WEBVTT 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:19.000 professor and i'm the dean of the college and it's really great to be with you today, and hope you're all staying healthy and and well, as we begin to to climb out of this global health crisis. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:31.000 So at this moment this panel was was really born during you know, during the Covid 19 pandemic, and and really also at the time of a national reckoning of systemic racism, we really work to develop this 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:44.000 series as a way to simply provide a space for our college community of researchers and scholars and students to share their work with the the broader Psu community and community at large, and help provide a I guess a bit of a context for 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:49.000 better understanding how wrong responding to life at this moment so for those of you returning It's great to see you again. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:55.000 Welcome back for those of you who are at this moment community welcome to, I hope you see you again throughout the year. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:58.000 We have one more coming up in may that we're all very excited about. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.000 They are last at this moment of the year. So the format here is very simple. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:10.000 This is simply a casual venue and a simple conversation, to to learn more about the work that the amazing work that happens in the college liberal arts and sciences. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:20.000 And so, wherever you are joining us from thank you i'm glad you've taken the time to feed the art of today's conversation, and just as a reminder, we have folks zooming in from in a variety of platforms so we have 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:32.000 some folks joining us today on the Zoom webinar, and then we have a great number of folks who join us on Facebook live and These presentations. are being recorded and archived in pdf scholar at the 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:40.000 Psu library. so you can check out not only after the fact. this session, if you want to rewatch it, or any of the the past ones we've done over the last few years and over these last few years. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:47.000 These conversations have literally received thousands of views since we've started, and I think it's a great contribution to our to our dialogue as a campus community. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:02:01.000 So each year we have focused on a theme for our conversation of at this moment and this year's theme is one of partnerships, and I believe strongly is Dean in the transformational role that collaborations and partnerships can 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:12.000 have to advance. You know the visions of values and goals of our college, and today we're highlighting partnerships in philanthropy, and these are you know, and the ways in which philanthropy can benefit the 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:23.000 programs or faculty or students in class, and and, as many of you know, flanthropy has been key to sort of as well as the generosity of our donors, and including many who are on this call today who really see and 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:31.000 affirm the value of what we do at psu And so I just want to thank everyone who's already donated a class over the many years, and continues to do so. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:42.000 And and just as a little side plug we just psu had just had our day of giving yesterday, and in case you missed that, and would like to sort of see some options to sort of advance our cause of psu please check that 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:51.000 out. we'll drop that chat in the link so today's conversations are really just 2 examples I think of some really what i'd say really transformative. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:58.000 Maybe catalytic roles that philanthropy has had on elevating the impacts of our programs in the College of Liber Arts sciences. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:09.000 And so this year today, sorry we're gonna really focus on 2 areas that I'm particularly excited about is dean and one is the work that's underway on our center for japanese studies as Well, as work that's underway to 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:15.000 really lift up bigger, broader conversations around the impact of public humanities. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.000 So let me do a quick introduction for who's all here today. 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:30.000 So the first introduction is that Ken roof can the camera and say, Hi Ken Rouoff is a professor of history and director of Psu Center for Japanese studies and is a specialist well-known World Expert in modern History 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:36.000 of East Asia, especially Japan. So ken thanks for joining. next up we have Larry comments. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:49.000 Larry is a professor of Japanese and teaches courses in Japanese language, literature, drama, and film, and he's been Cgs as artistic director, and has engaged in a whole range of critically acclaimed student performances of 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:53.000 Kabuki over his years. At Psu we have Doug Edsel, Larry. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:04:03.000 Thanks for joining good to see you next up. We have Doug Ezel Doug, who's joining us, live from Tokyo today, which is really exciting. so welcome. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:10.000 Is a member of the Center for Japanese study Advisory Board, and you know his background has been over 30 years working in. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:16.000 I believe some enterprise software software development in Asia, including 18 years of living and working in Japan. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:26.000 And I know he himself had has ties to psu in connection to our center for Japanese sticks, program, and it'll tell us more about his abiding support of that, particularly as a donor. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:31.000 We have. Doug. Thank you. Welcome, Marielo Marie, welcome. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:39.000 Marie is a professor and chair of English Who's Academic scholarship focuses on Senator Settler. imperial genealogies of contemporary us culture. Marie. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:48.000 It's great to have you. here thank you representing the great Department of English next up Daniel Pollock Peltzner, Daniel Malcolm. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:56.000 Good to see you. nice to see you today. so Daniel is a visiting scholar in the English department, and he's also the scholar in residence at the Portland. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:05.000 Shakespeare project He's a frequent guest lecture in the Oregon shakespeare festival. and as part of his visiting scholar position here at Psu you know, Daniel 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:14.000 is really helping to lift up some interdisciplinary community conversations around public humanities and and foster better connections of this work across not only our college, but the University and the community. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:19.000 So, Daniel, welcome, and finally, at last, but not least, Nathan Kogan. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:28.000 Nathan. Welcome! good to see you, Nathan is an emeritus professor of English, who taught here from I don't know if I had the dates right, Nathan I think, maybe 1,976 to 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:32.000 2,001 somewhere in there, and you know I know why he was a Psu talk. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:42.000 Shakespeare and drama and a sort of issues of holocaust literature, and I I mostly know Nathan as a tireless champion of both psu and i'd say an advocate for the 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.000 role that humanities can play in building a you know a stronger and more civic society. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:48.000 So it's great to have Nathan here. so again. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:54.000 Thank you all for joining us today. Welcome everyone. So we have a green list of panelists, and you know, as questions arrive. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:06:06.000 So you know again, the format is simple we'll start with a some conversations around what's happening in the center for Japanese studies, and then transfers transition over to the work on public humanities as questions arise 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:15.000 and I know they will please go ahead and drop them in The in the question and answer section at the bottom of the zoom webinar, or or send them in chat. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:25.000 We've also had people send us questions, in advance I coordinate the questions on the back end, and and then what we will do is sort of get through the 2 presentations, and then return to the Q. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:30.000 And a session. Just so, you know we rarely have time to get to all the questions. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:36.000 But we'll do our best to get them through so as questions. Come up, drop them in the chat, and we look forward to that conversation. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.000 All right. Well, with that again. I just want to thank you all for taking the time to join us at this week's. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:45.000 At this moment conversation and ken I want to take it away. