CASCADE U O C O L L E G E O F A R T S A N D S C I E N C E S why bother going green? ∙ the boundaries of memoir ∙ meet the new de an Local Physicians Help Revive the Human Physiology Department FALL 2008 THE DOCTOR IS IN mAjor FieLds oF study College of Arts & Sciences — Did You Know? The College of Arts and Sciences is the academic heart of the University of Oregon. The College provides a nucleus of liberal arts studies for UO undergraduates, with 45 degree programs in Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. As the intellectual hub of an AAU research institution, the College grants more than 70 percent of the UO’s doctorate degrees. number oF undergrAduAte students ......................10,417 number oF grAduAte students .................................... 1,120 undergrAduAte degrees AwArded in 2006-07 ........... 2,501 grAduAte degrees AwArded in 2006-07 ............................ 372 percent oF uo undergrAduAte degrees AwArded by cAs ....................................................................... 61 percent oF uo ph.d. degrees AwArded by cAs .....................73 number oF Living ALumni .......................................... 89,980 number oF FAcuLty .............................................................. 488 number oF AcAdemic depArtments And interdiscipLinAry progrAms ........................................... 40 number oF mAjor FieLds oF study ......................................... 45 Anthropology Asian Studies Biochemistry Biology Chemistry Chinese Classics Classical Civilization Comparative Literature Computer and Information Science Economics English Environmental Science Environmental Studies Ethnic Studies French General Science Geography Geological Sciences German Greek History Humanities Human Physiology International Studies Italian Japanese Judaic Studies Latin Linguistics Marine Biology Mathematics Mathematics and Computer Science Medieval Studies Philosophy Physics Political Science Psychology Religious Studies Romance Languages Russian and East European Studies Sociology Spanish Theatre Arts Women’s and Gender Studies top 10 undergrAduAte mAjors in the coLLege oF Arts And sciences psychoLogy poLiticAL science bioLogy engLish humAn physioLogy history socioLogy economics AnthropoLogy spAnish Cas faCts More than 50 percent of CAS faculty hold doctorate degrees from these 10 elite institutions: Stanford University Yale University Harvard University Princeton University Cornell University Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Chicago University of Washington University of Michigan University of California FAcuLty honors And AwArds (current And emeritus FAcuLty) 32 guggenheim FeLLows 25 FeLLows oF the AmericAn AssociAtion For the AdvAncement oF science 15 nAtionAL science FoundAtion cAreer AwArds 8 AmericAn AcAdemy oF Arts And sciences members 5 nAtionAL AcAdemy oF sciences members 1 mAcArthur FeLLow 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. __ 1 Contents CAS Advisory Council Marv Abeene Bruce Abrams Scott Andrews Les Bergeron Jim Bernard Spencer Brush Judy Calkins Mike Couch Judi Davis Features the doCtor is in 8 How local physicians helped revive a department on the verge of extinction 13 Wherein the transgression of a former UO student gives writerly professors pause Departments meet the new dean 2 Scott Coltrane shares his early observations and aspirations ask the expert – why bother going green? 3 Political science professor Ronald Mitchell explains why China is not the (only) problem news 4 “Slanguage” arts, virtual tour of Rome, worm calculus and more... giving to Cas – small gifts add up big 7 More than 5,000 alumni and friends made gifts of less than $500 — totaling more than $1 million humanities 17 Pre’s Rock pilgrimages, teaching beyond “le textbook” and other highlights from Humanities soCial sCienCes 20 Atlas of Yellowstone, photos from Kenya and other highlights from Social Sciences natural sCienCes 23 Paul Slovic’s risky business, green nanotechnology, and other highlights from Natural Sciences alumni fellows 28 Arctic explorer Ann Bancroft, financial executive Dave Petrone and tableware designer Rosanna Bowles Cascade is the biannual alumni magazine for the UO College of Arts and Sciences. Dean of Arts and Sciences Scott Coltrane Senior Associate Dean, Chief of Operations Marianne Nicols Associate Dean, Humanities Scott Pratt Associate Dean, Natural Sciences Dietrich Belitz Associate Dean, Social Sciences Larry Singell Executive Director for College Advancement Jane Gary Director of Communications, Cascade Editor Lisa Raleigh Writers Katie Campbell Karen Nagy Krysten Yates Copyediting Sarah Bungum Katie Dettman Photography Katie Campbell Jack Liu Design and Production Beverly Soasey Web Design Ben Brinkley Taylor Fithian Tom Hewkin Ray Honerlah Dar Isensee Chris Kantrowitz John Kennedy Ed Kushner Jeff Loomis Ann Lyman Tom Marriott Penny Martin Mike McCaslin Rob Melich John Natt Barbara Perry Loren Sutherland Penny Wilkes Carolyn Younger The University of Oregon is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available in accessible formats upon request. Contact us: UO College of Arts and Sciences 1245 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1245 Phone: (541) 346-3950 Email: cascade@uoregon.edu Web: cascade.uoregon.edu © 2008 University of Oregon ou did quite A bit oF reseArch on the uo when you AppLied For the deAn position. whAt did you LeArn? I was most impressed with the expertise and accomplishments of the UO faculty — especially in the College of Arts and Sciences. Virtually every department and program in the College has faculty with unsurpassed records. So many of them could be professors at the very top U.S. universities, but they choose to be at the UO and this creates a remarkably stimulating environment for innovation and discovery. UO faculty are exceptionally well trained, yet they think independently and are not constrained by narrow conceptions of how to conduct research. This means they are more likely to take chances and create new ways to un- derstand the world. And they are more committed to undergraduate education than faculty at most public research universities — in fact they rival faculty at the best liberal arts and sciences colleges in the country. That creates a very special learning environment for undergraduates in the College. whAt Are your mAin chALLenges As new deAn oF the coLLege oF Arts And sciences? One of the major strengths of the Col- lege is its size and complexity: it offers three-fourths of UO classes and grants almost two-thirds of UO’s degrees. Forty departments and programs offer degrees ranging from medieval studies to biochemistry. The breadth and depth of academic offerings makes the College a wonderfully rich learning environment, but it is sometimes hard to see how they fit together. My challenge as Dean is to show how all these scholarly endeavors contribute to our greater collective understanding. This diversity is what makes the College — and the UO — such a special place, for students and faculty alike. you’re coming to oregon From the university oF cALiForniA system — how do the two environments compAre? I spent the last 20 years of my academic career at UC Riverside and earned degrees at UC Santa Cruz after two years at Yale, so I am very familiar with how the University of California system works. The UC system is a fantastic public university, with ten great campuses. Its sheer size and scope make it much more bureaucratic than the UO, and I look forward to the opportunities a more reasonably sized environment will afford. The UO has been planned with attention to appropriate human and environmental scale, and if we can solve some of the budget and resource issues facing us, we will be in a great position to take advantage of one of the UO’s great strengths: the fact that it’s just the right size to blend first-rate undergradu- ate teaching and graduate training in a research university environment. Editor’s Note: This issue of Cascade launches a new design format and a renewed dedication to building community among alumni of the UO College of Arts and Sciences. As we introduce our new “look,” it is also our privilege to introduce the new Dean of Arts and Sciences. Scott Coltrane. Y Scott Coltrane comes to the UO from University of California, Riverside, where he was an Associate Dean in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. His scholarly field is sociology, with a special interest in fatherhood. He and his wife Wendy Wheeler-Coltrane have two grown children, Colin and Shannon. The Coltranes moved to Eugene in late June, just as the Olympic Trials were starting, so got a very special introduction to the city and university. meet the new dean P h ot o: J ac k Li u __ 2 million. On a per capita basis, the average American’s emissions are almost four times that of the average Chinese (see graphic below). Third, when one considers the economic status of most Chinese compared to most Americans, it is clear that much of the CO2 an average Chinese emits are “necessary” emissions but much of the CO2 an average American emits are “luxury” emissions. Finally, if we want to identify the countries causing climate change to induce them to bear the costs of addressing it, we should remember that the CO2 humans emit stays in the atmosphere for many decades. The harms that scientists are predicting from climate change will result from a long history of large American (and European) emissions and a much shorter history of much smaller Chinese emissions. Indeed, between 1900 and 1999, Americans generated about 30 percent of total CO2 emissions while China, India and other developing Asian countries combined were responsible for only 12 percent (World Resources Institute). This perspective suggests that Americans have at least some respon- sibility for causing climate change and for taking action to avert it. But it also highlights our ability to do so. Precisely because many of our emissions are “luxury” emissions, we have many options for reducing our “carbon foot- print” (our personal CO2 emissions) before it really begins to hurt. Easy emission reductions can come from using compact fluorescent light- Faculty Expert: Ronald Mitchell, a professor of political science and a core faculty member of the Environmental Studies Program, specializes in international relations and environmental politics. Beginning with this issue, Cascade launches an “Ask the Expert” column, wherein we pose a topical question to a faculty expert in the College of Arts and Sciences. Got a question? Send it to cascade@uoregon.edu Why Bother Going Green? Why “live green” — drive less, buy local, change light bulbs, etc. — if China is now the leading producer of carbon emissions? China has now surpassed the United States as the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2). China now generates slightly more of this global warming gas than the United States (see table, page 27). And as China continues to grow economically, its emissions are likely to grow, too. Many people have concluded from this that China, and not the U.S., is now the major source of the climate change problem and, therefore, that it is pointless for the U.S. as a country or Americans as individuals to reduce their emissions. But that view misunderstands both the problem and its solution. Before pointing the finger at China as the major country causing climate change — and therefore responsible for fixing it — we should remember a few facts. First, Chinese emissions are only slightly higher than American emissions and American emissions have been at that level for far longer. Second, China’s large emissions are generated by a population of 1,300 million compared to the U.S.’s 300 Source: Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency Average Tons of CO2 Emitted Per Person in 2007 ask the expert Continued on page 27 ➤ __ 3 India China European Union Russia U.S. It is clear that much of the CO2 an average Chinese emits are “necessary” emissions. climbing (which of course includes actually scaling a rock wall). “We don’t really ‘teach.’ It’s about exposing them to ideas,” said Linke, one of the 26 UO faculty who volunteered their time in the most recent SAIL week last August. Students need this kind of inspiration early, he said, because they need to take courses in high school that will prepare them for college. SAIL students also attend a session on financial aid options, including UO’s new PathwayOregon program, which pays tuition and living expenses for low-income students. They also tour campus, hang out with current college students and eat in the cafeteria. Of the original 18 students from the first year, eight have come back every year. They’re now entering their junior year in high school, so will have the opportunity to apply for college before the year is out — giving SAIL its first real-world test of its long-term success. – KC For more information visit sail.uoregon.edu SAIL is especially aimed at students who might not think of themselves as college-bound: students from low socio-economic backgrounds, or whose family members didn’t go to college or who are otherwise underrepresented at the university level. “We started this program because we wanted a concrete plan to get more low-income students to go to college,” said SAIL co-director and economics department head Bruce Blonigen. Volunteering their time and expertise, Blonigen and fellow economics professor Bill Harbaugh started the program in 2006 with 18 ninth graders, who learned about such topics as how markets work, international trade and environmental economics. The following year the program expanded to 31 students and included a program in psychology neuroscience led by professor Helen Neville. This year, with 40 students, they added a session covering physics and nanoscience, led by professors Ragu Parthasarathy and Heiner Linke. Next year the hope is to expand into the humanities as well as add more science. From the beginning, the program has been geared toward students from nearby Springfield Middle School because the school serves the lowest socioeconomic population in the area. About 75 percent of its students are eligible for free or reduced price lunches and the school has a significant popula- tion of recent Hispanic immigrants. To learn what college is all about, SAIL students attend lectures, learn about various UO research projects and do hands-on activities that expose them to the more accessible and fascinating sides of academia, like how banks make money, the role of psychology in aviation and the physics of rock __ 4 emembering her boring high school biology class, Lacey Whitwer, 15, wasn’t thrilled about spending a summer morning at UO staring into a microscope. But then one of her classmates exclaimed, “Look! It’s moving!” On the slide was a smear of mayonnaise — which was indeed moving. Magnified beads of oil and water were merging and separating like the globs in a lava lamp. Whitwer stared in awe. Suddenly science wasn’t boring at all. That’s just one goal of the UO’s week-long program called SAIL, the Summer Academy to Inspire Learning. SAIL is a free program designed to encourage bright students in middle and high school to start thinking about college early — introducing them to college classes, the UO campus and even dorm food. Cas news Econ, Psychology, Physics Team Up to Inspire Kids R Justin Latta, 16, of Eugene learns about gravity in the “Physics of Rock Climbing” session. Sol Van Horn, 15, of Springfield tests out a flight simulator as part of the SAIL program’s class on aviation psychology. P h otos: K atie C am p bell __ 5 Today, anyone can travel back to 18th century Rome with the aid of modern technology. A new web site developed by the Department of Geography Info- graphics Lab and the Department of Architecture allows online visitors to take the historic Grand Tour of Rome through the eyes of one of the city’s great artists. An interdisciplinary team of UO researchers collaborated with noted Italian scholars to produce an inno- vative new Web site and geographic database showcasing the work of Roman cityscape artist Giuseppe Vasi, who lived from 1710 to 1782. By combining Vasi’s engravings and illustrations with early maps of Rome by 18th century cartographer Giambattista Nolli, the UO team has created a rich historical resource that allows users to navigate Will Do Calculus for Food Purple marks the beginning of one worm’s search for food. When the line turns red, the worm has arrived at its next meal. How did this worm chart its path? Through taste, smell and ... calculus. That’s what UO biologist and mem- ber of the UO Institute of Neuroscience Shawn Lockery has discovered. Worms calculate how much the strength of different tastes is changing — equivalent to the process of taking a derivative in calculus — to figure out if they’re heading toward food or should tack in a different direction. By testing the nematode’s response to salt and chili peppers, Lockery, the principal investigator, and his team of five scientists determined that the worm’s food-seeking behavior is similar to a game of “you’re getting hotter, you’re getting colder” with a child. Salt equals hot. Spicy equals cold. Except the worm doesn’t need to be told if it’s getting closer to or farther from the target — the worm calculates the change by itself. The discovery, published this summer in the journal Nature, suggests that this method for smelling and tasting may be common among a wide variety of species, including humans. Better understanding of how taste and smell function in the brain of a nematode, Lockery said, may one day benefit human beings, especially the more than 200,000 Americans whose senses of taste and smell are impaired. preserving A dying LAnguAge Starting this fall UO students can learn one of the Northwest’s original languages and at the same time help preserve it from extinction. The language, Sahaptin, used to be the primary language of thousands of Native Americans living along the Columbia River. Today it’s spoken mainly on the Umatilla, Colville, Warm Springs and Yakama reservations. And very few speak it fluently. Members of Oregon’s tribes decided it was time to do something to ensure its survival. In response to their request, the UO has added a three-year series of classes in Sahaptin to the curriculum. The hope is to encourage young people from all backgrounds to take up the language, which is known for its extreme complexity — one Sahaptin word can convey an entire English sentence. An 86-year-old Yakama elder and Sahaptin expert, Virginia Beavert, will be the instructor of the fall series. Beavert received UO’s distinguished service award this spring in recognition of her decades of work in recording and preserving Sahaptin. The new courses will be taught through the UO’s World Languages Academy with support from the linguistic department’s Northwest Indian Language Institute (NILI). The NILI mission is to help tribes preserve languages through collaborative projects such as this. Virginia Beavert, a Yakama elder and Sahaptin language expert. P h oto by F ritz D en t, cou rtesy of th e W ash in gton S tate A rts C om m ission the ancient city, complete with satellite images, maps and modern photographs. Known as Vasi’s Grand Tour of Rome, the project builds on the previous award-winning “Interactive Nolli Map Website” created by the UO team, which blended cartography, architecture, history and technology. The Vasi project will be featured in an upcoming exhibit in the UO’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in 2009. Take the tour: visit vasi.uoregon.edu travel to 18th Century rome (online) __ 6 Who could have guessed that the UO archaeology story to get the most play this year would revolve around ancient excrement? When the journal Science broke the news last April of UO archaeologist Dennis Jenkins’ discovery of “coprolites” left behind by humans 14,300 years ago, it became an interna- tional story within a matter of minutes. Dozens of media outlets — print, radio and television — have covered Jenkins’ find, which he made while exploring Paisley Caves in the Cascade Range of Oregon. Stories appeared in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report, National Geographic and even abroad in the United Kingdom’s Telegraph and Canada’s Globe and Mail. Jenkins was also interviewed on NPR, on PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and on The History Channel for a show called All About Dung. Why such a big story? Well, besides the humorous headlines these media sources get to write, these fossilized specimens bring us closer to the long unanswered question: Who were the first Americans? Two UO science projects are the first to receive funding through private gifts to the new University Venture Development Fund (UVDF). The UVDF is a state income tax credit program designed to help move today’s campus research discoveries into tomorrow’s businesses. Donors to the fund get a tax credit on their Oregon state income tax. The initial projects chosen for funding support CAS science faculty research in two areas: • Chemistry professor Mark Lonergan and graduate student David Stay received support to develop a prototype for new low-cost, high-efficiency lighting technology. “s l a nguage” a r t s If you hear your Eugene Starbucks barista mention a “black ball,” they’re not referring to the newest coffee drink on the menu. They mean that a customer is being rude or taking too much time deciding what to order — so smile and pick up the pace! This is just one of the 6,808 terms listed on the UO Slang Dictionary, an archive of local slang words, phrases and their definitions. For the past eight years, Linguistics 101 students have conducted research and interviews with people from various social groups. The result: an extensive and accessible online Slang Dictionary, with a collec- tion of culture-specific lingo and jargon for each of the 587 social groups listed. A few of our favorites are listed below. To browse the complete dictionary visit: cascade.uoregon.edu. Bag nasty (noun). Social group: U.S. Marines serving in Iraq. Source: Bag probably has its origins in the Norse word baggi, and Nasty is probably from Middle English nasti, possibly alteration of Old French nastre, bad, short for vil- lenastre: vilein, bad; see villain + -astre, pejorative suff. (from Latin -aster). Meaning: Any bagged (prepack- aged) meal, can be dehydrated or not. Context: Mealtime, or any time of hunger. Cupcaking it (verb). Social group: UO football team. Source: Derived from the English word “cupcake,” meaning “a small cake baked in a cup-shaped con- tainer.” Meaning: You are always on the phone, and your conversation is too affectionate. Context: Used between players to let each other know that a phone conversation is a reflection of a relationship that is considered too “mushy.” Edison medicine (noun). Social group: Marion County police officers. Source: From Thomas Alva Edison and medicine — an inventor who made great strides in the development of electricity and a corrective or remedy respectively. Meaning: The use of the taser. Context: Used between officers. Media Abuzz Over Fossil Feces Jenkins’ team of archaeologists collected the strongest evidence yet that humans at least passed through North America more than 1,000 years earlier than previously thought. And because the fossilized specimens preserved human DNA, scientists now have a rare opportunity to learn about the lifestyle and diets of these first people. For links to the media coverage and videos online, visit cascade.uoregon.edu. Dennis Jenkins • Biology professor Terry Takahashi received funding to pursue a prototype for a new device that may lead to technologies for diagnosing the hearing capabilities of patients too young or too ill to indicate awareness of sounds. These two projects represent the overarching funding goals of the UVDF: to utilize the potential of university research, train the next generation of entrepreneurial business leaders and help seed new businesses that will stay in Oregon. Donors can receive a 60 percent tax credit by contributing to one or more funds at state-supported universities in Oregon. For details about the UVDF, visit uoventurefund.uoregon.edu. support innovAtion, get A tAx credit P h oto: Jim B arlow __ 7 n the 2007-08 academic year, there were more than 5,600 gifts to the College of less than $5,000. These added up to $1.1 million in support for CAS departments and programs. Nearly two-thirds of these gifts were less than $100, and more than 90% were $500 or less. The vast majority of these contribu- tions (4,376 of them) came from alumni, the rest from friends, parents, corpora- tions and foundations. How does alumni giving break down by class? As you might expect, alums age 40 and older are making the greatest number of gifts, but younger alumni also made a very strong showing in their total number of donations. Average gift amount — not surprisingly — also tends to be higher for alums over 40. Alumni from the 1970s, for instance, gave an average of $207 while alumni from the 1990s gave an average of $91. Because alumni from the 1970s also made the largest number of donations, their collective contributions made a significant impact: their gifts added up to almost $225,000, or nearly a quarter of the $1.1 million total. $1,000 will fund a scholarship for an undergraduate student in any CAS department You can also support the general fund of any CAS department with a gift of any size. See the inside front cover of Cascade for a full list of CAS departments. Can’t decide where you’d like your support to go? We invite you to come to campus to take a tour of the many fascinating and innovative facilities within the College. A few examples: • The underground Integrative Science Complex • The InfoGraphics Lab • The Condon Fossil Collection • The renovated Robinson Theater • The zebrafish lab • The human physiology environmental chamber Let us know what you’re interested in, and we’ll arrange a custom tour! Contact Jane Gary in the CAS office of development, (541) 346-3951, jgary@cas.uoregon.edu. Small Gifts Add Up to More Than $1 Million big giFts mAy mAke the heAdLines, but smALL giFts Are the LiFebLood oF the coLLege oF Arts And sciences I giving to Cas In 2007, more than 5,000 donors made gifts of less than $5,000 N u m b er o f gi ft s 4,000 3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 3,552 1,617 162 276 $1 – $ 99 $1 00 – $4 99 $5 00 – $9 99 $1 ,00 0 – $5 ,00 0 N u m b er o f gi ft s b y cl a ss d ec a d e 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 < 1 94 9 19 50 – 19 59 19 60 – 19 69 19 60 – 19 79 19 80 – 19 89 19 90 – 19 99 20 00 – pre sen t 122 307 779 1,086 777 590 715 So what can your gift of $100, $200 or more support? Here are just a few examples of the practical impact of gifts of $1,000 or less: $100 will support a student in purchasing textbooks $400 will fund a graduate student’s travel to a conference to present their research $500 will establish you as a member of the Dean’s Fund, which supports the Dean’s highest-priority projects Younger alumni