The latest news and information from the
School of History, Philosophy, and Religion (SHPR)
Oregon State University

SHPR NEWS:

SHPR faculty were active preparing and publishing new works and giving presentations at academic conferences around the world, in your community, on television, and even in virtual worlds online!    Here are some highlights from across the School from Fall 2013.

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As the mascot for Oregon State University, it should not be surprising that Benny Beaver is a positive ethical role model.   This term, Benny collaborated with Philosophy professor Stephanie Jenkins for the “Be Like Benny” project to help demonstrate what it means to ‘Be Orange.’

 This collaboration grew out of the Phronesis Lab for Engaged Ethics project “Be Good, Be Orange” – a blog devoted to exploring, developing, and challenging what it means to “Be Orange”, or an OSU Beaver.  “Being Orange” means being an active citizen of the OSU community.  We all perform our “Orangeness” in our everyday actions and engagement with the world. At the blog, they encourage OSU students, faculty, staff, alumni, family, and friends to reflect on the values outlined in the Oregon State Strategic Plan: accountability, diversity, integrity, respect, and social responsibility.

                              (Visit http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/begood/ to learn more)

Congratulations are also in order for Jenkins who has been awarded both an LL Stewart Faculty Development Grant and a CLA Research Grant this Fall.

In September, she participated in  the International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference – a high-tech virtual conference held in the online realm of Second Life.   There, she presented “Gender, Community, and Collaboration: The Experiences of Women Living with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy,” a study co-authored with Nina Slota.   She also presented “Using Foucault’s Genealogical Body in Disability Ethics,” at the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy conference at the University of Oregon.

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Stuart Sarbacker presented a paper entitled “Otto and the Numinous: Religious Emotion and the Roots of the Real” at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, held Nov 23-26 in Baltimore, MD.

While in the DC area, Sarbacker also attended a private tour of the exhibit “Yoga: The Art of Transformation” at the Smithsonian Institute with fellow yoga scholars given by the curator, Debra Diamond.

Left:  The Chakras of the Subtle Body, part of the new exhibit Yoga: The Art of Transformation at the Sackler Gallery till January 26, 2014

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Christopher McKnight Nichols’ article “The Enduring Power of Isolationism: An Historical Perspective” appeared in Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, [Vol. 57, No. 3 (New York: Elsevier Press, Summer 2013): 390-407]  noting doubts about American involvement abroad are on the rise, up 10 percent in a decade.    This led to multiple international news stories including:  The Huffington Post, The Albany Tribune,  The North Korea Times, The Kenya Star, and the Malaysian Sun (and many more!).

Nichols Co-moderated a plenary session on the “The United States and the World: Intellectual Histories of American Foreign Relations” at the Society for U.S. Intellectual History Annual Meeting (Nov 1-3; Irvine, CA, UC-Irvine) as well as chairing two panels: one on transnational intellectual exchanges and one on ideas and foreign relations.  He also presented a paper at the American Historical Association-Pacific Coast Branch Annual Meeting (Denver, CO) on August 10, 2013

C-SPAN “American History TV,” aired the Keynote Panel on “American Power in Historical Perspective” recorded at the OSU American Military and Diplomatic History Conference in May.   The panel featured Nichols, co-authors Milne and Lynch and SHPR Director Ben Mutschler.   It first aired on August 3-5, 2013

Nichols was also recently spotlighted by the American Historical Association!

Finally, alumnus and student Steven McLain and Matt Sharpe, who have been working with Nichols as part of the prestigious PROMISE Program summer, presented the results of their research at the PROMISE internship fair this Fall.

Nichols said “McLain and Sharpe have achieved a great deal and have learned a lot, including acquiring new advanced skills in primary source research and analysis.   They’ve done a great job!”

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Speaking of fantastic students, undergraduate philosophy student Trenton Ogden delivered a paper of his own at the 2nd Annual SDSU Undergraduate Conference in Philosophy held at San Diego State University on Oct. 19th and 20th.   His paper presentation was entitled “Pragmatic Alternatives to the Melting Pot Theory and Solutions for Modern Immigration Problems.”    When not busy with academics and research, Trent also helps to direct the newly founded Religious Studies Student Group.    Visit them on Facebook to learn more!

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In Oct., Jonathan Kaplan attended a conference at Stanford University celebrating what has come to be known as The Stanford School of Philosophy of Science, featuring prominent philosophers such as Nancy Cartwright, John Dupré, Peter Galison,  Peter Godfrey-Smith, Patrick Suppes, and  Debra Satz.  As a graduate of the program mentored by these key figures, Kaplan was chosen to speak on the “Next Generations Panel”   See the full line up here.

