University of Oklahoma Center for Studies in Democracy and Culture

CENTER FOR STUDIES IN DEMOCRACY AND CULTURE

The University of Oklahoma
Tulsa

CALENDAR

Because of Covid-19 restrictions our in-person events have been suspended since March, 2020. We are planning on organizing a series of Zoom events relating to out Tulsa project. They will be posted in this space, but you are also welcome to sign up to be notified as they are scheduled by clicking here.
We'll also let you know about future in-person activities once it is safe again to hold them.

ABOUT US

The OU Center for Studies in Democracy and Culture works to promote community engagement in contemporary issues through activities that we organize and materials we publish on the web. Our activities are open to everyone, but a special emphasis is placed on serving OU students, staff, and faculty. We are located on the campus of OU-Tulsa, but we are involved globally. We are not an academic program.

For information about, Prof. Rodger Randle, Director of the Center, click here for English , clique aquí para português, y haga click acá para español.

We are proudly affiliated with the
OU Department of Human Relations.

We are the home of the
British Honorary Consulate
in Oklahoma.

Tulsa: The City and the Automobile

Mo-Town Tulsa:
How cars suburbanized the city and remade our social fabric.

The Center has launched a new project about the importance of the automobile in Tulsa, but focused on how cars have altered the nature of “community" in Tulsa. The project consists of a series of reports analyzing how communities functioned within our city before the dominance of the automobile, followed by a section discussing how public policy decisions lead to a new urban geography of Tulsa that has changed us in profound ways. The project concludes with a section about the future, and how new iterations of the car may re-form Tulsa a second time …taking us back to earlier styles of city life.

These pages are in construction .

Our Visual Projects Put You in the Picture

See new things; see familar things in new ways.

Images express a visual point of view. They communicate and Waze words do not. They can ask questions, as well as answer them. Images channel our understanding and focuses on our imagination.

Life magazine and the National Geographic were among the early pioneers in popularizing photographic illustration in mass culture. Kodak allowed us all to become photographers. From these beginnings we have arrived now to the Internet and the cell phone. We now prefer to communicate through pictures as words recede in importance.

In our new project on “Tulsa as community" we use images for illustration. This is the traditional role of photography. In our photo collections online we additionally have collections of visual essays, field reports, and exhibits, but all are related to our purposes as a Center (and all are integrated into our academics and teaching.

The full catalogue of photography online is available here.
To learn more about cultural photography, click here.

A Lot's Going On
...and You Are Invited to Be Part of It!

Our activities are free. You'll enjoy the programs and the people you'll meet.

Because of Covid-19, we are currently only organizing occasional Zoom based activities, but we look forward to returning to a busy schedule of events in 2021.

The Center for Studies in Democracy and Culture organizes programs, seminars, and activities designed to stimulate interest in contemporary issues in our society, as well as greater understanding of global cultures. Participants include members of the Oklahoma community, in addition to OU students and faculty. The center has welcomed guests from dozens of countries, and speakers have included top diplomats (including ambassadors), prominent academics, well-known authors, political leaders, and many others.

The programs and activities of the Center are open to the public. If you would like to be added to the invitation list for Center activities, click here to send an email to the Director and let him know you are interested. He will be pleased to add you to our invitation list.

To see information about some of our events before the coronavirus, click here.