.
The Conversation Project: A New Chautauqua offers Oregon nonprofits free programs that engage community members in thoughtful, challenging conversations about ideas critical to our daily lives and our state's future. Conversations are facilitated by some of Oregon's most respected humanities scholars.
Conversation Project January 31 Application Deadline
Oregon nonprofits should apply by January 31, 2010, for Conversation Project programs that take place March 1-June 30, 2010. Check out the catalog, instructions for host organizations, and downloadable application form. For more information, please contact Program Coordinator Annie Dubinsky at (503)241-0543, ext. 116, or by e-mail.
04 January 2010 | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)
Nonprofits Statewide Apply Now for Conversation Project Programs
Through the Conversation Project: A New Chautauqua, nonprofit organizations around the state have access to free programs that engage community members in thoughtful, challenging conversations about ideas critical to our daily lives and our state’s future.
From December 1, 2009, through January 31, 2010, Oregon nonprofits may apply for programs that take place March 1–June 30, 2010. Check out the catalog, instructions for host organizations, and downloadable application form. Please also see the events calendar for Conversation Project programs that are currently happening around the state.
For more information, please contact Program Coordinator Annie Dubinsky at (503) 241-0543, ext. 116, or by e-mail.
03 December 2009 | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)
Past Oregon Chautauqua Scholars Available for Independent Programs
In 2009, Oregon Humanities transformed its Oregon Chautauqua program into the Conversation Project: a New Chautauqua, which focuses on facilitated dialogue about contemporary themes. Nonprofit organizations in Oregon may request Conversation Project programs throughout the year through the same application process used for the former Oregon Chautauqua program.
Many organizations and community groups have forged strong relationships with the Oregon Chautauqua scholars who have traveled across Oregon these past thirty years, and we are happy to facilitate those ongoing relationships by making the following information available. Below is a downloadable listing of past Oregon Chautauqua scholars who remain available, independent of Oregon Humanities, to make presentations to organizations and community groups across the state.
Please note that these presentations are not offered through Oregon Humanities and may not be advertised using the name Oregon Chautauqua. Oregon Humanities will not be involved in the booking process for any of these programs, nor will the organization pay honoraria or travel expenses for the scholars’ presentations. All contractual agreements and speaking fees must be arranged between the sponsoring organization and the individual scholar(s).
Downloads
09 November 2009 | Permalink | Comments? (3 so far)
Conversation Project Kicks Off in November
The Conversation Project: A New Chautauqua—which offers free community discussions on topics such as friendship, the future of rural communities, media literacy, and the prison system—officially begins on November 5, 2009, at Newport Public Library with Geoffrey Hiller’s program “Life in a Mega City: Images of Urban Bangladesh.” Over the next four months, thirty programs follow in fourteen counties across the state. For a complete schedule, visit the Oregon Humanities calendar.
Conversation Project programs provide a wonderful opportunity for community members to learn about and discussion compelling topics that shape our daily lives. We hope you’ll join us this fall and winter at a program near you.
27 October 2009 | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)
Applying to host a Conversation Project program
The Conversation Project is a statewide program promoting thoughtful public conversations about important ideas. The inaugural 2009-10 season will begin November 1, 2009.
Please read this section carefully before applying to host a Conversation Project program.
Who may apply to host a Conversation Project program?
Nonprofit organizations in Oregon are eligible to host Conversation Project programs. The schedule for submitting applications is described below. Applications are considered based on Oregon Humanities’ interest in serving audiences and creating partnerships throughout the state, the number of programs requested for a given month, and opportunities to schedule efficient travel arrangements for scholar-facilitators. Organizations may apply to host two Conversation Project programs between November 1, 2009, and October 31, 2010. Oregon Humanities cannot guarantee that all program requests will be met.
What other conditions must I meet?
Conversation Project programs are designed for adult audiences, and programs must be open to the public. Oregon Humanities does not fund events that are exclusively classroom- or campus-based, part of private or members-only meetings, or for scholar-facilitators at their home institutions. Conversation Project programs may not be used in conjunction with fundraisers or benefits.
What costs are associated with Conversation Project programs?
Oregon Humanities does not charge organizations a fee to host a Conversation Project program. Oregon Humanities funds scholar-facilitators’ honoraria and directly reimburses them for mileage and estimated meal costs. If scholar-facilitators travel more than fifty miles one way, organizations must offer to provide a home stay or one night of commercial lodging at the host’s expense. In cases when two scholar-facilitators are offering a Conversation Project program, it is only expected that hosts provide one night of overnight lodging for one scholar-facilitator. These lodging plans must be discussed with scholar-facilitators and indicated on your application form.
Hosts may charge a modest admission fee (up to $5) in order to recover costs incurred by hosting the event (e.g., lodging and refreshments). Please notify OCH if your facility has an admission fee greater than $5. You may also solicit voluntary contributions to your organization at a Conversation Project program.
How do I apply to host a Conversation Project program?
