GSI News & Events

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, this symposium returns to the bold universal promise of 1776—the claim that “all men are created equal” and endowed with “unalienable rights.” Cast at once as the rights of citizens of a new republic and as the rights of all of humankind, they also coexisted with a deep contradiction: the subjugation of Native Americans, enslaved people, and women. The principles at the heart of the U.S. founding launched a politics of rights whose origins and reverberations were transnational, even as access to them remained sharply unequal in practice.

“We Hold These Truths: 250 Years of the American Experiment at Home and Abroad” brings together a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and leading scholars of citizenship, political development, race, gender, immigration, and civil rights to reflect on this legacy. The panel will explore how America’s founding ideals have shaped struggles for inclusion at home and abroad, and how those ideals have been stretched, reinterpreted, and at times betrayed across two and a half centuries.

Refreshments will be available at 5:45pm.

Panelists:

Nick Kristof - New York Times

Megan Ming Francis - University of Washington

Peter Spiro - Temple University

Carol Nackenoff - Swarthmore University

Moderator:

Dan Tichenor - UO Knight Chair; Co-Director, Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics

Presented by the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages and the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics.

Free and open to the public. No registration required.

This event will be livestreamed and recorded.  Join online

Thinking about doing an internship in Asia? The Freeman Internship Fellowships can help fund it!

The 2026-27 application deadlines are: 

• January 15, 2027 (spring and summer priority deadlines)
• April 22, 2027 (summer deadline)
• August 22, 2027 (fall and winter priority deadlines)
• November 22, 2027 (winter and spring priority deadlines)

The session will cover some basic info regarding Freeman application eligibility, required materials, and the application and award processes, while also providing an opportunity for participants to ask questions.

Apply by the priority deadlines to receive your award decision sooner! 

Spend a term in Tuscany with GEO Study Abroad! In this info session, we'll talk about winter and spring quarter programs in Siena, Italy. We'll dive into course content, excursions, finances, and how to get started on your study abroad journey. Plus, hear from program alumni about their experiences!

Programs we'll discuss: Italian Language and Culture in Siena, Food, Culture, and Sustainability in Siena, Politics in Italy

Are you interested in completing an internship abroad? If so, a GlobalWorks International Internship might be for you! Stop by this information session to learn more about the application process, program curriculum, and student experience abroad.

Environmental concerns—from nature conservation to air and water quality—are often associated with progressive politics. But under Fascisms past and present, ecological ideas have also animated authoritarian projects. This speaker series examines how dictatorships mobilize nature as both metaphor and material resource. As a metaphor, agrarianism evokes Fascism’s foundational mythos: the dictator will restore the country’s glorious national past. To live a rural, old-fashioned lifestyle was to be a more patriotic citizen. “Italy must be ruralized!” proclaimed Benito Mussolini in 1927. As a material resource, nature is often put to use in service of eugenics and racial hygiene.

Our speakers will examine the professional biographies of the scientists, industrialists, and entrepreneurs hired by Fascist regimes to determine the limits of biological possibility. Case studies from empire and the colonies will investigate the Fascist programs for experimental plant nurseries, animal breeding, and chemical trials. Rather than treating eco-fascism as a contradiction in terms, our speakers will situate it within longer histories of environmental planning, population management, and technocratic governance. They will explain how dictatorships use the tools of authoritarian governance to modify the environment in their pursuit of more Fascist futures.

Please join us for these illuminating discussions.

Talk details:

Bread from Air: Nitrogen Capture and the Atmospheric Imagination in Fascist Italy

Speaker: Prof. Rebecca Falkoff, University of Texas, Austin

At the end of the nineteenth century, nitrogen, the seventh most abundant element in the galaxy, became the focus of a discourse of scarcity. Essential to the material composition of all life, nitrogen came to seem scarce as demand increased for two classes of compounds that fueled modern life: fertilizers and explosives. The nitrogen problem, as it came to be known, seemed to have an obvious solution: a limitless supply of nitrogen would be available if the nitrogen gas (N₂) that composes roughly 78% of the atmosphere could be "captured" and "fixed" to other elements. Although that solution posed a scientific challenge, since nitrogen gas is unreactive, the very possibility—and then its realization—transformed the sky into a new frontier, promising agricultural and industrial productivity and military power. Nitrogen capture engendered fantasies of economic revival and social and cultural renewal.

