Oregon Humanities

Congratulations—and a huge thank-you—to the team at Tonkon Torp LLP who were honored by the Multnomah Bar Association for their work on our lawsuit to hold the federal government to its commitment to fund state and territorial humanities councils.

Oregon Humanities Team at Tonkon Torp Honored with MBA Pro Bono Award of Merit Tonkon Torp attorneys Anna Sortun, Steven Wilker, Paul Balmer, and Gracey Nagle have been honored by the Multnomah Bar Association (MBA) with a 2026 Pro Bono Award of Merit. The award is in recognition of their work representing Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils in Or...

Last week, a federal court ruled that the cancellation of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities led by DOGE in 2025 was unlawful. This decision doesn't directly affect Oregon Humanities or the other members of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. We are plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit against the NEH and DOGE, which is still ongoing.

The DOGE-ing of the Humanities Is Being Reversed The Trump administration hastily canceled research grants last year—but just hit a roadblock in court.

Our spring fundraising campaign is underway, and this year, we’re focusing on the possibilities that open when we get together to share stories, ask questions, listen, think, and grow.

In March, our executive director Adam Davis visited students at Adrienne C. Nelson High School in Happy Valley to record an episode of The Detour podcast. Just in this small group of five young people, there were stories rooted in Ethiopia, Ukraine, Mexico, Kenya, Arkansas, and Oregon. The conversation that took place was full of reflection, curiosity, and care, and it’s exactly the kind of conversation we work to foster and create in communities all around the state.

That work came under serious threat last year when federal funding was cut, and we’ve been able to continue in large part because of our community of donors. This spring, gifts are being matched dollar-for-dollar up to $25,000 by Paul and Lory Utz. Help us bring more conversations to communities around Oregon by making a gift today.

oregonhumanities.org/donate

Join us this Thursday for a conversation with labor organizers Reyna López and Ramón Ramírez and historian Joaquín Lara Midkiff.

We'll explore the many ways that the mid-Willamette Valley has been home to powerful farmworker and solidarity movements that transformed the lives of migrant laborers and reshaped Oregon's political and economic landscape.

https://oregonhumanities.org/programs/consider-this/consider-this-labor-farmworker-organizing-and-histories-of-indigenous-communities-in-oregon/

This event is part of By the People: Conversations Beyond 250, a series of community-driven programs created by humanities councils across the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia in collaboration with local partners. Together, these programs explore 250 years of the nation's cultural life and imagine its shared future. The initiative was developed by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage as a complement to the 2026 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

In our spring issue, historian Joaquín Lara Midkiff considers how immigrant farmworker communities have shaped the history and environment of the Pacific Northwest, and describes these communities as part of a legacy of Indigenous labor exploitation that dates back to the the earliest European settlements in the region—"a widening system of extraction that would bound Indigenous peoples from distant lands to the Northwest for centuries.”

Page Not Found — Oregon Humanities 610 SW Alder St., Suite 1111 Portland, Oregon 97205 EIN: 93-0716419 (503) 241-0543 / (800) 735-0543 / [email protected]

"Stepping into these stories can dare us to challenge oppressive rhetoric, calling out the privilege that often disregards empathy for others, while calling in a movement of care." —Jorge Herrera Caro

In this piece, Nicholas Hengen Fox, Jalen Rose, and Jorge Herrera Caro revisit some of the books they read in "Working Class Literature" at Portland Community College. In the process, they reflect on how reading about the lives of working people can help us build a better, fairer world.

Page Not Found — Oregon Humanities 610 SW Alder St., Suite 1111 Portland, Oregon 97205 EIN: 93-0716419 (503) 241-0543 / (800) 735-0543 / [email protected]

"Most of the details of this time are lost to me. Did my brain bury them because the emotional weight was too much to bear? Or maybe, once our baby was born, a kind of blissful postpartum amnesia took hold, the elation of finally having a child sanding off the most jagged edges of the pain."

In this moving photo essay for our "Labor" issue, Lindsay Trapnell reflects on the fifteen-year process of trying to have a child with her wife, Melissa.

https://oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine/labor-spring-2026/trying/

Home — Oregon Humanities Throughout 2026, Oregon Humanities will get Oregonians together to talk about democracy, freedom, and what it means to be an American—today and into the future.

"When African immigrants arrive in Oregon, they do not come empty-handed. They carry skills learned long before their visas are stamped...They bring philosophies of work forged in a place where survival and creativity are inseparable."

Bright Alozie shares the stories of two women—Fatou Ouattara and Anne Johnson— who are building businesses and cultural belonging in Oregon.

Read the full story in our spring issue:

Page Not Found — Oregon Humanities 610 SW Alder St., Suite 1111 Portland, Oregon 97205 EIN: 93-0716419 (503) 241-0543 / (800) 735-0543 / [email protected]

Our colleagues at Northern Marianas Humanities Council are raising funds to repair damage to their homes caused by Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which caused severe damage throughout the islands last week.

Donate to Help Our Humanities Team Recover from Super Typhoon Sinlaku, organized by Leo Pangelinan Håfa adai and Tirow, my name is Leo Pangelinan, and I am the … Leo Pangelinan needs your support for Help Our Humanities Team Recover from Super Typhoon Sinlaku