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:57.000 Hi. My name is Ken Rouoff, and I teach the modern history of East Asia, especially Japan, and also direct the center for Japanese studies. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:03.000 Now the center for Japanese studies is one part of a larger structure in Japanese studies. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:10.000 Here at Psu. So we have various Japan specialists in departments across the university. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:17.000 So, for example, Professor Keto Veto is an expert in the economy of Japan. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:33.000 The economic history of Japan. And then, of course, in the department of world languages and literature, we have a very large and modesty aside, tremendously respected Japanese language program. 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:54.000 One of the most respected programs in the entire country. And then where the Japanese, the center for Japanese studies, fits in in all this is that the center for Japanese studies offers all sorts of public programs about various aspects of G 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:01.000 Japan. That, of course, are open to students, and and we want to make them especially accessible to students. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:14.000 But also to the community. and the important role that this provides is, for example, Larry and I have our particular areas of expertise. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:24.000 But by bringing in guest speakers to the center for Japanese studies, we can tap the expertise of our colleagues world. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:38.000 We, and to give you one concrete example of a particular particularly memorable lecture, sponsored by the center for Japanese studies by a quirk of history. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:54.000 It was a bunch of young Americans who wrote the post-war Constitution of Japan which remains revised today, and there was a particular woman on that team, very young woman, 23 years old, who, against all odds fighting her male American 00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:03.000 colleagues managed to get Article 24 into the postwar constitution of Japan, guaranteeing equality between men and women. 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:15.000 Well, we had her come Talk about how she managed to get that article into the post-war constitution, and that was certainly among the most memorable of many memorable lectures. 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:29.000 But in additional thing that we do is we sponsor Professor Cohen's performances in the Japanese theater performances featuring Psu students. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:38.000 They also often feature professional musicians, and these have become sort of cultural fixtures. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:59.000 Among many people in Portland they very much look forward to Professor Comey's staging of Japanese theatrical works, including the what is now really renowned worldwide among people who pay attention to these sort of things, his 2,000 and 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:05.000 15 staging of the most iconic of the Japanese Kabuki tradition. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.000 The rebellion of the 47 loyal samurai. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:18.000 Everything that we do is almost entirely supported by donations from the community. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:30.000 We at this point have a large number of community members who feel strongly about the offerings that we provide. and I do want to stress that community component. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:40.000 For example, there's a scholar named peril block who's quite famous, and so she's been to pretty much every center for Japanese studies in the world. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:49.000 She says there is no center for Japanese studies anywhere. that's his more integrated into the community as his ps use. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:11:04.000 And so, but before the pandemic average audience for one of our events was typically about a 150 people, totally common for 50 or 75 of those people that be from the community always welcome to come. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:09.000 The Psu and and you know we're basically fulfilling Ps. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:24.000 Use model that knowledge serve the city. And so through these extra programs Psu students gain, you know, ever greater perspectives on Japan. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:39.000 Also the fact that it's community supporters making all this happen meet happens, means that Psu professors have all sorts of networks in the community that we can plug psu students into we're not job 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:52.000 brokers, but at the same time we can have often helped students find jobs through these networks, and the networks extend to Japan for study abroad. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:08.000 And so it is an extra curricular entity in many ways that just takes Japanese studies to peel at Psu to an even higher a level than it would be otherwise, and it's a pretty high level even without the center 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:14.000 for Japanese studies, but all the better with it. Larry do you want to take it from here. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:24.000 You know i'm happy to take over and my presentation is going to be all slides, so i'm going to go to a share screen. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:51.000 Now, so can everyone see the screens so i'm talking about i'm going to talk about my career, and then what i'm doing here at Psu i'm professor of Japanese language and literature and I want to talk about one of 00:12:51.000 --> 00:13:01.000 the unique aspects of our Japanese studies program in the Department of World Languages in literature, and that is our drama program which I'm. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:09.000 In charge of Columbia University, Japanese Literature. 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:16.000 Phd. specializing in theatrical literature and in theatrical history. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:29.000 When I was doing my dissertation. research in Kyoto, in the Seventys and Eightys, also trained in Japanese performing arts, and my thesis advisor actually encouraged me in this, even though it was 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:44.000 going to take a little longer to finish the thesis, because practicing embodied culture gives a deeper knowledge about foreign, and also pre-modern social and aesthetic values and ethos enjoyed the process 00:13:44.000 --> 00:14:02.000 tremendously training and performing, and it afforded so many unexpected insights and opportunities for growth in intellectually and personally, that I felt really strongly about making this opportunity available to students at which every university would hire me 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:13.000 and that turned out to be Portland State. My primary performing art was, and still is, Kilgan, and you can see here my debut kill again. 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:28.000 Under this teacher. these are short comic plays that started in the 13 hundreds, and they still performed today for thousands of fans that really enjoy it. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:44.000 It's. We started simple at Portland state I so my first production was my very first year here, and we were wearing informal cotton kimono and pantaloons. as you see, here. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:51.000 We presented Jogan plays. You can see them top and left in English or in Japanese. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:15:00.000 If the students were advanced enough over the years, my wife and I bought more and more elaborate costumes in Japan, not new. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.000 We bought them at bizarre and used clothing stores. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:12.000 And she developed a broader expertise in costume design altering them for performance. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:24.000 She learned how to make theater Whigs, which is an art that almost no amateurs ever undertake, and I brought in my training right here in Portland to in Portland to include Kabuki style dance 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:31.000 we began to do fully costume Kabuki dramas in 2,003. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:39.000 That was just 2 years after the founding of the Center for Japanese studies, and the center became a co-presenter of everything we did. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:49.000 At that point. from that point on It gave us the ability to raise more money for more elaborate productions. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:56.000 We moved from soundtracks to live Kabuki in 2,012, and that also increased our production costs. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:05.000 We strive for production values that are very high, as high as mainstay productions in the department of music and theater. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:10.000 So, looking at a few of our Kabuki scenes. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:15.000 This puts us in a position that no other Japanese studies program is in in the U.S.A. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:24.000 Performing these kinds of shows. I know of several other colleagues who've struggled to put on one or 2 during a 30 year career. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:36.000 We do them every single year It's built into our curriculum, as far as Kabuki is concerned, there's one theater department that does them every 3 years. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:40.000 Or 4 years at the University of Hawaii. Kabuki. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:47.000 Extravaganzas are best Represented by japan's most beloved play, The Revenge of the 47 Loyal Samurai. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:17:04.000 Let's take a look, though, at before we see that Look at these beautiful cortisans and a princess My wife, who's been our costume designer from the time we got married in 1987 You takes real 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:15.000 pride in creating the most beautiful characters you can see on stage. Now, to the revenge of the 47 loyal retainers. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:21.000 It's a it's a huge saga we reduced it from 12 h to 3 h. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:33.000 7 acts, 10 scenes, scenes of triumph, brutal betrayal of sexual harassment, and the upper right great combat scenes. on the lower right. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:51.000 It was a mammoth undertaking with 50 student performers, basically something like a third of the Japanese studies. majors, and 9 tenths of the theater majors were on stage 60 roles, and 80 costumes 00:17:51.000 --> 00:18:05.000 every form of Japanese live Kabuki music being performed, live and extensive coverage in the Japanese press, and visitors coming to see it live from all over plus a live stream. 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:16.000 And now presence and Youtube my teacher here, Professor Donald Keen, who was my thesis advisor, came from Tokyo to see it, and that was a big event. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:23.000 3,000 people saw us live over 2 weeks, and we followed it up with another really major production. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:33.000 The next year of Kabuki, and you can see in these pictures how we really are striving for a perfection on stage. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:38.000 Sometimes we achieve it. Sometimes we don't this picture shows the ladies all sitting perfectly aligned. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:46.000 They didn't start behind the curtain like that they had to move or dance into those positions and wind up their perfect posture. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:55.000 Perfect gaze, everyone with ramrod straight backs, except for the old hag, who, I instructed to be round back the entire time. 00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:11.000 Our dancer in the perfect form. After 2,017 We've done, Kilgan plays and not Kabuki plays, partly because we had so many requests for Kilgan plays away from 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:18.000 Psu, and I wanted to work those plays to a high level here. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:29.000 And so you can see how lively kilgan is too, and our Kilgan costumes have become just as beautiful as our the booky costumes it's just we don't use you never use a 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:37.000 makeup and Weigs in kilgan occasionally we're lucky to have a guest professional performer join us, as you see here. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:50.000 These 2 pictures, this one's in Victoria British Columbia, this one's in province down Massachusetts, and you can imagine how exciting it is for Japan for our students or in Japanese studies and in these place to get 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:59.000 the opportunity to tour as performers to these places, and even to Japan, and we make sure, of course, that their way is paid for. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:06.000 This. Lastly, in my presentation, I want to invite you to come to our full-scale Kabuki production. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:22.000 This. May. The pictures, you see, are the same play, the Sardine Sellers, and that of Love, which I produced as guest director for Lambert University in 2,010 to it, has a huge horse in it, as you can see here 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:32.000 and It's the by it's by Yukon Mishima, a very famous author, it's his most popular Kabuki play of about 7 or 8 Kabuki plays. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:41.000 He wrote, and it is, I think, the most heartwarming and amusing romantic comedy in the entire repertory. 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:46.000 From, you know, classic times until today you're gonna love this play screenshot. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:53.000 This go to Psu box office. Finally I was asked to talk about. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:00.000 How do we keep this going? Well, i'm about to retire? I'm going to retire in June i'm 70. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:17.000 And how do we keep it going? in the long term we need to hire someone who can teach what I teach and direct the sorts of shows that I direct, and there are a few of us who are very There are few young people out there who can do 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:30.000 this. I realize how difficult that is, and for a couple of years as an emeritus. i'm gonna come back for this purpose to do productions with students. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:46.000 But if we you know, if that comes to an end, and we don't have a replacement for me, then this era the era of fabulous student production may come to an end, we've put all of our shows since 2,000 and 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:52.000 16 on the Psu Youtube site. This is just the Kabuki shows. 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:57.000 Our Kilgan shows are just as good and you'll enjoy them just as much. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:06.000 Do I and screenshot this i've probably gone well over my 5 min, so i'm gonna now turn it back over and stop my share. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:12.000 Thank you all for listening and looking at our a beautiful shows. 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:22.000 All right. thanks, Larry, I think i'm up next my name is Doug Ezel. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:31.000 I'd like to spend a few minutes and talk about my talk about my experience studying Japanese at Psu quite a few years ago. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:44.000 I'll talk about the impact that that had on my career and Then finally, i'll talk about how recently i've reconnected with Larry and Ken and and how i'm now supporting the program as a 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:54.000 donor So I studied Japanese at Psu in the late eightys. so I was originally i'm born and raised in Oregon. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:01.000 I actually went to Oregon State University, where I studied engineering very late in my time. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:08.000 There the summer before my final year. A chance trip to Japan, you know, Got me interested. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:15.000 So you know I was hooked. I was interested in Japan and the Japanese language. I came back. 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.000 I was able to study a little bit of Japanese at Osu. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:23.000 They had, I think, first year Japanese and second-year Japanese. 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:38.000 Then after that I graduated, and I started working, and I was again fortunate enough, or I should say I finagled my way into a second stay in Japan, which was for about 11 months. and so I went back again this time I was 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:51.000 actually in a workplace setting, and during that time my second trip, I decided, Wow, I want to live and work in Japan, and I realized to be able to do that. 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:56.000 I needed to improve my Japanese to a really advanced level. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:09.000 And so, after the second trip I was back in Portland working there, I actually worked for a Japanese company, and during that time I was trying to figure out, Okay, how can I continue to improve my Japanese? 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:16.000 And so I looked around and was surprised to find that Psu had advanced Japanese courses. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:22.000 2, and so I was working full-time, but I started taking a kind of a long lunch hour, a couple of times a week. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:28.000 I would drive into town, and I took third and fourth year Japanese at Portland State. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:35.000 I study with a professor named Martin. nota she's was was excellent, and that was extremely helpful. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:43.000 So after finishing the fourth year course I still felt like I needed, you know, a little bit more, because you know my again. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:48.000 My goal was to really be fully functional in a in a business setting. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:56.000 So the then I was thinking about going back and studying in Japan, and I started looking at programs. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.000 I found a nice program at Wasassador University. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:05.000 But then I also started looking the cost to do that. And so the the cost to travel and stay. 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:21.000 And obviously I was gonna quit my my job and and during that time. This is when I met larry coleman's, and he was actually the administrator of a very interesting scholarship. 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:28.000 The scholarship was set up by a Japanese business managerman named Kozu Masan, who had ties to Oregon in Portland. