Category: ARC Session

Queer Genealogies

Presenter(s): Maia Abbruzzese, Alex Aguirre, KinsleyBallas, Devon Boom, Olivia Cain, Amelia Clapper Flynn, Avi Davis, Alex Har, Audrey Harper, Forest Kreutz, Jacob Lee, Madelyn Ragsdale, Sorrel Rosin, Ari Sepulveda, Stella Tarnoff, Marcelo Torres, Mason Williams, Maela Wirfsmith

Faculty Mentors: Judith Raiskin, Haley Wilson

ARC Posters 207-211

Research Area: Social Science

LGBTQIA+ Scholars Academic Residential Community

Funding: Undergraduate Studies, Student Life, University Housing

This year the academic focus for the LGBTQ+ Scholars ARC has been “Queer Genealogies.” We have had a number of queer “elders” come in to the ARC to address issues of LGBTQ community, history, and changing understandings of gender and sexual identity. We have also had guest presentations from a several queer faculty members about their work, specifically talking about what “queer research” is, both thematically and methodologically. In the fall and winter we also collaborated with the Intersectional Events Committee to plan the Queer Film Festival and we spent some of our meetings analyzing the representation of LGBTQ people in film over time.

This spring we will be bringing these various strands together in a Special Collections Queer Archive project. We will be working in the Special Collections with Curator Linda Long, examining a number of archival collections relevant to LGBTQ history. Linda will be meeting with the students during four class periods to introduce them to specific relevant collections,

to explain how to handle such material, and to help them in their own research in these collections. The class will divide
into four groups, each researching a particular collection. Among the ones they can choose are the SOCLAP Collection of Southern Oregon Lesbian Land, the Tee Corrine collection, the James Ivory Collection, the James Tiptree Jr. Collection, and the Rochester/Hutchinson papers. While they are having the experience of learning about established collections, they will
be initiating a new collection called the University of Oregon LGBTQ Collection as part of the Documenting University of Oregon History Project (https://library.uoregon.edu/documentinguohistory). They will be contributing their own interviews, ephemera, and papers into this collection as the base for an ongoing collection of LGBTQ life at the University of Oregon. This is an opportunity for the student to learn how collections are developed, cataloged, and made available for scholarly research.

For the Undergraduate Research Symposium, the students groups will present posters of the four collections they have researched and will present together about their work on starting the UO LGBTQ Collection. Among the topics they will address is the need for preservation of queer history, sexual/gender identity and the politics of cataloging, and the hurdles to access of queer history. They will also view the “Patient No More” traveling exhibit about the Disability Rights movement and meet with the Curator of that collection, Catherine Kudlick, from the Paul Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University. After this presentation, the ARC students might be interesting in presenting on the intersections of a variety of “rights” archives from around the country.

Research as Ceremony: Documenting and Stewarding UO Indigenous Community History

Presenters: Lofanitani Aisea, Cydney Taylor, Kata Winkler, Damian White Lightning, Toni Viviane Asphy, Allyson Alvarado

Faculty Mentors: Kirby Brown and Jennifer O’Neal

ARC Session 5M

Research Area: Social Science and Humanities

Native American And Indigenous Studies Academic Residential Community

Funding: Undergraduate Studies and University Housing

Members of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Academic Residential Community will present on the year-long collaborative project they developed regarding the core values, relationships, and responsibilities to Kalapuya Ilihi. They will present their collective UO Indigenous Mapping Project that highlights key Indigenous locations, history, and groups across campus. In addition, they will also share their Indigenous Oregon Language Map that highlights the unique native languages of the state of Oregon. Both projects will be shared gifted back to the indigenous communities which are represented.

CMS ARC Cultural Assets and Advocacy through Identity Poems and Artistic Expression

Presenters: Nasistu Bedada, Symone Cole, Damaris Garcia-Rios, Donyé Green, Ben Her, Courtney Holman, Raquell Johnson-Mendoza, Joey Lim, Juan Mancillas, Natalie Perez, Jaden Salama, Katrina Villacarlos

Faculty Mentor: Jeanne Nagayama Hall

ARC Session 4C

Research Area: Education

Community For Multicultural Scholars Academic Residential Community

Funding: Undergraduate Studies, University Housing, Student Life, Equity & Inclusion, College of Education, Academic Affairs

The cultural assets and identities of underrepresented university students are not always valued or understood, especially in predominantly White institutions. Although the student of color enrollment numbers has slightly increased over the last ten years at the University of Oregon these numbers are still below the national percentage of underrepresented groups. Numerical underrepresentation can increase belonging uncertainty, especially for students who value their racial identities in a dominant culture group setting. Therefore, it is important to hear the cultural identity stories of UO students of color. In the Fall 2017, the Community of Multicultural Scholars academic residential community focused on supporting and developing each other’s racial and other identities and identifying one’s own cultural assets that support one’s thriving through adverse circumstances, such as discrimination and campus climate issues The Winter 2018 discussions developed each other’s scholarly identity as students of color, and the Spring 2018 now provides opportunities for each student to advocate for equity in the face of stereotype threat and micro-aggressions. Based on the inspiration of Christensen’s (2015) activist approach to poetry, and in collaboration with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, each student will present and advocate for their cultural assets and stories through the presentation of their identity poem and artistic expression.

Media and Social Justice

Presenters: Lena Felt, Claire Forsberg, Kelly Franks, Micah Mew, Emma Moyers, Madilyne Nguyen-Acosta, Isa Ramos, Kelsey Reasor, Taylar Schassen, Marin Stuart, Miles Warren

Faculty Mentors: Charlie Butler and Rachel Allen

ARC Session 4CQ

Research Area: Social Science

Media And Social Action Academic Residential Community

Funding: Undergraduate Studies & University Housing

With each passing day social justice issues become more and more prevalent in the United States. With these issues comes the challenge of spreading awareness of injustice and inequality within our society. Media and all that it entails provides a base for spreading awareness, finding a voice, and using that voice to speak up for issues that need resolving. Members of the School of Journalism and Communication’s Media and Social Action ARC combine their passion for social justice with their interest in media to create a platform for students to speak up about societal problems such as homelessness, hunger, safety, race, and many more.

In our first year as an ARC we have had several activists and advocates visit and speak to us about their passions. They come to tell us about their passions, experiences, and how they tell stories. We had a sit down talk with Bethany Grace Howe, a transgender graduate student in the SOJC who was the subject of a Register-Guard profile. Through this meeting we were able to peer into the life of someone who faces adversity often. We’ve visited Food For Lane County and got our hands dirty filling food boxes for hungry Eugene residents. And on the “media” side we’ve had the opportunity to visit The Register Guard and KEZI TV to get a taste of the professional storytelling world.

We have created a website where we publish pieces that highlight the stories we’ve seen. All members of the ARC contribute to the website in an area of their choosing, whether it be writing copy, taking pictures, making videos, or designing layouts. In addition to the website we support and promote our activities on our Facebook and Instagram accounts, also run by students in the ARC.

All around campus are people whose voices could be of value and may have the ability to inspire action in others. By finding these people and telling their stories we hope to spark interest and provoke movement towards greater equality among students at the University of Oregon, and hopefully providing a contribution to solving issues that spread across the country.