Are you living under the tyranny of the "to do" list? Want to reclaim a bit of your humanity in the midst of the daily grind? Interested in connecting with others for casual conversation? If so, The Reading Hour is for you.
In a world that seems increasingly defined by productivity, optimization, and the devices that tether us to those practices, the simple act of picking up a book and carving out an hour to read with no agenda feels radical. Reclaim your relationship to reading and spontaneous conversation with this low-key, no-tech event put on by the Public Research Fellows. Read alongside friends, meet some new people, and enjoy hot cocoa and snacks. There will be time for quiet reading as well as discussing and socializing with others.
Part of PRF's 24-25 "Everyday Democracy" series, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and UP's College of Arts & Sciences. Questions? Email prf@up.edu
It’s become commonplace to assume that our capacity for conversation these days is at a low point; while the culprits sometimes change (was it Covid isolation that did it? smartphone screens? polarization and political discord?), there seems to be a cultural consensus that today we are less comfortable with conversation than generations past. This prompts us to ask: what does conversation actually look like on UP’s campus? Where on campus does it flourish and where does it get stifled? What are the best conditions to help make conversations flow?
Join us for a roundtable discussion with students who lead or participate in organizations dedicated to creating spaces to come together to talk as we have a conversation about conversation that we hope sheds light on how UP students think about and experience this practice today.
Open to all! Coffee, tea, and sweet treats provided. Part of the PRF 24-25 "Everyday Democracy" series sponsored by CAS and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Interested in deepening your understanding of Portland and the stories we tell about it? Want to take a class that uses perspectives from multiple disciplines alongside engaged humanities practices to explore the complexity of the city beyond the headlines? Need an Exploration-level Core course to fill out your Spring schedule?
Check out CORE 391X: "Portland and the Public Imagination," a new course co-designed by a PRF research group of faculty and students. Share widely and email Dr. Jen McDaneld (mcdaneld@up.edu) with any questions.
Are you a student who's interested in gaining real-world experience in program building and project management? The program has won an NEH grant and is looking for a student to serve as a Program Fellow for the coming year, assisting the team in managing, documenting, and publicizing the work of the grant in addition to maintaining the PRF Instagram account and supporting program events. See the call below for details and reach out to Dr. Jen McDaneld (mcdaneld@up.edu) with questions.
With the support of an NEH Humanities Connections grant, the program is bringing together an interdisciplinary working group of faculty, students, and community partners to co-create projects and courses related to everyday civil dialogue and civic life. A core group of faculty—the three NEH project directors: Jen McDaneld (ENG), Molly Hiro (ENG), and Andrew Guest (PSY), along with Sruthi Rothenfluch (PHL), Anne Santiago (POL), and Shaz Vijlee (EGR) have been working on developing the theme for the year and are seeking 3 additional faculty fellows to join us in exploring our 24-25 theme "Everyday Democracy."
Applications are due 8/5. Faculty from all disciplines are encouraged to apply.
Are you a student interested in gaining undergraduate research experience that connects academic work with local issues through engaged humanities approaches? See the call below (updated with additional project info and an extended deadline) and consider applying to be a student fellow for PRF 2024-25.
Send applications to prf@up.edu by Wednesday, August 21.
What happens when we connect the humanities to other disciplines and our local community? That's the question the program's six faculty-student teams have been investigating during the 23-24 year as part of our "Engaging Portland" theme.
Join us for the PRF Showcase, an open-house style event where you can drop by a series of interactive exhibits our teams have put together to show off their work exploring Portland through topics such as health, education, sustainability, race, and civic life.
Food, drink, and live music provided!
PRF invites any and all faculty to join us for an Engaged Humanities Lunch Conversation on the topic of technology in the classroom. While an ever-increasing reliance on tech often takes on an air of inevitability, there are compelling reasons to consider the effects of these shifts--on learning outcomes, on students' mental health, on our abilities to make connections with one another as members of a classroom community.