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:37.000 And they he sponsored a student or 2 each year from Portland State to be able to go and study in Japan. 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:42.000 And so I worked with Larry, and I applied for that scholarship. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:48.000 I was lucky enough to get it, and that in enabled me to go and study for that year in in Wasetta. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:26:00.000 By that time I was really able to get my Japanese to a point where I could be, you know, fully functional in a business setting, and and, in fact, since I already had my undergraduate degree, when at the end of the year at law, said 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:08.000 I just, you know, sent out, resumes. I was lucky enough to to find work there in Japan, and that that launched my career, you know. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:22.000 Since then i've worked in enterprise software i've Been lucky enough to you know, live and work in Japan for a total of maybe 18 years, and even though I moved back to the Portland area maybe 10 or 11 years, ago, 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:42.000 I just continued to do work in asia the last 15 or so years I've been lucky enough to lead teams in Asia, and my final role, which i'm just stepping down from my final kind of full-time role I was 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:48.000 leading more than 600 people across all parts of Asia, including Japan, Korea, and China. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:27:01.000 And so that finding psu when I did and especially being able to find advanced Japanese courses first of all that's not that common. 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:09.000 Many Japanese programs in the us will have first year Japanese second year Japanese. but many of them don't have the more advanced levels. 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:16.000 And if I had only been able to study, say, second year, Japanese, it would have been very hard for me to to be able to use Japanese in the workplace. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:21.000 And so that's the first thing that was had a huge impact on my career. 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:30.000 And then the second thing obviously was the scholar. And so working with Larry at the time and finding that scholarship that was huge. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:36.000 And yeah, so it that time I spent it at Psu really helped launch my career. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:46.000 And so now, as I you know, kind of in ramping things down, and I'm starting to to look back and reflect on my career, I I realized that Wow, you know Ps. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:28:00.000 You really played a huge part in this and so That's when late last year, when I reached out to Professor Coleman's and reconnected, and it was it was fun. we went down and Larry and I had a coffee I remember sitting outside and I was explaining Deliria 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:05.000 this is what I've done in my career to and at 1 point he kind of stopped and looking, and he said, you did that. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:08.000 And I said, Yeah, I did that. and I said you helped me you know. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:15.000 So it's been really fun to reconnect and i'm i'm doing 2 things now to to try to support the program. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:28.000 So one thing that i'm doing is last year we put together kind of a donation fund, and and I contributed, and then we got a lot of matching donations from the community, and that's going towards hope helping to continue the 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:35.000 great work that Larry and Toshimi are doing with these Kabuki plays, because, as you saw, I mean, this is a amazingly, you know, unique. 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:42.000 There is nothing like this anywhere else in the United States, and the fact that we have this in Portland is really cool. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:47.000 And so I want to make sure that we continue that and then the second thing i'm doing is 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:53.000 We put together a small scholarship fund to try to help support. 00:28:53.000 --> 00:29:00.000 One or 2 students from Portland State go and study in Japan, just like, you know. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.000 I got that help years ago, so it's been great to you know. 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:07.000 Reconnect with the folks at at Portland State. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:12.000 And yeah, I really, I really look forward to continuing to work with you guys to support the program. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:19.000 So. thank you. Well, thank you all can, Larry and Doug. 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:30.000 That was great. Well, we're gonna hold and take questions at the end, but it just really reinforces what what is distinctive program, And in lots of ways we have a psu, and and really really outstanding next 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:43.000 up, Marie, Marie. Thank you, Todd. hi everyone, and I just want to per say how honored I am to be here, and to be in conversation with you all, especially to be partnered here. 00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:47.000 With Daniel Pollock Pellsner and Nathan Kogan. 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:53.000 I was invited to speak about what is public humanities and why is it needed? 00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:01.000 And then i'll say also a few words, about you know the English Department's Vision for Public Humanities. 00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:06.000 And why it was important for us to bring on a visiting scholar. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:26.000 So in terms of what is public humanities in many ways I feel like the word adding the word public to public humanities, is a bit redundant, because civic engagement has always been central to the humanities, and it's inquiry into 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:32.000 the languages, histories, and ideas that shape our ways of life individually and collectively. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:44.000 I also think that at the heart of the humanities is the exploration of what is possible, and how we might transform our society in the service of justice, equity, and peace. 00:30:44.000 --> 00:31:04.000 But I also do think that in our particular moment there is value to emphasizing and adding public to the humanities, because they think public humanities pushes back against the increasing specialization and compartmentalization of knowledge and it 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:18.000 pushes back against the idea that the humanities are somehow separate or don't play a part in othering the pressing concerns of the day, such as climate change, houselessness, and racial injustice. 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:30.000 I think also for adding public humanities. also pushes back against the perceived and sometimes real divisions that can exist between the institution of the university. 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:43.000 And, you know, quote, unquote the world outside, as if what is taught and studied in the humanities classroom does not have a applicability to life outside of it. 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:57.000 And so for me, what public humanities is really is a kind of synthesis and integration of knowledge that emphasizes our humanity, and also our entangled collective futures. 00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:01.000 And I think it is a especially urgent to think integratively. 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:06.000 I had to say that word a few times integratively. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:10.000 If we are to address the many pressing issues that we face today. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:27.000 And so you know, for awesome the English department. This means examining the narratives and stories that we tell about who we are asking about stories that are not included about stories that have been erased or are not intelligible, within our current 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:38.000 frameworks. It also means analyzing and understanding the power of language to mobilize, to unite and also divide and dehumanize. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:56.000 So providing our students with the skills of analysis as well as the space to study and enjoy the pleasure and power of language and writing, I think, really empowers our students to create their own narratives that reflect their own unique experiences. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:13.000 I really believe that you know who we are, who we are is inseparable from the constellation of stories we tell about ourselves, and I think social change requires us to reinvent. and also expand the stories that we tell 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:20.000 And so you know, as we think about how English integrates the lifecycle of writing beyond the classroom. 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:27.000 It was really important for us to bring a visiting scholar to help us do this kind of work. 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:44.000 I will say, however, that you know, while it was important for us to bring a visiting scholar, it was even more important for us to bring in particular Daniel Paul Kelner, because of well for a number of reasons one of course, is that he has demonstrated the importance of 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:55.000 speaking out, especially for those who are not always able to do so and I think that, you know, given today's climate, being able to speak truth to power is incredibly moving. 