made a strong showing in 2007. In 2007, more than 5,00 donors ma ifts of less than $5 0. THE DOCTOR IS IN Local Physicians Help Revive the Human Physiology Department How did this tiny department on the verge of extinction take a 180-degree turn and start attracting attention nationwide? retiring Department Head Gary Klug. “We couldn’t be doing what we’re doing without them.” Today more than 40 physicians work with the department as instructors, research consultants, guest lecturers and student mentors. This is nothing less than phenomenal for a department with humble roots as a physical education program. Such extensive collaboration is normally the province of a univer- sity with a large medical school. But of course there’s no medical school at the UO — not yet. From bench to bedside The alliance with community physi- cians has done more than revitalize the human physiology department. It has also created a veritable incubator for innovative research. UO researchers and local doctors together tackle relevant questions and apply laboratory findings to real-world clinical practice much faster than the norm. Getting research from “bench to bedside” more quickly has become a pressing goal in the Department of Human Physiology and also on a much larger scale. A 2003 study by the Nation- al Institute of Medicine found it takes an average of 17 years for research discov- eries to be incorporated into routine patient care. In response, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) now bases its research funding decisions largely on T __ 8 he prognosis looked grim for the Department of Human Physiology in the early 1990s. Legislative budget cuts forced faculty layoffs, leaving just five professors. And the student population dwindled to 20 — the future wasn’t promising. Less than 15 years later, there are now nearly 700 undergraduates major- ing in human physiology, plus 42 gradu- ate students are conducting independent research on how the body responds to exercise, disease and trauma. The department, in other words, has made a dramatic recovery from a student interest point of view. But faculty growth has not kept pace — with only 10 faculty members, the faculty-to- student ratio is now about 70:1. Nevertheless, human physiology has become a program that attracts millions of dollars in grants funding cut- ting-edge research, and its professors are publishing in the best academic journals while undergraduates are successfully applying to the country’s top medical schools. How did this tiny department on the verge of extinction take a 180-degree turn and start attracting attention nationwide? In part — a major part — the revival is the direct result of dozens of professional partnerships with Eugene’s medical community. “Our local physicians have become the cornerstone of our department,” said Today more than 40 physicians work with the department as instructors, research consultants, guest lecturers and student mentors. This is nothing less than phenomenal for a department with humble roots as a physical education program. whether a study’s results have promising and swift clinical applications. A glance at the sidebar “Real Research, Real People” (page 10) reveals both the breadth and depth of real-world problem-solving going on in the six specialized laboratories in the human physiology department. The focus is on health problems faced by real people — today, in their jobs, in their daily lives, across their lifespan. proving the nsF wrong In the late 1990s, Klug proposed building a facility where physicians and professors could work together. He applied for a grant from the National Science Foundation, and the NSF responded by saying it was a great idea to have physicians closely connected to departmental research, but physicians would be too busy to volunteer at the university. Klug and the rest of the department believed otherwise. They could point to examples of successful partnerships they’d initiated years before. (Nobody quite knows exactly how and when the first doctor-professor partnership began). So without the grant or the facility — but with the help of an insider in the medical community (Klug’s wife happened to be a vice president at Eugene’s PeaceHealth, a regional health system based in Bellevue, Wash.) — the department kept doing what it had been doing for years: requesting aid from area physicians one by one. Ultimately, the willingness of physicians to generously volunteer their time and expertise proved the NSF wrong. The collaboration has been cobbled together in a way that would not neces- sarily suggest a trajectory for success. It works despite the fact that there’s no single human physiology building or even a standardized format for the collaboration. Instead, it’s often been one researcher at a time seeking out a physician partner — or vice versa. For instance, Eugene cardiologist Dr. Matthews Fish, of the Oregon Heart & Vascular Institute, had a pressing research question: He wanted evidence of the effectiveness of different cardiac imaging software programs, which cardiologists use to detect heart disease. It was an important question, one that had the potential to affect how doctors everywhere analyze the heart. But Fish knew it would take hundreds of hours to analyze the data he had collected on his patients — time he didn’t have as a practicing doctor. Most physicians have questions they’re interested in investigating, but few have the time to develop and execute studies on their own. However, collaboration between Eugene-based __ 9 In professor Li-Shan Chou’s lab, researchers use motion analysis to study balance. Inset: reflective nodes on the feet are tracked by six cameras. P h oto: K atie C am p bell __ 10 real researCh, real people Doctors and professors collaborate to find answers by working with LocAL doctors, uo proFessors Are conducting reseArch in AreAs thAt directLy impAct how physiciAns treAt pAtients, ALLowing physiciAns to LeArn in reAL time how successFuL A pArticuLAr intervention mAy be. here’s A sAmpLing oF reseArch in progress: how Long does it tAke to recover From A concussion? Researchers: Li-Shan Chou, Paul van Donkelaar and Louis Osternig (emeritus) Collaborating physicians: Robert Crist, sports medicine, and UO Student Health Center physicians It’s common for football players to be back on the field within days of a concussion. But these researchers have found it takes at least a month to move normally again. And now they’re developing therapies to help concussion sufferers recover more quickly. how cAn we work with chiLdren with deveLopmentAL disAbiLities to improve their bALAnce? Researcher: Marjorie Woollacott Collaborating physician: Robert Nickel, developmental pediatrician Inability to control balance prevents many children with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy from leading more independent lives. Woollacott’s lab has developed therapies to improve stability, thus improving overall quality of life for these children. how cAn we identiFy And prevent repetitive motion disorders in the workpLAce? Researcher: Andy Karduna Collaborating physician: Peter Kosek, anesthesiologist Because about 40 percent of Americans over the age of 40 have some kind of rotator cuff injury, Karduna’s research examining the over- used rotator cuffs of dental hygienists is especially relevant. He hopes to learn how to better prevent and treat these prevalent maladies. whAt roLe does increAsed bLood FLow From exercise pLAy in chAnging A sedentAry person into A trAined AthLete? Researcher: John Halliwill Collaborating physician: Rick Padgett, cardiologist Halliwill and Padgett hope to gain insight into how exercise benefits athletes and effects their performance. This research may help sedentary people who are obese or diabetic better understand how they should exercise. whAt Are the risks oF hormonAL contrAceptives For young women? Researcher: Chris Minson Collaborating physicians: Paul Kaplan, gynecologist, Vern Katz, perinatologist, and Rick Padgett, cardiologist Studies have found that specific hormone therapies increase the risk of heart disease in post-menopausal women, but few have considered how the same hormones in birth control may affect younger women’s risk of heart disease. Minson’s team is working to better understand the cardiovascular risks of hormone therapy by comparing the effects of different types of hormonal birth control in healthy women and women with certain gynecological disorders. how successFuL is joint-repLAcement surgery? Researcher: Li-Shan Chou Collaborating physicians: Brian Jewett, Dennis Collis, Brick Lantz and Craig Mohler (all orthopedists) Motion analysis can detect changes in how a person walks in much greater detail than the eye can see. By evaluating a patient’s gait before and after knee- or hip-replacement surgery, Chou can track the effectiveness of these orthopedic operations. how cAn we heLp the Lungs oF premAture bAbies perForm better in AduLthood? Researcher: Andrew Lovering Collaborating physicians: Rick Padgett, cardiologist, Vern Katz, perinatologist, and Randy Goodman, medical sonographer Premature babies need oxygen to survive, but supplemental oxygen can stunt lung development. As these children grow older, they struggle with breathing. Lovering’s team is studying how to help them enhance their lung function. cAn dAmAged brAins be re-trAined? Researcher: Paul van Donkelaar Collaborating physicians: Robert Nickel, developmen- tal pediatrician, and Tom Boyd, neuropsychologist By comparing the brains of healthy humans with those who have cerebral palsy or have suffered a stroke or concus- sion, this team hopes to develop rehab therapies for patients with motor deficits. Visit cascade.uoregon.edu for videos from the labs. out oF the cLinic, into the cLAssroom Students in Dr. Vern Katz’s class squirmed the day they learned about parasites, especially when he showed a video of worm-infested intestines. “For this subject, it helps to have the actual,” said Katz, who teaches the introductory course Understanding Human Disease. “It sticks better in their minds.” This is exactly why students like to learn from Katz, who himself is “the actual” — a medical professional. Katz is considered an authority in the field of perinatology, the management of high risk pregnancy. He authored the thousand-page text book, Compre- hensive Gynecology, and each week he sees about 100 patients in his Eugene practice. Somehow he also finds time to teach hundreds of students each year at the UO. And he does it for free. Every year, two to three of the courses offered in the Department of Human Physiology are taught by Eugene physicians like Katz, and dozens more are invited to give guest lectures to various classes. Area physi- cians are so heavily involved that the department has come to rely on them. “Students benefit because not only do they learn science, but they want to know where they can apply it,” said human physiology Associate Professor Li-Shan Chou, who often invites physi- cians to speak to his students. “If we just teach everything out of the book, students get bored.” About a third of the lectures for the Biomechanics of Human Joints course are given by local orthopedic surgeons, according to Associate Professor Andy Karduna. He invites specialists to speak on various areas of expertise, such as the spine or foot, or recon- structive surgery. __ 11 physiology Ph.D. program to become a researcher. For Fish it showed the tangible benefits of partnering with the university. “Such research performed locally in our own institutions greatly enhances the quality of medical outcomes,” he said. going to extremes While Dr. Fish sought out a graduate student to assist him, in many cases the researcher seeks out the physician — and will go the distance (literally) to accommodate the relationship. John Halliwill, associate professor of human physiology, reflected on one recent example: Halliwill is studying why excess blood flows to the muscles after a workout and how understanding this might benefit people with obesity or diabetes. To complete the study, he needed a trained medical doctor to place arterial lines (insert narrow tubing inside arteries), to measure blood flow. physicians and human physiology graduate students has proven to be an ideal solution. A majority of the graduate students in the human physiology department work with physicians to some degree to help them tackle research projects. For his cardiology research project, Dr. Fish recruited graduate student Santiago Lorenzo. A native of Argentina, Lorenzo came from a long line of doctors and hoped for a career in sports medicine. At the start of his work with Fish, he was a master’s student interested in getting more exposure to clinical medicine. He agreed to help Fish structure a rigorous, unbiased analysis of his data. They created a database to process the information and standardize the results of the cardiac imaging project. With 400-500 patient records to study, it was tedious work. Lorenzo would drink maté — a traditional, caffeinated Argentinean beverage — to keep him going late at night as he processed piles of physicians’ notes and patients’ data. Fish said, “It would have taken me years.” What they found was significant. Their analysis showed considerable inconsistencies among the different cardiac imaging software programs. These inconsistencies could lead to inaccurate diagnoses of a patient’s heart condition. It was highly valuable infor- mation to the medical community and Fish and Lorenzo have since co-authored three academic/medical journal papers, with