Review the current Conversation Project catalog and select programs that you would like to host between November 1, 2009, and October 31, 2010. Please consult local events calendars in order to request program dates that do not conflict with other important events in your community.
Contact scholar-facilitators directly to discuss dates and times before you apply to host a program. Oregon Humanities does not maintain the personal or professional calendars of Conversation Project scholar-facilitators, but we may ask you to consider other dates in order to schedule efficient travel plans. You must submit applications for Conversation Project programs according to the following time frames:
| Nonprofits can apply: |
For programs to take place between: |
| August 1-September 30, 2009 |
November 1, 2009-February 28, 2010 |
| December 1, 2009-January 31, 2010 |
March 1-June 30, 2010 |
| April 1-May 31, 2010 |
July 1-October 31, 2010 |
Applications submitted outside of the above time frames will not be considered. Please note that applications also must be submitted at least six weeks before the requested program date. For example, to host a program on November 1, you must apply no later than September 15.
Download an application form below. Incomplete or illegible forms will hinder Oregon Humanities’ ability to review requests in a timely manner. Please ensure that you complete the entire application before submitting it.
How will I know if my application is approved?
Oregon Humanities makes every effort to respond in a timely way. Please allow up to three weeks to hear back from us. When a program request is approved, we will send you a confirmation letter via postal mail and a packet of program information via e-mail. Please review these materials for helpful instructions regarding publicity materials, hosting responsibilities, and evaluations. Please do not publicize a program prior to the receipt of written confirmation from Oregon Humanities.
How long is a typical Conversation Project program?
Programs are designed to last approximately one hour, which includes a presentation by the scholar-facilitator, followed by a facilitated conversation with program participants. A Conversation Project program must precede any other items on a public meeting agenda.
What kind of equipment will a scholar-facilitator need?
Program descriptions include lists of equipment that scholar-facilitators will need for their programs. It is the nonprofit host’s responsibility to provide all required equipment. Please review equipment lists with scholar-facilitators when requesting programs and discuss any special challenges at your facility, such as whether you have the capacity to darken a room for slides. Scholar-facilitators who use slides or PowerPoint projectors in their programs will require access to a grounded electrical outlet with two plugs and a small table for a laptop and projector.
What if an approved program must be rescheduled or canceled?
Prompt communication is essential if a program must be canceled because of a scholar-facilitator’s illness, inclement weather, or unforeseeable circumstances. Please obtain approval from Oregon Humanities prior to rescheduling or canceling a program; we will make every effort to accommodate these changes.
What are my responsibilities after the program?
You must complete and return the host’s program evaluation form, participant evaluation forms, and copies of publicity materials within two weeks of the program date. Failure to return these documents in a timely manner may affect future applications from your organization. An individual from the host organization who attended the program must complete the host’s program evaluation form.
May my organization schedule Conversation Project programs outside of Oregon Humanities’ sponsorship?
If you would like to host a Conversation Project program when Oregon Humanities sponsorship is not possible (e.g., for a classroom or as part of a fundraising event), contact Oregon Humanities to discuss your plans prior to contacting the scholar-facilitator. Your organization should expect to offer the scholar-facilitator an honorarium, mileage reimbursement, meal per diem, and—depending on the distance—overnight lodging. Once you have made arrangements to host a program independently, notify Oregon Humanities of the event’s date, time, and location so that we can supply the scholar-facilitator’s publicity materials to aid in your preparation. You must acknowledge that the presentation is part of Oregon Humanities’s Conversation Project in public relations materials and at the event.
When can I propose a program for the next catalog?
Conversation Project scholar-facilitators are listed in our catalog of programs for two years. Our next request for Conversation Project proposals from interested scholar-facilitators will be available in early 2011.
Additional questions?
If you have questions, please contact Oregon Humanities program coordinator Annie Dubinsky at (503) 241-0543 or (800) 735-0543, ext. 116, or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Certifications
By signing and submitting a Conversation Project application, the authorizing official of the hosting organization or institution provides the applicable federal certifications regarding compliance with nondiscrimination statutes, debarment, and suspension, as outlined below. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines, please contact Oregon Humanities at (503) 241-0543 or (800) 735-0543.
Certification regarding debarment, suspension, ineligibility, and voluntary exclusion—lower-tier covered transactions, 45 CFR 1169: (a.) The prospective lower-tier participant (organization hosting a Conversation Project program) certifies, by submission an application, that neither it nor its principals is presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded from participation in this transaction by any federal department or agency. (b.) Where the prospective lower-tier participant is unable to certify the statements in the certification, such prospective participant shall attach an explanation to their application.
Certification regarding nondiscrimination statutes: The applicant (organization hosting a Conversation Project program) certifies that it will comply with the following nondiscrimination statutes and their implementing regulations: (a.) Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.), which provides that no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity for which the applicant received federal financial assistance; (b.) Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 794), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance; (c.) Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as amended (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance; (d.) Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended (42 U.S.C. 6101 et seq.), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of age in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance, except that actions which reasonably take age into account as a factor necessary for the normal operation or achievement of any statutory objective of the project or activity shall not violate this statute.
