Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Shame And History, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

If history—our past, the sum of our thoughts, passions, and deeds—is so pervasive, influential, and meaningful, why then do we lose sight of it? Why do we not gain good values from it? And if it is part of our existential core, why then do we so often fail to ravel it into our deliberations?

I propose that very often and to a great degree it is shame that separates us from history. Shame: garrulous, compulsive, intense, omnivorous. A shamed person pushes away the experiences that shame her, thus cutting off the past.

Book Review Of, Green Persuasion: Advertising, Voluntarism, And America’S Public Lands, David Peterson Del Mar

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This richly illustrated, well-written, and well-researched book is difficult to categorize. It offers rewards for scholars with both particular and broad interests in environmental history, as well as for the general reader.

No History Or Society To Be Found: Object-Oriented Ontology And Social Ontology, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

It is widely theorized that the advent of the “Anthropocene Age” (under this or any other name) is bringing one form of human temporality to an end while it initiates another (Simon 2021). Because human activity threatens the duration and well-being of the planetary biosphere, the new age that this activity is bringing on—though it is proving to be extremely difficult to define—does present specific onto-epistemological and moral challenges behind its political and social problems. The most prominent and perhaps the core of these challenges is the demand to shed anthropocentrism in human culture, a change that would deeply alter …

Blind Spots And Bottlenecks For Philosophy Of History, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Realist history does not meet many human needs. History needs a great deal more philosophy, but of what kind?

In his essay on this blog, "Reflections on Theory of History Polyphonic," Ethan Kleinberg suggests that historians often use theory to block change in their work rather than to advance it. One way they do this, he points out, is to include a little theory in order to inoculate themselves against greater and more fundamental challenges. They give or take a blow, and then hoist up their shield, thereby avoiding philosophy and miniaturizing it into "historical theory."

I cannot …

Does The Anthropocene Require Us To Be Saints?, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation is one of several salients for thinking through the place of moral life and thought in human temporality and historicity, including that of future history, such as the Anthropocene, and in particular questions about personhood in a milieu in which non-human species might have moral claims upon us. I hope to launch your further consideration of these matters in your work on the Anthropocene and anti-anthropocentrism.

An Existential Philosophy Of History, Bennett Gilbert, Natan Elgabsi

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we delineate the conditions and features of what we call an existential philosophy of history in relation to customary trends in the field of the philosophy of history. We do this by circumscribing what a transgenerational temporality and what our entanglement in ethical relations with temporal others ask of us as existential and responsive selves and by explicating what attitude we need to have when trying to responsibly respond to other vulnerable beings in our historical world of life.

Poetry Not Yet, Veronica Hotton

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

On Some Moral Implications Of Linguistic Narrativism Theory, Natan Elgabsi, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this essay we consider the moral claims of one branch of non-realist theory known as linguistic narrativism theory. By highlighting the moral implications of linguistic narrativism theory, we argue that the “moral vision” expressed by this theory can entail, at worst, undesirable moral agnosticism if not related to a transcendental and supra-personal normativity in our moral life. With its appeal to volitionism and intuitionism, the ethical sensitivity of this theory enters into difficulties brought about by several internal tensions as to what morality and moral judgements involve. We contend that the proponents of linguistic narrativism theory must strongly recognize …

Repairing Historicity, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper advances a fresh theorization of historicity. The word and concept of historicity has become so widespread and popular that they have ceased to have definite meaning and are used to stand for unsupported notions of the values inherent in human experience. This paper attempts to repair the concept by re-defining it as the temporal aspect of the interdependence of life; having history is to have a life intertwined with the lives of all others and with the universe. After separating out the looser uses, surveying some of the literature, and defining what needs to be done, the paper …

Process And Privilege: When It Comes To Renaming Streets, Not All Petitioners Are Treated Equally, Cynthia Carmina Gómez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

