Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Cara Ungar-Gutierrez Profile
Meant to post this sooner, but my interview with the newish executive director at the Oregon Council for the Humanities, Cara Ungar-Gutierrez, ran in The Oregonian this past Sunday.
By "interview ran," I mean that probably less than ten-percent of the interview ran. Now, part of what didn't run was meta-interview (is the red light on? Can you see it?). But there were some interesting parts that also didn't make it.
One thing is that she had previously applied to work at OCH, as a development person, but had no experience raising money. She ended up at the Oregon Historical Society, which gave her a chance to "become human," as she put it, by virtue of being around people rather than academics (she had just finished her dissertation for a PhD in rhetoric), and then replaced Christopher Zinn (or, replaced the interim, Carrie Hoops, who filled in when Zinn left).
OCH is currently embarking on a two-year program called "Borders and Boundaries," sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, that will lead in to the Oregon sesquicentennial in 2009. Look for that theme to stretch across the magazine that they publish (Oregon Humanities, which is going to publish three times/year rather than twice, and will incorporate the OCH newsletter), as well as lectures like Commonplace. It may even have some bearing on the somewhat-lackluster Chautauqua lectures.
This Friday, Mark Trahant (who edits the editorial page at the Seattle P-I) will give the season's first Commonplace lecture at Portland State University's Native American Student and Community Center. He will discuss the plight of the urban Indian, and why anyone should care: "Roads, Interstates, and the Oregon Trail: The Urban Indian Experience in the Rural West." The lecture ties in with the second edition of the book The First Oregonians.
Ungar-Gutierrez also noted that she'd been interviewed by a couple of nondaily papers, both of which seemed more interested in her husband, who goes by the moniker DJ Rafa, and who djs around town. She laughed about it, but when I called to fact-check one thing (his name), I don't know that she was feeling the third time as a charm.
Charm, though. Charming. Fun to talk to, lots of good ideas, and an implementation that will no doubt tread softly but assuredly.
By "interview ran," I mean that probably less than ten-percent of the interview ran. Now, part of what didn't run was meta-interview (is the red light on? Can you see it?). But there were some interesting parts that also didn't make it.
One thing is that she had previously applied to work at OCH, as a development person, but had no experience raising money. She ended up at the Oregon Historical Society, which gave her a chance to "become human," as she put it, by virtue of being around people rather than academics (she had just finished her dissertation for a PhD in rhetoric), and then replaced Christopher Zinn (or, replaced the interim, Carrie Hoops, who filled in when Zinn left).
OCH is currently embarking on a two-year program called "Borders and Boundaries," sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, that will lead in to the Oregon sesquicentennial in 2009. Look for that theme to stretch across the magazine that they publish (Oregon Humanities, which is going to publish three times/year rather than twice, and will incorporate the OCH newsletter), as well as lectures like Commonplace. It may even have some bearing on the somewhat-lackluster Chautauqua lectures.
This Friday, Mark Trahant (who edits the editorial page at the Seattle P-I) will give the season's first Commonplace lecture at Portland State University's Native American Student and Community Center. He will discuss the plight of the urban Indian, and why anyone should care: "Roads, Interstates, and the Oregon Trail: The Urban Indian Experience in the Rural West." The lecture ties in with the second edition of the book The First Oregonians.
Ungar-Gutierrez also noted that she'd been interviewed by a couple of nondaily papers, both of which seemed more interested in her husband, who goes by the moniker DJ Rafa, and who djs around town. She laughed about it, but when I called to fact-check one thing (his name), I don't know that she was feeling the third time as a charm.
Charm, though. Charming. Fun to talk to, lots of good ideas, and an implementation that will no doubt tread softly but assuredly.
Labels: journalism, Oregon Council for the Humanities, Oregonian