Downloads
03 September 2009 | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)
Globalism
Slow Learners: Two Hundred Years of Unheeded Warnings
Cogent, compelling warnings – that exponential population growth must be stopped, that faith in technology to solve our problems is misplaced, that consumer culture cannot bring satisfaction, that greed and envy are treacherous underpinnings for an economic system, that violence elicits more violence, that nature bats last – have been ignored for more than two centuries. These warnings have come from some of the best minds of their times and have often been endorsed by other respected scientists and thinkers, yet their influence on public policy and individual behavior has been negligible. Oregon State University professor emeritus Richard Clinton will explore some of these early warnings, discuss them, and pose three questions: 1) Why have we largely ignored these urgent warnings? 2) What will it take to make us heed them? 3) What would be required of us if we did take them seriously?
Details
Equipment required: chalk/whiteboard; screen; overhead projector
Program available in Spanish.
Program available through October 2011
- Richard L. Clinton | Corvallis
- richard.clinton@oregonstate.edu
- 541-737-6246
Richard Clinton is professor emeritus of political science at Oregon State University, where he taught international relations, Latin American politics, American foreign policy, and alternative international futures. He currently teaches in the Honors College at OSU. Clinton was twice a Senior Fulbright Scholar-facilitator in Peru and from 1993 until 1995 was the Hanna Distinguished Chair in Latin American Politics at Rollins College in Florida. He is the author of three books and dozens of journal articles, book chapters, and essays; the editor or co-editor of three volumes; and, most recently, the co-author of Environmental Politics and Policy: A Comparative Approach (McGraw Hill, 2002). Educated at Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina, Clinton served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and was a loan officer of the First National City Bank of New York in New York City, Peru, and Bolivia.
Night of a Thousand Stars: A Portrait of Life in Iraq
Photojournalist Joel Preston Smith traveled in central and northern Iraq for four months in 2003, living with Iraqis and Kurds and patrolling with U.S. soldiers. This slide show and conversation offer a comprehensive portrait of Iraqi society before and after the U.S. invasion in 2003, as seen from the perspectives of both Iraqis and U.S. soldiers. Smith will lead audiences in a conversation about the ethics of war, media bias, and American perceptions of Iraqis and Middle Easterners.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen; microphone; laptop computer
Program available through October 2011
- Joel Preston Smith | Portland
- joelprestonsmith@gmail.com
- 503-935-7145
Joel Preston Smith is a freelance writer, photographer, and artist based in Portland. Born in Liberty, West Virginia, Smith has served as a photojournalist in the U.S. Army and as a civilian on humanitarian aid missions to Rwanda, Honduras, Palestine, and Iraq. His work has been published in Gobshite Quarterly, the Irish Times, the Oregonian, and others. He is also the author of a book of essays and photographs, Night of a Thousand Stars and Other Portraits of Iraq (Nazraeli Press, 2006).
Life in a Mega City: Images of Urban Bangladesh
Bangladesh, which is the size of Wisconsin, is home to more than 150 million inhabitants, including 15 million in the capital city of Dhaka alone. The country is also the fifth- largest exporter to the U.S. of ready-made garments, which are made by a largely female workforce whose hourly wages are lower than those in China, India, Indonesia, or Mexico. Considered one of twenty-two mega cities in the world, Dhaka continues to reinvent itself on a weekly basis as new industries spring up and rural citizens flock to the city for jobs and opportunities. Through slides, videos, and stories, photojournalist and Fulbright Scholar Geoffrey Hiller will lead a conversation about the reasons for and challenges associated with the growth of mega cities, the differences between Bangladeshi and American culture, and the connections between our consumer choices and a global work force.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen
Program available through October 2011
- Geoffrey Hiller | Portland
- hillerphoto@yahoo.com
- 503-335-8679
Geoffrey Hiller's photography has been published in the United States, Europe, and Japan in such publications as Geo, Newsweek, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Magazine. His photo-essays have covered Asia, Latin America, Europe, and West Africa. He was on the staff of the Brazilian edition of National Geographic for two years. Hiller's award-winning multimedia projects about Vietnam, eastern Europe, Ghana, Burma, and Brazil have earned recognition from Adobe, the Soros Foundation, Apple, The Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today. He has also developed web projects for Tektronix, Xerox, Canon, and the National Press Photographers Association. Hiller was a Fulbright Scholar between 2008 and 2009, photographing and teaching interactive media in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He maintains two blogs: www.banglaphoto.wordpress.com, about his work in Bangladesh, and www.vervephoto.wordpress.com, where he edits the work of contemporary documentary photographers.