a fourth on the way. For Lorenzo the experience was career-changing. He was inspired to continue to study the heart, now looking at how it responds to exercise. Rather than applying to medical school to be a physician, he has entered the human Continued on page 26 ➤ Dr. Vern Katz __ 12 Dr. Rick Padgett, a cardiologist and medical director at Oregon Heart and Vascular Institute (OHVI), has served as a co-investigator on several of Halliwill’s research projects. This particular study relied heavily on Padgett’s expertise. But as a medical professional with a thriving practice, Padgett didn’t have the time to run over to the university every day to help. So Halliwill brought the lab to Padgett’s office at OHVI. With Halliwill’s lab just down the hall, Padgett can squeeze in the lab work between his routine patient visits. “We’ve managed to bring the institutions together in a grassroots partnership, which is pretty unique,” Halliwill said. Padgett agreed. “We’re blazing new trails here,” he said. “We’re trying to create an environment that allows the collaboration to flourish.” whAt’s the pAyoFF? Over the years, the human physiology department has found that, despite busy schedules, many physicians are eager to help with very little or even no pay. Why? As Dr. Victor Lin, a Eugene rehabilitation doctor, explained, physicians enjoy challenges and intellectual stimulation. Lin went through many years of rigorous medical training before settling into his private practice at the Rehabili- tation Medicine Association. “In school, life is always changing and you’re always learning something new,” Lin said. “Then you hit private practice and it’s 99 percent the same thing every day.” When his work started to feel like a 9-to-5 grind, Lin started looking for a new challenge. He learned of the research conducted by Associate Professor Li-Shan Chou that focused on biomechanical analysis—technol- ogy that has been used to capture and computerize Tiger Woods’ golf swing. Chou uses it to assess patients who have trouble doing simple tasks like walking and going up stairs. Lin, who loves new technology and gadgets of all sorts, was a little envious of Chou and could see how biomechani- cal analysis could be directly applied to his work in rehab. He called Chou and said, “My time is limited, but I would love to be involved.” At the time, Chou was beginning research to try to answer the question of why elderly people fall and he needed a physician to screen potential research subjects to determine if the person is a faller or a non-faller. Now eight years later, Lin still visits Chou’s lab frequent- ly to discuss research and watch the data collection in process. “I like to mingle with the students and tell them how I would apply the basic science they’re doing to the clinical setting,” Lin said. “I used to be involved in conversations like this all the time in medical school. I missed the collegial bonding, and now I can get it from these kids.” scrubbing in It’s not only the physicians and researchers who are enjoying the benefits of this partnership. Students may be receiving the most tangible rewards. Many have the opportunity to receive direct instruction from physicians in the classroom (see sidebar, page 11), and some are experiencing powerful mentoring outside the classroom, too. Each year 25 to 30 pre-med students get to shadow local physicians. “Stu- dents come into the department thinking they want to be a physical therapist or a doctor, but don’t have the sense of what it’s like to live the life,” said Department Head Gary Klug. “We try to get them in that environment so they can see what it looks like and feels like to be a doctor.” Imagine, for instance, scrubbing in on a surgical rotation — before even entering medical school. Twice a week during her senior year last year, Melissa Wagasky scrubbed in for 7:30 a.m. surgery. This 22-year-old would witness three or four or some- times even five operations a day. Though she was only an undergraduate, she was learning firsthand what it took to be a surgeon. “It was an amazing experience,” she said. “(The doctors) really just teach the entire time.” It was Dr. Robert Schauer, a breast cancer surgeon, with whom she spent Continued on page 26 ➤ To learn how the body benefits from exercise, human physiology professors partner with doctors to study the flow of blood and oxygen after exercise. TheBoundariesof Memoir P h oto: K atie C am p bell __ 13 Former UO student Peggy Seltzer published her “memoir” Love & Consequences last spring to great acclaim. But she soon joined the ranks of notorious writers who have been discovered faking the facts for the sake of sellable drama. Using the pen name Margaret B. Jones, Seltzer fabricated a sensational past of growing up as a half-Native American foster child immersed in the world of South-Central L.A. gangs. But in fact she is white and grew up in her parents’ home in suburban Sherman Oaks. Seltzer clearly went beyond ... Laurie Drummond is an assistant professor of creative writing and author of a short story collection, Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You. She is at work on a novel and a memoir about her former life as a police officer. She teaches seminars on writing memoir. Gordon Sayre is a professor of English and ethnic studies, who teaches courses on early American ethnic autobiography. He received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to translate a memoir recounting the misadventures of an 18th century French soldier in frontier Louisiana. Peggy Seltzer was a student in one of his ethnic studies classes. David Bradley is an associate professor of creative writing and the author of two novels, South Street and The Chaneysville Incident. He has published articles in Esquire, Redbook, The New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine. He chooses not to write memoir. TheBoundariesof Memoir Laurie Drummond Gordon Sayre David Bradley But where exactly is the line between fact and fiction? Memoir continues to inhabit a nebulous place in the literary world where emotional truth may not match historical truth and where ethics and aesthetics collide. In search of clarity, Cascade convened a panel of literary thinkers to consider the pitfalls of the form. __ 14 Laurie: I think it’s popular in part because people want to read true stories about real people, but I also think it’s part of the larger cultural interest in having access to private lives. We see this on TV, with the unfortunate plethora of reality TV shows. Especially post-9/11, there’s been a real interest in how people live their lives. But I also think it is, in part, the fact that the publishing world has marketed memoirs in such a way to connect to readers. David: I think we have to make a distinction between different kinds of memoirs. In The New York Times today there was an editorial that talked about three different kinds of Washington memoirs: “I-reveal-the-honest-truth” kiss-and-tell designed to settle scores; “I-was-there-at-the-start,” designed to make the author appear to be the lynchpin of history; and most tedious, “I-knew-it-was-a-terrible-mistake-but- I-didn’t-mention-it-until-I-got-a-book- contract.” When we start talking about memoirs, I think we’re talking about a literary effort that’s about private people. It’s someone’s personal experience and it’s interesting to us. Laurie: Not celebrity “tell all” memoirs either. Gordon: The term memoir is not one that I’ve often used in teaching literature courses, but I have used “autobiogra- phy” a lot, so I started thinking about what the difference is between those two terms or genres. One idea I had is that the autobiography is by a person who is famous for other reasons than just that book. So the Washington memoirs you’ve mentioned would fall into the category. The private-lives-revealed kind of genre, that you mentioned, Laurie, would be the other side of the coin. What is interesting in the case of mem- oir is the fact that the author is anony- mous — is just like you or me perhaps, but emerges into this public space by re- vealing sometimes intimate, sometimes surprising or notable or heroic details about his or her life. But the very fact of anonymity is also what makes it impossible, in many cases, to verify the truth. If it’s Barack Obama, there are many other people, there are many other documents, there are news conferences and so on and so forth that can establish the accuracy of what the memoirist says. But in the case of private lives we really can’t. And that’s what made the Love and Consequences story possible, right? On the decision to write memoir —or not Wherein the writer endeavors to match form and content David: I don’t write memoir, because I don’t think that I, all by myself, am that interesting. I write about experiences. I write about race from the perspective of being born in 1950, which is a very tricky time. Things were changing, but they hadn’t changed yet, so it’s a cusp period and I saw a lot of things, but I didn’t do any of them. I’m writing about a personal experience, but I’m not writ- ing about me. I’m the guy sitting in the corner with the beer watching every- thing else go on. I like to write about other people who have what may be memoirs, but I steal them. Sometimes I get caught up in events, but it’s still not about me. Laurie: Initially, I started writing about my experiences as a police officer as fiction because I started taking fiction classes. Being a police officer was the largest, most important experience “I don’t think any of us can tell the complete truth in a memoir because our memories are faulty.” On the popularity of memoir Wherein the genre (vs. autobiography) is defined P h ot os : J ac k Li u __ 15 I’d had in my life. It had a far-ranging impact on my life, and I’d seen a lot. I started primarily because I felt that police officers weren’t depicted accu- rately in TV and film and books — especially women. When I came into police work in the late ’70s, female police officers in uniform patrol had only been legally allowed for several years. In fact it was at a time when women in Seattle sued the Seattle Police Department for the right to be a uniformed police officer, not just a juvenile detective or a meter maid. As I began writing fiction, I realized there was some material that didn’t work for fiction, that deserved complete honesty. Any kind of writing is an act of discovery, but I think with memoir in particular, the impetus for a writer often is to understand one’s own life. You’re trying to discover things about yourself and what it means to be human within the context of the events of one’s own life. For me, exploring something like racism in the police department never worked in fiction. To immerse myself in my experience, in my own culpability as well as the department’s and the larger world of Baton Rouge, the South, the United States, etc., memoir just seemed a much more honest way to approach the material. The material just speaks and says “this needs to be memoir; this needs to be nonfiction.” On making stuff up Wherein we learn what leads to the fictionalizing of memoir Gordon: I think the controversies we’ve seen over hoax memoirs in the last couple years seem to be predicated on the idea that the consumer deserves some kind of protection plan and should be able to get a full refund if the book is not what was advertised. By teaching and by studying the practices of pub- lishers and genres in the past, I want to place the onus on the reader and say that the reader should not believe what the dust jacket says or rely on which list it’s under, or which section in the bookstore. The reader needs to ask him- or herself questions about what, upon reading the actual work, leads the reader to believe: I find this convinc- ing, I believe this is true. Or, I find this suspicious, I think this is entirely made up. So ask yourself that question, look back at the text and try to figure out what techniques a clever writer can use to lead you to believe that it’s true even if maybe it’s not. Or conversely, there are many pieces of fiction presented as autobiography which are not. But a clever writer will stick in certain clues to push the envelope, to test your belief of whether it’s an autobiography. David: I’ve got to disagree with that to this extent: First of all, Margaret Jones/ Peggy Seltzer is guilty of civil fraud and possibly criminal fraud. That has nothing to do with the writing; that has nothing to do with the book. She presented it as one thing, accepted funds for it, allowed it to be packaged. She signed a contract that said certain things, she made representations. If she had said, however, “This is a novel,” she probably would not have been able to get it published. And so we also need to talk about the pressure the publishers exert on the authors. “The worst thing you want to be as a writer in America is a 20-something white male. You are almost forced to make up something.” “The controversies we’ve seen over hoax memoirs in the last couple years seem to be predicated on the idea that the consumer deserves some kind of protection plan.” __ 16 The worst thing you want to be as a writer in America is a 20-something white male. You are almost forced to make up something; you’ve got to make up abuse, you’ve got to make up addic- tion. Otherwise you’re not going to get in the door. If it’s just “I’m a good writer and I’ve spent all my time crafting these sentences,” forget it. If you get your foot in the door under whatever guise and you say this is nonfiction, the first thing that happens is they