During the academic year 2009-2010, The Portland Center for Public Humanities will continue the work of the Humanities Sustainability Research Project that it began in winter and spring 2009. The Humanities Sustainability Research Project will facilitate 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 Avram Hiller (Philosophy, PSU), the project's Fall quarter faculty coordinator.
Listen to the LecturesDale Jamieson Lecture
“The Moral and Political Challenges of Climate Change”
October 16, 2009
Dale Jamieson Interview
Facilitated by Avram Hiller (Philosophy, PSU)
October 16, 2009
Julie Sze Lecture
“Environmental Justice and Environmental Humanities at the Crossroads”
May 20, 2008
Julie Sze APA Compass Interview
May 20, 2008
The Portland Center for Public Humanities at PSU's Humanities Sustainability Research Project is working on developing a comprehensive index of terms related to sustainability. To view and comment on our terms and their definitions, please visit us at www.understandingsustainability.org and investigate the keywords section in the right-hand column.
The Center's administrative assistant, Gavin Mahaley, is working to coral news related to sustainability in general at our understandingsustainability.org site. Read that news here.
Second Annual International Conference on:
“Understanding Sustainability: Perspectives from the Humanities”
May 20-22, 2010
Portland State University
Portland, Oregon
Keynote Speakers:
Stephen Gardiner (Philosophy, University of Washington) – a leading expert on the ethics of global environmental problems
Natalie Jeremijenko (Visual Arts, New York University) – a renowned artist at the forefront of synthesizing experimental design, engineering, and environmental engagement
Cary Wolfe (English, Rice University) – a path-breaking scholar of posthumanism, animal studies, and postmodern systems theory
Our agenda:
We hear talk of "sustainability" everywhere—sometimes as an ecological vision, an advertising strategy, a countercultural dream or even a business model. Given the diverse uses of “sustainability,” how might those of us who invoke it most effectively address our ecological, economic, and social challenges? This conference is an invitation to construct bridges across the diverse terrains of sustainability theory and practice, engaging in productive dialogue and debate that might lead to innovative green frameworks for environmental scholarship, activism, research, and policy.
To these ends, the Second Annual International Conference on “Understanding Sustainability” seeks to encourage innovative dialogues between diverse groups that are not always in conversation.
- Humanities scholars working in fields such as ecocriticism, green cultural studies, environmental ethics, philosophy of science, and environmental history
- Social scientists working in the areas of social sustainability, environmental justice, environmental economics, sustainable business practices
- 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 or new strategies of political participation
Proposal Guidelines:
We welcome proposals both for traditional academic paper presentations as well as other formats, including panel discussions, interviews, workshops, art installations, and media screenings. Presentations that speak broadly to an interdisciplinary audience and that seek to stimulate broad conversation about the future direction of green or environmental knowledge and practice are especially encouraged.
Please send proposals of 250 words or less by Monday, January 4, 2010 to: publichumanities@pdx.edu
Please write “Understanding Sustainability” in the subject line and attach your proposal in the form of a Microsoft Word file. Both the e-mail text and word document should include your name, affiliation, proposal title, and full contact information (address, phone, e-mail) for all participants.
To download a pdf of the CFP, click here.
Friend of the Center and science fiction legend Kim Stanley Robinson has been gracious enough to offer his thoughts on Sustainability in an effort to help further the conversation on and interrogation of Sustainability.
More voices will be added to the site in short order, so make www.understandingsustainability.org a favorite and join our discussion.
Coming in January, we preparing a panel discussion on the "Eating Animals." Please check this space as we will continue to post information as it becomes available.