Hard Choices Ahead: Adapting to Global Interdependence
Global interdependence has emerged gradually but inexorably as the human population has burgeoned: New technologies have multiplied human interactions and impacts, globalization of trade has intermeshed geographically distant economies, and weapons systems have acquired unprecedented reach and destructiveness. Climate change, which results from the cumulative effects of these processes on the global ecosystem, is, perhaps, the most dramatic symbol of global interdependence. While these various trends have been well reported, the profundity of the change that global interdependence represents in the conditions of life on earth has largely escaped notice. Oregon State University professor emeritus Richard Clinton proposes that we ponder together the immensity of the challenge global interdependence poses to many of our accepted assumptions, honored values, and accustomed ways of doing things.
Details
Equipment required: chalk/whiteboard; screen; overhead projector
Program available in Spanish.
Program available through October 2011
- Richard L. Clinton | Corvallis
- richard.clinton@oregonstate.edu
- 541-737-6246
Richard Clinton is professor emeritus of political science at Oregon State University, where he taught international relations, Latin American politics, American foreign policy, and alternative international futures. He currently teaches in the Honors College at OSU. Clinton was twice a Senior Fulbright Scholar-facilitator in Peru and from 1993 until 1995 was the Hanna Distinguished Chair in Latin American Politics at Rollins College in Florida. He is the author of three books and dozens of journal articles, book chapters, and essays; the editor or co-editor of three volumes; and, most recently, the co-author of Environmental Politics and Policy: A Comparative Approach (McGraw Hill, 2002). Educated at Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina, Clinton served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and was a loan officer of the First National City Bank of New York in New York City, Peru, and Bolivia.
Borderless: Migration, Globalization, and Changing Communities
In this time of cataclysmic change in our country and our world, it is important to ask not just how to get the economy back on track, but what kind of economy we want. In 1983, Benedict Anderson wrote Imagined Communities, a book about the origins of the modern nation-state and the powerful identification with nations for which millions have fought and been willing to die. Elliott Young will lead a discussion about the ways in which local communities in the twenty-first century need to think in new ways about the relationship between migration and globalization, and their effects on Oregon communities.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen
Program available in Spanish.
Program available through October 2011
- Elliott Young | Portland
- eyoung@lclark.edu
- 503-768-7454
Elliott Young was born in New York City and has been migrating westward ever since. He has conducted research and done community development work in Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Ecuador. Young has been a professor of Latin American and borderlands history at Lewis & Clark College in Portland since 1997. He has directed the college's Latin American Studies program and currently serves as chair of the history department and director of the ethnic studies program. He has published Catarino Garza's Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border (Duke University Press, 2004), which examines the little known story of a rebellion launched from Texas soil against the Diaz government in Mexico in 1891, and Continental Crossroads (Duke University Press, 2004), which presents a series of essays on borderlands history. Young's new research project focuses on the Chinese diaspora in Cuba, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His Conversation Project program draws on this historical research as a basis for asking questions about our current economy and the communities we would like to build. He earned his BA from Princeton University and his master's and doctoral degrees in Latin American history from the University of Texas, Austin.
Media and consumer culture
What Never Was and Never Will Be: Can Our Media Serve Our Democracy?
Thomas Jefferson warned his countrymen, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization it expects what never was and never will be.” Virtually everyone agrees that the media’s informational role is essential to effective self-government but that mass media news rarely offers what we need to function as thoughtful and competent citizens. Beyond that, agreement often breaks down. Jeff Golden asks us to consider the following: What are the primary failings of contemporary mass media news? What is our responsibility and what are our opportunities to improve prevailing conditions? Do our viewpoints have enough common ground to point to possibilities for effective activism? If we are to heed Jefferson’s warning, how do we focus our time and energies?
Details
Equipment required: TV/DVD; paper and pens/pencils
Program available through October 2011
- Jeff Golden | Ashland
- jeffgolden100@gmail.com
- 541-821-8401
Jeff Golden majored in agitation in the Ivy League before dropping out to learn how to take care of himself in the mountains of southern Oregon. After a decade of homebuilding, logging, and river guiding, he began a career as a public broadcasting producer, columnist, radio talk show host, and commentator. He has served as Jackson County commissioner, chief of staff to the Oregon Senate president, and environmental policy aide to the City of Portland. Golden is a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum and a media fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center. He was Oregon's first nominee for the JFK Profile in Courage Award. His books include Watermelon Summer, As If We Were Grownups, Forest Blood, and Unafraid: A Novel of the Possible. Golden was a Harvard National Scholar and holds a master's degree in communications from Stanford University.
