Current Programs

2006-2008:  “Cities in War, Struggle, and Peace: The Architecture of Memory and Life,” Department of Architecture (Dr. Howard Davis) 
The intention of this program is to further our understanding of war and peace through understanding of buildings and cities that have been affected or inspired by war. As material culture provides a lens through which cultural life can be brought into focus, the ways in which citizens, architects and planners respond to the effects of war and conflict will provide a lens into how war and conflict affect the physical contexts within which daily life is lived. This two-year program will combine major symposia and design charrettes, an undergraduate course, and a memorial for the UO campus. 

2006-2008:  “History, Contested Memories, and the Politics of Reconciliation: Understanding Truth Commissions in Latin America,” Latin American Studies (Dr. Carlos Aguirre, History; Dr. Analisa Taylor, Romance Languages; Dr. Stephanie Wood, Wired Humanities Program and the Center for the Study of Women in Society) 

This program attempts to evaluate the place of Truth Commissions within regional and international efforts towards peace, reconciliation, and democratic governance. The program aims to make the University of Oregon and its Latin American Studies program at the forefront of an emerging conversation about international human rights and the role of Truth Commissions in bringing about reconciliation in countries affected by international wars and conflicts. Included in this two-year program will be several undergraduate courses, a speakers series and an international scholarly symposium. 

2006-2007:  “Witnessing Holocausts: The Shoah and Genocide in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries,” Judaic Studies (Dr. Judith Baskin) 
This program examines a new approach to some of the themes raised a decade ago by the Savage-sponsored programs, “Ethics After the Holocaust,” by exploring the difficult questions that underlie “witnessing” and the “representation” of personal and group trauma. By sponsoring a variety of literary, dramatic, cinematic, artistic, architectural, and musical events that address aspects of the Nazi Shoah and other genocidal assaults on human communities, this program hopes to clarify the ways in which the human imagination can elucidate and memorialize the unimaginable. The year-long series of events, performances and speakers will culminate in an international conference.  

2004-2007:  “Gender, Race and Militarization,” Women and Gender Studies Program and the Center for the Study of Women in Society 
This program promotes research, teaching and dialogue to interrogate 1) the consequences of an increasingly militarized conception of security, with a particular focus on the gendered and racialized effects of militarization, and 2) alternative paradigms of security that emphasize peacemaking and human rights. Our goal is to create a sustained, highly visible and inclusive dialogue about these issues by bringing prominent speakers to campus; offering new and augmenting existing courses on these themes; and strengthening links between scholars whose courses do (or could) address these issues with scholars from interdisciplinary programs, including Peace, International, Women's and Gender, Ethnic, and Religious Studies.