As incoming co-directors, we are thrilled to carry CEF’s important legacy forward, thanks to generous support from the Office of the Provost. We will continue many of its existing programs, while expanding its attention to the arts. Nina Amstutz is a scholar of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art as it intersects with landscape, nature, and the more-than-human world. Emily Eliza Scott, who holds a joint appointment with the Environmental Studies Program, works on contemporary art that engages land use politics, political ecology, and environmental and climate justice. As faculty in the History of Art and Architecture who research and teach at the intersection of art and the environment, we look forward to developing meaningful collaborations with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Center for Art Research, and other arts organizations in the broader Eugene community and beyond, as well as establishing a new CEF artist residency. James Baldwin, in 1962, wrote that “The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers.” We similarly believe in the crucial role of art, with its experimental approaches, non-habitual forms of knowing, capacity to unsettle, and envisioning’s beyond the commonplace to help make sense of and confront the thorny socio-environmental present.
Last summer, the two of us organized the Understories Writers Workshop, held on a historic farm on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, led by local environmental writer and educator Briony Penn, and geared toward enhancing environmental humanities writing that reaches publics beyond the academy. Over the remainder of the 2024/25 academic year, we will reinvigorate our steering committee with both internal and external faculty while relaunching several of CEF’s most treasured programs. Watch for emails about CEF’s “Interdisciplinary 101” talks, summer faculty fellowships, dissertation fellowships, and multiple CEF co-sponsored events, including a symposium highlighting the importance of tribal inclusion and environmental justice for the Northwest Forest Plan, the blueprint for managing 24 million acres across Oregon, Washington, and Northern California, in Winter term and another on the “blue humanities,” which explores human connections to the sea, in Spring term.
Lastly, we are delighted to announce that the Office of the Provost has generously committed to supporting CEF’s operations over the next three years as we seek to establish CEF’s long term sustainability. UO has committed to integrating CEF into the UO’s strategic plan, Oregon Rising, and the university’s commitment to fostering leadership in Environmental Resilience.