Night of a Thousand Stars: A Portrait of Life in Iraq
Photojournalist Joel Preston Smith traveled in central and northern Iraq for four months in 2003, living with Iraqis and Kurds and patrolling with U.S. soldiers. This slide show and conversation offer a comprehensive portrait of Iraqi society before and after the U.S. invasion in 2003, as seen from the perspectives of both Iraqis and U.S. soldiers. Smith will lead audiences in a conversation about the ethics of war, media bias, and American perceptions of Iraqis and Middle Easterners.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen; microphone; laptop computer
Program available through October 2011
- Joel Preston Smith | Portland
- joelprestonsmith@gmail.com
- 503-935-7145
Joel Preston Smith is a freelance writer, photographer, and artist based in Portland. Born in Liberty, West Virginia, Smith has served as a photojournalist in the U.S. Army and as a civilian on humanitarian aid missions to Rwanda, Honduras, Palestine, and Iraq. His work has been published in Gobshite Quarterly, the Irish Times, the Oregonian, and others. He is also the author of a book of essays and photographs, Night of a Thousand Stars and Other Portraits of Iraq (Nazraeli Press, 2006).
Life in a Mega City: Images of Urban Bangladesh
Bangladesh, which is the size of Wisconsin, is home to more than 150 million inhabitants, including 15 million in the capital city of Dhaka alone. The country is also the fifth- largest exporter to the U.S. of ready-made garments, which are made by a largely female workforce whose hourly wages are lower than those in China, India, Indonesia, or Mexico. Considered one of twenty-two mega cities in the world, Dhaka continues to reinvent itself on a weekly basis as new industries spring up and rural citizens flock to the city for jobs and opportunities. Through slides, videos, and stories, photojournalist and Fulbright Scholar Geoffrey Hiller will lead a conversation about the reasons for and challenges associated with the growth of mega cities, the differences between Bangladeshi and American culture, and the connections between our consumer choices and a global work force.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen
Program available through October 2011
- Geoffrey Hiller | Portland
- hillerphoto@yahoo.com
- 503-335-8679
Geoffrey Hiller's photography has been published in the United States, Europe, and Japan in such publications as Geo, Newsweek, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Magazine. His photo-essays have covered Asia, Latin America, Europe, and West Africa. He was on the staff of the Brazilian edition of National Geographic for two years. Hiller's award-winning multimedia projects about Vietnam, eastern Europe, Ghana, Burma, and Brazil have earned recognition from Adobe, the Soros Foundation, Apple, The Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today. He has also developed web projects for Tektronix, Xerox, Canon, and the National Press Photographers Association. Hiller was a Fulbright Scholar between 2008 and 2009, photographing and teaching interactive media in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He maintains two blogs: www.banglaphoto.wordpress.com, about his work in Bangladesh, and www.vervephoto.wordpress.com, where he edits the work of contemporary documentary photographers.
Friend Me? Notions of Friendship in a Changing World
Friendship is a foundational relationship in human life and society. Some of us of us have friends we have known for many years while others of us form new and intimate friendships throughout our our lives. There are different kinds of friendships as well, including, as Aristotle noted some twenty-five centuries ago, friendships of pleasure, utility, and virtue. Some people call anyone with whom they have regular contact a friend, while others reserve the term for a very particular kind of relationship. Has the idea of friendship changed in contemporary society, especially given the role that social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace play in creating and maintaining friendships today?
Details
Equipment required: chalk/whiteboard
Program available through October 2011
- Courtney S. Campbell | Corvallis
- ccampbell.oregonstate.edu
- 541-737-6196
Courtney S. Campbell is Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture and professor of philosophy at Oregon State University. Campbell's primary teaching and research interests focus on ethical issues in medicine, concepts of peace and war, theories of death and dying, and comparative religious ethics. He has been on the OSU faculty since 1990 and has received numerous awards for teaching and scholarship. Prior to joining the OSU faculty, Campbell was a research associate at the Hastings Center in New York, a think-tank for ethics in the life sciences and biotechnology. While there, he was editor of the Hastings Center Report, the premier academic journal in biomedical ethics. Campbell received his master's and doctoral degrees in religious studies at the University of Virginia and his bachelor's degree in religious studies at Yale University.
- Lani Roberts | Corvallis
- lroberts@oregonstate.edu
- 541-737-5654
Lani Roberts is a fifth-generation Oregonian who grew up near The Dalles in a house her great-great-grandfather built in 1868. She has been teaching philosophy at Oregon State University since 1989. Roberts specializes in ethics, or moral philosophy. She researches, writes, and teaches about the intersection between some of our most deeply held values and our actual daily practices. She holds bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of Oregon.
Other
Walking Our Talk: Moral Integrity and Self-Deception
We have moral integrity to the degree that we act according to what we say we believe are the right principles by which to conduct our lives—that is, whether we walk our talk. It also seems to be a top priority to us that we are able to think of ourselves as decent, moral persons. Evidence for this can be found in the degree to which we attempt to deceive ourselves about how moral we actually are. Using an essay written by Samuel Johnson in 1750, Lani Roberts will lead a conversation about the several methods that we use to deceive ourselves and three approaches to overcoming this self-deception.
