Welcome

The Portland Center for Public Humanities is a consortium of over 100 scholars who seek to foster intellectual community and activity in our metropolitan area. In addition to encouraging scholarly collaboration between our campuses and organizations, the center provides an annual slate of programs that bring scholarship and research to bear on matters of public interest. The center seeks to let knowledge serve the Portland community in the most direct possible sense, by providing forums where intellectual inquiry and civic engagement come together. We seek partnerships with all local organizations who share these goals.

Upcoming Events

Dear friends,

This is just to give you an early picture of the plans for the 2008-2009 academic year at the Portland Center for Public Humanities.

FALL:

In the fall, a mini-lecture series on "Sexuality and Queer Theory" will be taking place, with two speakers confirmed: Leo Bersani (French, UC Berkeley) and Tim Dean (Comparative Literature, Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis, SUNY Buffalo)

WINTER/SPRING:

The much discussed multi-campus "Trajectories of Cosmopolitanism" series has been delayed until after the fall.

The first organizational meeting will take place in February, and there will be two speakers coming during that half of the academic year: Bruce Robbins (English, Columbia) and Saskia Sassen (Sociology/Urban Studies, Columbia). One more speaker may come in May, but otherwise the remainder of the series will take place in 2009-2010.

In a few weeks, I will be contacting the participants individually to confirm their involvement. If you were not previously a participant, and would like to be involved if room opens up in the seminars, please write to me. I will be out of e-mail contact for the next two weeks, but will reply after that.

Best wishes to everyone. I hope you are enjoying the summer.

Leerom Medovoi
Associate Professor of English
Director, Portland Center for Public Humanities
Portland State University
Phone: (503) 725-4946