Franklin Environmental Center, The Orchard-Hillcrest 103

Will Zohran Mamdani, Mikie Sherill, and Abigail Spanberger beat their rivals? And if they do… is that a good thing? Come watch and discuss results!

Organized by the College Democrats. Moderate? Radical? Republican? Independent? Socialist? Libertarian? Come share your thoughts!

Finding a climate job can be scary and easy to procrastinate. Let us do all the heavy lifting- all you have to do is show up and participate. Join our guests from College to Climate in an engaging 2-hour virtual workshop designed to help you kick-start your climate career search. What it looks like: no fluff, no boring, drawn-out lectures. Just engaging activities to build your climate portfolio and network. Think a hackathon, but for your own entry-level job and internship search. 

Come make art with the Sunday Night Environmental Group to celebrate democracy! 

Four Middlebury alumni, lawyers and/or government officials will discuss their work and the relationship between their undergraduate education and their career choices.

Would you like to spend Winter Term in Costa Rica teaching English?

For the past 25 years, Middlebury has sent students to Nosara to teach English to local students and adults in January. Join us for an information session to learn about the program and how to apply.  

Mark Saltviet, Davis Family Library  
The Palindromes of Sidonius Apollinaris
The only palindromes found in a book from Roman antiquity are those found in the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris. However, different palindromes appear in different ancient manuscripts. Mark Saltveit relates his new research into which of these were original, and who may have written them.

Robyn Barrow, History of Art & Architecture
Recycling the Apocalypse: Resurrection, Adaption, and Sacred Fragments on Medieval Iceland
On medieval Iceland, which visitors conceptualized as the very mouth of hell, drastic environmental change and resource scarcity was not a sign of apocalypse, but a daily lived experience. The island is subject to extreme weather and geothermal activity that renders any material production, particularly architecture, deeply unstable.

German Reyes, Economics
AI in Higher Education: Who Uses It, How, and Does It Hurt Learning?
Generative AI has swept through college campuses with unprecedented speed, but what do we actually know about its impact on student learning? Drawing on two studies at Middlebury College, this talk presents systematic evidence on how students are using AI tools and whether these tools deliver on their educational promise.

Cameron de Wet, Earth & Climate Science  
Past Rainfall and Wildfire Patterns in the Western US: New Perspectives from Caves and Climate Models
Anthropogenic activities are pushing the climate system toward a new, warmer state that is outside the bounds of what human societies have experienced. The warming climate is driving changes in rainfall and wildfire patterns across the western US, but how these dynamics will continue to evolve remains uncertain.

Pieter Broucke, History of Art & Architecture  
J. M. W. Turner, Saint Michael’s Mount, and Mont Saint-Michel
In 1811 J. M. W. Turner sketched Saint Michael’s Mount, a tidal island in Cornwall, England. Fifteen years later, he sketched Mont Saint-Michel, a tidal island in Normandy, France. In his London studio, Turner then made studies of both, a process that resulted in an oil painting of the former and a finished watercolor of the latter.