2007-2008 Events

Sunday, May 4, 2008
Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration
7:00 p.m.
Mead Chapel

Followed by 8:00 screening of "Shop on Main Street" at Dana Auditorium.

May 1-3, 2008
Theatrical production:
"Jumpers," by Tom Stoppard
Thursday-Saturday 8:00 p.m.
each evening
and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday
Wright Theatre

In a comedy that includes the moon landings, a team of gymnastic philosophers, Zeno’s paradox, a detective who might have stepped from the pages of Agatha Christie (not to mention a hare called Thumper and a tortoise called Pat), Stoppard combines effervescent burlesque with moral urgency.

"I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I'm the kind of person who embarks on an endless leapfrog down the great moral issues. I put a position, rebut it, refute it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation. Forever. Endlessly." — Tom Stoppard from an interview with Mel Gussow in the New York Times , 26 April 1972.

Directed by Cheryl Faraone with Alex Draper as George Moore. Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance with support from Pathways to Flourishing: a Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College.

Sponsored by Metanexus, the Department of Theater, the Department of Religion, Ross Commons, The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life and the Academic Enrichment Fund.  A featured event in "Pathways to Flourishing: A Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College."

Thursday, April 24, 2008
Lecture:  "Environmental Sustainability and
Reconciliation between Jews
and Arabs"
Rabbi Michael Cohen
4:30 p.m.
216 McCardell Bicentennial Hall

Rabbi Cohen is Director of Special Projects at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.  The Arava Institute is the premier environmental teaching and research program in the Middle East, preparing future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the region's environmental challenges.

Sponsored by Hillel, The Islamic Society, and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.

Lecture: "The Stem Cell Debate:
Why the Embryo is Not the
Chief Moral Issue"
Suzanne Holland, Ph.D.
Monday, April 21, 2008
4:30 p.m.
McCardell Bicentennial Hall, room 220


Dr. Holland is chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, and is Associate Professor of Ethics.  She teaches in the area of religious ethics and values, including bioethics, science and technology, religion, and gender studies.  Her research interests range from the ethics of human genetics and stem cell research, biotechnology and commodification, to broader issues in religion, culture and public policy.   She is co-editor of The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate: Science, Ethics & Public Policy (MIT Press, 2001).
A featured event in "Pathways to Flourishing: A Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College. " Sponsored by Metanexus, The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, Ross Commons, the Academic Enrichment Fund, and the Department of Religion.

Passover Seder
Saturday, April 19, 2008
6:00-9:00 p.m.
Jewish Center at the Freeman International Center.

RSVP required. Please call Ellen McKay at 443-5626.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
15th Annual Living with Grief Teleconference --
"Living with Grief: Children and Adolescents"
1:30-4:00 p.m.
Dana Auditorium

Hospice Foundations of America's 15th Annual National Bereavement Teleconference, “Living With Grief®: Children and Adolescents,” will be moderated by Frank Sesno, Professor of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University and Special Correspondent with CNN. This program will be broadcast on Wednesday, April 16, from 1:30-4:30pm. HFA's 2008 teleconference will focus on the experience of grieving children and adolescents and the ways that all hospice professionals, educators and counselors, parents, social workers, physicians, grief counselors, funeral directors, and clergy can best support these populations as they cope with loss and grief.

Continuing Education credits are available for a wide range of professions. To learn more about this satellite and webcast teleconference visit the Hospice Foundation of America web site at www.hospicefoundation.org. For more local information about the teleconference in your community, contact Hospice Volunteer Services at 388-4111 or log onto our website at www.hospicevs.org.

Co-sponsored by Hospice Volunteer Services of Vermont and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life. 

Monday, April 14, 2008
Panel Discussion:  "Queerness and Religion"
7:00 p.m.
Mead Chapel

Christian and Jewish religious leaders, both gay and straight, discuss homosexuality and religion. Questions will range in topic from acceptance in various religious communities, the notion of same-sex marriage, what constitutes sinful behavior, and interpretations of controversial verses of the Bible. The event is open to everyone, whether a member of the Middlebury College community or not.
Hosted by the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance; co-sponsored by the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious LIfe.