take you to the attorney. And the attorney tells you to change things, because otherwise, you’ll get sued, because you’ll be invading peoples’ privacy. So automatically, even if you try to use exactly the right names, they’ll say, “Can’t you make their hair a different color?” or “Can’t you change the names to protect the guilty?” or something like that. So you’re forced to falsify, you’re forced to fictionalize. Laurie: I agree in large part with what you’re saying, David. I guess one of the places I disagree is that I think it starts with the writer and the writer making the decision of “I want the best chance possible to get published so let me come up with this memoir, let me twist these facts to make it more dramatic or more exciting or more unusual.” Then they sell it that way. They present it that way to agent and editor. There are all these pressures: the lawyers, the salespeople, the publicists, the Barnes and Nobles, the Borders who seem to dictate so much. But I think it starts first with the writer, and that’s where I have a prob- lem. If you say this is memoir, if you say this is nonfiction, and you’ve made things up, it’s wrong. On the question of fidelity to Truth (with a capital ‘T’) Wherein the impossibility is explored Laurie: I don’t think any of us can tell the complete truth in a memoir because our memories are faulty. It’s the same reason my brother and I argue vehe- mently about something that happened over 30 years ago. Our experiences are colored by our previous experiences, our emotional state at the time. To me, it’s one of the great joys and challenges of working in the form: acknowledging and working with faulty memory, which is different from making stuff up deliberately and knowingly. I can think of another example: Tobias and Geoffrey Wolff, two brothers, both of whom published memoirs: Tobias Wolff, This Boys Life, and Geoffrey Wolff, The Duke of Deception. Their parents separated when they were 9 and 11, and Geoffrey went with his father and Tobias went with his mother. And they both wrote memoirs about their childhood with very different versions of events that they were both present for. Gordon: Well, I can’t resist raising the case of Dumont de Montigny, the Loui- siana officer whose memoir I’m editing and translating. I’ve been astonished how accurate his memoir or autobiog- raphy is. There are corroborating letters and documents for nearly everything he writes. But when he turned his memoir into a published book called Histori- cal Memoir on Louisiana, he basically rewrote it in the third person, effacing his own autobiographical voice. And he also changed a key fact about one of the most notorious and lurid episodes in the history — an Indian uprising in Natchez in 1729. In the published book, he claimed he had been there until the day before the uprising, explaining that if he would have stayed, he would have been killed; but in his manuscript memoir that I’m editing he actually reveals that he left Natchez 10 months before the revolt occurred. So he was more truthful in the version he did not submit for publication. David: I was teaching a course here in creative nonfiction and a young man in the journalism school was in the course, a very good writer, who was born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming. Now, if you remember the Matthew Shepard case, there was all this hoopla and this young man didn’t like his hometown being slandered and invaded by all these people from back east who think only people who bash gays live in Wyoming. Flash forward many years: He’s at the University of Oregon in my class and he starts to write about this experi- ence. He’s writing about how he now feels about it, about the people coming into his town and painting it falsely. He says he was so distraught about the candlelight vigil that he couldn’t even go. He turns the piece in. He gets an A. He comes into my office and he says, “I have a problem. You know how I wrote that I was so disgusted I couldn’t go to the candlelight vigil?” I said, “Yeah.” “Well,” he said, “I showed this piece to my old girlfriend and she reminds me that not only was I there but I also wrote about it for the school newspaper, and she sent me the article that I wrote.” I said, “Now you have a really good nonfiction creative piece, you can write about repressed memory.” – moderated and edited by Katie Campbell To hear excerpts from the rest of the conversation, visit cascade.uoregon.edu. __ 17 humanities Thousands Flock to the Rock During Olympic Trials A A group of youngsters even came to the rock with their mom to sell lem- onade to the crowds, which they were marketing as “Pre-monade.” “Some people were deeply moved, some were weeping, others were sharing inspirational stories or humorous ones,” Wojcik said. With future support, Wojick hopes to expand the preliminary documentary into a film that could be shown at film festivals and on public television. To see video clips, visit cascade.uoregon.edu. – KN Visitors from Idaho check out remembrances left at the shrine to Prefontaine. Above: Kent Hoffmeyer of Montana says a prayer for Steve Prefontaine before performing a personal healing ritual at the site. Right: Steve Bence, who shared a trailer in Glenwood with Prefontaine after the 1972 Olympic Trials, talks with a group of visitors. P h otos: D an iel W ojcik s many as 3,000 people visited “Pre’s Rock” during the Olympic Trials last summer, according to Professor Daniel Wojcik, director of the UO Folklore Studies Program. The rock, which commemorates the location where track legend Steve Prefontaine died in a car accident in 1975 in the hills above Eugene, is of special importance to runners as well as the local community, says Wojcik, who has published a book chapter titled, “Pre’s Rock: Pilgrimage, Ritual, and Runners’ Traditions at the Roadside Shrine for Steve Prefontaine.” Wojcik is researching how the legacy and lore of Prefontaine shapes local, national and even international running traditions, crossing borders and cultures. Armed with video cameras and notepads, Wojcik and a group of his graduate students viewed the return of the Olympic Trials to Eugene as an opportunity to document a surge in visits to the rock. Wojcik and his students observed hundreds of people each day making the pilgrimage to the site during the ten days of the Trials. “One young woman drove from Texas with her parents, two days straight, didn’t brush her teeth, didn’t shower, straight to the rock,” Wojcik said. “She came to the Trials, but the first place to go was to the rock.” Wojcik and his team captured more than ten hours of oral histories on film and have completed a preliminary documentary that presents the emotional narratives and memories of people visiting the place where Prefontaine died. They witnessed a religious ceremo- ny, when a man with a prayer scarf and an osprey feather performed a Native American ritual in honor of Prefontaine. An Olympic marathoner from Philadelphia showed up wearing a black suit and running shoes, brought out his harmonica, and played a blues song and recited a poem for Pre. __ 18 the messAge in the medium This fall, students will have a chance to explore diverse aspects of the human (or inhuman) condition via a variety of Humanities class- es that use film or theater as a point of departure: A nAtion divided—whAt’s Love got to do with it? This German studies course will explore notions about East/West and united German culture and society as presented in a series of “love stories” from a number of narratives and films from the 1950s to the present. The question at hand: How do these representations of love and longing reveal changing ideas in Germany about the connection between the past and present, about memory, guilt, identity and unity? compArAtive worLd cinemA: zombies This Comparative Literature course will focus on representations of zombies in such movies as Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead and Pet Sematary. Starting with the question, “Why do we find zombies so scary?” the class will examine issues of race, gender, disability and the anxiety over large global migrations depicted through the fear of infection and the spread of disease. russiAn through theAter By providing the opportunity to partici- pate in a Russian language theater production, this course will not only increase students’ language skills, but also provide a glimpse into Russian literature and culture. Each student will be assigned a part depending on his or her proficiency level and the instructor will provide translation and cultural background for each piece the student memorizes. There will also be opportunities to play games, watch videos and discuss drama and children’s literature and their role in the culture. schizophreniA And the FAte oF the seLF Advances in medical technology and many large-scale, longitudinal studies have built a convincing case that a host of genetic, biochemical and environmental factors bring about schizophrenia. However, these perspectives often overlook how suffering persons actually experience their symptoms, how they navigate their way through lives beset by schizophrenia and how their response to the illness influences its development. To address this oversight, philosophy professor John Lysaker, and his brother Paul Lysaker, a clinical psychologist, have co-authored a book that provides a unique perspective on this disorder. Examining the problem through the dual lens of philosophy and clinical practice, Schizophrenia and the Fate of the Self (Oxford University Press, 2008) explores how schizophrenia disrupts individuals’ experiences of themselves and how that disruption poses enduring barriers to recovery — barriers not reducible to issues of social justice or biology. After presenting a model of how disturbances in self-experience are related to (but not identical with) symptoms and dysfunction, the authors present therapeutic strategies that might provide greater opportunities for recovery. Foreign Language by the Numbers • The College of Arts and Sciences offers 20 foreign languages regularly through the second year (and beyond). • In 2002, the University of Oregon was named one of 12 National Foreign Language Resource Centers in the nation. • The Romance Languages Department runs intensive Spanish language programs in Mexico where students may complete an entire year’s work in 1 term. The department also offers study-abroad programs in 3 locations in France (Lyon, Angers and Poitiers) and 2 in Italy (Siena and Macerata). • The Department of German and Scandinavian offers 5 different languages and study-abroad programs in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. • The East Asian Languages and Literature Department is one of the largest of its kind in North America, enrolling more than 1,000 students a year in its courses. • While the final numbers haven’t been tallied (and may not yet account for an increase of 1,000+ students enrolling at UO this fall), there are, so far: 1,935 students enrolled in Spanish 719 in French 632 in German 585 in Italian 494 in Japanese 422 in Chinese 213 in Russian 127 in Arabic __ 19 This fall, Steven Shankman will assume the directorship of the new UO Center for Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue. The Center, which will be established in September 2008, is the latest step in formalizing Shankman’s position as the first-ever North American UNESCO Chair in Transcultural Studies, Interreligious Dialogue and Peace. There are only 20 other chairs of this type in the world. UNESCO, the educational wing of the United Nations, organizes a number of cultural programs — one of which is entitled “Intercultural Dialogue.” “We are extremely proud that the first chair awarded for this program in the United States has been given to Steven Shankman,” said UO President Dave Frohnmayer. “This is a testament to the work that is being done on this campus in the areas of conflict resolution, peace studies and international scholarship.” With the founding of the Center for Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue, the UO will establish a pro- gram that will allow students to earn a UNESCO-sponsored certificate in Intercultural Dialogue that will supple- ment advanced degrees in such fields as religious studies, comparative literature, philosophy and political science. new center to oFFer certiFicAte in intercuLturAL diALogue In spring 2009, the university will host the first meeting ever held in the United States of the chairs from UNESCO’s Intercultural Dialogue Pro- gram. The new Center is organizing a conference on “Ethics, Religion, and the Environment” that will coincide with the meeting of the UNESCO Chairs. Shankman, a College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, will continue to teach half-time in the English department in addition to his duties as UNESCO Chair and director of the new Center. His new responsibilities also signal a change for another center on campus. Since 1994 Shankman has been director of the Oregon Humanities Center, which supports research and innovation in humanities at the UO. Barbara Altmann, former chair of the Department of Romance Languages, will now fill the Humanities Center director position. Steven Shankman, CAS Distinguished Professor Professor Catherine Wiebe uses a French TV news clip as a catalyst for class discussion. Beyond Le Textbook P h oto: D ave R agsd ale When studying another language, the next best thing to being immersed in the culture is to be immersed in its media. That’s why UO French professor Catherine Wiebe places