Building off the conversation we hosted last semester about AI in education, this time around we want to take a step back and explore more broadly the role that screens play in our pedagogy and potential alternatives for thinking about how we use (or don't use) technology in our teaching. We'll use Molly Worthen's "Why Universities Should Be More Like Monasteries" to ground our discussion, exploring the ways we teach with or without technology and imagining other ways to think about the relationship between our screens, our students, and our goals.
If you're interested, join us for lunch (on us!) on Wednesday, 3/27, 12:00-1:15pm, in the Teske Dining Room. RSVP to Jen McDaneld (mcdaneld@up.edu) by Thursday, March 21.
Join us for a conversation with 5 UP Alumni who will discuss how their humanities majors prepared them for life after graduation and how what they studied at UP helps them navigate their careers today.
Join in person in DB 230 or via Zoom:
https://uportland.zoom.us/j/98071835504
Interested in designing courses that are more interdisciplinary and more engaging for a variety of students? Apply to join the Core x Engaged Humanities Institute, May 9-10, 2024, hosted by PRF and the University Core. The two-day workshop will provide time and space to work on a new or revised course in a collaborative environment and comes with a $750 stipend. See the full call below for details; apply by April 2.
Tuesday, Feb. 20, 6-7:15pm PST on Zoom
In her most recent book, poet Pattiann Rogers offers a fresh metaphor for the ephemeral nature of experience, time, and the human soul—flickering. Informed by everything from the neuroscience of consciousness to campfires and “the beauty of bells,” Rogers’ flickering has a lot to teach us about art, science, and ourselves.
Join Pattiann Rogers and fellow naturalist and writer Robert Michael Pyle for a live online panel discussion about flickering and being. The panel will be moderated by University of Portland scholar Corey S. Pressman (Integrative Health and Wellness) and rounded out by Rachel Wheeler (Theology), and Shannon Mayer (Physics). A Q&A session will follow the panel discussion. See you there!
Are you a humanities major who loves what you study here at UP but aren’t quite sure about how your academic experiences can be put to use in your life after college? Want to be a part of building a lasting contribution to humanities education at UP? PRF is recruiting a small cohort of humanities students to participate in the development of the Humanities Futures pilot workshop in Spring 2024. Check out the call below for details; registration is now open!
As part of our 23-24 theme "Engaging Portland," PRF and the English Department invite you to a reading by Laura Moulton and Ben Hodgson, authors of Loaners: The Making of a Street Library. Moulton is the founder of Street Books, a bike-powered mobile library serving people living outside in Portland. Join us as we learn more about this innovative example of engaged humanities work in our local community. And if you'd like to read this funny, poignant book, email prf@up.edu for a free copy.
Are you a student interested in gaining undergraduate research experience that connects academic work with local issues through engaged humanities approaches? See the call below and consider applying to be a student fellow for PRF 2023-24: "Engaging Portland."
Send applications to prf@up.edu by August 1.
PRF is excited to announce the program's 23-24 theme: "Engaging Portland."
How can UP engage with the neighborhoods and city around us in ways that invigorate our work, our students, and our mission as an institution committed to the common good? What would it look like to become—in our university President’s words—a University for Portland?
PRF calls for faculty fellows to develop undergraduate research or curricular projects animated by these questions; see the call below for details and how to apply. Applications due Tuesday, April 18th!
Read the 23-24 "Engaging Portland" Call for Faculty Fellows here.
Wednesday, March 29, 11:45-1:00pm
This Spring, the Public Research Fellows program is gathering information about the experience of being a humanities student at UP. With the support of an NEH grant, PRF is laying the foundation for a humanities hub on campus and we want to better understand how a humanities-based organization can provide resources and support for students as they study on campus and prepare for life after graduation. What challenges and opportunities do students see for the humanities? How do humanities students think about the connections between their majors/minors and their future goals?
To explore these questions, we’re hosting a catered focus group lunch on Wednesday, March 29, 11:45-1:00pm to find out what it’s like to study the humanities at UP from the student perspective. If you’re a humanities major or minor (English, History, ILC, PFA, Philosophy, Theology), we’d love to have you join us. There are 12 spots available and participants will have their choice of gourmet sandwiches, snacks, and drinks; RSVP to Dr. Jen McDaneld (mcdaneld@up.edu) to reserve your spot!
