4:00 p.m.
The Department of History; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and the Knight Library present a screening of Singing for Justice, a film about Faith Petric, with co-director Estelle Freedman. Followed by a singalong!
Singing for Justice (2024) is the story of Petric (1915-2013), a political radical, musician, mother, worker and grandmother who united folk music and activism through almost a century of American social movements. Over her long and purposeful life, Petric inspired all to take responsibility for social change, women and elders to defy stereotypes, and everyone she met to sing along.
Freedman is the Edgar E. Robinson Professor in US History (Emerit) at Stanford University and co-founder of Stanford’s Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, where she is currently a Stanford Faculty Fellow. Freedman’s ten books on the histories of women, feminism, and sexuality include two prize-winning studies of prison reform–Their Sisters' Keepers and Maternal Justice; the surveys No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women and (with John D'Emilio) Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America; and the multi-award winning Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation. She is currently writing about narratives of sexual assault and harassment in 20th century women’s oral histories.
Free and open to the public.
5:00 p.m.
The Dawn is Too Far shares the untold stories of eight Iranian Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area and shares the longer arc of history (beyond the 1979 revolution) that recounts events both in Iran and the US. The film features aspects of the Bay Area Iranian diaspora community and the way their lives and work were influenced by this region of California, but how they have contributed and helped shape it as well. The film offers a poetic and complex narrative that undermines the barrage of negative headlines that dominate our news media and features rare archival footage.
Persis Karim is the former director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University where she also taught in the Department of Humanities and Comparative and World Literature. She is the editor of three anthologies of Iranian diaspora literature, and has published numerous articles about Iranian diaspora literature and culture for academic journals, as well as poetry and essays in non-academic publications. The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life is her first film and reflects her interest in documenting and sharing the larger history and personal stories of those who are part of the global Iranian diaspora.
Made possible by the Department of Anthropology, SSWANA, and the Department of Art’s Center for Art Research.
7:00 p.m.
Please join the Department of History for the May pub lecture. Associate Professor Julie Weise will discuss "From Oregon to Qatar: A History of ‘Temporary’ Migrant Workers."
Free and open to everyone! Food and drink available for purchase.
The UO Department of History presents a series of talks with scholars about history, from the local to the global. Join us for stories, food, and conversation in a casual setting!
2:00–3:20 p.m.
Join the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies for a talk on “Feminist Futures in Pasifika: Student and Community-Led Pathways to Decolonization, Intersectional Racial Justice, and Healing” with Sarina Saturn, CHamoru and Indian scholar-activist.
This talk explores how Pasifika students, educators, and community leaders are building feminist futures through grassroots action, mutual aid, and healing-centered justice work. Drawing from transinstitutional and institutionless efforts, including the ADVANCE Journal: Individual and Institutional Transformation for Social Justice, QTPI Village, and Guma' Gela', the presentation highlights student- and community-led pathways to decolonization, reproductive justice, climate resilience, and collective care. Centering ancestral wisdom and intergenerational leadership, this presentation offers a vision of Pasifika futures rooted in liberation, relationality, and community healing.
Sarina Saturn, PhD (she/they), is a CHamoru and Indian scholar-activist, educator, psychologist, neuroscientist, former tenured professor, community scientist, and public scholar whose work bridges higher education, health equity, and social justice. She has taught across psychology, neuroscience, and health sciences while advancing inclusive learning environments grounded in trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and liberatory practice. Her scholarship and community work center decolonization, intersectional racial justice, collective healing, intergenerational leadership, and reverse and reciprocal mentorship, with longstanding engagement in BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, and feminist communities
3:30–5:00 p.m.
The Department of History is pleased to welcome Estelle Freedman, Edgar E. Robinson Professor in U.S. History (Emerit) at Stanford University and co-founder of Stanford’s Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, for the 2026 Pierson Lecture: "Speaking of Sexual Violence: Voices from Women’s Oral Histories in the Twentieth Century U.S."
How can historical research contribute to understanding silence and speech about sexual violence? Based on her analysis of a large text database of oral history collections, Professor Freedman will explore how women from diverse backgrounds remembered and reacted to unwanted sexual advances during the twentieth century. She applies both quantitative digital humanities tools and qualitative close readings of relevant women’s narratives to consider two topics: stories of sexual assault handed down in African American families, and varied responses to educational and workplace harassment.