Details
Equipment required: chalk/whiteboard
Program available through October 2011
- Lani Roberts | Corvallis
- lroberts@oregonstate.edu
- 541-737-5654
Lani Roberts is a fifth-generation Oregonian who grew up near The Dalles in a house her great-great-grandfather built in 1868. She has been teaching philosophy at Oregon State University since 1989. Roberts specializes in ethics, or moral philosophy. She researches, writes, and teaches about the intersection between some of our most deeply held values and our actual daily practices. She holds bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of Oregon.
Of the People or for the People: Getting the Government We Deserve
The problem with this country, according to some disenchanted Americans, “is that there are no real leaders anymore.” What we most need, they say, are people of our Founding Fathers’ caliber, or another Abe Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt to step forward with the courage and wisdom necessary to solve our daunting problems. An opposing point of view holds that in a state or country with free and open elections, people get the government they deserve. Do the failures of modern governance and politics have more to do with a crisis of leadership or a crisis of citizenship? Join Jeff Golden for a conversation about what we as citizens can do to improve the political discourse and the quality of public life.
Details
Equipment required: TV/DVD; paper and pens/pencils
Program available through October 2011
- Jeff Golden | Ashland
- jeffgolden100@gmail.com
- 541-821-8401
Jeff Golden majored in agitation in the Ivy League before dropping out to learn how to take care of himself in the mountains of southern Oregon. After a decade of homebuilding, logging, and river guiding, he began a career as a public broadcasting producer, columnist, radio talk show host, and commentator. He has served as Jackson County commissioner, chief of staff to the Oregon Senate president, and environmental policy aide to the City of Portland. Golden is a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum and a media fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center. He was Oregon's first nominee for the JFK Profile in Courage Award. His books include Watermelon Summer, As If We Were Grownups, Forest Blood, and Unafraid: A Novel of the Possible. Golden was a Harvard National Scholar and holds a master's degree in communications from Stanford University.
Capital Costs: Examining Oregon's Death Penalty
This program will engage participants in a conversation that will probe the history, law, policy, cost, and arguments for and against the death penalty, especially as it relates to Oregon. Special attention will be given to why the issue of the death penalty has received so much interest in the last few years and why an argument that had never previously been a factor in death penalty discussion—the cost—has not assumed a central role in public discussions. William Long, attorney and author of A Tortured History: The Story of Capital Punishment in Oregon, will lead a discussion interweaving insights and questions from law, history, philosophy, and rhetoric.
Details
Equipment required: chalk/whiteboard
Program available through October 2011
- William Long | Salem
- drbilllong@gmail.com
- 503-798-8349
Bill Long, MDiv, PhD, JD, is a writer and legal consultant living in Salem. He currently serves as a foundation consultant, works on legal issues faced by families with autistic children, and leads Oregon's effort to abolish the death penalty. He is also writing a book on the Biblical book of Proverbs. Long's award-winning A Tortured History: The Story of Capital Punishment in Oregon (Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers, 2001), will form the basis of his conversation. From 1982 through 2006, Long taught religion and humanities at Reed College, history and government at Sterling College in Kansas, and law at Willamette University College of Law; wrote editorials for The Oregonian; served as pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland; and served as litigation attorney for the firm Stoel Rives in Portland.
The American Character: The Power of Individualism and Volunteerism
Individualism and volunteerism have special significance for Americans, and yet the two ideas are often points of intense debate. Are these notions incompatible? According to author Alexis de Tocqueville, individualism tempered by volunteerism is the key to democracy’s success and good citizenship. By approaching Tocqueville’s ideas and ideals of individualism and volunteerism from their historical, philosophical, and political contexts, this program provides Oregonians with both a model and an opportunity to engage in thoughtful and robust conversations about community issues.
Details
Equipment required: Equipment needs: digital projector; TV/DVD; CD player; chalk/whiteboard; screen; microphone
Program available through October 2011
- Prakash Chenjeri | Ashland
- chenjeri@sou.edu
- 541-552-6034
Prakash Chenjeri is a philosophy professor at Southern Oregon University, where he has been teaching since 1995. He was educated both in his native country of India and the United States. He teaches a wide range of courses in the areas of moral philosophy and the history of philosophy. His research interests focus on the philosophical issues relating to the role of science and science education in society, the philosophy of science, and the intersection of science and religion. Chenjeri has presented papers and participated in conferences on these themes at several regional and national meetings, including those at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University. He is a member of several national professional organizations, including the American Philosophical Association, Oregon Academy of Science, the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, and Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum.
- Daniel Morris | Ashland
- morris@sou.edu
- 541-552-6740
Daniel Morris is a professor of French and director of foreign languages and literatures at Southern Oregon University, where he has taught since 1982. In 1997, he formed the Southern Oregon Foreign Language Articulation project, a regional collaborative of language teachers, which he also directed through 2007. A certified ACTFL OPI tester/trainer in French, he has served on state, regional, and national language boards and has written a book on French author Georges Bernanos, as well as articles on French literature, culture, globalization, and language teaching. Between 2006 and 2007, Morris served as interim dean of the School of Arts and Letters at SOU, where he started and currently directs the Arts and Humanities Council. He has a PhD in Romance languages (French) from the University of Oregon.