Interested in lending your perspective but can’t make the lunch? Please take our short survey to tell us a bit about your experience in the humanities at UP.
A new catchphrase on college campuses is “Career Readiness.” While it's always been thought that a college education provides a strong foundation for future employment, these days colleges are feeling increasing pressure to prepare students more directly for careers. Here at UP, a new framework has recently been introduced that aims to help students and professors connect academic coursework to career competencies and thus make graduates more ready for their job searches. All of this prompts questions such as: What IS "readiness"? What does it mean to be "ready" for a career? What other meanings might "readiness" have?
At this Campus Conversation, we will explore these questions and more, by way of open-ended discussion based on sharing and listening to perspectives different from our own. There will be six spaces each for faculty, staff, and students at the table. If you're interested in joining, please email Molly Hiro with your name, role at UP, and a brief line about why you are interested.
Thursday, Sept. 15, 2:30-3:45pm, Franz 222
Are you interested in developing interdisciplinary courses with your colleagues but need some support in taking the first steps? Join us for this experiential workshop where you can find out more about designing a Core X course using engaged humanities practices and learn more about opportunities for support in turning your idea into a concrete plan. Most of the session will be devoted to interdisciplinary speed networking sessions with colleagues from across the University. Faculty from CAS as well as the professional schools are welcome!
What can poetry do beyond the page? Join this hands-on workshop with poet Naomi Shihab Nye to explore how poetry--far from something only to study in class--can become a ready source of personal vitality, flexibility, and presence.
Open to students, faculty, and staff!
Part of the PRF 2022-23 Series: Engaging Humanities
Join us for an open house showcase of the program's 21-22 working group projects. Browse interactive exhibits, sample locally-produced food and drink, and attend live musical performances and the premier of a student-produced documentary film. This is a choose-your-own-adventure interdisciplinary event: drop by and peruse at your own pace or stay a while to engage with the project creators--your choice!
Friday 2/18, 1:30-2:30pm, DB 235
Collaborating across disciplines can be some of the most invigorating work we do as faculty, but how do you get started and where do you find like-minded colleagues? Join PRF for the third event in our Spring Series highlighting the potential in interdisciplinarity: a lively workshop that will explore avenues and tools for interdisciplinary connection at UP followed by a speed networking session to brainstorm collaborative projects. Faculty from all disciplines welcome!
Wednesday 2/9, 6:00-7:00pm, DB 233
PRF invites all students to join us for the second event in our Spring Series highlighting the potential in interdisciplinarity. This hands-on workshop will provide concrete strategies for talking about your coursework in real-world contexts, whether you've just begun thinking about your future career or are farther along in your professional development. All majors welcome!
This semester the College After Covid working group is exploring what the return to campus has been like for the UP community. To kick off the year, the PRF interns conducted a whiteboard project on the Library Patio during the week after fall break, asking a variety of questions about how people have experienced this singular semester. On one of the days they asked participants: "What song captures this moment for you?" They used the responses to create a Spotify playlist, "The Sounds of Return." While the working group is creating a larger archive of the campus experience during this time through a variety of forms, including documentary film, surveys, campus conversation events, and community-submitted video interviews, the playlist offers an initial snapshot of the feelings circulating in the campus community as we transition back to in-person learning.
4:00-5:15pm, Bauccio Dining Room
Are there “two cultures” at UP—one for humanities and one for STEM? Or is the division between our disciplines more imagined than real? The Public Research Fellows invite you to join us for a student and faculty roundtable discussion of disciplinary stereotypes and the possibilities for moving beyond them through interdisciplinary collaboration.
This event is part of the PRF Spring Series; stay tuned for future student and faculty events that follow up on the discussion with hands-on workshops on how to put interdisciplinarity to work.
Are you interested in developing innovative public-facing research projects in a supported environment? Have you wanted to work more interdisciplinarily but haven’t been sure where to start? We invite you to participate in the third-annual Public Research Fellows, a program of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Humanities Collaborative that supports exploration of broad humanistic questions through publicly-engaged research and teaching. A key goal of PRF is to create conversations and collaboration beyond the typical confines of our campus culture and our scholarly disciplines.
