L&C in the Media

What stance should colleges and universities take around controversial issues? As Lewis & Clark President Robin Holmes-Sullivan told Insider HigherEd, “We really want our students and our faculty to have the opportunity to explore ideas and to be able to talk about those ideas.” If the institution promotes its own position, “it really does have a chilling effect.” After all, our mission is to deepen how well L&C students think, not to tell them what to think.

Lewis & Clark Professor Pauls Tuotonghi’s novel explores the lives of two refugees, separated by time, geography, and political upheaval – yet brought together by a shared piece of music.  In this interview, he explains how his own family’s experiences shaped the writing process.

Mount Fuji, Japan’s iconic mountain, should be blanketed in snow by late October. But this year, record-low snowfall has left the mountain bare. Lewis & Clark Professor Andy Bernstein, whose book on Mount Fuji will be published in 2025, explains what this means in terms of climate change and cultural history.

As federal legislators consider passing the “Opposing the Cultivation and Trade of Octopus Produced through Unethical Strategies” Act, or OCTOPUS Act, Hira Jaleel of Lewis & Clark’s Center for Animal Law Studies demonstrates why Oregon should lead the way in banning octopus farming.

One of Sweden’s leading television news program took a roadtrip across the US to understand the role of religion in American presidential elections. They stopped at Lewis & Clark to meet our students and speak with Professor Ben Gaskins, an expert on the topic.

Over 57 million people around the world participated in the 2024 Great Shake Out.  Lewis & Clark Professor Elizabeth Safran explains the science behind this global earthquake preparedness event, and why it is especially important for Oregonians, along with people from northern California, Washington, and British Columbia, to know what to do before, during, and immediately after an earthquake.

Multnomah County is suing NW Natural (Oregon’s oldest and largest supplier of fossil-fuel gas) as part of lawsuit seeking $52 billion for their role in the deadly 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome. Part of the issue is NW Natural’s claims that their products are environmentally preferable.  As Carra Sahler, director of Lewis & Clark’s Green Energy Institute, explains, “People want to trust that their utility is doing the right thing, that the utility is providing the information necessary for them to make choices about their energy use.” But this lawsuit may be the only way “to stop [NW Natural] from spreading misinformation” through false claims and bunk science. 

Orchestral music might seem far removed from geopolitics.  But this spring, Lewis & Clark’s student choir will join with the award-winning Resonance Ensemble, both conducted by Lewis & Clark Professor Katherine FitzGibbon, and scores of other musicians in a series of performances around Oregon that include music highlighting the contemporary refugee crisis and offering a plea for peace amid the aftermath of past wars.