School of History, Philosophy, and Religion

The grant will support a hybrid project involving research as well as infrastructural development, the latter being a collaboration with SCARC to develop the Downwinders historical collection at OSU. Graduate students will help to conduct oral histories of scientists, victims, and other stakeholders related to the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction (HEDR) project that occurred in the late 1980s and 90s.

Over the past 20 years, warnings from a variety of sources—from career counselors to administrators to government officials—have convinced many prospective college students (and their parents) that the only safe path to a well-paying job is through a STEM major. Members of the academy—including STEM faculty themselves—have repeatedly challenged assertions that majoring in the humanities is useless. And employers of STEM graduates say that they value skills cultivated in a wide-ranging curriculum.

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Philosophy Assistant Professor Barbara Muraca was interviewed for a podcast organized by the German Green Foundation “Heinrich Boell” It is the 5th episode of a series on Climate Justice.

Last week Dr. Stephanie Jenkins, assistant professor of philosophy presented her work at an informal open forum discussing the effects of RSD.

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In the western Cascade Range, just one hour east of Eugene, Oregon, there is an old-growth forest where ecosystem science and the humanities converge. Since 1948, the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest has been a research sanctuary for scientists studying biodiversity, climate, hydrology, soils and stream ecology. And so, 31 writers have taken to its slopes to collaborate on Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest. These environmental poets and essayists — all of them participants in the forest’s collaborative Long-Term Ecological Reflections Program — have pressed their literary stethoscopes to the roots and snags and cones of the 16,000-acre reserve to record what they observed, coming up with answers both empirical and oracular.

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