See the 21-22 CFP below for details and how to apply.
Monday, May 17, 3pm PDT: Attend an informal Zoom session to learn more.
Interested in becoming a Student Fellow? See the PRF Call for Student Fellows.
7:00-8:15pm PDT
The Public Research Fellows invite you to a showcase of the program’s 20-21 work. Students and faculty fellows will unveil their projects and be on hand to guide attendees through a variety of lenses for thinking about our theme, Displacement and Justice. From a podcast that explores displacement through the experience of first-generation students, to an interactive map that uses Portland African American literature to tell local stories of displacement, to a virtual performance that thinks through displacement with music—the PRF teams have created a range of exciting projects that use innovative, accessible forms to expand our ideas of what research can look like. Join us for this interactive event to get inspired about the possibilities in your own work and learn more about how displacement manifests in local contexts and beyond.
4:00-5:15 PDT
What are the “Public Humanities”? How have UP faculty and students participated in Public Humanities work? And how might the Public Humanities enable or inspire your own thinking, learning, and teaching—and be mutually enriching for you and for the public? We invite you to join us for a discussion of these questions and more. We’ll be sharing some pillars of the public humanities; giving an overview of how the PRF program has enacted these; and inviting input from participants about other ways of envisioning Public Humanities work at UP and beyond.
Fellows Olivia Brimhall, Trevor Reidmann, and Emma Wells are making the most of their senior year by collaborating on a project they hope will change how people think about migrants and asylum-seekers in this country.
5:00-6:15 PST
Join us for a roundtable discussion that brings together community leaders to discuss an ever-pressing issue in Portland: Displacement and Justice. From houselessness to redlining, Portland's politics of displacement have impacted already marginalized communities. By centering community-led efforts, the event seeks to conceptualize justice considering injustices experienced by the displaced.
Alex Gonzalez is “diving in headfirst.” A senior biology major, she’s working with Dr. Susan Murray and two other student fellows on studying COVID-19's effect on the BIPOC community.
Faculty fellow Dr. Lezlie Cross will soon kick off her PRF project, titled “Where Is Home?” The project, inspired by the living newspapers of the depression-era Federal Theatre Project, addresses and exposes historic and current housing inequity in Portland.
3:30-4:45 PST
Join us as we kick off the program's 2020-21 theme with a talk by Dr. Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi (Political Science and Global Affairs / Gender and Women's Studies): "Displaced Justice: On Agency, Representation, and Accountability." Golesorkhi will problematize power dynamics at the nexus of displacement and justice and discuss the ever-pressing question of "who speaks for whom" by sharing experiences from her work as a scholar-activist. Guided discussion with the program fellows to follow.
While PRF nearly doubled its research fellowships and student involvement in its second year, it also expanded the program through a new teaching fellowship offered to faculty interested in connecting their courses to the theme and forms of public engagement. Five faculty from Spanish, English, and the Fine Arts are designing course modules and assignments that ask students to connect their learning with a public outcome.
Read more about the expanding program and Dr. Matthew Warshawsky's work as a teaching fellow.
Last year, the Humanities Collaborative of the College of Arts & Sciences launched the Public Research Fellows, a new program that uses humanities concepts and methods to bring people together from across the university and beyond campus to explore a common topic rooted in principles of human dignity, the common good, and social justice. Across 2019-20, six teams of faculty and undergraduates worked together to explore issues related to gender, suffrage movements, and voting rights.
In October, the program hosted the second event in its fall virtual series: a panel of students and faculty fellows discussing their PRF research projects and the significance of voting rights ahead of the 2020 election.
Read more about the event and watch clips of Brittney Cooper's talk.
4–5:30 p.m. | Bauccio Commons Board Room
The Public Research Fellows Program kicked-off its inaugural year with a lecture by History professor Christin Hancock, "A History of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the U.S." Hancock then led the audience in a rotating, interactive discussion on questions of women's history and memorialization. Over 60 attendees, both students and faculty, were in attendance for this lively introduction to the program.
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