extra emphasis on using multimedia tools in her classroom. Over the past two years, Wiebe has enhanced the French department’s curriculum by building a vast virtual library stocked with hundreds of French TV news clips, music videos, photos of France and MP3 files of French songs and radio programs. Wiebe, a Paris native, found time and help to master software for editing photos, audio and video clips and to enrich her classes’ online sites. Her goal has been to move language learning beyond the textbook and bring the French language to life, enriching each student’s experience by exposing them to a variety of real-life French idioms, diction and culture. Her students have joined in as well, creating their own multimedia material including videos of French language skits and TV-news-style shows, which they share with their classmates online. To see an example of a student-produced video, visit cascade.uoregon.edu. __ 20 soCial sCienCes ollowing on the phenomenal success of the Atlas of Oregon, published in 2001, the Department of Geography has launched an ambitious project to produce a one-of-a-kind atlas that captures the extraordinary story of Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park and the surround- ing region. The Atlas of Yellowstone will be the first comprehensive atlas that focuses on a region with national parks at its core. Geographers and scientific experts from numerous public and private institutions have joined forces to produce a synthesis of 200 years of exploration and research. Scheduled for completion in 2010, the why And how oF rAce And poLitics In an election year where the topic of race is front and center, Joseph Lowndes, assistant professor of political science, has come out with a new book that examines the role of race in shaping contemporary politics. In From the New Deal to the New Right: Race and the Southern Origins of Modern Conservatism (Yale Univer- sity Press, 2008), Lowndes notes that the South’s transition from Democratic stronghold to Republican base has frequently been viewed as a recent occurrence — one that largely stems from a 1960s-era backlash against left-leaning social movements, such as civil rights. But, he argues, this rightward shift was not neces- sarily a natural response by alienated whites. Instead, it has been the result of the long-term development of an alliance between Southern segregationists and Northern conserva- tives — two groups that initially shared little beyond opposition to specific New Deal imperatives. Lowndes focuses on the formative period between the end of the Second World War and the Nixon years. By looking at the 1948 Dixiecrat Revolt, the presidential campaigns of George Wallace and popular representations of the region, he shows the many ways in which the South changed during these decades. The unique characteristics of Ameri- can conservatism were forged in the crucible of race relations in the South, Lowndes asserts, and his analysis of party-building efforts, national institu- tions and the innovations of particular political actors provides a timely look into the ideology of modern conserva- tism and the Republican Party. F New Atlas to Showcase Yellowstone Region Path of the Yellowstone Hot Spot – © 2008 University of Oregon the Atlas will include comprehensive reference maps as well as thematic “page pairs” covering nearly 100 subjects. The page pairs will feature sophisticated graphics depicting scientific data on subjects such as the migration of bison, the impact of wildfires and geothermal activity. The Atlas will provide a definitive reference to guide decisions about Yellowstone’s future — ensuring that lessons learned from the world’s oldest national park and its neighbors are broadly disseminated and deeply appreciated. Visit atlasofyellowstone.net to view an image gallery and learn more about the project. LArry singeLL nAmed new AssociAte deAn Economics Professor Larry Singell has been named Associate Dean of Social Sciences for CAS. Singell has been at the UO since 1988 and was most recently department chair for the Department of Economics. He is a recent recipient of one of five UO Research Innovation Awards presented to CAS faculty in 2008. Singell’s research focuses on the role that education plays in labor-market outcomes. Most recently, he has studied the effects of financial aid programs, such as the Pell grant, on access, retention, graduation and institution choice within higher education — with special emphasis on the factors that influence students’ decisions to attend college, and those that help them be successful. __ 21 A child in Kenya looked upon this scene of people standing in line to receive aid, lifted a disposable camera to his eye and clicked. His assignment was to show the world what life is like in the slum where he lives. To explain the impor- tance of the image, he wrote a caption: “Their house burned down to ashes.” Nick Blakey, a junior from Bainbridge Island, Wash., gave this as- signment to ten students, ages 10 to 16, who were living in Mathare, one of the largest and most dangerous slums in the capitol city of Nairobi. As part of a study abroad program last year, Blakey, an international studies major, lived in this shantytown for a month and taught the children, some of whom had never held a camera, the basics of photography. After developing the film, Blakey could see that much could be learned about how these children viewed their lives. Some pictures showed the aspects of life that made them happy: family, playing soccer, studying. Others captured their fears: bullet holes, children with scars and people carrying water (a scarce commodity). Blakey asked the kids to write captions and promised he would share their pictures with the world. kenya through the eyes of its Children International Studies student Nick Blakey spent a month teaching children to take photos to document life in their Nairobi slum. Above is one example. After Blakey left the East African nation in December 2007, violence erupted after elections, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and 300,000 displaced by the violence. Mathare was hit especially hard. Blakey has been able to reach only three of his students since then. Because their families don’t have enough money to send them to school, Blakey raised money by selling salmon in Seattle this summer to pay their $400-per-year tuition bills. This September Blakey is returning to Mathare with more cameras. To see more photos, visit cascade.uoregon.edu. – KC Just as Smith suspected, they responded to this western practice similarly to the way in which Americans she interviewed had reacted to a com- mon practice in their country: female genital cutting. While Smith said she would never equate breast augmentation with genital cutting, she hopes her re- search will help people understand the Continued on page 27➤ The Politics of the Body reasoning behind the two procedures. “I’m studying why we do all these things to women’s bodies,” said Smith, who is earning a Ph.D. in political science, but whose work draws on many social sciences disciplines, such as anthropology, women’s studies and sociology. For her field work, Smith spent seven months in Senegal gathering information about female genital cutting through more than 80 open-ended interviews with women (cut and uncut), men, mothers, doctors, village chiefs and religious leaders. She found that cutting is indeed a deeply imbedded cultural practice. “I think they were more likely to open up to me and talk about cutting because I was also asking them about When Courtney Smith described breast implants to Senegalese people, they were horrified and called it disgusting, unnatural and “against God.” Being an immigrant in Oregon has historically been more challenging than in other states and Oregon continues to present unique problems for migrants, a new UO study shows. Because of Oregon’s long history of anti-migrant views and its population of largely European descent, immigrants here find it harder to assimilate than in other states. For example, data show that immigrants are less likely to be employed in better-than-minimum-wage jobs or have success in shedding such labels as “undocumented,” “refugee” and “second-language learner.” A team of 11 College of Arts & Sciences researchers and professors has found that the lack of an active public policy approach has meant that Oregon has been slow to respond to the increased presence of immigrants in communities, workplaces and schools. Despite these difficulties for the foreign born, the state now has one of the most rapidly growing immigrant populations in the United States and is a leading destination for refugees. In particular, more Russians and Ukraini- ans have come to the Northwest than any other region in the country. And from 1990 to 2005, Oregon’s Latino population — now 10 percent of the state’s total — doubled in 21 counties, according to the report, which was un- veiled in May. Scholars from the departments of anthropology, geography, history, sociology and psychology collaborated to produce the report, which was edited by history professor Robert Bussel, the director of the UO’s Labor Education and Research Center — the entity that coordinated the study. The six-chapter report provides recommendations for communities and policymakers on how to help immi- grants integrate socially and economi- cally, including: • extending successful community- based programs statewide, • expanding multilingual services to rural communities, • strengthening protections for immigrant workers (who make up 11 percent of Oregon’s labor force), • enhancing intervention efforts with Latino youth (who now make up 17 percent of Oregon students). For the complete report, visit cascade.uoregon.edu. __ 22 poLiticAL science ALum eLected mAyor oF portLAnd In January 2009, Portland, Ore. will become the largest U.S. city to swear in an openly gay mayor. Sam Adams, an alumnus of the Department of Political Science, won the mayoral election this May by an overwhelming 59 percent of the vote. “I’m running not to be a gay mayor, but a great mayor,” he told reporters after delivering his victory speech. “But I’m very cognizant, very aware that I’m the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. That’s a real honor.” Adams, 45, is one of Oregon’s fastest-rising political stars. He spent his high school years in Eugene, then started college at the UO but decided in 1984 to postpone finishing in order to join U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio’s campaign as an intern. Shortly thereafter, he was elected Lane County Democratic Party chairman. A few years later, in 1991, he managed Vera Katz’s first campaign for mayor of Portland and was Katz’s chief of staff during the following 11 years while she was in office. Adams returned to the UO to finish his degree in political science and graduated in 2002. He went on to narrowly win a seat on the Portland City Commission in 2004, where he has served since then. Over the years Adams has taught himself how to be a politician and has become known as a policy wonk and City Hall insider. His sexual orientation was never a campaign issue during the contest earlier this year against Portland businessman Sho Dozono, who earned 34 percent of the vote. UO Immigration Report Reveals Oregon’s Challenges Sam Adams Flow of immigrants to Oregon by place of origin, 2000. © 2008 University of Oregon InfoGraphics Lab, Department of Geography. __ 23 natural sCienCes he reauthorization of the 21st Century Nanotechnology Act — which now includes language that supports “green nano” — was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in June and has moved on to the Senate for action. The Senate is scheduled to consider it in September. The act, which was signed into law in December 2003 by President Bush, authorizes funding for nanotechnology research and development. Thanks in part to advocacy by chemistry professor Jim Hutchison, the bill now incorporates green nanotechnology language that calls for a proactive research plan to account for environmental, health and safety issues involved in nanotechnology research. When it comes to computer technology, it’s usually one size fits all, but a new research project in the Department of Computer and Information Science could change that notion. “We all have to adapt to what Microsoft puts out. Well, what we’re doing is the anti-Microsoft. We’re tailoring the tech- nology to fit the individual,” said Stephen Fickas, project leader and professor of computer and information science. The idea is for an individual to be assessed and then prescribed the appropriate software to fit their needs. The results of this research would be significant for the more than one million U.S. adults diagnosed each year with cognitive disabilities, especially those with traumatic brain injuries, Alzheimer’s disease and developmental disabilities. After receiving a three-year grant of $799,999 in July from the National Science Foundation, Fickas and education professor McKay Sohlberg will lead an interdisciplinary team of computer science and education researchers. T Hutchison Advocates for Green Nano on Capitol Hill In several visits to Capitol Hill over the past two years, Hutchison has urged policymakers to fund research for the development of design rules to guide development of new nanomaterials that are safer for the environment and the public. Hutchison, a leading U.S. innovator in nanofabrication and assembly processes and a pioneer in the use of green chemistry, is a sought-after expert