Stephen J. Shoemaker, Religious Studies, and 2023–24 OHC Faculty Research Fellow.

“My project will provide something that has long been needed: a book-length study of the historical figure of Muhammad, the formation of the Qur’an, and the beginnings of Islam that is both grounded in the methods of historical criticism and aimed at the general reader. Unfortunately, this important perspective has been largely absent from public discourse on Islam, and it is this significant gap that my book aims to fill.”

“Muhammad and the Beginnings of Islam: A Critical History”

Katherine Kelp-Stebbins, Comics and Cartoon Studies, and 2023–24 OHC Faculty Research Fellow.

“My project examines graphic reportage as a tool for documenting international human rights struggles. The book considers how reporter-artists use comics to tactically and ethically intervene in discourses of injustice and representation. Via their subjective verbal-visual mediality, comics challenge the differential optics by which some lives are made more or less visible and valuable. Questioning how journalistic objectivity has overdetermined the documentation of humanitarian crises, the book uses comics to rethink the evidentiary claims of the image.”

"Comics Journalism: Tactical Human Rights"

Poet and critic Mark Jarman is author of twelve poetry collections and four books of essays. His most recent book of poetry is Zeno’s Eternity published in 2023. He discusses his work and reads from his recent collection. Jarman gave a reading at the University of Oregon on May 2nd, 2024, as a guest of the Creative Writing Program.

UO Today interview: Mark Jarman, poet

Joe Buck is the Vice President for Advancement at the University of Oregon. He talks about the fundraising priorities for the university and the value of philanthropy for higher education.

UO Today interview: Joe Buck, Vice President for Advancement at the University of Oregon

Moeko Yamazaki, PhD candidate, History, and 2023–24 OHC Dissertation Fellow

“My dissertation critically examines the logistics industry by looking at the history of FedEx. I examine how economic deregulation, the expansion of precarious employment, and the weakening of labor unions made the growth of logistics possible. I demonstrate that the logistics industry enabled businesses and consumers to enjoy the benefits of the technological developments of speed and efficiency while preserving the longstanding power dynamics of capitalist industrial relations in which the most vulnerable workers pay the greatest cost.”

“From “People-First” to Precarious Labor: A History of Antiunionism at FedEx, 1971–2000”

Aimée Morrison is an associate professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. She talks about her work to understand how people decide how to represent themselves online, what motivates those decisions, and what effects they have.

She also discusses her experience as a  professional woman who has been diagnosed later in life with ADHD and her work to bridge scholarly and popular knowledge about neurodiversity.  
 
On May 16th, 2024, Morrison gave a talk titled “Touch Grass” as the annual lecturer for the UO’s New Media and Culture Certificate program.

UO Today interview: Aimée Morrison, English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo

Writer Maurice Carlos Ruffin is author of the novel The American Daughters published in 2024. He talks about his writing and teaching and reads a passage from The American Daughters. 

Ruffin is an associate professor of Creative Writing at Louisiana State University. 
 
He gave a reading at the University of Oregon on May 22, 2024, as a guest of the Creative Writing Program.

UO Today interview: Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of The American Daughters

Devin Grammon is an assistant professor of Spanish Sociolinguistics, and an affiliate in the Spanish Heritage Language Program in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon.

Grammon talks about his research on language learning among students studying abroad in Southern Peru and how linguistic variation can be used to perpetuate racism and discrimination. 

He also talks about his current project as an OHC Faculty Research Fellow “Spanish in the Linguistic Landscape of Eugene, Oregon.”

UO Today interview: Devin Grammon, assistant professor, Spanish Sociolinguistics

Gabriela Pérez Báez, Linguistics, and 2023–24 OHC Faculty Research Fellow.

“Diidxazá is an Indigenous endangered Mesoamerican language spoken in southern Mexico. I will test out pacing and methods towards publication of a 10,000 entry Diidxazá-Spanish-English dictionary. I will focus on Spanish and English definitions and on different data sets in preparation for a full-scale process in AY24–25. The dictionary will be a peer-reviewed, electronic, open access publication which stands to make immeasurable contributions to the revitalization of Diidxazá and the advancement of the study of Mesoamerican languages.”

“A Pilot towards Completion of a Diidxazá Dictionary”

Writer Miriam Gershow's debut novel The Local News, published in 2009, was an Oregon Book Award Finalist. Her collection, Survival Tips: Stories was published in 2024. She teaches writing in the English Department at the University of Oregon.

Gershow discusses her writing and reads from Survival Tips.

UO Today interview: Miriam Gershow, author of Survival Tips: Stories

Leah Middlebrook, Comparative Literature and Spanish at the UO, is the in-coming director of the Oregon Humanities Center. She talks about her scholarship and what attracted her to the OHC. Paul Peppis, English at the UO, is the out-going director of the OHC, having served 11 years. He talks about his scholarship and how academia has changed during his 29-year career as a professor of English.

UO Today interview: Leah Middlebrook and Paul Peppis

The Oregon Humanities Center is the sole interdisciplinary umbrella organization for the humanities at the University of Oregon.  We encourage scholars to articulate their ideas in language that is accessible both to scholars in other fields and to the general public.  The OHC sponsors a wide array of free public programs designed to provide a forum for discussion of and reflection on important issues.

“Muhammad and the Beginnings of Islam: A Critical History”

Oregon Humanities Center

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