00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.000 And you know something we want our students to see in action. 00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:10.000 I don't want to talk too much about his work because I know he's going to spend time doing so with you all. but I just want to say that you know his work really embodies psu's access 00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:17.000 mission and its motto of letting knowledge serve the city with Nathan Kogan's generous support. 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:29.000 We have been able to expand the classroom. space so that it's not just on campus but is a part of the city as part of his environmental theater class. 00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:36.000 Daniel has been able to provide students the opportunity to attend theater performances, and so giving students. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:48.000 Many are students, many of whom are first generation, college students who may never have imagined themselves, you know, having the opportunity to attend theater classes, giving them a chance to attend. 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:55.000 But also to see, perhaps, that this might be a space that they can belong, I think, is incredibly powerful. 00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:06.000 And so this gives them also a chance to think about life, you know, after Psu as well as integrating their currently to the civic cultural life of Portland. 00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:26.000 And so I well, to sort of conclude by saying, you know part of what is so central to public humanities is providing our students the opportunity to imagine oneself belonging and contributing to new spaces and of course, right so pacific life of 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:37.000 the city. And so this particular philipic partnership has really enabled us to bring Daniel, and it's been transformative for our students. 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:40.000 But I would say it's also been incredibly transformative for Psu as well. 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:48.000 And so I'm just going to half things on to Daniel now, and for him to share more about what amazing work he's been doing, Marie. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:59.000 There's so much of the power and beauty of what you said that's really resonating with me, and I love your artulation of what our mission is, and what you've said so so resoundingly. 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:09.000 Is why I am thrilled to be at Psu and why i'm so grateful to you, Marie, and to Todd, and to Nathan, not only for allowing me to join you in the conversation today but 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:13.000 for extending the invitation to join the psu community I'm. 00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:20.000 3 weeks into my first teaching term here i've just finally finished putting up all of my theater posters on the wall behind me. 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:27.000 That my wife thought would clog up our our kitchen walls at home, and I am having a ball. 00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:40.000 I actually my my musical theater stage debut was up the street at Lincoln High School, where I played the role of Max and the sound of music years ago, and and even before that that my wife in a fifth grade production. 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:52.000 Of a midsummer Night's dream when we both went to elementary school in Portland, so to return here now as a Clausey grown-up with grandparents nearby, and kids who can come and visit on campus 00:36:52.000 --> 00:37:06.000 is a thrill, and I am i am just loving my experience with the students and my my colleagues at Psu, even though Larry reminded me beforehand that his office down the hall for me and form is much bigger than mine But it's a treat to get to see 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:17.000 him walking toward it, and to learn about this phenomenal phenomenal work of Japanese performance that intersects in wonderful ways with my own interests, which lie really at the the Bridge between literature and 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:22.000 Theater, and between the College of the Arts and Sciences, and the School of the Arts at Psu. 00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:30.000 So i'll tell you a little bit of what i'm teaching how that connects to research and creative projects, and how that connects to community engagement in my work. 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:35.000 Thanks to the support that Nathan and other generous donors are providing. 00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:49.000 So if the classes I'm teaching this term i've got one upper level undergraduate class on history plays from Henry the Fifth to Hamilton where we look at how playwrights tell national 00:37:49.000 --> 00:38:00.000 stories and stories of social change, and we start by looking at Shakespeare as a model of inventing the genre of the history play in English, and we look at what that model includes and who's left out of that model what kind of voices 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:12.000 Aren't included, as Marie told us what of our central interests in this department, is on how we elevate and empower the voices that have been historically left out of the stories we tell in our media and in our national 00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:25.000 narratives, and at the end of the class students write their own history Place and I've had students in the past right plays that turn themselves into the reincarnation of Dolores Swerta and Elea 00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.000 baker extending civil rights struggles into the 20 first century. 00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:39.000 I've had students write a hip hop musical about women of the Quran giving them a space to perform and and wrap their values on stage, and I can't wait to see what Psu students do here. 00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:51.000 We've already had the opportunity as Marie mentioned thanks to Nathan's generosity to go to Portland Center stage and see just a stupendous production of August Wilson's masterpiece Gem of 00:38:51.000 --> 00:39:00.000 the ocean the first chronological play in his 10 play Cycle of Black Experience in America in the Twentieth Century. 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:07.000 This is a play that asks how black populations transition from the world of slavery to the fraught world of reconstruction. 00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:16.000 And what weighs ritual, conjuring of ancestral memory can provide a way to generate community and the renewal of society moving forward. 00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:19.000 Students were floored by the play. They wrote beautifully about it. 00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:27.000 They read and discussed the play, and it's it's questions of generational transmission inherited trauma and new artistic pathways for creation. 00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:31.000 And then, because this is Bsu, and here we are just blocks from the theater. 00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:34.000 We had a whole class day where thanks to nathan's generosity. 00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:47.000 We could invite in 2 actors the sound Designer and a theater critic, to discuss the production with us and our own phenomenal colleague, Professor Cody Raven Morris in the in the music program 00:39:47.000 --> 00:40:00.000 who's our professor of choral music and social justice, and was the advisor for the spirituals that were used in this production just came in and wowed us with her well theoretical but also embodied and 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:12.000 musical understanding of this show. So that was like the things that we can only do when we are here at Psu, and I've already had students because Bsu students are so curious and engaging who both said this was the first show 00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:22.000 they've ever been to in their lives that they can't wait to see more, and we've got another one coming up next week, and who said that they want to extend their learning outside of class, and so thanks to Nathan i've been able 00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:33.000 to hire a cohort of students to work with me. on writing and creative projects that extend these questions of who gets to tell our nation's stories, and in whose voices those appear so 00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:43.000 I just seconded a contract with Simon and Schuster, to write the first big book about Lynn Manuel Miranda, composer of Hamilton, and in the Heights, and I've got students who are Helping 00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:50.000 me interview Lynn and his creative collaborators to really tell us story about education in the arts. 00:40:50.000 --> 00:41:02.000 And how you go from having a dream of representing your own community to making that dream a reality, and i'm thrilled that Psu students are working with me to do the research, and do the writing to make this book possible and 00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:13.000 I can't believe it. The next fall Marie and our colleague, Bishop Oliver, allowed me to teach a class in literature and popular culture on the work of Lynn Manuel Miranda and I think That'll be 00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:22.000 a fun way for students in music and theater, in Latinx studies and gender studies and film studies to come together at explore. 