Category: Events

Digitization Update – August 2023

Digitization Alert!

Nathan Georgitis, our Archivist of Digital Collections, has been hard at work and now there’s a fresh batch of materials to pull off the (digital) shelf!

UO bookstore, circa 1989.

Now available on Aviary, our hub for digitized audio/visual materials:

Haywood P. Sconce Papers (Ax 363) and his Christian Celebrity Tyme Radio Program Sound Recordings

Haywood P. Sconce (1905-1959) was an enterprising, Arkansas-born Baptist minister who served congregations in Oregon and Washington. In 1954, he became the founding director of Christian Celebrity Tyme, a religious radio program.

Track athlete Jesse Owens is shown mid-air, reaching his right arm forward as his left arm reaches overhead. His left leg extends as his right leg bends. His has dark skin tone, short hair and wears a white tank top and white shorts.
Jesse Owens competing in the long jump. Berlin Summer Olympics, 1936. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, August 31, 2023

The Christian Celebrity Tyme sound recordings date from 1957-1958 and feature testimonials on Christian faith from public figures in the worlds of politics, sports, and industry, including a dugout interview with New York Yankee Enos “Country” Slaughter and discussions with Olympian Jesse Owens, silent film star Mary Pickford and legendary performer Ethel Waters. A particularly haunting–and apparently unused–interview with then-senator John F. Kennedy covers his thoughts on public service, personal exposure, and faith.

Explore collection finding aid here. 

                Listen to the recordings here.

James C. Ingebretsen Papers (Coll 147) and Freedom Story Radio Program Sound Recordings

James Ingebretsen (1906-1999) was a lawyer, developer and American conservative. His Freedom Story radio show ran from 1951-1956 and featured dramatizations on conservative and libertarian themes and commentary.

Explore collection finding aid here.

Listen to the recordings here.

Side note: are you researching conservative and libertarian movements? SCUA’s James Ingebretsen Memorial Travel Fellowship offers funding up to $2,500 each year. Information and application here.

Tom Anderson Papers (Coll 157) and the Straight Talk Radio Program Sound Recordings

Thomas Jefferson Anderson (1910-2002) was a member of the John Birch Society National Council, publisher of farm magazines, editorialist, public speaker, and a conservative political activist in the American Party. His syndicated column Straight Talk appeared in magazines and newspapers and, in 1957, became a book of the same name. His weekly radio program, also called Straight Talk, included discussions on foreign policy, religion and the war in Vietnam.

Explore collection finding aid here.

Listen to recordings here.

Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy Records (Coll 913)

Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by Cambridge University Press. Named after Hypatia of Alexandria, a mathematician and philosopher who was murdered by a mob in 415 CE, the journal was founded by the Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP), who chose the name to reflect the enduring roots that women have in philosophy. The digitized portion of the video collection features feminist philosophers expanding on articles published in the journal.

Explore collection finding aid here.

Watch videos here.

Interested in learning more? UO is hosting a conference this September in celebration of Hypatia’s 40th anniversary. Event information here.

Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey (1935-2001) was a University of Oregon graduate and professor, in addition to being an internationally renowned Oregonian novelist, essayist, and counterculture figure.

As a graduate fellow in creative writing at Stanford, Kesey was a volunteer in psychoactive drugs experiments being conducted at the Veterans Hospital in Menlo Park, where he later became an employee. Both experiences would have a profound impact on his art and writing, particularly the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, published in 1962.

Black and white portrait of Kesey, who stands in front of a tree. He is balding, has light skin tone and a collared shirt.
Ken Kesey, c. 1965.

In 1964, Kesey incorporated himself as Intrepid Trips, Inc, purchasing a 1939 International school bus dubbed “Further.” He and his artistic circle, dubbed the Merry Pranksters, began the cross-country road trip to the New York World’s Fair that would become the basis for Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. After the group returned to California in 1965, they busied themselves by editing film footage of the bus trip, organizing parties known as the Acid Tests. The Grateful Dead served as the house band for many of these gatherings.

Newly digitized Kesey materials:

Scott Parker Collection of Ken Kesey Sound Recordings (Coll 932)

Scott F. Parker is an Oregonian author who collected these materials from the Pacifica Radio Archives while researching his book, Conversations with Kesey. His recordings consist of interviews and book talks by Kesey.

Explore collection finding aid here.

Listen to recordings here.

Ken Kesey Papers (Ax 279)

Explore collection finding aid here.

Access digitized recordings of Kesey and friends, circa 1965, here.

Second side note: are you researching Ken Kesey and/or Vietnam-era literature and counterculture? SCUA’s James Laughton Ken Kesey Fellowship offers funding up to $3,000 each year. Information and application here.

