Outreach Programs

Faculty Speakers Bureau

Reed College facilitates a Speakers Bureau of faculty members who are available to address topics of interest and expertise to Portland area high school classes and clubs.   High School teachers should contact Barbara Amen, director of special programs (503-777-7259), to submit requests for a faculty speaker. The director wil take the teacher's information, contact the faculty member about availability, and then notify the teacher accordingly. While we will accommodate as many requests as possible, schedule conflicts and demands upon a faculty member's time make it difficult to complete all requests. Generally faculty members arrange no more than two presentations during the academic year. Fall break (October 19-23), January, Reed's spring break (March 15-19), and late May are times when Reed faculty often have the most flexibility to leave campus during high school hours.

High School teachers interested in inviting a Reed faculty member come to their class or after school club can facilitate the request process by providing the following information when making initial contact with the special programs office:

            1)  Name of teacher requesting a speaker
            2)  High School
            3)  Phone number and best time to reach teacher (including home number,
                  if appropriate)
            4)  Reed faculty member requested
            5)  Topic to be addressed
            6)  Class/group to be addressed
            7)  Year of students and size of class/group
            8)  Date and time frame for faculty member to address the class
                  (flexibility works best!)

2009-20010 list of available faculty members by department.  It also may be possible to accommodate requests for other Reed faculty members, or requests for topics other than those listed.

Art

The Open Gallery program is a visual arts outreach program. It coordinates presentations on the current exhibitions on-site at the Cooley Gallery or at the schools.
September 1—December 5, 2009     The Language of the Nude: Four Centuries of
                                                           Drawing the Human Body
January 26—March 7, 2009              Terry Winters: Linking Graphics, Prints 2000-2010
     (February 24, 7:00 p.m.                     Free public lecture by Winter, and reception)

Biology

Professor Jay Mellies

1)  Spinach on the side: E. coli in our lives

Classics

Professor Nigel Nicholson

1)  Tragedy          
2)  Epic   
3)  Greek and Roman culture

Professor Ellen Millender

1)  Greek and Roman history
2)  Ancient Sparta
3)  Women in the Ancient World
4)  The benefits of a liberal arts college; Classics as a college major

Economics

Professor Denise Hare

1)  Economic growth in China: what does it mean for China and the rest of the world?

History

Professor Margot Minardi

1)  Historical memory, commemorative culture, and the American Revolution
2)  American social reform (18th and 19th century)
3)  Slavery and the American Revolution

Linguistics

Professor Matt Pearson     (January through May, MWF)

1)  Language variation—how the world's languages vary (or fail to vary) in their
     structure
2)  Doing language fieldwork—learning about language structure by learning how
     linguists gather data on unfamiliar languages.
     (Most effective as a workshop rather than a lecture.)

Mathematics

Professor Thomas Wieting

1)  M.C. Escher: The Circle Limit Series

Professor Irena Swanson     (available January 25 through March 15)

1)  Calendars and modular arithmetic  (history of calendars; the usual and unusual
     arithmetic behind them; on what day of the week were you born?)                   
2)  Perspective drawing and projective geometry
3)  Tessellations of the plane (with group theory or quilting)

Music

Professor Virginia Hancock

1)  Choral or small singing group rehearsal/coaching    
2)  Discussion of current Portland Opera production (if class is attending)

Physics

Professor Lucas Illing

1)  Light and Optics

Professor David Griffiths

1)  Special relativity
2)  Elementary particles
3)  Quantum mechanics

Political Science

Professor Tamara Metz    

1)  Current debates on marriage and the family

Psychology

Professor Kristen Anderson (also a trained special educator and clinical psychologist)

1)  Adolescents and stress/coping
2)  Adolescent alcohol and drug use disorders
3)  Eating disorders
4)  teacher in-service workshop