The Voters Have Spoken: Oregon's Controversial Ballot Initiatives
Oregonians participate in the political ritual of voting on citizen initiatives with more frequency and, at times, more enthusiasm than any other group of citizens in the U.S. Over the past century, Oregon has had more statewide citizen-generated ballot measures than any other state, and, as a result, “direct democracy” has dramatically transformed the state’s political and social landscape. Jackson Miller will lead a conversation about the role of persuasion and communication in the political process, focusing on issues raised by Oregon ballot measures over the past ten to fifteen years, which include abortion, education, gay rights, land use, marijuana, medical liability, obscenity, physician-assisted suicide, taxes, and timber. In order to tailor the conversation to the specific interests of the community, hosts may select up to three issues to serve as focal points.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen
Program available in Spanish.
Program available through October 2011
- Jackson Miller | McMinnville
- jmiller@linfield.edu
- 503-883-2625
Jackson B. Miller is an associate professor of communication arts and the director of forensics (speech and debate) at Linfield College. Miller's research interests include political rhetoric, performance theory, persuasive communication, and intercultural communication. As a certified trainer for the International Debate Education Association, Miller has conducted debate-training seminars in Guatemala and Turkey. He also provided critical analysis of the 2008 presidential debates for the International Debate Education Association. Miller has conducted extensive research on the ballot initiative process in Oregon, including campaigns on such diverse issues as physician-assisted suicide, gay rights, medical marijuana, logging practices, and land use regulations. In 2008, he wrote and directed the play "82,769 Signatures," which focuses on five controversial ballot initiatives. Miller holds BS and MA degrees from Ohio University, and a PhD in Speech Communication from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Place and community
Your Land, My Land: Using and Preserving Oregon's Natural Resources
Oregonians are known for a fierce sense of independence and a rugged individuality, qualities long associated with natural resource vocations such as logging, fishing, farming, and ranching. The state is also known for its progressive environmental policies. Our sense of connection to a place informs our values and our approaches to conflict over resource and land use in our communities. Veronica Dujon, whose research focuses on gillnet fishermen on the Lower Columbia and the conflict over water rights in the Klamath Basin, invites you to consider the various meanings we in Oregon have come to attach to different places in the state and to explore how these attachments shape our desire to both use and preserve our natural resources.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen; microphone; TV/DVD
Program available in Spanish.
Program available through October 2011
- Veronica Dujon | Portland
- dujonv@pdx.edu
- 503-725-8503
Veronica Dujon is professor and chair of the department of sociology at Portland State University. She teaches, researches, and publishes in the areas of environmental sociology with a focus on contests over declining natural resources, sociology of globalization, and women in the global economy. One of her major research interests is how to build socially sustainable societies. She has published widely and is co-editor of the volume Understanding the Social Dimension of Sustainability (Routledge, 2009). In Oregon, her research focuses on the conflict over water rights in the Klamath Basin and the adaptation strategies of gillnet fishermen on the Lower Columbia as they respond to declining salmon runs. Dujon received her bachelor's degree from the University of the West Indies, Barbados, and her master's and doctoral degrees in land resources/sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Seeding a Sense of Place: Science, Stories, and Smart Forest Policy
How does our allegiance to places affect our opinions about land use, particularly forest use? Now that forest management is shifting from balancing commodities to embracing the ecosystem, sense of place has become a legitimate consideration in land-use management decisions. The human sense of place – the subjective recognition of beauty or meaning in a landscape – is impossible to measure but is crucial in shaping people’s responses to land-use decisions. Gail Wells, an independent writer and editor specializing in history and natural-resource science, will lead a conversation about the meanings we build into places individually and collectively through storytelling and public policy.
Details
Equipment required: chalk/whiteboard; microphone
Program available through October 2011
- Gail Wells | Corvallis
- gailwellscommunications@comcast.net
- 541-752-1692
Gail Wells is an award-winning independent writer and editor specializing in history and natural-resource science. Her most recent book is The Little Lucky: A Family Geography (OSU Press, 2008). She is also the author of The Tillamook: A Created Forest Comes of Age (OSU Press, 1999) and coauthor of Lewis and Clark Meet Oregon's Forests: Lessons from Dynamic Nature (Oregon Forest Resources Institute, 2001). Wells has published many articles and essays in national and regional publications. She is currently working on a collection of essays about faith and the natural world.
