While the University of Oregon has many enriching programs for its students, it also strives to maintain a connection with community around campus. One of these such programs is the UO Insight Seminars which focus on engaging the Eugene and Springfield community with the liberal arts.
Hosted by the UO Academic Extension program, the Insight Seminars were founded in 2003 by James Earl, a retired UO English professor. Topics ranging from art, literature, poetry, philosophy, history, architecture, archaeology, religion and current events are covered.
Tonight, the Insight program will host a free hour-long lecture led by Lane Community College honors faculty member Ce Rosenow at 7 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing room as an introduction to its four-week seminar series on how to read, interpret and write Haiku poetry. A period of discussion will follow the presentation. The lecture is open to students and the general public.
The Emerald spoke on the phone with Ruth Heller, project manager for the UO Insight Seminars, about the impact the program has had on the community. She said the goal of the seminars is to give community members a chance to live or relive the university experience of analyzing complex literature, having academic discussions with peers and working with professors. For many, this environment is lost after graduation, as the professional world or familial responsibilities replace intellectual endeavors.
“They may have a desire to continue learning; they may do a lot of extensive reading or might even belong to book clubs but it’s a little different than the structure of a seminar-type setting from the university,” Heller said. “So bringing people together back on campus with that dedicated time of a 4-week interval — and in the case of some of the ones we do that are half a day long — you really have this concentrated view and experience of reading and reacting to material and sharing ideas with each other.”
Heller said the feedback from participants has been very positive, the only gripe being the loss of one’s Saturday morning, the day the seminars meet.
“When I’ve sat in on the various sessions, what I’ve found very interesting is just the depth of experience and impression people are able to bring to the table in the discussion,” Heller said. “It helps you look at [the seminar topic] in a way that you probably wouldn’t just on your own.”
Heller cited a past seminar series she felt was particularly engaging. The session studied the original folios of Edward Curtis’s photographic prints of Native Americans. “It was really a phenomenal experience because we looked at the original folios, but we also got to hear how contemporary Native American audiences look at those photographs,” Heller said. “It was some really nice, intense conversation.”
Come winter term, the program will be hosting sessions on 16th and 17th century Spanish painting (taught by James Harper) and on the writings of John Muir (taught by Barbara Mossberg). In the spring Insight Seminars features Lara Bovilsky leading a class on Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure. Henry Allen will discuss the humor of Jane Austen, and Mark Johnson will examine the origin of modern ethics.
Heller said that the seminars she has attended gave her an opportunity to “think along lines that I’m not able to do with friends in the office, even though I work with academic programs. It’s a conversation level that I miss. That’s when I see people really lighting up when they come to the seminar. I think it just feels like a safe place to explore ideas and to really stretch your intellectual muscles.”
To register for seminar series on Haiku or any of the other upcoming sessions, visit http://uoinsight.uoregon.edu/
Correction: Ce Rosenow is a faculty member with the Lane Community College Honors program, not a UO professor as was previously stated.