As noted in last week’s post about the Faculty Club, the Thursday session is sponsored by the Senate, and all Senators and all OA’s and classified staff interested in university service and shared governance are invited to come discuss this with the President and Provost. I am hoping for a good turnout. I believe a reminder email with a link to the survey for Senate and committee service will go out tomorrow.
This week’s email from Chairman Harper to the faculty:
Dear Colleagues,
The Faculty Club reopens for the Spring Term this week.
Wednesday, we have the “season opener” – the bell rings at five. We’ll be featuring the multidisciplinary Queer Studies Minor, with a gathering of participating faculty, friends & allies. Judith Raiskin (Department of Women’s and Gender Studies), director of the minor, will give the Six o’Clock Toast.
Thursday we kick off a series of Senate-sponsored “Talk to Your Dean” nights. Over the next two weeks, deans will be on hand to hobnob with faculty over drinks & hors-d’oeuvres. We’re starting right at the top, with President Michael Schill and Provost Jayanth Banavar. Both will be there to discuss issues in an informal conversational setting. The series will continue next week with deans from Arts & Sciences, Education and the Honors College on Wednesday, and deans from Business, Music & Dance and Journalism on Thursday.
Finally, if you’re an enthusiast of Latin American music, consider pairing your visit Thursday with a look at the JSMA’s “Visual Clave” exhibition, which features album cover art in a gallery right across from the Faculty Club room. At 3:30 pm, exhibition curator Philip Scher (Anthropology & Folklore) will be holding a public conversation with writer/musician/artist/collector/DJ Pablo Yglesias, followed by live music. Once it’s finished, samba on over to the Faculty Club, grab a mojito and chat up the luminaries!
I hope to see you one or both evenings.
Yours, James Harper
Chair of the Faculty Club Board
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WHO: The UO Faculty Club is open to all UO faculty—tenure-track faculty, non-tenure-track faculty, library faculty, and OAs tenured in an academic department, as well as people retired from positions in these categories. Eligible people may bring any guests they like.
WHAT: Cash Bar with beer, wine, liquor and non-alcoholic beverages; complimentary hors d’oeuvres.
WHERE: The Faculty Club meets in a designated room on the ground floor of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Enter at the museum’s main entrance and turn right; the club room is right off the lobby.
WHEN: Wednesdays & Thursdays 5:00-8:00 pm. We skip Week One of the term, but then meet from Week Two through the last week of classes.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Faculty Club Board Chair James Harper (Dept. of the History of Art and Architecture), [email protected]
As a Portland parent of two gay children (one of whom attends UO), I am all for research and classes on LGBTQetc because these avenues will undoubtedly improve understanding and acceptance at the individual, community and societal levels. I am not sure however that a Queer Studies Minor per se is going to help any student in their future endeavors. Both my children have raised the same issue. I am open to being educated.
A good question, A.I.O., and a heartfelt one too.
Like many more traditional majors (Classics, English, etc.) the Queer Studies program teaches critical thinking, research, analysis, and argumentation. All of these will help a student in “future endeavors.”
I recognize that there is a movement among parents to push their children towards the more pragmatic-seeming professional and pre-professional degrees; the Business School has thrived in this climate. But I still think that there should be room for young people to explore their intellectual interests, even when those interests aren’t as directly monetizable as, say, a degree in Accounting might be.
But even parents who insist on a “pragmatic” choice of college major should at the same time allow their children free rein to pick whatever minor most engages their intellectual interests. Some particularly motivated students even add a second minor, a move that will indicate (to future employers among others) their ambition.
With all this in mind, I think there’s plenty of room for a Queer Studies Minor. And in the minds of the more enlightened parents, there should be room for a Queer Studies (or Classics) major too.
Hmmmm….. this Faculty Club is sounding pretty inclusive to me.
Don’t be fooled. Reed is right. These professors are all the same sort: Demycrats.
Correction.
I am a professor
I am not a Demycrat or even a demicrat
I am an authoritative autocrat
Furthermore I can walk on water
all others are scum
alas there is no club for me …