Freedman is the Edgar E. Robinson Professor in U.S. History (Emerit) at Stanford University and co-founder of Stanford’s Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, where she is currently a Stanford Faculty Fellow. Freedman’s ten books on the histories of women, feminism, and sexuality include two prize-winning studies of prison reform--Their Sisters' Keepers and Maternal Justice; the surveys No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women and (with John D'Emilio) Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America; and the multi-award winning Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation. She is currently writing about narratives of sexual assault and harassment in 20th century women’s oral histories. Freedman co-directed (with Christie Herring) the 2024 documentary film, Singing for Justice, about S.F. Bay Area folk musician and political activist Faith Petric (1915-2013).
The Annual Pierson Lecture is a Department of History tradition that spans back to 1993, when it was founded to honor Stan and Joan Pierson. The Piersons were both exemplary citizens of the community, dedicated to history and education as proven by their distinguished records of intellectual accomplishment and community involvement. This lecture series brings distinguished scholars to the University of Oregon, so that they may share their work in alignment with the Piersons’ interests in cultural, intellectual, and political life.
noon
Looking for a part-time job this summer in Eugene? Looking ahead for fall job opportunities on campus? Or want to learn more about future work-study opportunities during your time at UO? Stop by the UO Part-Time Job & Work-Study Fair, Wednesday, May 13, from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Tykeson Hall 1st Floor Commons area to meet local and on-campus employers hiring for seasonal employees! Bring your resume and apply on the spot, or just look around and learn more about the great ways you can get work experience and build career readiness skills during your time at the UO.
FYI: Work-Study is a specific type of part-time job available to students based on financial need. If a job says it requires Work-Study, you must have accepted an award on Duckweb. To learn more about the program and how to find your award, check out https://career.uoregon.edu/jobs-and-internships/work-study
There will still be LOTS of jobs at this event that do not require work-study in order to apply--something for everyone!
Register in Handshake to keep up to date on which employers are coming to the fair and what jobs you can be applying for!
Special thanks to Chick-Fil-A
1:00 p.m.
Please join us Wednesday afternoons for a free cup of coffee, pastries, and conversation with your history department community! We’re excited to continue this tradition for our history undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff. We hope to see you there!
7:00 p.m.
The Creative Writing Program invites you to a poetry reading with V. Penelope Pelizzon.
Pelizzon’s A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye (Pitt Poetry Series), longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, is a TLS Book of the Year and one of LitHub “Favorite Poetry Collections” of 2024. Her first book, Nostos, won the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award; her second, Whose Flesh Is Flame, Whose Bone Is Time, was a finalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize at The Waywiser Press. She is also coauthor of Tabloid, Inc., a critical study of film, photography, and crime narratives. Her recognitions include a Hawthornden Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship, a Lannan Foundation Writing Residency Fellowship, and a “Discovery”/The Nation Award. She is a Professor of English at the University of Connecticut. For more information, visit vpenelopepelizzon.com.
11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Dark matter shapes the universe on a grand scale – guiding the formation of stars, influencing galaxies, and playing a vital role in the cosmic structures we observe today. Join the UO Alumni Association for our springtime Quackademics lecture with associate professor of physics Tien-Tien Yu, as she unlocks the mysteries of the universe through the lens of particles.
In addition to her physics research, Professor Yu will share stories of her creative collaborations on campus, including a partnership with the UO’s Comics and Cartoon Studies Program through the Science and Comics Initiative.
As always, participants in our virtual lectures will have the opportunity to submit questions at the time of registration. Take advantage of this chance to have your most pressing questions answered by the UO’s leading dark matter expert.
1:00–2:30 p.m.
Xan Holt, Assistant Professor of German in the Department of German and Scandinavian Studies presents:
Transnational Trashscapes: Enframing Global Waste Management in Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s Documentary Matter Out of Place (2022).
Join us for the spring installment of the Ring Lecture where Professor Holt will discuss the images of waste disposal sites from across the globe in Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s documentary Matter Out of Place. The film confronts the viewer with the unfamiliar scales and impacts of contemporary waste through its employment of three experimental techniques: 1) a discontinuous organization that disrupts traditional understandings of ‘waste flow’; 2) a single-point perspective that decenters the human gaze; and 3) a jarring editing practice that reveals the entanglement of manmade waste and the ‘natural’ world.
This presentation is part of Professor Holt’s book project that analyzes contemporary German-language texts and films laboring to depict newer forms of waste (e.g., micro- and nanoplastics, endocrine disrupting chemicals, and e-waste).