Presentation by Valerie Otani about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II in the FBI and Department of Justice camps -- a more secret, high-security system of prisons for the leadership of the Japanese American community. The term "Nikkei" refers to Japanese emigrants and their descendants. Valerie Otani is a Portland artist who creates public art that links people to their community. She has art projects, mostly related to public transit and parks, throughout the west, and she currently coordinates the public art program for the City of Hillsboro. She is deeply involved in the Nikkei community as a founding member and as volunteer with Oregon Nikkei Endowment.
Presentation by Dr. Raina Croff. Most slavery studies focus on the middle passage and the new world plantation experience. Dr. Croff examines resident slavery under African and Eurafrican female masters on Gorée Island, Senegal. Though early Gorée hosted multiple cultures, it was not yet a multicultural society with its highly segregated African and European, captive and free spaces. Excavations and archival research tell the story of Goree’s segregated classes and cultures and their ever-tighter intertwine. Dr. Croff is now a Senior Research Associate at OHSU where she blends her life-long passion for history of the African Diaspora with new interests in historical memory and health disparities among African Americans, particularly regarding Alzheimer's and other dementias.
Full Title: “Atheist Discrimination: The Strange (and Serious) Ways Nonbelievers Are Mistreated.” Studies show that atheists are the least trusted minority group in the United States. As a result, humanists and other nonbelievers have been subject to various forms of discrimination, from bullying in classrooms to loss of jobs. Maggie Ardiente of the American Humanist Association (AHA) highlights such mistreatment by citing cases that range from the strange to the serious and she argues that the right to be “without a god” is the new civil rights movement. Maggie Ardiente is the director of development and communications at the AHA.
The full title is: “Sexting the Text: Ancient Masculinity, Pauline Morality, and the Politics of Biblical Translation”. This presentation by David Reis explores issues surrounding the sexual language found in 1 Cor 6:9 and 1 Tim 1:10. The discussion positions these verses within their ancient social context, outlines the variety of ways biblical translators have approached these passages, and examines these translations in light of modern views of sexual (im)propriety. More broadly, the issues raised in this presentation illustrate the difficulties inherent in thinking of the Bible as either God's word or divinely inspired. David Reis has a Ph.D. in Religion from Claremont Graduate University. He teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Oregon. He specializes in the study of the social and cultural dimensions of the ancient Mediterranean world, particularly the history of early Christianity.