OHC Director’s Report

 

Writing my annual Director’s column at the start of a new academic year provides a welcome opportunity to reflect on where we have been and anticipate what lies ahead. As I look back, my mind still boggles at the unprecedented challenges we’ve faced over the past eighteen months—pandemic, political division and unrest, social justice protest and activism, economic upheaval and displacement, devastating weather and wildfire, the loss of friends and loved ones. Often during these dark days, when I found myself overwhelmed, exhausted, or depressed, I took solace and sustenance from the humanities and the arts, turning again and again to the many remote and online programs, talks, and events sponsored and co-sponsored by the OHC. From our weekly Work-in-Progress and Books-in-Print talks highlighting the innovative scholarship of our research fellows, to the UO Today interviews with fascinating colleagues, creative writers and artists, and public intellectuals, to the illuminating talks in our Climate Justice lecture series, I was again and again heartened, energized, and inspired. 

These talks, interviews, and lectures are all archived on the OHC’s YouTube channel and as podcasts. They offer powerful reminders that the disciplines of the humanities and humanistic social sciences and the creative arts can help us better understand current realities and better cope with the challenges they present. 

No less crucial to the power and value of the humanities and the arts, however, are their capacities to help us imagine possible futures. As we have struggled with the unfolding tribulations of the past eighteen months, we have also glimpsed new prospects and found in them grounds for new hope and optimism. Animated by our faith in the special capacities of the humanities and arts and our conviction that times of crisis are also times of possibility, we have selected for our annual lecture series the theme Imagining Futures. 

The Imagining Futures series seeks to reframe some of today’s pivotal social issues to help us conceptualize together a more just and sustainable future for all. The world we inhabit today is not the world later generations will encounter. The COVID pandemic has exposed and deepened societal challenges and inequities that demand urgent attention and sustained action. Prior to the pandemic, many were already living with the realities of systemic injustice and environmental devastation. At this crucial turning point in human history, we are compelled to ask: What does a better future look like? How can we best realize that future? How do we move forward together? This lecture series will summon us to seek answers to these and other related questions. Our distinguished speakers will help us think forward around questions of racial justice, climate change, sustainability, and indigenous sovereignty.

These pages and our calendar of events provide details of our fall term Imagining Futures lectures, all the other exciting arts and humanities exhibits and events occurring this term, many sponsored or co-sponsored by the OHC, as well as our research fellows’ Work-in-Progress talks and our Books-in-Print talks featuring UO scholars supported by the OHC. As you’ll see, the offerings are rich indeed.

Finally, I share my gratitude and admiration for all those who have helped the OHC carry out its critical mission to promote and strengthen the humanities and humanities research during these difficult months: our exceptional staff, Faculty Advisory Board, external Board of Visitors, and those numerous fellow devotees of the humanities at the UO, in Eugene, and around the state of Oregon and beyond who support and advocate for the humanities. Thank you for joining us in that essential work at this time of challenge and promise!