In her talk, Falkoff will show how these fantasies, and the nitrogen-capture industry that grew alongside them, became central to fascist ideology—animating the belief that Italian genius could transform scarcity into abundance, and shaping initiatives from the Battle for Wheat to the Battle for Births, economic autarky, and imperial expansion. Charting nitrogen discourse across speeches, advertising, technical writing, and futurist works in paint, ceramic, and prose—from Montecatini's campaigns to the essays of novelist-engineer Carlo Emilio Gadda—she traces how nitrogen staged the tensions central to Italian fascism: between materialism and vitalism, global circulation and national appropriation, the organic and the inorganic, labor and magic, intervention in natural cycles and creation ex nihilo.

For more information, please contact Prof. Diana Garvin, dgarvin@uoregon.edu.

Supported by: Department of Romance Languages, Italian Sector.

Did you know you can have someone review your resume before the Fall Career & Internship Expo on 10/22? Drop-in with a career readiness coach or peer coach in Tykeson Hall Commons to get feedback on your resume! Free cookies & hot chocolate too :)

Don’t have a resume? Come learn how to make one!

This University Career Center event is part of the 2026 Fall Career Readiness Week sponsored by Enterprise Mobility. To learn more about all of the week's events visit http://career.uoregon.edu/events  

Follow your dreams and explore Japan!

The JET Program is a competitive employment opportunity that allows young professionals to live and work in cities, towns, and villages throughout Japan. Being a JET is a chance to teach English and represent the United States as a cultural ambassador to Japan. Most participants serve as assistant language teachers (ALTs) and work in public and private schools throughout Japan; some work as coordinators for international relations (CIRs) as interpreters/translators.

Applicants must hold a bachelor's degree in any field by the time of departure for the program and coordinators for international relations must also have a high level of proficiency in the Japanese language.

Gain valuable insights into how to submit a strong application. Before attending the info session, please watch an important video on how to write a great JET statement of purpose.

To speak with a JET Program representative contact Matt Turner at: matthew.turner@se.mofa.go.jp

More information and application available at: JET Program USA – The Experience of a Lifetime

This event is hosted by the UO Career Center. Please contact Tina Haynes, Employer Engagement Coordinator, with questions.

Guest speaker: Fernando Ortiz-Moya, Assistant Professor, Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, Waseda University, Japan

Japan is shrinking. How are its cities and towns responding?

Traditionally, Japanese local governments, encouraged by national policy, have sought to halt or reverse their decline by luring urban migrants, increasing birth rates, attracting businesses, and curbing outmigration. This obsession with growth threatens to exhaust already limited resources, closing windows of opportunity for managing a soft landing.

Eventually, continuous shrinkage will force local governments to abandon growth-focused planning and redesign their communities: they must learn to shrink gracefully. Some municipalities are already charting this different course. This presentation argues that shrinking municipalities must break free from pro-growth strategies, embracing more sustainable approaches. These cities are putting socio-environmental concerns at the centre of their strategies, identifying new ways to transition successfully into smaller, sustainable communities.

Event sponsors:

School of Planning, Public Policy and Management; Department of Geography; Ecological Design Center; Global Studies Institute; Association of Pacific Rim Universities – Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Program; Center for Asian and Pacific Studies; and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI Grant

Learn the ins and outs of navigating the in-person Fall Career and Internship Expo, updating your Handshake profile, researching employers, and how to present yourself authentically during the expo.

Hosted by the University Career Center as part of the 2026 Fall Career Readiness Week. http://career.uoregon.edu/events 

Ever walk out of an interview thinking, “Wait… what did I even just say?”  Yep, we’ve all been there. Join us for just 45 minutes and learn how to dodge that post-interview panic. 

We’ll break down the different types of interviews you might face, how to prep without spiraling, and how to answer questions with confidence. 

Interviews make you sweaty, anxious, or just a little dramatic? Perfect. We’ve got strategies to help you feel prepared and way more chill. 

