The University has many long-term scientific research projects underway in the forests of Oregon. Now research by Peter List, Philosophy, and an interdisciplinary team including forestry and sociology professors will add a new dimension to that research.
They have begun long-term social and ethical research projects about Oregon forests, asking how peoples' values affect decisions they make about forest use.
"Jesus 2000" was the theme of this year's IDEAS MATTER Lectures. The set of lectures, by Marcus Borg and other leading American scholars of the historical Jesus, reached an OSU audience of 1000 and an estimated 20,000 more by TV satellite to 314 downlinks sites nationwide. This is the largest audience ever to be involved in a scholarly discussion about Jesus. A six-week email debate followed the conference. In November, Westview Press will publish the proceedings of the conference in a book called Jesus 2000 edited by Marcus Borg.
Dr. Viola Cordova, an expert in the history of philosophy, taught as a visiting professor in the Philosophy Department this year. A philosophy Ph.D. of Jicarilla Apache and Hispanic descent, Dr. Cordova taught courses in Native American philosophies, comparative ethics, and World-Views and Environmental Values. She also taught a special seminar on The Concept of the Sacred/Land. In one short year, Dr. Cordova's courses have become wildly popular and she has made friends across campus with dozens of special lectures. Next year, Dr. Cordova will be a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where she will help start the first university program in Native American Philosophies.
Faculty from twenty-four different disciplines, from art to zoology, and from eleven different Northwest institutions, gathered at Kah-nee-tah for the first annual CONFLUENCES Conference, sponsored by the Program for Ethics, Science, and the Environment.
The goal of the gathering was to create a community of faculty who are studying issues that arise where ethics, science, and the environment come together. The weekend was a refreshing inspiring experience.
For the first time, the Department granted Applied Ethics Certificates to five graduating seniors. Graduating Fall term, Patrick Bulger was the first recipient of the Applied Ethics Certificate. Joyce Eppen, who combined her ethics studies with a major in Liberal Studies, will go to law school in the fall. Lee Ann Knoble combined ethics studies with her major in Public Health. And Andrea Caruso, who majored in Economics, will bo on the job with a Portland consulting firm in the fall. Jermy Becker also obtained his Certificate spring term. He majored in General Science and Biology. The Certificate is an interdisciplinary minor where students take courses from several disciplines, including philosophy, to learn how to apply ethics to dilemmas faced in their professions.
For the first time, students in Philosophy classes used the Department's new student guide to writing philosophy papers. The writing guide, written by a team of faculty members with grant support from the Writing Intensive Curriculum, provides students with explanations and student-written examples of the various genres of philosophical writing, and provides faculty with materials to introduce writing skills into their courses. Our goal is to systematize writing instruction throughout the Philosophy curriculum, introducing the most basic skills in the earliest courses, so that by the time students reach the capstone course in their senior years, they have the skills to write sophisticated philosophical articles.
Information about the Philosophy Department--our students and faculty, our schedule of classes, our degree requirements, our alumni--can now be found on the World Wide Web. The website was orignially conceived by Jon Dorbolo who proposed the idea to the Deparment and produced the orginal proto-type with many of the features of the completed web site, including faculty files, faculty monographs web resources and many other fine ideas. Bill Uzgalis organized and directed the team from the faculty and staff of the Philosophy Departmenta and the Communications Media Center which put the site together. CMC resources were provided as a part of a summer project which included Uzgalis and Dorbolo among others, and which was funded by the Vice Provost for Information Services Joy Hughes. Uzgalis along witth Cristy Brickell and Jon Dorbolo produced or wrote the files; Patti Hoagland, graphic artist at the Communications Media Center created the graphics, Trevor Murphy of the Faculty Development Lab at the CMC, along with his partner Greg Klein helped with many aspects of the site, including imgae maps, readability, scanning of images, and over all design. The site is presently maintainedby Uzgalis with help from Jon Dorbolo, P. Carmen Smith and Lois Summers.
Critical thinking--its definition and its place in the undergraduate curriculum--was the subject of a conference of Oregon faculty members, convened by Michael Scanlan, director of OSSHE's Critical Thinking Summit Process. This is the first step in a lon g-term project to assess the efficacy of critical thinking instruction in Baccalaureate Core courses.
Faculty introduced new interdisciplinary courses this year, courses that will become part of the Science, Technology, and Society portion of the University Baccalaureate Core. "Scientific Reasoning," developed by Jeff Ramsey, will help science students u nderstand the logic of their disciplines and use it more effectively. "Science, Policy, and Society," also developed by Jeff Ramsey, explores the ways in which science changes and teaches an interdiscipinary, team-taught course, "Computers and Ethics," i n which students explore the brave new moral world created by computer technologies.
Marcus Borg's newest book, Meeting Jesus Again For the First Time, has been on the Publisher's Weekly list of bestselling books in religion for six months, with sales reaching 100,000. The book provides "an account of contemporary Jesus scholarshi p--told in simple language for lay readers--and of Marcus Borg's personal struggle to find authentic, mature faith" (Library Journal). Marc's work was featured in a cover story in U.S. News and World Report at Easter this spring. He is currently working on another book, tentatively titled Meeting God Again. Marc appeared on the Today Show to explain his ideas about the historical Jesus.
P Riverwalking, Kathleen Dean Moore's collection of essays on philosophy andnature, was published in September by Lyons & Burford. The collection was recently selected for a 1996 Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Association Award and nominated for a n Oregon Book Award. The essays in Riverwalking begin on Northwest rivers--the Deschutes, the McKenzie, the Willamette--and follow them through memories and meditations to a sustainable vision of living in place.
1996 was a good year for Philosophy students. Susan Prock was selected as an Outstanding Senior in the College of Liberal Arts and the Outstanding Students in Philosophy; Susan, who was selected for a Department Special Service Award for her work as czar ina of Club Philosophy this year, has been named the new director of the Women's Center. Jason Matzke, MAIS student, was admitted to several prestigious graduate schools and has chosen to study at Michigan State University. Joyce Eppen and Ellen Krider will go to law school next year. Christian Kaltwasser was the winner of this year's Matchette Prize for the Outstanding Essay in Philosophy. John Reisenweber received a Student-Faculty Research Grant to work with Peter List to determine what has been wr itten by scientists about the ethical issues they confront in their work in environmental and resource sciences.