 

2020 Library Undergraduate Poetry Prize Winners

University of Oregon Libraries and Oregon Poetry Association are extremely pleased to announce the winners of the second Library Undergraduate Poetry Prize: Martha DeCosta and Stephany Fatheree. This biannual award is given to two undergraduate students, in coordination with the OPA conference, for excellent poems in whose composition the library has played a part. The prize consists of a $500 award to each winner and the publication of the winning poems in OPA’s Verseweavers, an annual anthology of prize-winning poems from OPA’s contests.

The poetry prize emerged two years ago from collaborative discussions between the two organizations. The UO Libraries Special Collections is the official archive for the Oregon Poetry Collection, a rich collection of volumes by Oregon poets or about Oregon going back to the 19th-century, which was founded by the OPA and is still growing, mainly through its members’ contributions of their new publications. The director of Special Collections, David de Lorenzo, said “we wanted to continue to add to the book collection by supporting young poets whose work is worthy of recognition.” Jeff Staiger, Humanities Librarian in Knight Library, who led the team of readers, noted that “we received nearly 20 applications for this round, an impressive number for a time when all university activities were suddenly challenged by a global pandemic. The review committee had to go completely virtual to assess so many accomplished poems in such a wide range of styles and approaches.”

We are very grateful to the readers and to the OPA volunteers who have enthusiastically supported the Poetry Prize since its inception. The UO Libraries is honored to have the support of the OPA to continue to make this award a reality.

BIOGRAPHIES AND WINNING POEMS OF PRIZE WINNERS:

Martha DeCosta Personal Statement:

I am a graduating senior at the University of Oregon with a B.A. in English and a minor in Creative Writing (poetry). During my undergraduate years, I participated in the year-long Kidd poetry program through the Creative Writing department and gained valuable experience in the craft through research and peer workshops. I have always been a storyteller. Much of my inspiration and my creativity comes from a unique multicultural upbringing. Although I was born in the U.S., I spent ten years of my childhood living in India with my family and traveling abroad in South Asia. These formative experiences shaped my worldview. After moving to Oregon, I felt drawn to the international community on my university’s campus. International relationships and experiences continue to influence my poetic interests. I explore diverse subjects in my writing, inspired by personal encounters that cause me to wrestle with some aspects of the world but simultaneously marvel at its diversity. As an aspiring poet and creative writer, I want to contribute my multicultural voice to the poetic community. After my upcoming Spring 2020 graduation, I will be actively job searching, but I also hope to share my writing through online publications and expand my platform.

Martha DeCosta Winning Poem:

I Learn to Knit

Auntie doesn’t speak a word of English except

loose,

my knuckles quiver

as I fumble with the loops,

mass like tangled hair in my lap.

Auntie’s braid falls over her shoulder

like a silk dupatta hanging

loose.

her gentle palms overlap my fingers,

another row ripples across the needles

fluent as the Ganges River,

the needles click-click at me

for a button hole in the tight pattern –

loose.

we knit, purl, knit, purl,

my blue yarn and Auntie’s yellow yarn

neela, peela

Hindi leaps back and forth between us

but I can’t follow her closely enough.

loose,

she says, and I am mesmerized by every rotation –

the skein in my lap,

the twists of my wrists,

the loops off my fingers,

Auntie nods and tells me her new word:

good.

Stephany Fatheree Personal Statement:

I was raised in Maui, Hawai’i, and moved to Oregon at nineteen with the hopes of eventually attending a university. After careful consideration, and establishing residency in the state, I decided to attend the University of Oregon to pursue a path in music. Writing has always been a very helpful means of expression and introspection to me, so naturally a large part of my creative expression has been through the craft of words. From my love of creative writing stemmed a love of lyricism, which is how I first developed an interest in music. Since then I have taken as many creative writing classes as I could while also creating music. I have loved exploring both songwriting and poetry, learning that they are so similar yet so different and that I can inhabit different mindsets for each. I was lucky enough to have been a part of The Walter and Nancy Kidd Creative Writing Workshops this year, and through them, poetry has allowed me to focus on the balance between profundity, uniqueness, clarity, and craft. I have thought about the reader and my audience in a more intensive way than I ever have before. Receiving feedback in workshops has been so helpful and rewarding, and being surrounded by poets who share my passion, discussing the craft of poetry has strengthened my love for it. My first term of these creative writing workshops took place in the library, and twice a week for months the library gave me this enriching environment. During my time at the University of Oregon, I have spent hours upon hours every term in its libraries reading, writing, analyzing, and printing poems. I have very much missed having this space to work on my poetry, and I look forward to returning to it when it is safe to do so.

Stephany Fatheree Winning Poem:

Tea Kettle

You take my water

And offer to boil it for me.

You give me rolling stovetop bubbles

So that I may sit with warmed hands

In the midst of Fool’s Spring

In grass that is sunlit but refrigerated

Because winter isn’t done with us yet.

