We invite you to join us for our Spring 2021 Colloquium Series, taking place virtually over Zoom. Please see below for our lineup of presentations; unless otherwise indicated, all colloquia begin at 12:00 noon on Friday afternoons.

If you would like to attend any of our presentations, please email sociology@uoregon.edu to request the Zoom meeting ID and passcode.

April 9    Myra Haverda:

“Father’s Rights Activists in the Digital Age: Essentializing Fatherhood, Anti-Feminism, and Joint Custody as Collective Social Action Frames”

April 16  Kenneth Hanson:

“The Silicone Self: An Ethnography of the Love and Sex Doll Community”

April 23  Ken Liberman:

“Rules as Instructed Actions: The Case of the Surfer’s Lineup”

April 30 Ellen Scott, Lola Loustaunau, and Larissa Petrucci:

TBA

May 7  Dorceta Taylor:

TBA

May 21 David Purucker:

“The Analog Party: Divergent Paths of Mass Membership-SMO Revival in Europe and America, 2009-18”

May 28 John Bellamy Foster:

“The Return of Nature”

Tuesday, April 20th at 6:00 pm

In the past several months, food processing plants, where the majority of workers are immigrants and workers of color and where production entails long shifts in crowded closed environments, became sites of some of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks. At the same time, workers started organizing for the implementation of safety measures and to access direct assistance.  However, there has been little research that systematically captures their experiences and gives space for workers and organizers to speak up about their ongoing struggles.

Join us for the presentation of a new report that provides a close picture of immigrant and refugee food processing workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and their collective organizing experiences to improve their safety and access relief. Based on in-depth interviews with immigrant and refugee workers in rural Washington employed in the industry, the report highlights the main challenges faced by these workers both at their workplace and as they navigated the emergency regulatory frameworks.

Spanish Interpretation will be available.

Lola Loustaunau, doctoral candidate in Sociology by the University of Oregon, will be joined by a panel of organizers from Friends of Tyson, United Food and Commercial Workers 1439, and Trabajadores Unidos por la Justicia as well as workers from meatpacking, vegetable, and fruit processing plants who will share their stories and experiences in their own words and discuss present and future policy.

Please sign-up for this free online conversation!

See the LERC Website for more about the report

The next UO Food Talk is coming up in two weeks on Friday, March 12 at noon. UO Sociology Professor Kari Marie Norgaard and her longtime collaborator Ron Reed (Karuk) will discuss the relationship between fire and food. You can read more about the event and their work at https://foodstudies.uoregon.edu/2021/02/23/food-talk-fire-is-food/.

This Food Talk is co-sponsored by the UO Native American Studies program and Many Nations Longhouse.

UO Sociology Professor Claire Herbert will be presenting as part of the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History’s Virtual Ideas on Tap series tomorrow, Wednesday March 3^rd at 6:00 PM. Her talk, titled “Housing Instability and Eugene’s Vulnerable Populations,” will offer a look at Eugene’s affordable housing crisis and what it means for the city’s students, former prisoners, and others at risk for experiencing houselessness.

MNCH is offering three ways to watch: you can register to participate on Zoom, watch it live on the MNCH Facebook page, or catch it later on their YouTube channel. More details about the Virtual Ideas on Tap series can be found on the MNCH website.

On March 8^th at 10:30am, the Department of Sociology is hosting Professor Christy L. Erving for a talk titled “Black Women’s Health Matters: Theoretical, Conceptual, and Empirical Considerations.” If you are interested in attending, please email sociology@uoregon.edu for the Zoom meeting ID.

Professor Erving is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University whose research helps us understand health inequalities and resiliencies by race, ethnicity and immigration status in the U.S. Professor Erving’s research offers an impressive array of social scientific investigations into the drivers of unequal health outcomes and provides new tools for understanding some critical public health puzzles. Professor Erving’s research has been funded by the American Sociological Association, Ford Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

You can learn more about Professor Erving’s important research by searching for one of these three recent publications at the UO Library:

Erving, Christy L., Lacee A. Satcher, and Yvonne Chen. Forthcoming. “Psychologically Resilient, but Physically Vulnerable?: Exploring the Psychosocial Determinants of African American Women’s Mental and Physical Health.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

Erving, Christy L., and Ornella Hills. 2019. “Neighborhood Social Integration and Psychological Well-Being Among African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans.” Race and Social Problems 11(2): 133-148.

Erving, Christy L., Courtney S. Thomas, and Cleothia Frazier. 2019. “Is the Black-White Mental Health Paradox Consistent Across Gender and Psychiatric Disorders?” American Journal of Epidemiology 188(2): 314-322.

For several years a documentary film crew has been following climate activist Kelsey Juliana and her co-plaintiffs throughout the grind of their federal youth climate lawsuit, Juliana v. US.  That documentary film, Youth v. Gov, is now premiering today at the DOC NYC virtual film festival, and tickets are available to watch it online in the safety of your own home.

When you buy a ticket, you’ll have one week (Nov. 11-19) to view the film whenever it is convenient to you. Once you watch the film, you can watch it as many times as you want over a 48 hour period.

The film also features archival footage of Kelsey’s “treehugging” parents in action—Tim Ingalsbee and Catia Juliana, both graduates of the UO Sociology department!

Troubling Monuments: Cultural Vandalism and Creative Practices of Dissent and Destruction

Erika Doss, Chair of American Studies, University of Notre Dame

Tuesday, February 25 ⋅ 3:30-5 PM ⋅ McKenzie Hall Rm 375

Dr. Doss is professor and chair of American Studies at Notre Dame. Her work on American monuments, memorials, and public democracy focuses on the ways that communities respond to art in the public sphere, often through mechanisms of violent resistance. Her research has been published in 6 books ranging from the Oxford History of Art’s volume on 20^th century American Art to recent articles on American humor in the Great Depression, and has won awards from the Smithsonian, Fulbright Foundation, and Stanford Humanities Center.

Her talk at UO, which will take place at 3:30 PM on February 25, draws from her recent article on cultural vandalism and memorial mania. It is entitled “Troubling Monuments: Cultural Vandalism and Creative Practices of Dissent and Destruction.” The talk will explore vandalism as a method of intervening in cultural messaging and memories constructed through public art in the US.

Intersectionality and the Intergenerational Labor Movement

April Sims, Secretary Treasurer, Washington State Labor Council (AFL-CIO)

February 20, 2020 – 3-5 PM
Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center
1870 E 15th Avenue, Eugene OR 97403

Sponsored by the UO Labor Education & Research Center and Department of Sociology

UO PeaceJam Film Showing – Desmond Tutu

Film: “Desmond Tutu – Children of the Light” (1hr 32mins)

Date: Thursday, November 21, 2019

Time: 6pm – 9pm

Location: 177 Lawrence Hall

Cost: free (snacks will be available!)

PeaceJam is an international organization that works to connect youth and 14 Nobel Peace Laureates. By introducing these positive members of society, PeaceJam hopes to empower young people to create positive change in themselves, their communities and the world. UO PeaceJam is our local campus partner with this organization.

UO PeaceJam will be hosting a film showing of “Desmond Tutu – Children of the Light” on Thursday November 21st, 6-9 PM in 177 Lawrence Hall. This the first film to tell the story of Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, one of the fathers of modern-day South Africa. It is free admission and open to everyone.