Mellon Public Humanities Labs 2026-27
Public Humanities Labs (PHLs) are the Axinn Center for the Humanities’ most recent innovation to increase enrollments in the humanities through experiential and interventionist education. Established in 2021 and recognized in 2023 by the National Humanities Alliance as an exemplary model for building collegiate public humanities, Public Humanities Labs provide deep investigations into core humanities topics, such as justice, equity, and narrative storytelling, with familiar disciplinary frameworks like history, literature, and philosophy. Through funding from the Mellon Humanities for All Times grant, Middlebury College will provide thirty new Public Humanities Labs. Their innovative structure allows them to intentionally combine hands-on, practical and applied educational tools, involving extensive student research and skill-set building, with the public dissemination of the results, via such means as presentations, websites, and reports. By linking humanistic classroom-learning with a public-facing component, these PHLs will allow students to research and learn about migrant justice and make informed and meaningful interventions.
In the 2025-2026 Academic Year, the following faculty are teaching Mellon Public Humanities Labs: Sujata Moorti (College Professor), Kristin Bright (Anthropology), Fulya Pinar (Anthropology), Carrie Anderson (History of Art & Architecture), Febe Armanios (History), Ian Barrow (History), Elizabeth Toder (Economics), Chong-Suk Han (Sociology), Ananya Das (First-Year Seminar), Rebecca Mitchell (History), and Gloria Gonzalez Zenteno (Spanish).
GSFS 0262: Mobile Women
Mobile Women: Transnational Work Patterns
This course examines women’s work in the formal labor sectors to offer a critical perspective on contemporary local and global patterns. The materials will cover concerns that are central to women in the United States such as the glass ceiling, the wage gap, and the pink-collar ghetto. The course will also offer a transnational perspective through an analysis of the central role migrant female laborers have come to play in the global economy. This section will cover issues such as the traffic in domestic workers, nannies and sex workers. We will interrogate how feminist theories are able to accommodate the uneven development of women’s rights at the global and local levels. Through a few case studies students will also be introduced to alternative work patterns established by groups such as the greenbelt movement in Kenya and SEWA in India.
ANTH 0287: Medical Anthropology
Medical Anthropology: Approaches to Affliction and Healing
In this course, an introduction to medical anthropology, we will explore cultural and political-economic perspectives on health, illness, and disease. Topics covered include: (1) biocultural approaches to understanding health; (2) medical systems, including biomedicine and others; (3) the effects of poverty and inequality on health outcomes; and (4) the social construction of health and illness. Students will apply these concepts in understanding an aspect of health, illness, or healing in their own research project with an ethnographic component. An introductory course in anthropology or familiarity with medical or public health issues is recommended. (formerly SOAN 0387)
ANTH 0274: Migration and Social Justice
Upcoming
FYSE 1141: Textiles/Migration/New England
Between Art, Craft, and Industry: Textiles and Migration in New England
The rise of textile mills in Vermont towns in the nineteenth century—including Middlebury, Winooski, and Burlington—spurred the movement of people, who went to work in the mills in search of economic opportunity. In this course will consider how the shift from home- to factory-produced textiles incited both voluntary and forced migrations, and transformed how we think about woven fabrics, which often straddle the line between art, craft, and industry. We will also examine and write about primary sources, including images, textiles, and texts, and we will experiment with and study different textile-making technologies. Through hands-on projects and community outreach, we will explore the ways that textiles and textile-making forge connections to home and place.
HIST 0328: Ottoman America
Ottoman America: A History of Migration and Diasporas
In this course we will explore the history of Ottoman migration to the United States, mainly from the late nineteenth century to the Interwar Period. We will discuss the economic, religious, and ethnic factors that influenced various immigrants and refugees—such as Armenians, Greeks, Syrians, Lebanese, and Turks—in their decision to come to the United States. We will analyze where they established new roots, with a close focus on New England, the East Coast, and the Midwest. Readings will also explore issues such as community-building, labor, and worship, as well as the rich cultural contributions of Ottoman migrants to American society through music, food, and the arts. Students will engage in hands-on primary research through a variety of written, oral history, and multimedia archives.
ECON 1023: Financial Services to Unbanked
Extending Financial Services to the Unbanked
In this course, taught by two experienced international development professionals, we will explore different interventions and tools used for poverty alleviation, financial inclusion, and the extension of financial services to the unbanked poor in emerging markets. We will look at the use of microfinance, microinsurance, financial literacy, and the rising use of technology to achieve these goals in developing countries. Guest speakers will discuss case studies and themes from the course. (This course counts as elective credit towards the major in Economics and the major in IPE).
SOCI 0265: Genders and Sexualities of Migration and Justice
Upcoming
SPAN 0437: “Utopías Mexicanas”
Representing Mexican Resistance
In this seminar we will study the history, culture, and representation of contemporary Mexican feminist, indigenous, and environmental movements. We will analyze the news media’s efforts to manipulate, co-opt, or undermine autonomous governance, as well as independent media counter-narratives serving Mexican communities. We will use journalistic and creative writing genres to create a news and culture magazine focusing on Mexico and its Vermont diaspora, and share it with migrant community members and Spanish speakers-learners. Sources include the media, works from philosophy, fiction, graphic novel, and history such as Ackerman, Barkin, Calzada, Colmenares, De la Cerda, Dussel, Martínez, Ortiz, Rico Straffon, and von Vertrab.
FYSE 1140: The Immigrant Experience
The Immigrant Experience
In this seminar we will explore the diverse experiences of immigrants to the United States through literature and experiential, community-engaged learning. We will examine themes such as migration, identity, belonging, labor, language, race, and intergenerational change. Readings include novels, memoirs, and essays from writers who draw on their own immigrant experiences and scholars who study migration across cultures and generations. We will engage immigrant voices through conversation and hands-on cultural exploration. We will critically think about and reflect on the links between individual stories to broader questions about immigration in American life. We will focus on lived experience, storytelling, and cultural expression rather than contemporary political debates surrounding legal and illegal immigration.
HIST 0440: South Asian Migrations
South Asian Migrations
In this course we will learn about the history of migration from, within, and to South Asia. Topics to be discussed include colonial-era migrations of indentured laborers, traders, and soldiers; the refugee crisis at the partitioning of India in 1947; the return of Indians from Burma; the flight of Indians from Uganda; and the large-scale migrations of South Asians to Britain, the Gulf states, and the US. In addition to reading compelling histories, novels, and memoirs, students will write essays, deliver a presentation, learn digital humanities skills, and complete a public-facing research project.