 

You take my water,

Soak the echinacea leaves,

Expand the chamomile blossoms,

And pour it into my favorite ceramic mug—

The lopsided one that’s so tricky to clean—

So that I may run it through my pharynx,

Shaking loose the Lane County pollen

That makes it hard for me to sing.

 

You take the panic

That has spread with this pandemic,

The anxiety of this quarantine,

And soothe them with little lavender baths,

So that I may escape my mind for a minute

And pretend I am nothing but tastebuds.

 

You take my water

And you begin to whisper

Until your whisper becomes a whistle

And starts to sound more like a screech

Amplified by the kitchen.

This chaotic tune is now my favorite song

Because I need something steady,

Something my hands can control

Other than their own hygiene.

Black History Month Presentation by Dr. Lissa D. Stapleton

RESCHEDULED – FEBRUARY 28TH (details below)

Join us for an upcoming guest presentation:

Underground Tunnels Revealed: Unearthing the History of Black Deaf Education

by Dr. Lissa D. Stapleton

Knight Library, Browsing Room,
Friday, February 28th, 9am-10:30am

Black History Month is usually a time to explore, remember and celebrate the journey and lives of Black Americans. However, during this month, only certain Black Americans and stories are highlighted. This presentation will explore untold stories of Black history – Black Deaf Americans. The Deaf experience is often mistaken as a White experience and the Black experience is often only understood as a hearing experience. However, both are untrue. This interactive presentation will challenge the historical invisibility of Black Deaf communities with a specific focus on education. There is a past of racism and audism particularly within Black Deaf educational systems. However, there has been a complicated relationship of oppression, resistance, and collaboration among Black hearing and Deaf people. The research that guides this presentation looks at the historical relationship between Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Black Deaf education in the 1860s-1930s. Dr. Stapleton will focus on two HBCU institutions, Southern University A & M in Louisiana and Hampton University in Virginia. Black Deaf educational challenges have yet to be resolved. However, to understand current educational experiences, it is important to consider the historical happenings in which the present is based and what can learn from the past.

Portrait of Dr. Lissa D. StapletonDr. Lissa D. Stapleton is an assistant professor at California State University Northridge in the Department of Deaf Studies and core faculty for the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies program. Her research focuses on equity and access, identity development, and the educational history of Deaf students, faculty, and staff with a particular interest in the intersections of race, gender, and disability. Her desire to support Deaf college students of color, led Stapleton to pursue her doctorate at Iowa State University. She graduated in 2014 with her PhD in education with an emphasis in higher education and social justice and a minor in women’s studies. She won the 2015 Melvene D. Hardee NASPA Dissertation of the Year award, and is a 2018 Ford Postdoctoral Fellow and Penn Center for Minority Serving Institution Elevate Fellow. Previously, Stapleton worked in student affairs at various institutions and with Semester at Sea. She is involved with the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the National Black Deaf Advocates. She earned her MSE in college student personnel from the University of Dayton and BS in social work from Wright State University. Stapleton was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, is a proud first generation college student, and loves dancing and having a good meal with lots of laughter with friends and family.

Sponsored by the UO Libraries, the Disability Studies Minor and the ASL Program.

Book Talk | HandiLand: The Crippest Place on Earth

Join us for a presentation by Elizabeth A. Wheeler (Associate Professor, Department of English and Director, Disability Studies Minor) for her newest book, HandiLand: The Crippest Place on Earth. Disability in Young Adult and Children’s Books (University of Michigan Press, 2019).

Book Talk: HandiLand: The Crippest Place on Earth
by Associate Professor Elizabeth A. Wheeler, Department of English

Monday, October 28th, 2019
3:30-5:30 p.m.
Special Collections Paulson Reading Room, Knight Library

Event is free and open to the public
To be followed by a Q&A and refreshments

Sponsored by Special Collections and University Archives

HandiLand: The Crippest Place on Earth is the first disability studies book on contemporary children’s and young adult literature. HandiLand claims that literature for young readers is the ideal viewing stand for a parade of political changes as youth with disabilities have infiltrated public space. This viewing stand allows us to see how far we’ve come toward defeating ableism and how far we still need to go. HandiLand examines the new prominence of youth with disabilities in contemporary English-language books from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ghana. Many of these books are bestsellers with a passionate fan base, including The Fault in Our StarsHarry Potter, and Wonder. Elizabeth A. Wheeler argues that these new portrayals result from the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) and other worldwide rights laws, which enabled the movement of disabled youth into public space.

This event is free and open to the public. Accommodations for people with disabilities will be provided if requested in advance by contacting the UO Accessible Education Center. See: https://aec.uoregon.edu/content/support-and-services