2nd Annual Convocation Series

Monday, April 14, 2008
Lecture: "You Must Pay the Sandman: Impacts of Sleep Deprivation on Health and Performance and What You Can Do About It,"
by Dr. Hrayr Attarian, MD
4:30 p.m.
216 McCardell Bicentennial Hall

What can research tell us about the essential role sleep plays in helping us achieve our full learning potential? Study after study has shown that our brain performs crucial tasks of reviewing, organizing, and prioritizing while we sleep, consolidating what we have learned or practiced during the day. So the maximum benefit from studying or learning any sort of new skill takes place only after a good night's sleep.

Dr. Attarian is Director of the Vermont Regional Sleep Center, and Assoc. Professor of Neurology and Medicine at the University of Vermont School of Medicine.

The College Convocation Series seeks to bring together all members of the college community to reflect upon topics of broad intellectual and cultural importance.

Sponsored by the Samuel S. Stratton Fund, the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, the Ad-Hoc Committee on Campus Stress, departments of Neuroscience, Biology, Psychology, and Religion, and the Center for Counseling and Human Relations.

Twenty-First Annual Hannah A. Quint Lecture
in Jewish Studies
"Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Guidelines for a
New Administration"
Professor William Quandt, University of Virginia
Sunday, April 13, 2008
7:30 p.m.
McCardell Bicentennial Hall, room 216

Sponsored by the Department of Religion and the Program in Jewish Studies.  Please contact Charlene Barrett, Religion Department Academic Coordinator, at 443-5289.

Friday, April 11, 2008
Lecture:  "Liberty of Conscience: The Attack on America's Tradition of Religious Equality"
Martha Nussbaum, Ph.D.
4:30 p.m.
Mead Memorial Chapel


Martha Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. Sponsored by the Foreign Language Enrichment Fund and the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs.

2nd Annual College Convocation Series

Lecture: Dr. Robert Sapolsky,
 "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers:
Stress, Disease, and Coping"
Thursday, April 10, 2008
7:30 p.m.
Mead Chapel

One of the nation's finest science writers will speak on stress and stress-related disorders on April 10 at 7:30 in Mead Chapel. Robert Sapolsky is the recipient of the MacArthur ("Genius") Fellowship, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, and a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research at the National Museum of Kenya. He is the author of several bestselling books including "A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons," "The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament," and "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers."  He is known for his animated lecture and writing style, which helps communicate intricate scientific information in a humorous and accessible way.

The College Convocation Series seeks to bring together all members of the college community to reflect upon topics of broad intellectual and cultural importance.

Sponsored by the Samuel S. Stratton Fund, the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, the Ad-Hoc Committee on Campus Stress, departments of Neuroscience, Biology, Psychology, and Religion, and the Center for Counseling and Human Relations.  

Lecture:  "Jews, Christians, and the Passion"
Professor Jeremy Cohen, Tel Aviv University
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
4:30 p.m.
Robert A Jones Conference Room

Part of the 2008 Scott Symposium, "Engaging Passions: The Death of Jesus and Its Legacies."

Please contact Charlene Barrett, Religion Department Academic Coordinator, at 443-5289.

Monday, April 7, 2008
Film Screening:  "Birdsong and Coffee:
A Wake-Up Call"
8:00 p.m.
216 McCardell Bicentennial Hall

Co-sponsored by the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.

Lecture: "Embryo Research: Why Not?"
Gilbert Meilaender, Ph.D.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
4:30 p.m.
McCardell Bicentennial Hall,
room 220


Gilbert Meilaender, Ph.D. is Richard & Phyllis Duesenberg Professor of Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University. Professor Meilaender is an associate editor for the Journal of Religious Ethics. He has taken a special interest in bioethics and is a Fellow of the Hastings Center. His books include Bioethics: A Primer for Christians (1996, 2005), Body, Soul, and Bioethics (1995). He has recently edited (together with William Werpehowski) The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics.
A featured event in "Pathways to Flourishing: A Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College. " Sponsored by Metanexus, The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, Ross Commons, the Academic Enrichment Fund, and the Department of Religion.

Sunday, March 23, 2008
Easter Sunrise Service
6:30 a.m.
Alumni Stadium










Ecumenical Christian service led by Chaplain Laurel Macaulay Jordan'79 and members of various Addison County congregations.

