Events / Symposium: “Blue Visions: Thinking with Ocean Ecologies across the Arts and Humanities”
Japanese woodblock print of a wave

Symposium: “Blue Visions: Thinking with Ocean Ecologies across the Arts and Humanities”

May 9, 2025
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
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Knight Library Browsing Room, 1501 Kincaid St., Eugene, OR 97403

Growing concern about the state of marine ecologies, combined with the recognition that the ocean has been relatively neglected in environmental theory and the arts, has propelled the emerging field called the “Blue Humanities.” Oregon as a coastal state, and the UO with its marine biology campus and initial plans for an “ocean studies” major or minor, is the perfect site for a symposium on the Blue Humanities. “Blue Visions: Thinking with Ocean Ecologies across the Arts and Humanities” will take place Friday, May 9, 2025 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room.

Stacy Alaimo, Professor of English and Environmental Studies, and Megan Hayes, PhD candidate in Environmental Studies and 2024–25 OHC Dissertation Fellow, organized the symposium to explore how the humanities and arts can help solve one of the primary problematics of marine ecologies: how to generate both understanding and concern for the many threats that oceanic species face.

The Center for Environmental Futures offers a prelude to the symposium on Thursday May 8th, with a talk by ocean artist Joe Riley speaking on “Ocean Art Practice and Critical Environmental History: Visualizing Marine Algae as Passengers (and Messengers) of Change” at 6 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room.

The symposium is cosponsored by the OHC’s Endowment for Public Outreach in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities. For more information contact Stacy Alaimo, salaimo@uoregon.edu

9 a.m.
Coffee

9:30 a.m.
“Oceanic Dispatches: Storying Our Planetary Health.” Tiara Naputi (Chamoru/Chamorro from Guåhan/Guam), Global Studies, UC Irvine.

11 a.m.
Film screening: Holding Back the Tide. (2023, 77 min.) Directed by Emily Packer. (lunch buffet)

12:30 p.m.
Panel: “Sea Urchins, Kelp, and Oysters: Justice, Relations, and Cosmic Tending.” Dara Craig, Environmental Studies; Lydia Lapporte, Environmental Studies; and Megan Hayes, Environmental Studies. 

2:30 p.m.
“Care for the Stranded.” Astrida Neimanis, Feminist Environmental Humanities, University of British Columbia, Okanagan.

4 p.m.
Closing Panel. All speakers and Stacy Alaimo, English and Environmental Studies.