Marking Our Territory: How to Read Local Landscapes
The big house and the quarters; the front door and the back door; lunch counters, water fountains, the back of the bus. One of the most persistent ways people exert power over others is to control their access to space. Drawing upon the fields of architecture, environmental studies, urban design, and public policy, this discussion will pose the following questions: How do we mark our territory? How do the built environments we create reflect our values and aspirations? Whom do we include and whom de we exclude in the process? Touching on gentrification, the decline of public space, historic preservation, residential segregation, and suburban sprawl, Reiko Hillyer will lead a conversation about how to reading the history of our communities through the landscapes we build and consider how we can be more aware of and more engaged in the creation of our surroundings.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen
Program available through October 2011
- Reiko Hillyer | Portland
- rhillyer@gmail.com
- 203-671-5954
Reiko Hillyer is a visiting assistant professor of history at Lewis & Clark College, where she recently won the Teacher of the Year award. She teaches twentieth-century U.S. history, African American history, the Civil War, women's history, and the history of the American landscape. Her current book project, Designing Dixie: Landscape, Tourism, and Memory in the New South, 1870-1941, explores the era following the Civil War and examines the role that northern tourism to the South played in fostering reconciliation between North and South. Formerly a high school history teacher and guide for Big Onion Walking Tours in New York City, Hillyer is a lifelong New Yorker who is still adjusting to the calm of Portland. She received her BA from Yale University and her doctorate from Columbia University.
Landscapes and Livelihoods: A Sustainable Future for Rural Oregon
Rural communities in Oregon have been buffeted by shifting natural resource policies and globalizing economies, yet family legacies, attachment to place, and traditional institutions help these communities preserve their heritage of making a living from the land. Newcomers and a new interconnectedness with urban places challenge remote places, yet bring new economic opportunities and forms of civic participation. In this program, Victoria Sturtevant will provide citizens an opportunity to trace their rural heritage, assess their strengths and challenges, and envision a sustainable future.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen
Program available through October 2011
- Victoria Sturtevant | Ashland
- sturtevant@sou.edu
- 541-552-6762
Victoria Sturtevant's experience in the coal-mining region of Kentucky sparked her interest in resource-based communities. Since 1980, she has taught sociology and environmental studies at Southern Oregon University. Her research focuses on social dimensions of forest management, particularly community involvement in social assessment, ecological monitoring, wildfire planning, and collaborative stewardship. Sturtevant works with such regional groups as Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition, Southern Oregon Small Diameter Collaborative, Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters, and Applegate Partnership. She participated in the ecosystem assessment for President Clinton's Forest Plan to predict community ability to adapt to shifting federal forest policies. She is co-editor of Forest Community Connections and a frequent contributor to such journals as Society and Natural Resources, Journal of Forestry, and Journal of Community Development, as well as to community-centered workshops. She holds a PhD in rural sociology from Cornell University.
Borderless: Migration, Globalization, and Changing Communities
In this time of cataclysmic change in our country and our world, it is important to ask not just how to get the economy back on track, but what kind of economy we want. In 1983, Benedict Anderson wrote Imagined Communities, a book about the origins of the modern nation-state and the powerful identification with nations for which millions have fought and been willing to die. Elliott Young will lead a discussion about the ways in which local communities in the twenty-first century need to think in new ways about the relationship between migration and globalization, and their effects on Oregon communities.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen
Program available in Spanish.
Program available through October 2011
- Elliott Young | Portland
- eyoung@lclark.edu
- 503-768-7454
Elliott Young was born in New York City and has been migrating westward ever since. He has conducted research and done community development work in Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Ecuador. Young has been a professor of Latin American and borderlands history at Lewis & Clark College in Portland since 1997. He has directed the college's Latin American Studies program and currently serves as chair of the history department and director of the ethnic studies program. He has published Catarino Garza's Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border (Duke University Press, 2004), which examines the little known story of a rebellion launched from Texas soil against the Diaz government in Mexico in 1891, and Continental Crossroads (Duke University Press, 2004), which presents a series of essays on borderlands history. Young's new research project focuses on the Chinese diaspora in Cuba, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His Conversation Project program draws on this historical research as a basis for asking questions about our current economy and the communities we would like to build. He earned his BA from Princeton University and his master's and doctoral degrees in Latin American history from the University of Texas, Austin.
Beyond Bars: Re-envisioning the Prison System
What is the role that prisons serve in our country? Is it possible to envision a world where people are safe and secure and where there is accountability, but without a reliance on a prison system that may not reduce crime but, in some cases, actually cause it? Participants in this program will begin by exploring what they know about prisons. After a brief multimedia history of prisons and alternative justice systems, Walidah Imarisha, author and adjunct professor in Portland State University’s Black Studies Department, will lead a conversation about alternatives to incarceration.
Details
Equipment required: digital projector; screen; chalk/whiteboard; TV/DVD
Program available through October 2011
- Walidah Imarisha | Portland
- walidah@pdx.edu
- 503-725-3472
Walidah Imarisha has researched prison issues for more than ten years. She helped found the Human Rights Coalition, a prisoners' family organization in Pennsylvania that now has three chapters. She has also facilitated writing workshops in correctional facilities and public schools. Imarisha was a founding editor of AWOL Magazine and co-edited the 9/11 anthology Another World is Possible. She developed and guest edited an edition of Left Turn Magazine that focused on alternatives to incarceration. Imarisha is an adjunct professor in Portland State University's black studies department.
