Oregon Humanities

Free Statewide Community Discussions this Spring

Oregon Humanities sponsors Conversation Project programs across Oregon March through June 2010.

02 March 2010 | Permalink

Through the Conversation Project: A New Chautauqua, Oregonians around the state have access to free community discussions year-round. The Conversation Project, which connects Oregonians with public scholars and provocative ideas through idea-driven dialogue, is a program of Oregon Humanities (formerly Oregon Council for the Humanities).

The 2009–10 Conversation Project lineup features seventeen programs presented by sixteen scholars. This season’s programs span diverse topics, including friendship, mega cities, the future of rural communities, media literacy, and reimagining the American prison system. Programs from March 3, 2010, through June 27, 2010, are listed below by county. For more information about each program and... More

Art, meat, and enlightenment in American sport fishing

Oregon Council for the Humanities sponsors a free public event on June 6 in Bend.

13 May 2008 | Permalink

The closure of nearly all ocean salmon fishing in Oregon this year will have a devastating financial impact on working-class Oregonians who make their living in the state’s multimillion dollar fishing industry.
But besides being a profitable industry, sport fishing, whether catch-and-release fly-fishing on Central Oregon’s pristine rivers or bait-and-hook fishing on the Oregon Coast’s fisheries-stocked waters, is also a strong symbol of the region’s identity.
Oregon Book Award-winning poet Henry Hughes, a dedicated angler who uses both bait and fly, explores how the sport illuminates human relationships to art and nature at a free public event, “Crossing (Class) Lines: Art, Meat, and the American Angler,” at McMenamins Old St.... More

Geographer looks at impact of Russian and Ukrainian refugees in Oregon

University of Oregon professor uses maps and first-person stories in Spring 2007 Commonplace Lecture in Salem.

23 April 2008 | Permalink

Although much of the recent discussion about immigration has focused on the state’s predominantly Hispanic migrant worker population, Oregon’s Willamette Valley is also home to more than 80,000 Russian and Ukrainian refugees—the second largest population of post-Soviet-era Russians and Ukrainians in the country.
According to University of Oregon geography professor Susan Hardwick, these new residents were, in large part, drawn to the region by “religious networks forged at home, economic opportunities, and the hope of finding freedom and prosperity for their children.” She says that this sizable population has the potential to play a major role in shaping the future of the state.
Hardwick will deliver a free public lecture, “Far... More

Native journalist to discuss challenges faced by urban Indians

Seattle newspaper editor Mark Trahant will deliver the Oregon Council for the Humanities' Commonplace Lecture on Oct. 26 in Portland.

09 September 2007 | Permalink

The 38,000 Native Americans who reside in the Portland area comprise the nation’s ninth-largest urban Indian population, according to the Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland.
Journalist Mark Trahant, the editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, explains that many of these urban Indians find themselves torn between the opportunities available in the cities and the history and culture of the reservations. He notes that this group is a significant—and perhaps unplanned for—population that faces specific challenges in the fields of education, employment, and health care.
As an example, Trahant, who is a member of the Shoshone Bannock tribe of Idaho, says, “In recent years the Bush Administration has... More

Critic calls for new direction in Oregon's architecture and land-use planning

Randy Gragg, architecture critic for the Oregonian, delivers Commonplace Lecture, "Against Nostalgia," at historic Temple Beth Israel in Portland

01 March 2007 | Permalink

In his 17 years of writing about art, architecture, and planning for the Oregonian newspaper, Randy Gragg says he is struck by how many of the state’s conflicts in these arenas are rooted in efforts to merely preserve the past rather than build on it.
“Preservation is an easy argument,” he says. “Articulating a theory of change is much harder. By holding on so hard to the past, I believe we, as a region, risk becoming victims of the future.”
Gragg, the Oregonian’s architecture critic, will deliver a free public lecture, “Against Nostalgia: The roots of a new direction for architecture and planning in Oregon,” at Temple Beth Israel, 1931 NW Flanders St., Portland, on Saturday, February 24, 2007, at 5 p.m. with a reception to... More