Cultural District

Join us for a talk with Dr. Nazanin Hedayat Munroe, Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic + Ancient Art!

From luxury silks to patched wool, dress across the early modern Islamic world communicated the inner and outer states of its wearers through a shared language of regional and religious codes. In this lecture, Dr. Munroe examines how clothing and textiles expressed social status, political allegiance, spiritual devotion, and personal taste.

Nazanin Hedayat Munroe is Director of Textiles and Associate Professor of Fashion at City University of New York. An artist and art historian, she is author of several books and articles, including Sufi Lovers, Safavid Silks and Early Modern Identity (Amsterdam University Press, 2023/Routledge, 2025), winner of the R.L. Shep Award from Textile Society of America.

This talk is made possible by the generous support of the Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic & Ancient Art fund.

Image: Man's Robe (Jama) with Poppies, 17th Century (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 29.135)

Rome: Exploring the City Through Water
What can water teach us about Rome’s past and present?

Join us for a nine-day, non-credit-bearing program exploring how water has shaped Rome, Italy, over the past 3,000 years. Discover how ancient aqueducts, baths, and fountains tell the story of the city’s development while exploring water’s role in contemporary Roman life.

Through site visits, walking lectures by archaeologists, and a visit to Rome’s contemporary beach scene, you’ll explore connections among water, history, art, and culture. Potential site visits include the Forum Boarium, Isola Tiberina, Baths of Caracalla, Villa d’Este, Castel Gandolfo, and Santa Severa.

Open to learners of all ages, this program is designed for senior auditors, PSU faculty and staff, and community members. It is especially suited for those interested in history, art, art practice, cultural studies, and the humanities.

Program Dates: September 6–14, 2027
Program Leaders: Sarah Newlands and Meredith Michaud, University Studies

This workshop has reached capacity. Please email [email protected] if you would like to be added to the waitlist.

Join OHS Reference Librarian James Scott for a workshop on doing a formal house history. When was your home built? Who constructed and/or designed it? How, if at all, has it changed over time? Who’s lived there? These are just a few of the many questions to be explored during this free class. From Sanborn maps to newspapers to photographs (both ground and aerial), Scott will speak to the many tools that OHS and the web can provide in building a full dossier of your home.

Workshop capacity is 25 so make sure to RSVP to [email protected]. The event will be held in the Reading Room in OHS’s research library; please check in with a visitor experience associate at the admissions desk to be directed to the library, located on the fourth floor. The workshop will begin promptly at 1pm, so please arrive early to ensure a good seat and the benefit of a full workshop.

Hosted by the Center for Japanese Studies

The Japanese imperial system has been facing a declining number of imperial family members. Under the current system, only male members of imperial family are eligible for succession. However, at present, there is only one male member under the age of 50. While there are 5 female members under 50 years old, since current legislation stipulates that female members leave the imperial family upon their marriage, there are concerns about the shrinking number of imperial family members.

Regarding this situation, the Japanese Diet and government are considering countermeasures. While there is strong public support for allowing a female emperor, the Diet and government continue to insist on succession through the male-line. As of June 2026, the government is drafting amendments for Imperial House Law to deal with the situation, but the policy of maintaining male-line succession remains unchanged.

In this lecture, Prof. Naruse will examine why the Japanese Diet and government continue to adhere to male-line succession and what lies behind this policy. Beginning with the history of the emperor system and the rules governing imperial succession, he will discuss the current challenges facing the imperial system and the measures proposed to address them, how and why the Japanese Diet and government insist on male-line so strongly.

12:45 PM, Thursday, November 12, 2026
Fariborz Maseeh Hall Room 333
Free and Open to the Public
Please use the Broadway Entrance
For more information on the Center for Japanese Studies and our upcoming events, please visit: https://www.pdx.edu/japanese-studies

Portland State University is honored to host the Oregon Tribal Language Speaker Series. Our tribal partners will present their language program’s history, revitalization efforts, and future projects.

Justine Flynn is a dedicated citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and currently serves as the School Administrator for the Shawash-iliʔi Skul. Justine has been an active member of the community of Grand Ronde her entire life and grew up participating in tribal activities and program since preschool. As a strong advocate for place-based learning and immersive language education, Justine is passionate about supporting and advocating for tribal students. She works hard to support the staff within her program to create an education environment that responds to families and students while also centering language and culture as the first priority. Justine holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Oregon in Race and Ethnic Studies, a Master’s Degree in Elementary Teaching, and a graduate certificate in Indigenous Educational Leadership from Kansas State University.

In the interwar period (1919-1939), French colonial officials heavily relied upon an “Arab-Berber” racial model in their North African colonies, using it to shape policy and strategy and subdue “unruly” populations. Around this time, an increasing number of French musicologists, borrowing the language of physical anthropology, began arguing for their field’s utility as a “race science” that could be deployed to decisively address the colonial “Berber question.” In this talk, I argue that, in surprising ways, music – often understood as an apolitical aesthetic form – was rather intensely political; and that interwar French musicologists intentionally made a case for musicology as a race science with colonial North Africa as their laboratory.

Portland State University is honored to host the Oregon Tribal Language Speaker Series. Our tribal partners will present their language program’s history, revitalization efforts, and future projects.

Maiya Osife is the Language Program Manager for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and an enrolled member of the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians. She attended Portland State University from 2014 to 2018, where she studied Social Science with a minor in Indigenous Nations Studies. With over a decade of experience supporting Indigenous communities and more than six years leading Tribal language revitalization initiatives, her work today focuses on community-centered language planning, curriculum development, digital accessibility, youth and family engagement, and sustainable approaches to Indigenous language transmission. Maiya has led language revitalization programs in both Southern Paiute and Cowlitz Coast Salish communities, emphasizing practical strategies that strengthen language use in everyday life.

Esther Smithlin is the Language Technician with the Cowlitz Language Program and is an enrolled member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. She has been working for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s language program for one year and previously served the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe as a carver and graphic designer. Combining her background in graphic design, Salish carving, and Indigenous language learning, she supports language revitalization through educational resource development, language documentation, community instruction, and cultural engagement. Esther contributes to archival restoration projects, curriculum development, and the creation of language-learning materials that help increase community access to Cowlitz language and culture.