On a rainy afternoon in January 2010, I drove to my old neighborhood in Southeast Portland to attend the César Chávez Boulevard sign unveiling ceremony at Central Christian Church. The event marked the culmination of the effort to rename a major street after the civil rights champion. After saying hello to a few friends, I sat alone in a pew toward the back of the mostly empty space. Light reflected off of the words César E. Chávez Blvd. on the large street sign placed under the dais. I was expecting busloads of school-aged children and families to be there, but …

The Eloquent Letter, Daneen Bergland

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” The Eloquent Letter is an authentic, adaptable assignment for acquiring critical skills: identifying and researching social problems, examining value systems and diverse perspectives, communicating effectively, and proposing solutions based on common ground. Moving beyond traditional argumentation essays and debates, this project situates activism and writing “in its native habitat.”

Students identify and research a social problem or issue and write and send a persuasive letter, asking for specific action toward addressing the issue. This assignment is meant to assess DQP proficiencies in Broad and Integrative Knowledge, Intellectual skills, …

To Copy, To Impress, To Distribute: The Start Of European Printing, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In order to distribute our thoughts and feelings, we must make intelligible and distributable copies of them. From approximately 1375 to 1450, certain Europeans started fully mechanized replication of texts and images, based on predecessor “smaller” technologies. What they started became the most powerful means for the distribution, storage, and retrieval of knowledge in history, up until the invention of digital means. We have scant information about the initiation of print technologies in the period up to Gutenberg, and the picture of Gutenberg that we have has become a great deal more complicated than hitherto. There has not been, however, …

Theory After All, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Comments on #theoryrevolt.

Chandling The Scholar, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is a peer-reviewed group blog post on early modern scholarship and pre-modern universities.

The Dreams Of An Inventor In 1420, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bennett Gilbert peruses the sketchbook of 15th-century engineer Johannes de Fontana, a catalogue of designs for a variety of fantastic and often impossible inventions, including fire-breathing automatons, pulley-powered angels, and the earliest surviving drawing of a magic lantern device.

Ideas, Persons, And Objects In The History Of Ideas, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The history of ideas is most prominently understood as a highly specialized group of methods for the study of abstract ideas, with both diachronic and synchronic aspects. While theorizing the field has focused on the methods of study, defining the object of study—ideas—has been neglected. But the development of the theories behind material culture studies poses a sharp challenge to this narrow approaches. It both challenges the integrity of the notion of abstract ideas and also offers possibilities for enlarging the scope of the ways we can study ideas historically. It is proposed here to regard ideas as mental relations …

Donde Come Uno, Comen Dos: Two Can Eat From The Same Dish, Cynthia Carmina Gómez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is a personal narrative and account of the stark learning conditions in a Latino-centric foster care home. From the author: "During my time as an Educational Advocate, more children were deported, incarcerated, or killed in gang violence than graduated from high school. I know of only one who made it to college. The vicarious trauma overwhelmed any fleeting success we occasionally experienced. Depressing, yet we were determined to see our programs continue. It took all of our effort to keep the space functioning, but eventually the home closed and so did La Escuelita. Today, Summer Academia is a part …

Dear Solitary Black Student, Mychel L. Estevez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teaching Note, a letter aimed at ways to avoid further marginalizing black students.

Oregon Latino Agenda For Action Stronger Together Fuerza Unida Report: Executive Summary, Cynthia Carmina Gomez, Ronald L. Mize

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Welcome to the Oregon Latino Agenda for Action (OLAA) Biennial Summit 2016. With the help of various organizations and community leaders, OLAA held our first ever summit in Salem, Oregon, in 2010. OLAA’s first statewide summit was designed to provide an opportunity to gather as a community, under the banner of “One United Voice - Una Voz Unida.” The end result was a gathering of our diverse Latino community in Oregon which started a dialogue intended to articulate the ways in which we could gather with the intent of improving the lives of all Latinos in Oregon. This initial Summit …

Early Carthusian Script And Silence, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