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:27.000 The work of one of our most singular talents in my other class, this semester. 00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:40.000 It's a seminar on environmental theater as Marie mentioned, and we're looking at how environments are represented on stage, and what the environments are in which theaters created in Portland and that class, has a wonderful array of 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:55.000 students who have worked in environmental advocacy or interested in writing for audiences beyond an academic community, and who are really taking up that question that Marie posed of how we tell real stories of the environment as we think about what role 00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:01.000 the the humanities have to play in in conversations about climate change and environmental justice. 00:42:01.000 --> 00:42:07.000 So we've been reading plays particularly from perspectives of indigenous authors from African-american authors. 00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:19.000 Today was a Chinese American playwright Francis you know Chu Kowig, who's stunning revision of a Chinese classic called Snow in midsummer asks who is responsible for freakish climate events. 00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:31.000 And when I first program this play I thought it'll still be on the Realm Fantasy, and then it snowed this week, and suddenly the kind of climate futures that Cowig is describing are a reality for us now and the understanding 00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:36.000 that my students proposed at the end of class is in order to change these kind of events. 00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:49.000 It's not just enough to have the scientific data we have to be able to craft and share the narratives that help us understand how we got here at what different features are possible a guide for me in that process has been the work of an amazing 00:42:49.000 --> 00:42:59.000 Cherokee playwright and lawyer mary Catherine Nagel, who's been advocating for the restoration and preservation of tribal sovereignty as it was a way to preserve natural 00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:02.000 environments and the bodies of vulnerable people. 00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:05.000 She argues before the Supreme Court, and she writes plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. 00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:11.000 I profiled her for the New Yorker this spring, and and the New Yorkers turning that piece into a film. 00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:18.000 And I now have a wonderful cohort of Psu students who have been able, the higher thanks to Nathan, to work with me on that film project. 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:26.000 To try to figure out how to how to elevate and share native stories around environmental change. 2 last things that i'll highlight. 00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:29.000 I have the great fortune to be working with many colleagues. 00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:41.000 Some of whom, like Sarah Dugger I think are on this webinar right now to continue the work that Marie started to build up a center for public humanities at Portland State, and we are in our fledgling phases, but we've 00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:53.000 got exciting programming happening already, we've got a roundtable coming up on changing the narratives around houselessness, where we think about what the humanities has to offer to to thinking about the experience of people who are 00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:58.000 undergoing housesness, and how to change the systemic issues around it. 00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:09.000 And it's on the bronze center for humanities website that Christina provided a link to, and i'm working for the fall and starting to put together an interdisciplinary group around the environmental humanities to see 00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:18.000 how we might continue to change those narratives and i'm gonna be offering a working group around public writing for those of us, and I know I have many colleagues who do this already. 00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:29.000 At Psu, her interested in engaging in Excuse me, audiences beyond paywall academic journals, and and for me writing for the New Yorker in the Atlantic, and the New York Times has been a really 00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:42.000 invigorating way to engage in conversations beyond our classrooms, and my goal is for students to feel like they have a voice in the conversations that matter to them both in the university and in their communities, and that they have the practice 00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:46.000 in writing and speaking for a class, and outside it to amplify that voice. 00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:57.000 And so I feel lucky that I can have students as collaborative writers with me, and then I can set students up with internships at, or I can art swatch at Pro Shakespeare project where I do scholarly 00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:04.000 work where they can really put these ideas into practice and meet a fellow Psu future alumni who have envisioned careers in the arts. 00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:17.000 I have a student now who's just been hired by artist repertory, theater to create a new program to spotlight and support the work of black and brown artists in Portland, and she's partnering with my environmental 00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:22.000 theater class to see how we could bridge our work in the classroom with professional work that's occurring outside it, too. 00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:29.000 And the last thing I'll say, is that I'm thrilled to be collaborating with my Shakespeare colleagues at Psu Jonathan Walker and Kerry Bear Karen 00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:41.000 Migaldi and Theater and folks at the Portland, Shakespeare project, and folks from a project launched at the Oregon Shakespeare festival on a huge celebration of an anniversary that i'm sure 00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:51.000 you've all been Counting down your calendar dates to which is 2,023 the 4 hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's first folio, the big coffee table volume of his 00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:55.000 plays and we're going to be exploring what the residents of this book. 00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:58.000 This anthology of shakespeare's work is 400 years later. 00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:01.000 In what ways does it speak to us now? Whose perspectives does it include? 00:46:01.000 --> 00:46:14.000 Whose does it exclude? And we're working on a collaborative student and professional production of the Merchant of Venice in a new verse translation by the great artist of these thorough and programming in 00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:28.000 conjunction with the Oregon Jewish Museum and with actors concernedancy, and with play on translation program from Ashland, where we will have lots of opportunities for everybody in Portland who wishes to try out some of 00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:39.000 shakespeare's language, to see ways it might be adapted or opaque, or resonant for us today, and to try out these place in performance, and I am i'm deeply moved that when I moved into this 00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:53.000 office. Nathan Kogan bequeathed to me this gorgeous, venerable red letter edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works, which I now have pride of place in my office and i'm showing 00:46:53.000 --> 00:47:02.000 it to say Thank you so much nathan for setting me up here, and for allowing me to continue the legacy of inventive Shakespeare scholarship that you sustained so well i'll turn things over 00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:15.000 to you. So if we get Nathan on here one moment. 00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:24.000 Thank you both Daniel Murray and a few technical problems today. 00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:44.000 So same. Wow, thank you, Daniel pollock peelsner while you're presentation is overwhelming. 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:53.000 I I don't know how in the next 40 years you can complete all the ideas that you've been talking about. 00:47:53.000 --> 00:48:16.000 Some of you may not know me. I retired from Portland State about 20 years ago, and I did a lot of work in Shakespeare myself, and right now I appreciate the directions that the English Department is taking but let me 00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:39.000 Thank 2 people who are here, including Dean Todd, Rosen Steel and Marie Law for doing so much important work in making sure that Daniel politics was going to be invited here as a visiting scholar over the 00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:47.000 next 3 years, and I deeply appreciate your initiatives in all of this. 00:48:47.000 --> 00:49:09.000 I also want to thank the dean in particular and and anybody else who's been working with them for creating this conference and discussion, and I think that time is limited right now, which is perfectly fine but I think I've got 7 00:49:09.000 --> 00:49:38.000 minutes. Is that correct? time? Sure. Okay, great, my experience Portland state has been just as vital since I retired in 2,001 approximately it's just it's been as vital today as it was Say, 20 00:49:38.000 --> 00:50:04.000 years ago, and by that I mean i've been involved with several mostly class projects, and 2 of which I think in the short time I have, I can discuss briefly because they are clues to my own interests in the portal center for public 00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:31.000 humanities which at one time, about 10 years ago, and with help from Marie Lowe in the English department, we had it housed under the center, and this was my special program called Holocaust and genocide studies the other program, that 00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:45.000 too, by the way, has tremendous leadership. The role that Amanda singer plays coming from conflict resolution. 