Barbara Bateman, a professor emerita at the University of Oregon and legal special education consultant, was honored this week with the 2013 Council for Exceptional Children's J. E. Wallace Wallin Special Education Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bateman received the award April 3 at the organization's 2013 convention and expo in San Antonio.

The J. E. Wallace Wallin Special Education Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who has made continued and sustained contributions to the education of children and youth with exceptionalities.

What do literature and architecture have in common?

April Anson’s “tiny house.”

Anson, a graduate teaching fellow in English, has built – and lives in – a house about the size of a shed. It’s 114 square feet, sitting comfortably on a 16-foot trailer in west Eugene.

“I had been long stressed by the amount of stuff that I own,” Anson said. “I’ve become acquainted with what I need and don’t need.”

There are 252 metal steps leading to the top of the Capitol dome in Madison, Wis.

Some visitors might find the trip harrowing, or at least exhausting. But University of Oregon law school alum Fred Risser – the longest-serving state legislator in the United States – handles them without breaking a sweat.

At 85 years old, Risser was featured recently by National Public Radio as part of its focus on people working past 65.

University of Oregon President Michael Gottfredson announced on Thursday (April 4) the formation of a Selection Advisory Committee for Provost, which will guide the national search for a successor to Senior Vice President and Provost Jim Bean, who will return to the faculty July 1.

The 18-member committee – which includes 12 faculty members – will be assisted by a search firm and staffed by central administration. It will be chaired by Alec Murphy, a professor in the UO Department of Geography.

University of Oregon Philosophy Professor Naomi Zack’s newest publication, “Race and Ethnicity” (Bridgepoint Education, Inc., 2012), is a textbook that combines her earlier philosophical work examining the concept of race as culturally relative with a look at the social aspect of race being associated with oppression.

The book is organized into five broad parts beginning with an introduction and then “European Ethnicity in America,” “American Racial Groups,” “Current Trends in the United States” and “Global Racial and Ethnic Relations: A Comparison.”

African American literature will take center stage when a group of innovative scholars come to the University of Oregon to give public talks about their research.

The symposium, “Racial Representations: African American Literature Since 1975,” runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 26 in the Alumni Lounge of Gerlinger Hall, 1468 University St.

English professor Mark Whalan and Ernesto Martínez, an associate professor in Women’s and Gender Studies, will serve as moderators.

China is well-known as the world’s most populous country and keeper of the second largest economy.

But the country is also fast developing several large-scale “eco-cities” – and that makes China a great place to study urban sustainability planning.

The social and economic costs of the drug war – including more than $1 trillion spent over the past 40 years – have led voters in Washington and Colorado to suggest that alternatives to criminalization may be worth a look.

Voters in the two states approved measures last year legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

Nominations or self-nominations are due no later than Wednesday, April 17, for the UO Research Excellence awards, which recognize outstanding career work and other accomplishments.

Sponsored by Research, Innovation and Graduate Education, the awards are:

The UO Study Abroad program is inviting faculty members to an event on Wednesday (April 3) to meet a representative of the Long Way Home, a non-profit that uses sustainable design and appropriate materials to build self-sufficient schools in Guatemala.

Long Way Home offers internship opportunities for UO students and is looking for faculty collaboration related to alternative construction and appropriate technology. The group is also seeking help in estimating the ecological impact of using waste materials in productive construction.