At the end of a challenging year, our staff shares a few of the conversations, stories, and moments that stood out from our work, helped us think differently, and strengthened our sense of community. Thanks for being part of our work in 2025. oregonhumanities.cmail19.com/t/t-e-wlkdhu...

We were thrilled to hear the news this week that two essays published in Oregon Humanities magazine were listed among the "Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2024" in the most recent 'Best American Essays' anthology.

Throughout 2026, Oregon Humanities will get Oregonians together to talk about democracy, freedom, and what it means to be an American—now and into the future. We’re offering sixteen facilitated conversations, open to communities around the state. Learn more: oregonhumanities.org/programs/con...

The High Desert Museum is launching the Schnitzer Prize of the West, a new annual prize awarding $50K to an individual or small group whose work addresses environmental & conservation challenges of the American West. Nominations are open through 1/30/26. highdesertmuseum.org/schnitzer-pr...

In our newest issue, now online, Dawn Marie Knopf traces the growth of the US highway network that disrupted communities and displaced thousands—and asks whether it can be made more humane. oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

Traveling over the next few days? Cue up a few episodes of This Place, our short podcast featuring audio postcards from around the state, spoken by the people who live there. Here's where we've been so far this year: oregonhumanities.org/rll/podcast/...

We're mentioned in Jill Lepore's recent New Yorker story on how cultural + historical orgs are programming around the nation's 250th anniversary—amid sweeping funding cuts, censorship, and more. The piece describes our Beyond250 series as "one of the better stories." tinyurl.com/y5byba9u

We're accepting pitches and feature-length submissions from Oregon writers for our Spring issue, Labor. Looking for: essays, journalism, and criticism between 1,500 and 4,000 words. Pay is $750–1,500, depending on length and complexity. Read more: oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

Are you ready for test your knowledge of Portland's literary scene? Hope to see you tomorrow at Dear Sandy!

The energy was electric for our first Consider This of the season! You all really showed UP in Portland and at watch parties in La Grande, Salem, and Clatskanie. Thanks to everyone who joined and to Akhil for an in-depth, important conversation. Catch it in full: www.youtube.com/live/BiX5PGR...

Tonight! We're looking forward to tonight's conversation with constitutional law scholar Akhil Reed Amar. The Portland event has sold out, but you can still join our free live stream—or one of our watch parties in La Grande, Clatskanie, and Salem. oregonhumanities.org/programs/con...

Less than a week to go until our new #ConsiderThis series kicks off with Akhil Reed Amar! We'll explore what the notion of equality has meant for our laws, history, and national identity—and consider how we strive toward this ideal today. Learn more: oregonhumanities.org/programs/con...

In a recent episode of his podcast ,"Amarica’s Constitution," @akhilreedamar.bsky.social dives into the question of whether major tariffs are constitutional—drawing on history, legal precedent, and the text of the Constitution itself. akhilamar.com/podcast-2/

Attn book + trivia nerds 📚 We're teaming up with Buckman Publishing for a night of local literary trivia in Portland. Come celebrate our region's storied history and win bookish prizes! Organized in partnership with Literary Arts' Cover to Cover series. oregonhumanities.org/events/liter...

Tomorrow in Corvallis, our executive director Adam Davis will host a panel discussion, The Future of Indigenous Food in the Kalapuya Ilihi, part of the Champinefu Lecture Series at OSU's PRAx. Free and open to all: prax.oregonstate.edu/events/champ...

"Our written constitution, though far from perfect, remains the basis of our republic, but that terse text will not save us. Without a national narrative, our republic cannot long endure.” A recent essay from author and constitutional scholar Akhil Reed Amar: www.thefp.com/p/the-consti...

We loved seeing our 2024 Community Storytelling Fellow Sarah Fox and her fellowship project—The Watershed Rock Opera—featured in a recent article for @sierraclub.org magazine! www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2025-...

We're excited to share several local watch parties for our first Consider This conversation of the season! On October 27, join folks in La Grande, Clatskanie, and Salem for a live screening of our onstage conversation with Akhil Reed Amar: Details: oregonhumanities.org/programs/con...

Theater artist and educator Paul Susi spends his evenings and weekends helping people recover lost driver’s licenses and birth certificates. In the "Real" issue, he writes about what it takes to navigate the bureaucratic maze of legal documentation. oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

Now online: Natchee Barnd investigates how public art installations around Oregon are engaging in Indigenous Placekeeping. oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

"What does it mean to routinely move through the places we live in a machine designed to encourage escapism?" In the "Real" issue, Meg Wade explains how car culture has led to the erasure of public transit in rural Oregon, disconnecting people in the process. oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

In 1978, the company-owned logging town of Kinzua closed for good. “It was like your family died,” says Marilyn Garcia, born there in 1939. In our new issue, Bennett Hall shares how a volunteer-run golf course keeps the memory of this remote community alive. oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

In our latest issue, Jamila Osman examines how a 2010 FBI sting operation led to the imprisonment of 19-year-old Mohamed Mohamud and left behind a legacy of grief, suspicion, and fractured trust that still lingers in Oregon’s Somali community—her own—today. oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

"Returning to Russia is impossible; only the past remains there, and it won’t forgive you for trading it in for the future." In Beyond the Margins, Aleksandr Chernousov writes about identity and conflict in Oregon's Slavic community. oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-t...