00:50:45.000 --> 00:51:01.000 She took over the Holocaust Project or Correction Holocaust Genocide Studies project about 6 to 7 years ago, and is turned it into a phenomenal element in Portland. 00:51:01.000 --> 00:51:25.000 State life, because she's made so many or creative so many collaborations, not only in Portland, but nationally the by locally. i'm talking about the excuse. me Let me just grab my notes in front of me 00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:45.000 for, for example, she brought in Patricia Shector from the History Department to do a three-day project on the genocide in Kbodia in the mid seventys. 00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:52.000 She has created collaborations with the Never again coalition. 00:51:52.000 --> 00:52:09.000 The Oregon Jewish Museum, and and Senator for holocaust education to work with his Oregon, his Sisterical Society on a major conference, having to do with photo journalism on the plight of the rohingya 00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:16.000 the in the last several years, and on her own. she has reached out to the Us. 00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:20.000 Holocaust Memorial Museum in Dc. 00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:30.000 And these are all, I think, part and parcel of what Hgs or all Gaussian side studies does at Portland State. 00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:41.000 In addition, about a dozen years ago, or more I started up a memorial to my late wife. 00:52:41.000 --> 00:53:01.000 I'll call her sgc but it's a annual lecture, which in the last 4 years the has, I think, brought Psu into the public limelight, because we have had major thinkers and speakers coming to 00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:10.000 Portland State for the annual lecture, and they include, I guess I can use their names. 00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:24.000 Kim Snyder from Yale, Daniel Zibblad from Harvard, and right now waiting to arrive at Portland State, but delayed because of Covid. 00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:47.000 Is the New York Times staff writer, michelle Goldberg, and we're getting 700 respondents showing up in Smith auditorium for these major events. and that I think is another way that we can individually create collaborations at 00:53:47.000 --> 00:54:04.000 Psu! I I can speak longer, and I would maybe add that I created in the Psu Foundation. 00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:24.000 Going back 10 years ago, or more I created a scholarship in my wife's name, which has brought 2 to 3 interested interns to the Oregon Jewish museum incentive for all cost. 00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:44.000 Education that is, they've taken students and put them on assignment, working and thinking at the museum 2 miles north of here, and that to me is a major accomplishment of what scholarship money can do to if you 00:54:44.000 --> 00:54:51.000 invented at Portland State University. that note i'll stop outstanding. 00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:59.000 Thank you so much, Nathan, and again for reinforcing the impacts of scholarships. have because you're absolutely right. 00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:03.000 Both you and Doug spoke to that, and that scholarships transform students lives at Psu. 00:55:03.000 --> 00:55:08.000 So thank you all for your support of that. So what I want to do now is just. 00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:11.000 We have a few minutes left, and I want to transition to a few questions. 00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:14.000 We got a bunch of questions which come in some other formats. 00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:18.000 And this is kind of a free for all so you all continue your cameras on. 00:55:18.000 --> 00:55:24.000 If you're if you're able to it outstanding 2 things I just want to say right away as the dean of class is one. 00:55:24.000 --> 00:55:38.000 A amazing examples of how you all, and at psu we push student learning way outside of the classroom like I mean, I think sometimes we don't talk enough about that, but like that. doesn't happen everywhere not to the scale that we 00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:44.000 do here really doesn't and I just think kudos to all of you, for sort of helping really push student learning way outside the classroom phase you. 00:55:44.000 --> 00:55:55.000 And, secondly, just that ever-present reminder of the way in which humanities read large and the languages included, you know, help us really address some of the society's most pressing issues. 00:55:55.000 --> 00:56:08.000 And like, we need to keep that front and center at this moment that I think sometimes it's really easy to slip and forget about the the societal transform transformational role the humanities have played for first and certain option as wherever we 00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:21.000 call them the humanities to what they're doing today, because I think sometimes in a popular press, as you know, that that is noise isn't always how it's lands. So with that I mean one of the questions that came up in the back 00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:29.000 was really, you know folks are kind of interested in just how how you all think that your work to so as we come out of Covid 19. 00:56:29.000 --> 00:56:34.000 It's no surprise to anyone that portland's trying to struggle with returning activity. 00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:39.000 Downtown, and so does a role in which we can return to the vibrant city that it once was post. 00:56:39.000 --> 00:56:50.000 Covid 19. And so folks are really wondering just how you all imagine this work might actually enhance recovery to the civic life in the city civic life down town. 00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:53.000 Or you know, maybe, where there might be more opportunities that we haven't explored. 00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:58.000 So it's really kind of an open-ended question and I don't know if any of you have a thought to that. 00:56:58.000 --> 00:57:11.000 But i'll just see the floor and see if somebody has any thoughts to go ahead can just real quick. 00:57:11.000 --> 00:57:22.000 There are some advantages to zoom presentations, but of course there are many advantages to in-person events, and you know a typical center for Japanese studies. 00:57:22.000 --> 00:57:26.000 Lecture, for example, you had say 150 people in the room. 00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:32.000 There's all sorts of conversations going on beyond the you know the subject of the lecture. 00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:37.000 People are talking about such and such new Japanese restaurant that opened as it. Good! 00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:53.000 Shall we go there? And all sorts of information is being passed that goes far beyond the academic lecture, and often relates to the overall civic life in Portland. 00:57:53.000 --> 00:58:14.000 So we are happy to be returning to in-person lectures of this April the 20 seventh, and hope to to be only well, to be in person from this point on awesome murray just want 00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:20.000 to quickly add to, you know, in thinking about sort of expanding the boundaries of the classroom. 00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:26.000 To connect to, for example, the theater space as Daniels class has been doing. 00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:33.000 I think also actually building on what ken just said, I mean the zoom. 00:58:33.000 --> 00:58:38.000 Space is also another space for thinking about community building and the classroom. 00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:54.000 And so I think, being agile, So that it's not an either, or I tend to really like to think about, and however messy it can sometimes be, that you know there is also the opportunity for thinking about civic engagement. 00:58:54.000 --> 00:59:10.000 Buy a zoom because it enables us to also connect with people who might not have the mobility, or the you know, opportunity to actually physically come downtown to participate in these kinds of discussions. 00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:18.000 So I think that there's also an opportunity to rethink the you know, space insider space, not just the physical, you know. 00:59:18.000 --> 00:59:26.000 Campus base totally agree, Marianne to even invite people like Doug who's joining us from Tokyo at this very dime. 00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:37.000 So it's really amazing thing you know on that note one of the projects we're working on, where I think i'm so excited about the possibility of that engagement which also opens up participation from other communities is you know we're 00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:41.000 really trying to build a larger number what we call global classrooms at Psu. 00:59:41.000 --> 00:59:47.000 So you can actually be in the classroom and have a really high quality zoom experience at the same time, which will totally, I think, open up. 00:59:47.000 --> 00:59:59.000 What we can do as a university, so really exciting. So another follow-up question to that is just kind of an open-ended sort of big, bigger, general question is, for folks are really uninterested in for all of you is just you 00:59:59.000 --> 01:00:07.000 know what does impact look like? people talk a lot about impact and i'm just like from each of your perspectives like in your different lenses. 