International students: get the inside scoop on U.S.-style interviews. No prior experience needed! 

Come hang out in person at the University Career Center, Tykeson Hall, Garden Level 50P. 

This workshop is hosted by the University Career Center's Career Readiness Coaching team! To learn more about career coaching, drop-in peer advising, and other career readiness workshops and events visit career.uoregon.edu/coaching or stop by the UCC in Tykeson Hall-Garden Level

The University Career Center gives a special thanks to Enterprise Mobility for sponsoring all of our Fall Career Readiness Week events and workshops! 

To learn more about all of the week's events visit http://career.uoregon.edu/events  

First Career & Internship Expo? Or just a little nervous? Come early and get a low-stress, behind-the-scenes look at how to navigate the expo and make a good first impression with employers. Bring a friend! want to learn more about the Fall Career & Internship Expo 10/22 from noon to 4pm? click here

The University Career Center gives a special thanks to Enterprise Mobility for sponsoring all of our Fall Career Readiness Week events and workshops! 

Ever thought about heading across the pond for a term? Join GEO Study Abroad to hear about our spring programs in London! We'll cover program courses, excursions, finances, and how to get started on your study abroad journey. Plus, hear from program alumni about their experiences!

Programs we'll discuss: Global Business and Economics in London (with Internship), Psychology in London (with Internship, Liberal Arts in London (with Internship)*

*Please note that Liberal Arts in London is a semester-long program

Environmental concerns—from nature conservation to air and water quality—are often associated with progressive politics. But under Fascisms past and present, ecological ideas have also animated authoritarian projects. This speaker series examines how dictatorships mobilize nature as both metaphor and material resource. As a metaphor, agrarianism evokes Fascism’s foundational mythos: the dictator will restore the country’s glorious national past. To live a rural, old-fashioned lifestyle was to be a more patriotic citizen. “Italy must be ruralized!” proclaimed Benito Mussolini in 1927. As a material resource, nature is often put to use in service of eugenics and racial hygiene.

Our speakers will examine the professional biographies of the scientists, industrialists, and entrepreneurs hired by Fascist regimes to determine the limits of biological possibility. Case studies from empire and the colonies will investigate the Fascist programs for experimental plant nurseries, animal breeding, and chemical trials. Rather than treating eco-fascism as a contradiction in terms, our speakers will situate it within longer histories of environmental planning, population management, and technocratic governance. They will explain how dictatorships use the tools of authoritarian governance to modify the environment in their pursuit of more Fascist futures.

Please join us for these illuminating discussions.

Talk details:

Blood and Soil: Race, Gender and Food in Nazi Ideology

Speaker: Prof. Alice Weinreb, Loyola University

This talk will explore the ways in which Hitler’s ‘blood and soil’ ideology raced and gendered the natural environment. According to Nazi ideology, ‘natural’ food was necessary for the maintenance of a pure and healthy Volk. Food thus was a way of constructing (and potentially of threatening) gender and racial identities. Weinreb’s talk will explore the ways in which nature was transformed into something to be consumed, which in turn naturalized Aryan supremacy and radical gender hierarchies. In Nazi Germany, racial and gender identity was performed through daily acts of food production (farming and cooking) and food consumption (shopping and eating). The talk also discusses the ramifications of linking the protection of the environment with the protection of racism and misogyny, discussing connections to contemporary far-right discourses linking environmental contamination, impure food, and racial and gender hierarchies.

For more information, please contact Prof. Diana Garvin, dgarvin@uoregon.edu.

Supported by: Department of Romance Languages, Italian Sector.

Environmental concerns—from nature conservation to air and water quality—are often associated with progressive politics. But under Fascisms past and present, ecological ideas have also animated authoritarian projects. This speaker series examines how dictatorships mobilize nature as both metaphor and material resource. As a metaphor, agrarianism evokes Fascism’s foundational mythos: the dictator will restore the country’s glorious national past. To live a rural, old-fashioned lifestyle was to be a more patriotic citizen. “Italy must be ruralized!” proclaimed Benito Mussolini in 1927. As a material resource, nature is often put to use in service of eugenics and racial hygiene.