on issues related to nanotechnology. This breakthrough technology is expected to become a multi-trillion dollar industry in the next decade. In December 2007, Hutchison gave a briefing for the Congressional Nano- technolgy Caucus, a study group led by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and four other congressional representatives. Hutchison described the ONAMI Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufactur- ing Initiative (SNNI) (see http://www. greennano.org/) approach for advancing safer nanoparticle design — specifically, design and manufacturing strategies to remove toxic byproducts from nanoparticles and developing greener, high-throughput production methods that provide better quality nanoparticles. Check out an interview with Jim Hutchison on green chemistry, from ScienCentral at cascade.uoregon.edu. creAting A “soFtwAre phArmAcy” For cognitive impAirments Sohlberg, who specializes in speech and language disorders, identifies the needs of specific groups with disabilities. The CIS researchers, including software engineers Jason Prideaux and Jim Allen, develop the software. The goal of the project, which is called, “Software Pharmacies: Design of Person- alized Assistive Devices for People with Cognitive Impairments,” is twofold. First, the researchers are developing tools to help individuals overcome the isolation caused by their disabilities. “We’re trying to deliver the kind of interactive technology you and I use every day — like email, Facebook and Twitter — by attempting to build versions of these tools for this population,” Fickas said. They’re also developing software to aid in-home rehabilitation and self- administered medication. After being released from the hospital, patients are sent home with a box that attaches to their TV. At the prescribed times each day, the TV turns on an interactive instructional program that reminds the patient it’s time to take their medica- tion or do their exercises (see photo). For his Ph.D. thesis Rik Lemoncello completed a study this spring of one prototype that helps stroke victims with rehab exercises. He found that when using the prototype, patients were significantly more likely (as much as 17 times) to complete the rehab program and do it correctly. – KC __ 24 Choosing to live in wildfire zones. Learning your drinking water is contaminated. Trying to comprehend genocide. What could these topics possibly have in common? To UO psychology professor Paul Slovic, a common theme is the perception of risk and how it affects decision making. Slovic has been much in the news in recent months, sharing his insight on these diverse subjects. As founder and president of Decision Research, a non-profit research organization analyzing risk assessment, Slovic studies the ways in which people perceive risk and how they use informa- tion to make judgments and decisions regarding potential hazards. He uses basic research as well as more focused studies on actual hazardous elements to explore probable negative outcomes. As society’s values, attitudes and perceptions of risk transform over time, Slovic evaluates the links between the ways risks are interpreted and the ways they are acted upon. Take terrorism for instance. “It’s not that terrorism is new,” Slovic said, “but it’s new on our radar screen.” Due to increased fears of terrorism, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars to reduce the perceived risk of another attack, even though the damage done by terrorism is relatively small compared to the damage done by disease and other hazards. While people expose themselves to risks all the time, Slovic has found that when exposure to risk is voluntary — for instance, choosing to live in areas of California where wildfires are common — people are much more accepting of the risk because they feel they’re in charge and have put themselves in the path of risk. However, when someone is exposed to risk against their will — for example, when traces of pharmaceuticals are found in community drinking water supplies — people are less tolerant, even if the water isn’t contaminated enough the greening oF FertiLizer The current industrial method for producing chemical fertil- izer uses about 2 percent of the world’s energy each year. But that could soon change dramatically because of the work of a team of UO chemists. Chemistry professor David Tyler and his team are nearing a laboratory breakthrough in developing a process for producing fertilizer that would require far less energy. “Just imagine if you could free up 2 percent of the world’s energy. That would be huge,” Tyler said. The team is closing in on a new and improved method for producing ammonia, the key ingredient in commercial fertilizer. Ammonia is the fuel that powers the world’s food system. Finding a more energy-efficient way to produce ammonia could have widespread effects because we rely on commercial fertilizer to feed a third of the global population. But surprisingly little has changed in the hundred years since German chemists first commercialized the process for manufacturing ammonia. The traditional method requires large amounts of natural gas to harness and convert nitrogen from the air into ammonia. Nearly 5 percent of the world’s natural gas production each year is consumed in this process. Today’s commercial fertilizer also creates the unfortunate biproduct of large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide. It’s a field in need of innovation, said Tyler. His team is searching for ways to produce tomorrow’s commercial fertilizer by way of a greener chemical process. “At the University of Oregon there’s an em- phasis on green chemistry. We really want to make an impact on the environment and this is a clear example of that,” Tyler said. Their goal is to synthesize ammonia in wa- ter. “We’ve come up with a way — at least on paper — to make ammonia in water rather than in organic solvents,” Tyler said. This is particularly important because the use of organic solvents causes more harm to the environment. The team is on the brink of nailing down the exact process and identifying the right catalyst. They anticipate a breakthrough within the next few years. – KC to be considered dangerous, Slovic said. “Over the years we’ve learned a lot about why people react strongly to some things and not to others,” Slovic said. “We try then to use that knowledge to inform both the public and policy makers.” One special area of interest for Slovic is psychic numbing, a phenom- enon in which normally compassionate individuals become emotionally numb to groups of people in need, as seen in the failure of the international community to respond to cases of genocide such as Darfur. Even though a large number of lives are at risk, the vast scale of mass human tragedy fails to trigger the strong and stable feelings of concern and outrage required to prompt action. Slovic urges nations to create laws and institutions that compel action to prevent or halt such atrocities even when such feelings are absent. Slovic’s understanding of human judgment and risk analysis has resulted in over 300 publications on a diverse list of research topics. “It’s kind of a puzzle that you try to piece together, and there are a lot of different parts to it,” Slovic said. “I’m still working on the puzzle.” – KN Paul Slovic’s Risky Business Paul Slovic __ 25 science outreAch progrAm is A win-win-win Thanks to a five-year $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation, elementary school students in northern Oregon’s Umatilla-Morrow Education Service District are taking part in an interactive science outreach program. Under the program — known as GK-12 — UO graduate students from the departments of chemistry and physics spend two weeks per term working in eastern Oregon as “scientists- in-residence.” The UO GK-12 fellows partner with classroom teachers to teach science curricula as a process of inquiry, not a collection of facts. Overall, the program is a win-win-win situation: Teachers gain comfort with science content; graduate students develop communication and teaching skills; and kids do cool science. “The most rewarding part is inspiring the elementary students to learn things on their own, to do experiments around the house, and just be curious — to try to answer their own questions by doing things themselves,” says Bevin Daglen, a recent graduate from the chemistry department who served as a GK-12 fellow for three years. The UO’s GK-12 Program began in 2003, first serving Lane County, and then schools throughout the High Desert Education Service District in central Oregon. Since its inception, the pro- gram has served 36 schools in 14 school districts. The recent grant will serve an additional 12 school districts. this is your brAin on meditAtion A team of researchers from China and the UO are studying how meditation might provide improvements in a per- son’s attention and response to stress. Michael Posner, professor emeritus of psychology , and Yi-Yuan Tang, a visiting scholar, believe that the ancient mind-training practice can help them to understand how the brain regulates awareness and attention. In a recent study, Chinese students received integrated body-mind train- ing (IBMT) that included mindfulness meditation. After five days, the group trained in IBMT performed better on an attention test. The researchers also found lower levels of cortisol “the stress hormone,” in saliva samples following mental arithmetic, which revealed the meditators were better able to handle anxiety during the test. At this point, the findings suggest a measurable benefit that people could achieve through body-mind medita- tion, especially involving an effective training regimen. Posner and Tang plan to study American undergraduates with functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain network changes induced by training during attention tests. Photo courtesy of National Science Foundation The Quantum Nature of Light By sending high-power pulses of laser light of a certain color (wavelength) through a custom-made optical fiber to produce single particles of light with different colors, physics graduate student Hayden McGuinness is studying the quantum nature of light. His work is conducted at the Oregon Center for Optics, a UO research center where physics and chemistry scholars study the properties of light. “Testing quantum mechanics with matter is usually quite an endeavor because its quantum effects are very subtle,” McGuinness said. “But it’s much easier to see the quantum nature of light. Because of that, light is a prime candidate for quantum research and for use in quantum-based technology.” P h ot o: K at ie C am p be ll __ 26 the most time. During each shadowing session, Wagasky, clad in medical scrubs and a mask, would get a surgeon’s eye view — looking over Schauer’s shoulder from the first incision to the final suture, while Schauer narrated his every move. Throughout the surgeries, doctors would quiz Wagasky on anatomy, and she would point to anything unfamiliar and ask, “What’s that? What does it do?” Overall she was impressed with how much her human physiology education had prepared her. Having an extensive shadowing experience will also boost Wagasky’s chances of getting into medical school. Associate Professor Paul van Donkelaar, who has been the liaison between the human physiology department and Peace- Health, explained, “Now you need more than great grades. You need to have extra-curricular experience within the medical world.” An average of half of the UO human physiology undergraduates who apply to medical school are admitted, and nearly all shadowed physicians. A sAteLLite med schooL? In looking to the future, many are eager to expand and formalize the partnership between the university and the medical community by creating a physical space to house both professors and physicians. Department faculty dream of erect- ing a single building that would be a collaborative home for research with direct clinical application (otherwise known as translational research). But that’s probably five to 10 years away, said van Donkelaar. In the nearer future, the hope is for Eugene to host a satellite campus of Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU), home to the state’s only medical school. There’s been much buzz in the past four years since OHSU first proposed partnering with the UO and PeaceHealth to find a way to expand its school of medicine and thereby address Oregon’s looming physician shortage. But the chatter has dwindled some because the state legislature has thus far withheld its support. Despite this, the partners have managed to move forward anyway and have begun rotating a handful of OHSU’s third- and fourth-year medical students through clinical training at Sacred Heart Medical Center (a Peace- Health unit) in Eugene. Eventually the goal is to accommodate an additional 20 first-year medical students. “Everyone — UO, PeaceHealth, the clinicians — is very keen on the medical school opening here. If the medical school becomes a reality, that will be a real catalyst to formalizing the relationship between UO and the medical community,” said van Donkelaar. Legislative support is the last missing piece. A proposal to hire faculty and develop the curriculum will go before the state legislature in February 2009. “We just have to try to convince them that it’s worth spending the money to make this happen,” van Donkelaar said. – Katie Campbell and Karen Nagy Continued from page 12 the doctor is in Continued from page 11 out oF the cLinic, into the cLAssroom Karduna