Kaplan has also continued his research collaboration with Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther on issues surrounding “race” and biology.  Together they have so far written three papers together on these topics: “Realism, Antirealism, and Conventionalism about Race,” in Philosophy of Science;  “Ontologies and Politics of Bio-Genomic ‘Race'” in Theoria; and “Prisoners of Abstraction? The Theory and Measure of Genetic Variation, and the Very Concept of ‘Race’,” in Biological Theory.

Finally he continues to collaborate with Audrey Chapman (Healey Professor of Medical Ethics and Humanities, University of Connecticut School of Medicine) and Adrian Carter (University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Ethics, Addiction Neuroethics Unit) on issues surrounding genetic research into addition and addictive behaviors.  They have written a book chapter on these issues together, and are expanding that work into a series of articles, and possibly into other media.

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The Oregon Humanities ‘Conversation Project’ offers Oregon nonprofits free, humanities-based public discussion programs about provocative issues and ideas.  In the first four years of the program, more than 170 nonprofits across the state hosted almost 400 Conversation Project programs as stand-alone events, parts of a series, and supplements to their regular programming.    This year, this program features twenty-two programs, including several new conversations that will inspire and challenge Oregonians to talk and think.

Two of these programs are from Hundere Professor of Philosophy, Courtney Campbell:

Church and State

Grave Matters

Click here to learn how to bring these programs to YOUR community!

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Historian Anita Guerrini has been busy during this fall, writing and presenting six different papers across three countries including:

• one at the Society for Ecological Restoration meeting in Madison, WI entitled “Back to Eden?  Restoration and its meanings in seventeenth-century England”;

• one in London, UK to the Wellcome seminar in pre-modern medicine entitled “The Galenist as Mechanist: Claude Perrault and the Natural History of Animals”;

• and four in the past month as a “visiting director of studies” (ie visiting professor) at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France including:“Jean Riolan, Experimenting, and the Circulation of Blood”
  “Humanism, Animals, and the Origins of the Paris Academy of Sciences”
  “The Ghastly Kitchen: Cooking, the Household, and Experimental Science”
  “The King’s Animals and the King’s Books: the illustrations for the Paris Academy’s Histoire des animaux”

Congratulations are also in order as Anita’s new book manuscript, *The Courtiers’ Anatomists: Animals and Humans in Louis XIV’s Paris*  has just been accepted by the University of Chicago Press and will soon go into production.

Left:  Guerrini had the opportunity to operate this beautiful ornate cast-iron nineteenth-century manual printing press while visiting the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England.   Coincidentally, this Fall, Guerrini will teach HST599, a special topics course on “The History of the Book.”

You can read about the work of printing and more on Anita’s blog “History, animals, science, food”

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Shari Clough had a busy writing term with three essays going to press including:

–  “The Objectivity of Feminist Values and Their Place in Science”
in the Italian collection La Contingenza dei Fatti e l’Oggettività dei Valori
(The Contingency of Facts and the Objectivity of Values)

–  “Pragmatism and Embodiment as Resources for Feminist Interventions in Science”
in the journal Contemporary Pragmatism, and

–  “Feminist Theories of Evidence and Biomedical Research Communities: A Reply to Goldenberg” in the new on-line resource The Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective.

Clough also travelled to New York City to work with a co-author on an upcoming paper on biomedical explanations of sexuality, and gave a presentation to the New York Society for Women in Philosophy.

At our November Open House, Shari was recognized, along with Dwanee Howard & Ben Mutschler, for their work on the extensive renovations and redesign of Milam Hall’s 3rd Floor.

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Professor José-Antonio Orosco had a comment piece on the Syrian chemical weapons published in the October issue of the journal Etsákupani Internacional, a publication put out by the Universidad Latina de América (UNLA).   The issue was on the subject of human rights and you can read it here.  (p. 10)

Orosco also received a Faculty Internationalization Grant from the International Programs Office in September to fund the development of the Peace Studies class, PAX 199 Peace and Conflict in the Americas.   This was a binational course that allowed OSU students and students from the Universidad Latina de America in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico to discuss together questions of violence and nonviolence through video conferencing.  This grant allowed me to travel to Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico in September to give a couple of lectures at the Universidad Latina de America on human rights and peace studies.  In October, the grant paid to bring Professor Enrique Fuentes from UNLA to Oregon State University.    In an event co-sponsored by the Oregon State University Peace Studies Program, the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures, and the Center for Latina/Latino Studies and Engagement (CL@SE), Flores gave a presentation on the Challenges for Higher Education in Mexico.   You can see his presentation below:

Finally, Orosco and Tony Vogt joined forces this Fall to create The Anarres Project for Alternative Future.   The Anarres Project is a forum for conversations, ideas, and initiatives that promote a future free of domination, exploitation, oppression, war, and empire, to the fullest extent possible.

