistant professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon, offer a preview of the conference "Engaged Humanities: Partnerships between Academia and Tribal Communities." The conference features the annual Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples lecture, panel presentations by tribal elders and scholars, a concert reading of the play Salmon is Everything, and a screening of the documentary Promised Land which chronicles the Chinook and Duwamish tribes' struggle for federal recognition. The conference takes place November 8-9, 2019 at the University of Oregon on Kalapuya Ilihi.

Michael Schill, president of the University of Oregon, shares his enthusiasm for several campus projects and initiatives. The recently-opened Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall houses the new, integrated academic advising and career planning center. The Knight Campus is due to open June 2020. UO and OHSU have teamed up to combat cancer and other diseases with a joint center in biomedical data science. And the new Black Cultural Center, named for UO alumna Lyllye Reynolds-Parker, is set to open October 12, 2019.

Working with a team of collaborators, Harvard University professor and political theorist Danielle Allen has developed ten design principles for effective, equitable, and self-protective civic agency in a digital age. These principles provide guidance to those functioning as civic actors, and to those who are designing platforms or organizations to cultivate, support, or channel civic involvement.

Allen on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 on the UO campus as the OHC’s 2018–19 Kritikos Lecturer in the Humanities.

Camisha Russell, assistant professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon, discusses her book The Assisted Reproduction of Race, which examines how concepts of race are reinforced by reproductive technologies. Russell talks about how race is a social construct and asks, "what does the idea of race do?" and posits that race is a technology (something made and used).

Artist and filmmaker Philip Haas discusses his performance installation "Sculpture Breathes Life into Painting and Music" which had a world premiere exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art May 29 through June 9, 2019. He presents excerpts from the performance. Interview begins at 02:50.

Jill Hartz, Executive Director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art since 2008 will retire in 2019. She discusses how the museum established an academic mission during her tenure as well as enhanced its many public programs. In addition Hartz talks about how programs have broadened to serve diverse communities.

Danielle Allen, James Conant University Professor at Harvard University, is the director of Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. Allen discusses the deficiency of civics education in America resulting from policies wrought by polarized politics. She talks about the importance of egalitarian and participatory democracy. Her Democratic Knowledge Project identifies skills, knowledge, and habits citizens need to participate in democracy; and how to participate in a digital space while being intentional about self protection. Additionally Allen reflects on her memoir Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A. about her cousin who was incarcerated 11 years prior to his death at a young age. Allen gave a talk titled "The Ethics of Public Participation in a Digital Age" on May 21, 2019 as the Oregon Humanities Center's 2018-19 Kritikos Lecturer.

Lindsey Mazurek, assistant professor of History at the University of Oregon, is a specialist in the ancient history of the Mediterranean region. She discusses her study of the cult of Isis in Greece during the Roman occupation and the associated material culture. Mazurek also talks about her work with the Mediterranean Connectivity Project, a digital humanities initiative that maps social connectivity during the Roman Empire.

Daniel Gómez Steinhart, assistant professor of Cinema Studies, discusses his book Runaway Hollywood: Internationalizing Postwar Production and Location Shooting, which focuses on Hollywood filmmaking in Europe after World War II. Steinhart also talks about "Hollywood Style," a class he developed and taught as a 2018-19 Oregon Humanities Center Teaching Fellow. The class examined the history and evolution of film technology and aesthetics.

Chuck Collins, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC, directs their Program on Inequality and coedits Inequality.org. He is author of Is Inequality in America Irreversible? Collins discusses the roots of economic inequality and the racial wealth divide in the United States and describes how social welfare policies can remedy inequality. He offers solutions that would reverse the concentration of wealth and power. Collins's talk on April 17, 2019 as the Oregon Humanities Center's 2018-19 Tzedek Lecturer was part of The Common Good series.