01:00:07.000 --> 01:00:12.000 You know what and whether that's impact on students or community or or alumni, i'm just i'm really curious. 01:00:12.000 --> 01:00:15.000 If maybe you could take a moment to reflect on what what would impact look? 01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:18.000 What does impact look like you and mean for your various programs? 01:00:18.000 --> 01:00:28.000 10. One of the reasons i'm still at psu is that it's such a transformative place. 01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:38.000 I mean many of our students are the first in their families to attend college, and you know it's it's a significant engine of social mobility. 01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:43.000 Higher education is transformative. But add to that. learning about a culture is different. 01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:55.000 Is Japan study abroad in Japan? and you you know you see these remarkable transportations, and and then these students go on to have very meaningful international careers. 01:00:55.000 --> 01:01:09.000 I mean we've had students who whose parents honestly weren't sure that they, you know we're worthy to send off the college, and then they found what they loved in Japanese studies at Psu. 01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:17.000 And they're, you know, professors at world famous universities now. and so the transportation has been significant. 01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:22.000 I just want to add quickly, that the last part of what I said didn't come out, perhaps entirely. 01:01:22.000 --> 01:01:34.000 Well, we're doing hybrid from this point on so we're delighted to be in person, but we're also live streaming all of our lectures, and so it's really the best of both worlds and 01:01:34.000 --> 01:01:40.000 that's kind of one positive thing that came out of the pandemic, because we had to learn the tech. 01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:45.000 And now we're just gonna offer everything by webinar as well. 01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:55.000 Thank you. Ken others thoughts on impact. Just what that means, Daniel. 01:01:55.000 --> 01:02:10.000 Well, I guess I I I love systemic and scalable impacts, but I'm also just deeply moved by individual students who I know we have all had who gain that sense that Marie was articulating of being able to 01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:22.000 envision possibilities that were, and apparent to them before, and to feel like they have the tools to learn from their community, and to addocate for issues that matter to them. 01:02:22.000 --> 01:02:34.000 And just one example that that comes to mind is on a it's not a somewhat sensitive issue, but it was in a classroom where we were reading the shakespeare's play measure for measure in which a woman is 01:02:34.000 --> 01:02:45.000 advocating to save her brother's life and the corrupt justice, says that he'll only spare her brother if she agrees to sleep with him, and when she proves that this is an abuse of his power and says that she's going to 01:02:45.000 --> 01:03:01.000 denounce him in the public square. The The official says, Who would believe you, Isabel, and says that his his reputation would outweigh her protest, and had a student who who studied this play in class of me and was 01:03:01.000 --> 01:03:13.000 performing this role of Isabella but decided that she she couldn't rest content with the monologue that Shakespeare had given Isabella to say in response, and always at the end of my classes, I love to 01:03:13.000 --> 01:03:24.000 invite students to either write a critical analysis of a passage that our playwrights have done, or to write their own missing scene from a play, or adapted to the present and I'm Lucky to be in the department now 01:03:24.000 --> 01:03:36.000 that Marie is is is leading us glorious into that includes both creative writing and critical writing, and you can come downtown, or on zoom, and hear phenomenal writers and poets, and essays and 01:03:36.000 --> 01:03:42.000 fiction writers from our own amazing line up here and from from around the world, too. 01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:54.000 And so this this particular student decided that what he was gonna do was write the monologue that she wished Isabella could have said to this corrupt official, and then she actually posted it online. 01:03:54.000 --> 01:04:02.000 When issues that were not dissimilar. to those that Shakespeare raises in in the play, surfaced in her own academic community. 01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:06.000 And I don't think you have to have shakespeare to do that. 01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:17.000 But I was glad that the classroom space provided a vehicle for this student to feel that she could enter into this conversation not only at literary terms, but in terms that could help to make our environment. 01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:21.000 As Marie said, more just, more equitable and more peaceful. 01:04:21.000 --> 01:04:28.000 Thank you, Daniel, and we have the last thought about impact. 01:04:28.000 --> 01:04:39.000 Another thing that that comes out of being in the performance classes that I teach, and that is all kinds of gender experimentation. 01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:55.000 We we never are casting solely according to students I didn't identify gender and we're often pushing them with their you know, with if they're enthusiastic about it to experiment with men playing 01:04:55.000 --> 01:05:01.000 women and women playing men. And what does it mean to be a woman? 01:05:01.000 --> 01:05:11.000 In different different classes in old Japan, which is where our plays are set, And what does it mean, then? 01:05:11.000 --> 01:05:14.000 Of course they're thinking about and we're talking about what does that mean now? 01:05:14.000 --> 01:05:24.000 And for you know, for example, we have a an I got the female impersonator, who is a entirely heterosexual male, who never dreamed this would be his. 01:05:24.000 --> 01:05:31.000 His future at Portland State, and here he is experimenting in ways that he never thought he would. 01:05:31.000 --> 01:05:41.000 And it's going to lead to all kinds of personal growth for everybody, not just to him, but the people the women who are working with him. 01:05:41.000 --> 01:05:52.000 And so that kind of experimentation is part and parcel of doing Japanese drama, whether it's kill again or outstanding. 01:05:52.000 --> 01:05:57.000 Thank you all, and maybe one last quick plug while we have a few minutes. 01:05:57.000 --> 01:06:05.000 I want to be Mindful of time is I you we have We've We've heard about the 4 hundredth anniversary of the Shakespeare's portfolio coming up We've heard about the 01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:12.000 amazing Kabuki event coming up any other plugs for events that might be coming up this year, even next year, just to kind of plant that seed with. 01:06:12.000 --> 01:06:29.000 People folks are wondering can cgs activity is coming up There's something that I suspect will be of interest to some people in the fall. 01:06:29.000 --> 01:06:38.000 We're going to do a major series on japanese food culture that has both a academic hands on component. 01:06:38.000 --> 01:06:51.000 So, for example, We're gonna bring in a chef by the name of Mark Matsamoto, who's quite renowned in Japan for his O Bento or Japanese box style, lunches. 01:06:51.000 --> 01:07:02.000 And he will design Oregon o'bento which will then be on sale during the months of October at Zoo Pans. 01:07:02.000 --> 01:07:13.000 Okay, and he'll give some installer demonstrations. but he'll also give the lecture at Psu about what it's like to be an lbento Tv personality. 01:07:13.000 --> 01:07:17.000 Japan. If people think the French take their food seriously. Yes, they do. 01:07:17.000 --> 01:07:25.000 But the Japanese take their food extremely extremely seriously and there'll be several other programs as part of this this series. 01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:34.000 Well, excellent, all right. Well, thank you so much, all for participating as this moment. 01:07:34.000 --> 01:07:37.000 This is a really great session it really reinforces. 01:07:37.000 --> 01:07:47.000 What a distinctive institution! where and how lucky we are at Bsu to have not only the faculty or participants, but this amazing support from philanthropists and donors and sort of really lifting up the impact and transformation we 01:07:47.000 --> 01:07:50.000 have a psu, and into John Holtz note I see. 01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:52.000 John dropped in note in the chat. There, you know. 01:07:52.000 --> 01:08:01.000 Our need is, in fact, 365 days a year. So it's not just on a day of giving for so those of you who can please think of us at Psu we have a lot of need and we really transform lives 01:08:01.000 --> 01:08:05.000 here in amazing ways that's said you know our final at this moment comes up on in May. 01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:10.000 It's on may the fifth i'm really excited about the one that's coming up it's going to be telling Vanport story. 01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:15.000 We have an amazing number of faculty at Psu, who are deeply engaged in really the historical narratives. 01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:22.000 The archaeology and sort of really understanding what happened and what was the lived experience of folks who lived in Vanport before? 01:08:22.000 --> 01:08:27.000 Of course, the cataclysmic flood that led to moving Portland State College at the time. 01:08:27.000 --> 01:08:35.000 Here here to where we are today. So with that again huge shout out to all of you who was a great session, And please stay safe. 01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:39.000 I hope everybody gets home with wherever you are, and I look forward to seeing in May. 01:08:39.000 --> 01:08:59.000 Okay, Thank you All thanks, Larry. Thanks, Daniel. Thanks.