Video of Programs (search and sort)

The Shadow Gospel in Education
06/15/2025
Whitney Phillips & Mark Brockway

 

People often blame the chaotic precarious political landscape in the US on polarization and culture wars, with the wars playing out in the classrooms and campuses. Instead, Whitney Phillips and Mark Brockway argue that the seeming left-right battle is the result of 80 years of densely overlapping religious and secular messages that have transformed how we see education. Whitney Phillips is Ass’t Prof. of Inf. Politics and Media Ethics at the U of O, and author of You Are Here and Share Better and Stress Less. Mark Brockway is Assistant Teaching Professor in Pol. Sci. at Syracuse University.

 

Issues Facing our Beloved Forest Park
06/08/2025
Will Aitchison

 

Our speaker, Will Aitchison, will lead us through stages of Forest Park, from formation through the adoption in 1995 of the Forest Park Natural Resources Management Plan to restore “ancient forest”, and the city’s subsequent failure to conduct necessary scientific studies of the park. He’ll cover development pressures on the Park from mountain biking and PGE, and list organizations protecting the park, ending with a look to the future. Will Aitchison is a labor lawyer, long-time Willamette Heights resident, and president of the Coalition to Protect Forest Park.

 

The Neurobiology of Religious Experiences (updated)
05/25/2025
Dr. Sarah Strand

 

Dr. Sarah Strand returns to discuss the neurobiological basis of out-of-body experiences (OBEs), beginning with a description and testimony given by those who have had an OBE, then a brief tour of the brain and the neuroanatomy responsible for OBEs. While OBEs are not always interpreted as religious, there is a compelling neurobiological explanation for why they often are. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings on the role of religion in the lives of individuals as well as in our worldwide community.  Dr. Strand is an associate lecturer in the Psychology Department at California State University, Sacramento. She received her Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has been lecturing about religion and neuroscience since 2010. In 2019, she created a Psychology of Religion course for Sacramento State, and in 2022, extended her teaching to Finland and Sweden.

 

Legacy Lost: Passing Across the Color Line
05/18/2025
Barbara Hilyer

 

Our presenter, Barbara Hilyer, was raised as white on the west coast, learning in her 30s that her father came from an accomplished African American family. Finding his sister, she learned their story which inspired her research, while meeting a variety of people in Washington DC, Montgomery, Alabama and Tallahassee Florida who helped her recover what had been lost. Her book “Legacy Lost: Passing Across the Color Line” shares this testament to how individuals lived and thrived over centuries in America’s race conscious society, and how American history has never been good at truth telling. Race is deeply woven into the American fabric and yet we are currently witnessing the attempt to unravel who we are. Barbara Hilyer holds a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instructional Leadership, and taught social studies and US History in public schools in Ashland, Oregon, residing now in Portland.

 

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