Our summer issue is out next week! Whether or not you subscribe, we hope you'll join us at this happy hour celebration in Portland! #OregonHumanitiesMagazine

Yesterday a federal district judge in Portland issued a preliminary injunction in our joint lawsuit with the Federation of State Humanities Councils @humfed), finding that NEH’s April termination of grants to humanities councils was unlawful.

Today we're celebrating a win, while acknowledging it's only a first step in a long, continuing process. Deep thanks to Anna Sortun and the team at Tonkon Torp for their representation and counsel, and to our partners at the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

This week, Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils appeared in US District Court in Portland to argue for the restoration of congressionally approved funding for humanities work nationwide. More about the case and Monday's hearing: www.orartswatch.org/oregon-human...

Our summer issue drops next month! We're excited to share this preview of the cover, featuring work by photographer Celeste Noche Subscribe for free to get the print issue delivered to your door: oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

Yesterday Governor Kotek announced a special session of the legislature to address transportation funding. In March, Meg Wade wrote about the fragile transit connections in rural Oregon that will disappear if the state doesn't take action. www.oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-t...

For queer feminists in the 70s & 80s, print media was a lifeline for sharing ideas & imagining new ways of living. Read about how Oregon's lesbian separatist communities used photography to explore queer ecology, feminist art, and alternative futures. oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

In Beyond the Margins, artist, writer, and Community Storytelling Fellow Meech Boakye traces landscapes—from an urban cemetery in São Paulo to an Oregon creek—and the quiet places where life and death converge. Read the full essay, with audio and photos: oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-t...

Oregon writers: Submissions are open for our winter issue! Send us pitches and feature-length stories for "Consume"—about buying, eating, and using—as well as histories, ideas, and cultural practices related to consumption. Read more: oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

With July 4th approaching, we're sharing work from our archives that invites deeper questions about independence, democracy, borders, belonging, and how we can imagine more just and inclusive futures together. What's on your July 4th reading, listening, or watching list?

In a new op-ed for Oregon ArtsWatch, Oregon writer and current Community Storytelling Fellow Meg Wade—joined by more than a dozen past and present fellows—explores how preserving the National Endowment for the Humanities safeguards vital platforms for storytelling and connection at the local level.

Data show that public media organizations serving rural, Indigenous, and Western communities rely most heavily on federal funding. Trump’s bid to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would devastate them.

Oregon’s premiere arts festival has dazzled visitors for decades with counterculture glam. Where it takes place though is on an archaeological Kalapuya site. Can the Oregon Country Fair hold the balance between tie-dyed celebration and deeper cultural respect?

“Like me, these plants grew in soil that was not native to them. They lived under a different sun, in a different climate, and yet they thrived.” In our latest Beyond the Margins, Denise Chin writes about nurturing cultural heritage in the garden. oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-t...

"It felt faintly subversive to find an alternate purpose for the landscape: not to look at, but to reach out and touch. To take." Katherine Cusumano writes about foraging and the unexpected abundance of urban plant life in Portland: www.oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-t...

This month on The Detour, we explore the boundaries of fear and belonging when it comes to the other living creatures we share this planet with. Listen to the full episode with Bobby Fossek, Erica Berry, and Wendy Bingham: oregonhumanities.org/rll/podcast/...

Yesterday, Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils jointly filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Read more: www.statehumanities.org/federation-o... #NEH

Thank you for joining us!

Thank you to Danielle Allen and everyone who joined us last night in Portland and online for an energizing conversation about democracy, civil society, pathways to action & more! ICYMI, the recording will be available to watch on our website this Saturday. oregonhumanities.org/programs/con...

Late last week, the National Endowment for the Arts started terminating grants just as the National Endowment for the Humanities did a month ago. Claire Willett has updates at Oregon ArtsWatch.

I am so looking forward to this event from @oregonhumanities.org www.oregonhumanities.org/events/rhyth...

"“These cuts will not provide significant savings for the federal government nor the American taxpayer, but they will impact millions who benefit from the far-reaching humanities programs, including our veterans, students, educators, and seniors."

@councilortiffany.bsky.social @councilormorillo.bsky.social Our upcoming event in D3 with Danielle Allen may be of interest. oregonhumanities.org/programs/con...

Great story on the lack of community spaces in East Portland, particularly for the immigrant community. “We need places to host celebrations and express our cultures through gastronomy, music, dances, and folklore, because all of this keeps family unity.”

We're excited to welcome back Danielle Allen to the Consider This stage next month! Join us on May 7 for a conversation about reinventing American democracy. This event will take place at Portland's Tomorrow Theatre and also be streamed live on YouTube. oregonhumanities.org/programs/con...

The humanities are essential, and their forced elimination threatens connection and culture across all communities. Thank you to these members of Oregon's congressional delegation for recognizing the gravity of these funding cuts and demanding their reversal. www.merkley.senate.gov/oregon-deleg...