What I’m Working On

UO journalism professor of practice Torsten Kjellstrand (center) sees opportunity in rural storytelling.

The Rural Opportunity

A University of Oregon journalism professor sees risk and reward in small town news interview by Jonathan Shipley The world is on fire. But, so, too, are the students at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications as they covered the disastrous effects of climate change with Science Story. The Science Story project brought together students to write stories about the impacts of climate change with particular regard to Oregon’s Holiday Farm Fire in 2020, which burned more than 173,000 acres in the McKenzie River Valley. The class was led, with the help of award-winning journalist Dennis Dimick, by University of Oregon’s professor of practice Torsten Kjellstrand, an accomplished news photographer for more than three decades. What appeals to you in telling stories of the underrepresented and misrepresented in rural communities? I grew up in Lund, Sweden, where I spent a lot of time in my family village,…

Jason McNeal Graham of Bend leverages humor while addressing serious topics.

WOtta Fellow

The artist known as MOsley WOtta embarks on a new chapter encouraging dialogue interview by Cathy Carroll When Jason McNeal Graham of Bend, better known as MOsley WOtta, describes himself as a “multiethnic, multimedia, multivitamin artist,” it’s clear that humor doesn’t run counter to his writing, painting, and music. He recently received a Fields Artist Fellowship, a partnership between Oregon Humanities and Oregon Community Foundation to invest in individual artists and culture bearers and their communities. Four Fields Artist Fellows will receive $100,000 each during the next two years, along with robust professional development, networking, and community building opportunities. With this fellowship, he plans to produce multimedia performances, collaborative murals and stories addressing and explore system inequities in Oregon and encourage dialogue throughout the state. His work in music and writing has been featured on “TEDx, NPR, the NBA, and several other three letter acronyms,” according to Graham, and he…