The project is off to a strong start and sponsored
several well attended events during Fall term including:

Imagination and Social Change: The Creativity of Occupy  (10/15)

Liberation Leadership for Anti-Racist and Feminist Social Justice  (10/25)

and

Surrender: Guerilla to Grandmother  (10/31)

(click the links above to watch the presentation videos on YouTube)

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Kara Ritzheimer delivered a paper called “The Gender of Germanization: The BDM in the Reichsgau Wartheland” at the Thirty-Seventh Annual Conference of the German Studies Association held in Denver in early October.

Ritzheimer also completed her manuscript “Battling Buffalo Bill: Regionalism, Gender, and Censorship in Early 20th Century Germany” which is now under review at Cambridge.

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Paul Kopperman’s recent book Regimental Practice” by John Buchanan, M.D.: An Eighteenth-Century Medical Diary and Manual was favorably reviewed in the journal Social History of Medicine 26-3 Aug 13.

Marisa Chappell (author of the War on Welfare: Family, Poverty, and Politics in Modern America) was quoted in a recent Media and Public Opinion Post article on the causes of poverty in America.

Stacey Smith’s new book Freedom’s Frontier was recently given
The Page 99 Test.    Read the article and learn more!

Jake Hamblin’s new book Arming Mother Nature was recently featured in the Ecologist in an article entitled “What greens can learn from Dr. Strangelove.“

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Education Beyond the Classroom

Education doesn’t stop in the classroom.   Events on campus provide opportunities for academic discourse and inspiration, for community education and outreach, and for student interaction with top researchers in their field.   The School of History, Philosophy, and Religion continues to raise the bar and sponsor diverse quality programming that enhances the culture of learning and community on the Oregon State University campus.

Fall 2013 may have been one of our busiest terms yet.   During the 10 week Fall term, we hosted the 15th International Conference on Ethics Across the Curriculum, as well as the annual Oregon State University Constitution Day event, two speakers in the Horning 2014 ‘Culture and Religion’ Lecture series, a three speaker series examining the life and faith of Emperor Constantine I, two events sponsored by the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word, four events sponsored by the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures, five events co-sponsored by the Hundere Endowment and the newly formed Religious Studies student group, and a host of smaller events!!  (Whew!)  In all, SHPR was involved with 28 events this term – that’s nearly 3 a week – including several standing room only events!

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has come out and attended our events this term and encourage you to join us for some of the diverse programming coming during Winter quarter.

WINTER TERM EVENTS:

01/06:  Winter Term Begins

01/14:  Russia’s Anti-Gay Laws and the Sochi Olympics
4pm – MU Journey Room
(a panel discussion with Kara Ritzheimer, Bill Husband, and Bradley Boovy)

01/15:  A Gathering for Peace and Conflict Studies at OSU
12pm – Milam 319A

01/15:  California Bound: Reckoning with the American West’s Unfree Past
4pm – MU Asian/Pacific Room (An American Conversations Lecture)

01/22:  World Peace and Other Fourth Grade Achievements
7pm – Majestic Theater (Part of the City of Corvallis MLK celebration)

01/23: The Seeds of Peace Tomorrow are in the Children of Today
7pm – Milam Aud.  (The Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Peace Lecture)

01/28:  Native American Spirituality and Traditional Healing
7pm – MU Journey Room (Hundere Lecture with Susan Crawford O’Brien)

02/11:  The Role of Mormon Women
7pm – MU Journey Room (Hundere Lecture with Susanna Morrill)

02/14 & 02/15:  Transformation Without Apocalypse
All Day – LaSells Stewart Center (A Spring Creek Project event with Tim DeChristopher, Ursula K. LeGuin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kathleen Dean Moore, Rob Nixon, and more… Click here for more information.)

02/19:  Sex in Crisis 
7pm – LaSells Stewart Center (Carson Lecture with Dagmar Herzog)

02/24:  Why the World Needs Religious Studies
7pm – MU Journey Room (A Hundere Lecture with Nathan Schneider)

03/06:  Nietzsche and Spirituality in the US
4pm – MU Journey Room (Horning Lecture with Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen)

THE LAST WORD:

“As we leave the moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind,” he spoke. “As I take these last steps from the surface for some time to come, I’d just like to record that America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow.”

– the last words ever spoken on the Moon…

– Gene Cernan, Apollo 17 ; which returned to Earth on this day in 1972.