Lecture: "Tower of Babel or God's
Partner in Creation? A Jewish
Perspective on Biotechnology"
Elliott Dorff, Ph.D.
Monday, March 17, 2008
4:30 p.m.
McCardell Bicentennial Hall,
room 220

Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at American Jewish University, Rabbi Dorff is the author of Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics and Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality: A Reader.  In the spring of 1993, Rabbi Dorff served on the ethics committee of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Health Care Task Force, and in March 1997 and May 1999 he testified on behalf of the Jewish tradition on the subjects of human cloning and stem cell research before the president's National Bioethics Advisory Committee.

Sponsored by the Saltz Judaica Fund, the Department of Religion, and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life at Middlebury College.

2008 CHARLES P. SCOTT SYMPOSIUM AT
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE

"Engaging Passions: The Death of Jesus and its Legacies"

17-19 January 2008 in Twilight Hall on the main campus

The lectures in the Symposium will give participants a sense of the diversity of the gospel narratives, their eventual melding into one story, the ways the story influenced the development of Christian theology and Western culture, and the conflicts that frequently occurred as a result of the story itself and its interpretations at various points in history. The lecturers have a wide range of perspectives, each bringing an informed and authoritative voice to the discussion.

For more information on the Scott Symposium, please contact Prof. Larry Yarbrough at yarbrough@middlebury.edu or Religion Department Coordinator Charlene Barrett at 802.443.5289.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

2:00 p.m.
Larry Yarbrough, “Is it One Story from Four or Four Stories from One?”

3:00 p.m.
Julia Alvarez, “Fifteen Stations in the Passion of Mark”

4:00 p.m.
Jay Parini, “Reading the Passion of John”

5:00 p.m.
Adele Reinhartz, “Dying for Our Sins: Jesus’ Passion on the Silver Screen”

Friday, January 18

1:00 p.m.
Elizabeth Cook, “There’s beggary in the love that can be reckon’d’, working on The Passion of Jesus of Nazareth

3:30 p.m.A Listening Experience: Frances Grier and Elizabeth Cook’s “The Passion of Jesus of Nazareth” (2006)

4:30 p.m.
Andrew Shenton, “Musical Settings of the Passion Texts”

8:00 p.m.
Maria Hatjigeorgiou, “The Passion and the Resurrection in Byzantine Iconography and Ritual”

Saturday, January 19

9:30 a.m.
Robert Atwell, “The Passion inChristian Liturgy”

10:30 a.m.
John McWilliams, “The Passion in American Literature”

11:30 a.m.
Kate Sonderegger, “Theological Themes in the Passion”

1:00 p.m.
Sulieman Mourad, “Did He Die and How? The Death of Jesus in Islamic Discourse”

2:00 p.m. Panel discussion

Date to be determined:
Jeremy Cohen, “The Passion as a Source of Anti-Semitism”

Lessons and Carols for Advent and Christmas

Sunday, December 9, 2007
4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Mead Memorial Chapel










Laurel Macaulay Jordan '79, College Chaplain, presiding
Middlebury College Choir, Jeff Buettner, conductor
Emory Fanning, organ

This traditional program combines choral music, congregational singing, and biblical texts of the season. Free. Donations collected for local charities. 
 

Excellence Without a Soul: "Does
Liberal Education Have a Future?"
Professor Harry Lewis, former Dean
of Harvard College
Thursday, November 29, 2007
4:15 p.m.
216 McCardell Bicentennial Hall

America's great research universities are the envy of the world—and none more so than Harvard. Never before has the competition for excellence been fiercer. But while striving to be unsurpassed in the quality of its faculty and students, universities have forgotten that the fundamental purpose of undergraduate education is to turn young people into adults who will take responsibility for society. In Excellence Without a Soul, Harry Lewis, a Harvard professor for more than thirty years and Dean of Harvard College for eight, draws from his experience to explain how our great universities have abandoned their mission. Harvard is unique; it is the richest, oldest, most powerful university in America, and so it has set many standards, for better or worse. Lewis evaluates the failures of this grand institution—from the hot button issue of grade inflation to the recent controversy over Harvard's handling of date rape cases—and makes an impassioned argument for change. The loss of purpose in America's great colleges is not inconsequential. Harvard, Yale, Stanford—these places drive American education, on which so much of our future depends. It is time to ask whether they are doing the job we want them to do.