At its founding and during its first three decades, the Carthusian order developed a distinctive and forceful concept of communication among the members and between the members and the extramural world. Saint Bruno’s life, contemporary twelfth-century exegesis, and the physical situation of La Grande Chartreuse established the necessary context in which this concept evolved. A review of historical background, the relevant documentary texts, and early development demonstrate the shaping of two steps in this concept. Close reading of the principal testimonies of Carthusians Bruno, Guigo I, Guigo II, and some other witnesses, as well as of some passages in Saint …

Reviews Of Thunder: A Film About Ferron, Sarabah, And The Punk Singer: A Film About Kathleen Hanna, Sarah Dougher

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sarah Dougher reviews three films in this issue of Films for the Feminist Classroom: Thunder: A Film about Ferron. Directed by Bitch and Billie Jo Cavallaro; Sarabah. Directed by Maria Luisa Gambale & Gloria Bremer; and The Punk Singer: A Film About Kathleen Hanna. Directed by Sini Anderson.

Yet Another Crisis Of The Book, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book bindings and binding decor can reveal deep parts of our attitudes toward books and toward culture. Changes in attitudes toward the codex book during the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution are part of continual change in book culture. The re-binding of early printed books is exemplary evidence of these changes. The new bindings express both a rejection of pre-Enlightenment culture and an attempt to stabilize traditional cultural values. This also suggests how we might view events customarily considered to be "revolutions".

Experimenting With The Future: Born Magazine, Multimedia, And The French Avant-Garde, Anmarie Trimble, Jennifer Grotz

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Born is an experimental online magazine that brings together writers and "new media" designers and artists, who have collaborated to create multimedia interpretations of poetry (and more rarely, short prose). As editors of one of the earliest, enduring literary publications on the Web, we often receive invitations to share our “vision” of Web poetics, literary multimedia, et cetera. This presents a problem—Born evolved without consciously intending to even focus on poetry (only our current incarnation), but rather with an intent to be a creative, collaborative community. As such our work and vision are shaped as much by the interests of …

Freshest Advices On What To Do With The Historical Method In Philosophy When Using It To Study A Little Bit Of Philosophy That Has Been Lost To History, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The paper explores the question of the relationship between the practice of original philosophical inquiry and the study of the history of philosophy. It is written from my point of view as someone starting a research project in the history of philosophy that calls this issue into question, in order to review my starting positions. I argue: first, that any philosopher is sufficiently embedded in culture that her practice is necessarily historical; second, that original work is in fact in part a reconstruction by reinterpretation of the past and that therefore it bears some relation to historiographic techniques for the …

Sex And Laughter In Women's Music, 1970-77, Sarah Dougher

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The women's music movement of the early 1970's was created by and for women who came to political consciousness as a result of the women's liberation movement. The music culture that emerged was originally called "lesbian music", but later gained the less controversial descriptor "women's music". Outside of this music movement music produced during this period rarely made explicit links with emerging feminist consciousness.What differentiated "women's music" from other music made by women of the period was its lesbian focus (in both lyrics and performance contexts). Women's music was created for a lesbian audience to describe lesbian experiences and desires. …

Tattoo And Tabula Rasa, Anmarie Trimble

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Introduction And Translation Of “Los Amantes” [The Lovers] By Jorge Debravo, Oscar Fernandez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

A translation of Jorge Debravo's poem Los Amantes, including a brief introduction with biographical details of the author's life.

Review Of Virtual Americas: Transnational Fictions And The Transatlantic Imaginary, By Paul Giles, Oscar Fernandez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book review of Virtual Americas: Transnational Fictions and the Transatlantic Imaginary by Paul Giles, published by Duke University Press in 2002.

Of Surgery Performed Atop A Ford Galaxie, Anmarie Trimble

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Poetry

Dream Of Daily Bread, Anmarie Trimble

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Contemporary Poetry and Poetics