UO Today

Micah Jones is an assistant professor of History and Black Studies at the University of Oregon. She talks about her book project, "The Price of Freedom: Race, Consumption, and the Long Black Freedom Struggle, 1915-1970," which places Black shoppers at the center of histories of consumption, racial formation, and the Civil Rights Movement. Research Notes: Colin Koopman is a professor of Philosophy...

Work-in-Progress talks with Hessam Abedini, PhD candidate, Comparative Literature and 2025–26 OHC Dissertation Fellow. This project examines how to translate the Persian epic Shahnameh (AD 1010) without imposing Western literary conventions on it. Previous English translations have compared the Persian poet Firdausi to Homer, distorting the epic’s unique cosmological framework that blends pre-Isla...

Mérida Mehaffey is an interdisciplinary scholar based in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently a master’s student at Bard Graduate Center, where she studies museum ethics, curatorial practice, and Native American material culture. Mérida graduated from the University of Oregon in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and History. She returned to campus on May 7th, 2026 to deliver t...

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 pro...

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 an...

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...

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 Opacit...

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...

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 N...

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...

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 establ...

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 Natu...

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/

Isabel García Valdivia, assistant professor of Sociology, speaks about her interest in older immigrants and their families. She also talks about the importance of mentorship. Research Notes: Katya Hokanson, professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, talk about her recent book "A Woman’s Empire: Russian Women and Imperial Expansion in Asia" published by the University of Toronto Pre...

The “Attention” series explores the dynamics of how, why, and what we focus on shapes our reality and creates our purpose. Also known as concentration, alertness, focus, notice, awareness, heed, regard, and consideration—Attention is the fundamental cognitive ability to sustain one’s energy on a specific pursuit or thought. The OHC’s 2025–26 Robert D. Clark Lectureship features three UO faculty me...

Work-in-Progress talk with Alejandro Marin, PhD candidate, Romance languages, and 2025–26 Oregon Humanities Center Dissertation Fellow. Migration today is often framed as crisis, but literature reveals it as a site of creativity and resistance. Contemporary novels from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Equatorial Guinea portray movement across borders as an opportunity to forge new communities and...

Diane Mizrachi is the Jewish and Israeli Studies Librarian at UCLA. She discusses her work on the Academic Reading Format International Study and the discovery of Nazi-looted books in the UCLA Library. SHOW NOTES: Shoham, Snunith, and Diane Mizrachi. "Library anxiety among undergraduates: A study of Israeli B. Ed students." The journal of academic librarianship 27, no. 4 (2001): 305-311. Mizrachi,...

Sam Lasman is an assistant professor of English and Medieval Studies at the University of Oregon. He talks about his research on medieval literature and what he calls “modern medievalism,” with a focus on how narrative texts use the supernatural, monstrous, and parahuman to explore identity and communal origins. Research Notes: Martha Bayless, professor of English, Folklore, and Medieval Studies a...

Work-in-Progress talk with Anita Chari, professor of Political Science, and 2025-26 OHC Faculty Research Fellow. This project explores the political implications of the trauma-informed turn and examines the contemporary resonance of trauma in the public sphere as well as the current critical consensus that trauma discourse is part of the problem rather than the solution to our contemporary politic...

Olivia Miller is the new Executive Director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon. She discusses her role and talks about the recovery of a stolen de Kooning painting when she worked at the University of Arizona's Museum of Art. • https://jsma.uoregon.edu • https://artmuseum.arizona.edu/about/woman-ochres-journey Research Notes: Stacy Alaimo is the Barbara and Carlisle...

Emily Moore is the Instruction and Outreach Archivist, and Mahala Ruddell is the Lead Processing Archivist in Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Oregon. They discuss their work and the value of UO's collections. They also talk about some of the curious things they have come across in the archives. • uoregon.edu/special-collections • uoregon.aviaryplatform.com • oregon...

Leah Middlebrook, assistant professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, and director of the Oregon Humanities Center talks about her new book "Amphion: Lyre, Poetry, and Politics in Modernity." Research Notes: Lowell Bowditch, professor and department head of Classics, discusses her recent book "Roman Love Elegy and the Eros of Empire."

Courtney M. Cox, assistant professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies, talks about her newly-published book "Double Crossover: Gender, Media, and Politics in Global Basketball." In the book, Cox follows athletes, coaches, journalists, and advocates of women’s basketball as they pursue careers within the sport. Despite all attempts to contain them or prevent forward momentum, they circumvent...

Poet Henri Cole is author of eleven collections of poetry and a memoir. His latest collection, The Other Love, is forthcoming in summer 2025. He and Leah discuss his sonnets and his approach the form. He reads two poems from the collection Gravity and Center: Selected Sonnets 1994–2022. On April 17th, 2025, Cole gave a reading as a guest of the UO’s Creative Writing Program.

In an era of increased isolation where civic deserts, disinformation, and technological dependence separate us from one another, how can we reimagine our capacity for deeper connection and sustainable collaboration in our current reality? Deepa Iyer, a social justice advocate, leads an exploration of the pathways that strengthen ecosystems for social change in this talk. Deepa Iyer is a South Asia...