MIDDLEBURY, Vt. ? On Thursday, April 27, at 7 p.m. in Twilight Auditorium at Middlebury College, Owen Gutfreund will deliver a lecture titled “Bridges and Bypasses: A historical perspective on a century of traffic and town planning in Middlebury.” Twilight Auditorium is located on College Street (Route 125). Following the lecture, the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History will host a reception and book signing at the museum, located on Park Street.

Owen Gutfreund to speak April 27

Gutfreund is the author of “20th Century Sprawl: Highways and the Reshaping of the American Landscape,” published in 2004 by Oxford University Press, which examines the issues of urban sprawl in Denver, Colo., Smyrna, Tenn., and Middlebury. Gutfreund’s lecture is especially timely given the current community and town meeting discussions about a new downtown bridge in Middlebury.
Gutfreund is an assistant professor of history and urban studies at Barnard College and the director of the Barnard and Columbia Urban Studies Programs. He is a member of the board of the New York Council for the Humanities, which he also chaired from 2002-2003.

The lecture is sponsored by several Middlebury College organizations: the Departments of Geography and History, the Environmental Studies Program and the Alliance for Civic Engagement. The Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History is also a sponsor. For more information, contact Jim Ralph, professor of history, at ralph@middlebury.edu or 802-443-5320.