has been impressed by the willingness of area physicians to speak to his classes. And the fact that it doesn’t cost the university is a huge bonus. It’s a bonus for Katz, too, who missed teaching. Before moving to Eugene in 1996, Katz had been teaching at the medical school at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill for 12 years. It wasn’t long after Katz and his family moved to Eugene that he discovered the human physiology department at UO and started giving guest lectures. Katz could see the department was in desperate need of a basic class on how to understand medicine. But there weren’t enough faculty members to add the class. So Katz volunteered to design and then teach the course, which now regularly exceeds its 100-student-per- course cap. It’s a hit among undergradu- ates from a wide variety of majors, including business, philosophy, psychol- ogy and comparative literature. Every year several of them inevitably change majors to human physiology. “I think students really appreciate having clinicians in the classroom,” said Associate Professor Paul van Donkelaar, who often invites area physicians to his classes. “Clinicians see a broad spectrum of patients and that makes for great anecdotes. It makes their lectures especially interesting.” Dr. Rick Padgett, a Eugene cardi- ologist, regularly accepts invitations to lecture for the department because he’s always had an interest in academics. Before coming to Eugene, he was an assistant professor at the University of Iowa’s medical school. Now he’s teach- ing undergraduates at UO and this has been an inspiration. “In some ways, it’s more exciting to introduce somebody to ideas and concepts and knowledge” than to have a more technical exchange between professionals, he said. Katz agreed, saying, “I’m just ecstatic to teach non-science majors about anatomy and physiology.” Katz’s love for teaching will be in full evidence this coming year, when he will be teaching three full courses. But his reasons for volunteering go beyond the pure enjoyment of it. “Part of being in this career is continu- ing to learn and continuing to contribute to society,” Katz said. “If you’re a profes- sional, part of your professional oath is to give back.” – KC and KN “Everyone — UO, PeaceHealth, the clinicians — is very keen on the medical school opening here.” – Paul van Donkelaar in how we generate energy, produce our goods, grow our food and get from place to place. But those large-scale changes can’t stand alone and will take time. Individuals can act to address climate change today. They can make both big and small changes in the way they live their lives and those changes will become the solutions we need. Maybe if America takes the lead — as a country and as individuals — China and other countries will follow. – Ronald Mitchell, Professor of Political Science Ethnicity and Migration will publish an article she wrote on the topic. Smith has become a fast-rising expert in this unique field and has been teaching the UO’s first courses in feminist political theory and politics of sex and the body. Smith will defend her dissertation in October and will continue teaching at the UO through the 2008-2009 school year. – KC __ 27 bulbs (and turning them off), turning down the thermostat and driving the speed limit (or slower). More costly changes involve insulating our homes (and downsizing them), buying more fuel-efficient cars (or bikes) and consuming fewer things in our lives. As the cartoon character Pogo so famously said: We have met the enemy and he is us. But taking such steps often seems futile. Why make sacrifices to stop climate change that might, in the end, not be matched by others — whether other Americans or Chinese? I think about reducing my carbon footprint like saving for my retirement. Financial planners say you need $1.5 million to retire comfortably. I know I won’t get there. But I don’t throw up my hands in despair. Just because I can’t save “enough” doesn’t mean I don’t save as much as I can. And that involves giving up some comfort today to be more comfortable when I retire. Likewise, scientists have shown that past emissions of CO2 mean that some global warming and climate change will occur, regardless of what we do. Our best efforts will not be “enough” to achieve the ideal of maintaining today’s comfort — i.e., today’s global temperature. Life on Earth will be warmer 100 years from now, even if we do every- thing we can. Sea levels will rise and glaciers will melt. There will be less Continued from page 3 Ask the expert snowpack, lower streamflow, and larger forest fires. Many species will go extinct and many habitats will be destroyed. But it will be even warmer if we don’t begin to act now — and all the problems scientists predict, and many more, will be much worse. Every single person’s actions — yours and mine — that reduce emissions help prevent even larger, and more perilous, increases in temperature. “Living green” is a vital compo- nent of the overall solution to climate change — necessary, but not sufficient. We need effective national and interna- tional policy that encourages changes Tons of CO2 emitted by China in 2007 6,700 Percent increase over 2006 8% Tons of CO2 emitted by the U.S. in 2007 5,900 Percent increase over 2006 1.8% China U.S. All other nations combined Percent of Worldwide CO2 Emissions in 2007 25% 54% 21% Continued from page 21 poLitics oF the body implants,” she said. “But what they really wanted to talk about was irrigation or getting a well.” She then conducted more than 60 interviews with Americans about genital cutting and breast augmenta- tion. Through her research, Smith found that on both sides of this cultural divide women held the right to choose above the problems inherent Source: Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in the practices of genital cutting and breast augmentation. Smith hopes the results of her research will reduce the western bias that often accompanies efforts to combat female genital cutting. Over the past year, she has been invited to speak before World Health Organization and European government officials. Later this year The Finnish Journal of rosAnnA bowLes Rosanna Bowles admits she had to think creatively. “What am I going to do with a master’s degree in Italian literature?” she asked herself upon completing her M.A. in Italian (’79). But she resource- fully combined her language fluency with her undergraduate degree in art history from Portland State to create a unique and prosperous career. Since 1982 — when she established her company, Rosanna, Inc. — she has been designing and marketing tableware inspired by European art and culture. t h e ent r epr eneu r Bowles originally founded her com- pany by traveling to Perugia, Italy, and working with local artisans to develop ceramics based on her own designs, which she then imported back to the U.S. Her design team in Seattle now develops the company’s designs, and the final ceramic and glassware products are produced by manufacturers in multiple countries and distributed worldwide. • Started her company as a one-woman business on a small loan; now has 19 employees, $10 million in sales and a catalog featuring 40 collections. • Received early training in the field from her parents, who ran a small giftware sales company in Portland. • Her late mother, a Julia Child devotee, was an inspiration: fond of hosting themed dinners or throwing a tablecloth on the floor as a setting for a Japanese-style meal. • Travels for creative inspiration; draws parallels between her scouting expeditions to museums, markets and churches, and the designs that result. • Designs have been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, People, The New York Times, Seattle Homes & Lifestyles, Bazaar, Elle, Real Simple, Country Living, Family Circle, Food & Wine, Better Homes and Gardens, Lucky, Vogue (Latino America), Living Etc., Wedding Bells and Chocolat. __ 28 Cas alumni Each year, the College of Arts and Sciences recognizes three Alumni Fellows who have attained outstanding achievements in their lives and careers. Our 2008 Alumni Fellows will be celebrated at a dinner ceremony on campus in November. They are: 2008 Alumni Fellows Rosanna Bowles Boho Glass Duck Dinner Party With each season’s catalog, Bowles picks a charity to benefit from the profits from a particular line. Beneficiaries have included Child Haven in Seattle, Doctors Without Borders and Hurricane Katrina relief services. Her 11-year-old daughter, Francesca, designed her own line — “Portrait of a Young Artist” — which was inspired by the artwork of the European masters and will help support Seattle public schools. The UO will now be a recipient of Bowles’ philanthropic generosity. Her holiday 2008 collection includes the Oregon-inspired “Boho Glass” line featuring 100% hand-decorated, recycled glass repurposed as tumblers, votives and hurricanes. It also includes the Duck-green “Dinner Party” line of scalloped dishes, dinner plates, bowls and mugs. Both lines will benefit the UO Department of Romance Languages. The Boho Glass and Duck Dinner Party lines will be sold at the Duck Store in Portland and can be ordered online at www.rosannainc.com. __ 29 Antarctica, and co-owns an exploration company, Bancroft Arnesen Explore (www.yourexpedition.com). In 1995, she was inducted into the United States’ National Women’s Hall of Fame. t h e ment o r Bancroft supports many youth organiza- tions and provides outreach and adven- ture opportunities to young women to help them aspire to great achievements. Among them: • The Ann Bancroft Foundation (www.annbancroftfoundation.org), in its 10th year, promotes initiatives that inspire courage, risk-taking, integrity and individuality. • Bancroft directs Youth Frontiers (www.youthfrontiers.org), an organiza- tion that aims to change the way young people treat each other in every school in America. Bancroft has been a judge for the Na- tional Women’s Hall of Fame and the Nuclear-Free Future Awards. She has been recognized with the Women of Courage Award (2008), Glamour Mag- azine’s Woman of the Year (2001), Ms. Magazine’s Woman of the Year (1987) and the YWCA Women First Award. Ann bAncroFt Growing up in rural Minnesota, Ann Bancroft was no stranger to the cold — great preparation for a career that would eventually take her to the ice fields at the top and the bottom of the world. After receiving her B.A. in Physical Education (’81), Bancroft became a wilderness instructor and gymnastics teacher in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and also coached various high school sports. But in 1986 her sense of adventure called and she started on a journey that would put her ahead of the pack. t h e ex pl o r er Over the span of 22 years, Bancroft has traveled the globe, exploring regions few dare to encounter. She was the first woman to: • Reach the North Pole after a 56-day expedition (in 1986). • Ski across Greenland. • Cross the ice to both the North and South Pole. • Sail and ski across Antarctica’s landmass, a 94-day, 1,717-mile journey (she was actually the first of two women; she made the journey with Norwegian polar explorer Liv Arnesen). Bancroft co-authored No Horizon is So Far, a book about her journey across Ann Bancroft dAve petrone After earning a B.S. in Economics (’66) and an M.B.A. in Finance (’68) Dave Petrone went on to a distinguished business career. He is chairman of Housing Capital Company, a joint venture with US Bancorp that he started with a business partner, and also chair of Petrone Petri & Company, a real estate investment firm. Previously, he was vice chairman at Wells Fargo & Co. in San Francisco, where he spent 19 years. His success as a business leader has translated directly into an outstanding history of service leadership for UO. ph il an t h r o pis t and uo ser v ic e l eader Petrone has dedicated many years of service to the UO, and made major philanthropic contributions to the university: • Served on UO Board of Trustees, 1991-2001, where he oversaw Campaign Oregon and served on the investment committee; trustee emeritus, 2002-present. • Served on the Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory Council and the Lundquist College of Business Dean’s Advisory Council. • Received the Presidential Medal from the University of Oregon in 1999. • Set up a faculty endowment in the School of Journalism and Communica- tion as part of $1 million he gave to the university in 2001, a gift which also benefitted Autzen Stadium and the Knight Library. • Donated $2.5 million in 2004 to support student scholarships, new classrooms and laboratories, an endowed librarian position, funds for sports marketing and a new health research center. Petrone’s philanthropic work extends well beyond the UO. He has served on the board for the Eastside Prepara- tory School in East Palo Alto, a college preparatory school for grades 6-12 that serves minority students. His other board service includes both business and non-profit entities: Jacobs Engineer- ing, Alexandria Real Estate, Spieker Properties, Finelite, Inc., The Explorato- rium and San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. Dave Petrone __ 21 A child in Kenya looked upon this scene of people standing in line to receive aid, lifted a disposable camera to his eye and clicked. __ 29 Over the span of 22 years, alumna Ann Bancroft (’81) has traveled the globe, exploring regions few dare to encounter. __ 6 Fossilized specimens bring us closer to the long unanswered question: Who were the first Americans? 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