UO Today

Artist Matthew Picton discusses his cartographic sculptures in the Artist Project Space at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The "Cultural Mapping" exhibition is on view through January 20, 2019.

Robert Guldberg, Vice President and Robert and Leona DeArmond Executive Director of the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon. Guldberg discusses his work in regenerative medicine and bioengineering. He also talks about the Knight Campus facilities and how it will create the intellectual infrastructure to establish Oregon as a center for both r...

Erin McKenna, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon, discusses her work in human/animal ethics. Her books Pets, People, and Pragmatism and Livestock: Food, Fiber, and Friends describe why it's important to understand animals' species-specific behaviors, breed tendencies, and individual variations in order to establish an ethic of respect when relating to animals.

Matt Rader, assistant professor of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, is the author of four poetry collections—the most recent titled Desecrations; and a critically acclaimed collection of short stories titled What I Want to Tell Goes Like This. Rader earned an MFA from the UO's Creative Writing Program in 2008. He discusses his work and reads from Desecrations.

Steven Beda, assistant professor of History at the University of Oregon, discusses his research on labor movements in the timber industry and environmentalism in the Pacific Northwest during the 20th century. He talks about the tensions that arose between rural timber workers and urban industrial workers. His current book project is Strong Winds and Widow Makers: A History of Workers, Nature, and...

Artist and activist, Dianna Cohen is one of 30 artists featured in the exhibit "Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials" on view at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art through December 30, 2018. Cohen is also the co-founder and CEO of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, a global alliance of hundreds of individuals, organizations, and businesses working to stop plastic pollution. Cohen ga...

Inspired by her creative work with ubiquitous plastic bags, artist Dianna Cohen co-founded the Plastic Pollution Coalition, a global alliance of individuals, organizations, businesses, and policymakers working toward a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impacts on humans, animals, waterways and oceans, and the environment. Cohen speaks about her artwork and the pervasive problem of plas...

University of Oregon Journalism instructors, Todd Milbourn and Lisa Heyamoto, cofounded The 32 Percent Project as 2017-18 Agora Faculty Innovation Fellows. The project is a national community engagement project that explores what drives and disrupts trust in the news media. They discuss how citizens define trust and how journalists can earn it. And they offer a critique of the traditional economic...

Diana Garvin, Assistant Professor of Mediterranean Studies in the Department of Romance Languages at the UO, discusses her interest in the Mediterranean and East African regions during Fascist rule in Italy—particularly the political and culinary legacies of colonialism. She also talks about her approach to teaching. Garvin's current book project is Feeding Fascism: Tabletop Politics in Italy and...

Michael Schill, President of the University of Oregon, discusses the institutional focus on student success and timely graduation. Recently the 4-year graduation rate has improved from 48% to 56%. In addition, Schill talks about faculty hiring for the Knight Campus, the interdisciplinary data science initiative, the Black Cultural Center, and the 10-year anniversary of PathwayOregon. Schill recent...

Current debates on the future of public lands call for a focus on who is included in the ‘public.’ Who is inside the circle and who is not? Whose voices are heard, and whose are silenced? Indigenous people have largely been excluded from decision-making involving public lands—as has their sophisticated environmental philosophy and practice, derived from traditional ecological knowledge. How might...

Marsha Weisiger is the Julie and Rocky Dixon Chair of U.S. Western History, and associate professor of History and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. Along with Barbara and Carlisle Moore Professor of English and Environmental Studies Stephanie LeMenager, Weisiger is co-director of UO's Center for Environmental Futures. Weisiger talks about her interests in the American West and en...

Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic and writer Margo Jefferson discusses her book On Michael Jackson and her memoir Negroland. Her memoir recounts her memories of coming of age among the midcentury Negro elite in Chicago. Jefferson talks about how ideals of black respectability impacted the ways young black women thought about and treated their bodies and appearance. Jefferson gave lectures tit...

May 30, 2018. Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic and writer Margo Jefferson gives the 2017-18 Kritikos Lecture in the Humanities, part of the "We the People" series. Jefferson is the author of Negroland: A Memoir.

UO Today With Elizabeth Woody by Oregon Humanities Center

Andre Dubus III, discusses how writing saved him from a violent and self-destructive path as a young man. He reads from his recent collection Dirty Love and talks about imagination and creativity. Dubus's forthcoming novel Gone So Long will be published in October 2018. He gave a reading at the UO on May 10, 2018 as a guest of the Creative Writing Program.

Margaret Hiza Redsteer is a research scientist focused on geology, landscape ecology, water quality, climate change and its impacts on Native American communities, and tracking these impacts using local and traditional knowledge. She discusses how climate change is impacting the Navajo Nation. Redsteer was a keynote speaker for the Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples Lecture on May 9th, 2018, th...

Jason Josephson-Storm is Chair and Associate Professor of Religion at Williams College. He discusses his research interests in East Asian religions and philosophy; European intellectual history; and theories of religion, philosophy, and sociology. Josephson-Storm gave a talk based on his book The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of Human Sciences at the UO on May 3, 2018 as...

Sarah Wald, associate professor of English and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon, discusses her book The Nature of California: Race, Citizenship, and Farming Since the Dust Bowl. Wald also talks about the significance of the Environmental Humanities and Food Studies. She describes the "Environmental Justice, Race, and Public Lands" symposium, which will be held May 9-11, 2018 at th...

Poet Mary Jo Salter discusses and reads from her latest collection The Surveyors. Salter is a coeditor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry and a professor in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. On April 19th, 2018, Salter gave a reading as a guest of the UO's Creative Writing Program.

Fiction writer Danielle Evans, winner of the 2011 National Book Foundation's 5 under 35 honor, discusses her writing and reads from her short story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. The book won the 2011 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. Evans talks about how she develops the voice and complexity of her characters. She gave a reading at the UO on April 12, 2018 as a guest of the Engli...

Anna Brady, a third-year law student at the University of Oregon, discusses her work with Utah Diné Bikéyah, a Native American organization that developed the proposal for the now-threatened Bears Ears National Monument.

Melissa Graboyes, assistant professor of History in the Clark Honors College, discusses her book The Experiment Must Continue: Medical Research and Ethics in East Africa, 1940-2014. She also talks about the book she is currently coediting, Everyday Life on the African Continent: Fun, Leisure and Expressivity. In addition, Graboyes talks about the focus of the study abroad program for UO students i...

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. She is also the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Kimmerer discusses how indigenous wisdom has enlightened her science. She also shares the Anishinaabe creation story of Skywoman and the lessons the...

Filipino-American fiction writer Mia Alvar reads from her short story collection In the Country, and discusses her writing. Alvar gave a reading at the University of Oregon on February 22, 2018 as a guest of the Creative Writing program.