Our speakers will examine the professional biographies of the scientists, industrialists, and entrepreneurs hired by Fascist regimes to determine the limits of biological possibility. Case studies from empire and the colonies will investigate the Fascist programs for experimental plant nurseries, animal breeding, and chemical trials. Rather than treating eco-fascism as a contradiction in terms, our speakers will situate it within longer histories of environmental planning, population management, and technocratic governance. They will explain how dictatorships use the tools of authoritarian governance to modify the environment in their pursuit of more Fascist futures.

Please join us for these illuminating discussions.

Talk details:

Fascist Climates: Tracking Weather in the Italian Colonial Empire (1929-1939)

Speaker: Prof. Angelo Caglioti, Barnard College 

With the onset of the Great Depression, the 1930s were a time of deep socio-economic crisis, environmental concerns about the scarcity of natural resources, and international competition with the rise of the “air age.” When Mussolini’s invasion and colonization of Ethiopia triggered international sanctions by the League of Nations and drained state coffers, the fascist regime ordered that the Italian scientific community contribute to achieving Autarky, namely national self-sufficiency, by cutting costs, aligning their activities with national priorities, and avoiding the duplication of areas of influence.

This paper examines the radicalization of the fascist regime and the transformation of the climate and atmospheric sciences in interwar Italy in the name of Autarky. In this political climate of scarcity and austerity, scientists working across agricultural and colonial meteorology, aeronautical weather forecasting, hydrology, and medical climatology competed to defend their scientific interests and institutions by claiming that their activities were more autarkic than others. In the paper, Caglioti highlights how autarky, scarcity, and political conformism became crucial tools in scientific boundary-making as competition for resources required defining the jurisdiction and areas of expertise of different research institutes, ministries, and technical state departments. In conclusion, the paper argues that claims about scarcity were central to the making of a fascist, authoritarian, Anthropocene.

For more information, please contact Prof. Diana Garvin, dgarvin@uoregon.edu.

Supported by: Department of Romance Languages, Italian Sector.

Join the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics for a post-election roundtable examining the significance and implications of the 2026 election. The discussion will consider the political, social, and institutional dimensions of the election and its potential consequences for Oregon, the United States, and democratic governance. Bringing together perspectives from political science, journalism, global studies, and public policy, the panel will situate the election within broader questions about contemporary American politics and public life.

Moderater: Dan Tichenor, Philip H. Knight Chair of Social Science | Director, Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics Panelists:

• Aneesh Aneesh - Executive Director, Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages
• Hon. Peter DeFazio - Former US Representative (OR-04)
• Rebecca Tweed - President, Tweed Strategies
• Regina Lawrence - Dean, UO School of Journalism and Communication

Ford Alumni Center Giustina Ballroom, 1720 East 13th Ave, Eugene Livestream link TBA

Are you interested in completing an internship abroad? If so, a GlobalWorks International Internship might be for you! Stop by this information session to learn more about the application process, program curriculum, and student experience abroad.

Professor Jason Groves (University of Washington) will be presenting his talk "'We Stones': Ecologies of Memory from Paul Celan to Otobong Nkanga."

Thinking about doing an internship in Asia? The Freeman Internship Fellowships can help fund it!

The 2026-27 application deadlines are: 

• January 15, 2027 (spring and summer priority deadlines)
• April 22, 2027 (summer deadline)
• August 22, 2027 (fall and winter priority deadlines)
• November 22, 2027 (winter and spring priority deadlines)

This online drop-in advising hour provides an opportunity for applicants to ask any questions they may have about their Freeman Fellowship application.

Apply by the priority deadlines to receive your award decision sooner! 

Thinking about doing an internship in Asia? The Freeman Internship Fellowships can help fund it!

The 2026-27 application deadlines are: 

• January 15, 2027 (spring and summer priority deadlines)
• April 22, 2027 (summer deadline)
• August 22, 2027 (fall and winter priority deadlines)
• November 22, 2027 (winter and spring priority deadlines)

This online drop-in advising hour provides an opportunity for applicants to ask any questions they may have about their Freeman Fellowship application.

Apply by the priority deadlines to receive your award decision sooner!