Harry Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Harvard College professor, has been on the Harvard faculty for thirty-two years. He was Dean of Harvard College between 1995 and 2003 and chaired the College's student disciplinary and athletic policy committees. He has been a member of the undergraduate admissions and scholarship committee for more than three decades. Lewis lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Brainerd Commons Chaplain's Forum
"Personal Spiritual Practices in an Academic Community"
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
7:00 p.m.
Brainerd Commons House, Blinn Lane
The Chaplain's Forums are an opportunity for informal conversation among students, faculty and staff about questions that matter in our lives. We hope you will join us. Desserts are served.

Staged Reading:  "A Number"
Sunday, November 4, 2007
by Caryl Churchill
7:30 p.m.
Center for the Arts Room 232


Who are you when you discover one day there are 20 or more of you -- a number -- with the same DNA?  The story of a parent and his children.  A staged reading directed by Professor Cheryl Faraone, with Alex Draper and Alec Strum.

Sponsored by Metanexus, the Department of Theater, the Department of Religion, Ross Commons, The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life and the Academic Enrichment Fund.  A featured event in "Pathways to Flourishing: A Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College."

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Homecoming Weekend Chapel Service

Fall Family Weekend Chapel Service
Sunday, October 14, 2007
10:00 a.m.
Mead Memorial Chapel
Ecumenical Christian worship service led by Chaplain Laurel Macaulay Jordan '79




Fall Family Weekend Bagel Brunch
Sunday, October 14, 2007
11:00 a.m.
Jewish Center at Freeman International Center

Duda Penteado:  Twilight Scholar Residency
October 8-13, Monday-Saturday
Visiting Twilight Scholar and Brazilian visual artist Duda Penteado brings an interesting fusion of culture, art, spirituality, and social justice to Middlebury’s campus through a series of class visits, lectures, student gatherings, and overall presence on campus.

Tuesday, October 9
Spiritual and Cultural Identity Chat
with Duda Penteado
4:30 pm, Carr Hall
Duda will lead a discussion with students on the role spirituality and faith has played in his identity as a Brazilian artist in the United States.

Saturday, October 13
A Vision for Social Change at Middlebury College
Duda Penteado, Visiting Twilight Scholar and Brazilian Visual Artist
4:30 pm, Carr Hall
Duda will discuss the creative process behind the mural project “A Vision for Social Change at Middlebury”.
CAFECITO HOUR LECTURE SERIES

30th Annual Addison County
CROP Hunger Walk
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Middlebury Town Green
Registration at 11:30, Walk begins at 1:00

Join honorary chair Chris Bohjalian, members of  Addison County congregations and many others to raise money for Addison County food shelves and for Church World Service hunger-fighting projects around the world. 

To register as a walker and start raising money, please click here to go to the Church World Service website.  Or call 2007 CROP Hunger Walk Addison County chair Patty Hallam at 388-1561 for a walker registration form and for more information.

Update:  as of Nov. 13, our total amount raised this year has broken all our previous records -- over $23,500!  Thank you, Addison County!

High Holidays 2007

Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, September 12
 7:00 p.m. Evening Service at Mead Chapel
followed by Apples and Honey reception in
Redfield Proctor Dining Room at 8:30 p.m.

Thursday, September 13
9:30 a.m. Shacharit -- Morning Services at Mead Chapel
5:00 p.m. Tashlich Service at Otter Creek Footbridge,
Marble Works side

Friday, September 14
9:30 a.m. Shacharit -- Morning Services at Mead Chapel

Yom Kippur
Friday, September 21
6:30 p.m. Kol Nidre at Mead Chapel

Saturday, September 22
9:30 a.m. Shacharit -- Morning Services at Mead Chapel
11:15 a.m. Yizkor -- Memorial Service at Mead Chapel
5:00 p.m. Minchah -- Afternoon Service and
Ne'ilah -- Concluding Services at Mead Chapel
6:45 p.m. Shofar Blowing and Havdalah at Mead Chapel
7:00 p.m. Break-the-Fast in Freeman Dining Hall
(attached to Hillel Jewish Center)-- RSVP required. Please call
Ellen McKay at 443-5626

International Mass
Sunday, August 12, 2007
10:00 a.m.
St. Mary's Catholic Church, College Street

St. Mary's Church extends an invitation to students and faculty of the Summer Language Schools at Middlebury College to serve as international flag bearers, gift bearers, and liturgical readers (in your studied language). If you would like to participate in our Eucharistic celebration, please call Shirley Carlson at 388-3874 or the Rectory at 388-2943. We look forward to your participation.