May at 14-16
Portland State University, Native American Student and Community Center and the Cyan Building
Humanities scholars will converge on Portland State University May 14-16, 2009, for the inaugural “Understanding Sustainability: Perspectives from the Humanities.”
This national event will consider the cultures, histories, values and imaginations at stake in “sustainability.” Carolyn Merchant, author and professor of environmental history, philosophy, and ethics at the University of California, Berkeley, will deliver the conference keynote address, “Melting Ice: Climate Change and the Humanities,” on Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. A broad range of panel discussions will address sustainability on May 15-16.
In addition, an interactive and improvisational event featuring Sojourn Theater, “Re-Casting Expertise: A Game of Public Inquiry,” will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. on Friday, May 15 at the Cyan (333 S.W. Harrison St., Portland). The conference is free and open to the public. All events will be held at PSU’s Native American Student and Community Center (710 S.W. Jackson St., Portland, Ore.) unless otherwise noted. Visit www.understandingsustainability.org for a detailed schedule.
Conference organizers explain that clean air and water, a livable climate, and a healthy standard of living are not the only endangered elements in our social order worth “sustaining.” The broader list goes beyond environment and economics to include community, psychological health, meaningful work, intellectual openness, popular empowerment, a sense of heritage and history, cultural diversity, art and music. Intellectual traditions of the humanities allow for deep inquiry into these issues and values.
The conference format is designed to create dialogue between disparate groups: humanities scholars working in fields such as eco-criticism, green cultural studies, environmental ethics, philosophy of science, and environmental history; local designers, city planners, and social service providers who are building Portland’s reputation as a leader in sustainability; and artists and activists shaping ideas of green ethics and aesthetics.
“Understanding Sustainability” is organized by the Humanities Sustainability Research Project, an initiative of PSU's Portland Center for Public Humanities, and supported by a grant through PSU's Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices and the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation.
To learn more about the conference, click here.
This winter and spring quarter, the Portland Center for Public Humanities launches a new project to supported by the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation. The Humanities Sustainability Research Project will facilitiate public and campus-wide reflection on the conflicting notions of what sustainability means, how it attaches to our values, histories, and imagination, and how it signifies ethically, ideologically, and culturally.
The project research team will sponsor reading groups and discussion panels, organize community and student events, plan lectures by distinguished scholars, and build a humanities sustainability resource website. In late May, the project will culminate in a national conference on the Meanings of Sustainability. This project seeks to amplify and reflect upon the larger sustainability mission of the university.
For further information, please contact Professor Marcia Klotz (English, PSU), the project's Spring quarter faculty coordinator.
Update: We have added a separate web site that will be continually updated with information about the conference. The address for that site is www.understandingsustainability.org.
Beginning in February 2009, PCPH is hosting an ambitious series of faculty workshops and public lectures by leading scholars on the subject of "Cosmopolitanism." How and when do we form social relations, loyalties, and meanings that are global in scope? What is the relationship of these cosmopolitanisms to traditional borders of nation, race, or religion? What do they mean for international community? domestic politics, war, religion, capitalism, or the mass media? The questions will be explored by a distinguished group of scholars from a wide range of disciplines.
Winter and Spring:
The Bruce Robbins and Saskia Sassen lectures have been arranged in a new collaboration between PCPH and the Public Policy Lecture Series at Reed College.
Academic Year 2009-2010: Speakers slated to speak in this series for the next academic year are: Thomas Bender (Professor of History, New York University), Srinivas Aravamudan (Professor of Literature, Duke University), Etienne Balibar (Professor of Philosophy, University of Paris and University of California, Irvine), David Theo Goldberg (Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the UC Humanities Research Institute), and Michael Curtin (Professor of Communication and Global Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison).
On June 16-20, 2009, the Portland Center for Public Humanities will be hosting the Marxist Literary Group's distinguished "Institute on Culture and Society." An organizational affiliate of the Modern Language Association, the MLG gathers scholars from around the the nation to discuss new directions in marxist and materialist criticism. In the wake of this year's massive financial crisis, the conference theme will be "new directions in marxist political economy." Please see the MLG website for more information on the organization and its annual conference. Further information will appear on this website as well.
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Hear PCPH lectures and discussions from the convenience of your desktop or iPod!
The Portland Center for Public Humanities will provide full-length podcasts of all scheduled center events.
Podcasts
Dylan Rodríguez Lecture
American Apocalypse: Prisons, the Racist states, and U.S. Globality
June 5, 2008
Julie Sze Lecture
“Environmental Justice and Environmental Humanities at the Crossroads”
May 20, 2008
Julie Sze APA Compass Interview
May 20, 2008