Academic Affairs

Pierre Bolotte and the Colonial Origins of the Anti-Crime Brigade

When we think of the police, we usually think of a local institution. However, this talk is about the global circulation of police power, tactics, and ideology. I will focus on the life of a mostly forgotten French civil servant who spent his career abroad in the French empire before bringing his expertise back home to the suburbs of Paris.

Food System Transformation Narratives

The global food system is widely criticized for failing to meet goals of sustainability, justice and equity. A plethora of solutions have been proposed and are expressed through different narratives or discourses. In this presentation, I describe leading narratives of transformation and suggest that food democracy, agroecology and food sovereignty are the most promising among them, if enacted within a framework of respect for human rights and the rights of nature.

From “Arab Street” to Stage: Muslimness and Masculinity in Maghrebi Contemporary Dance

Over the past two decades contemporary dance in North Africa has emerged as a fusion form of street vocabulary, bboy virtuosity, traditional Sufi ritual, Orientalist trope, and postmodern aesthetic. This talk will focus on how shifting notions of Muslim corporeality in the region intersect with gender performativity, local political economies, and transnational artistic production networks.

Teaching Rhetoric as Part of Political Science

In democracies, we the people make many decisions through arguments and attempts at persuasion. Leaders, those ambitious to become leaders, leaders of opinion, and even ordinary citizens try to make arguments to influence everything from elections to laws to convictions and acquittals. Rhetoric is this activity of persuasion, and understanding what rhetoric is (and how it works) might be an important topic of political science - but is it? The question has been debated since the days of Socrates.

Crossing the Invisible Language Boundary: The Effect of Language Immersion on Lexical Access in Bilinguals

In a multilingual world, understanding how bilinguals navigate between languages offers key insights into language use and memory. In this talk, we will discuss eye-tracking reading studies (including one conducted with Middlebury language schools) that examine how changes in the language environment impact the speed at which bilinguals retrieve words from another language.

The Hobo at the Center of the World:’ Indigenous California Gold Rush Legacies with Marybeth Nevins (Anthropology & Linguistics)

Access as Practice: Approaches to Inclusive Design Across Academic Disciplines

Using examples from our own teaching and course development, colleagues across disciplines will unpack ways to think about and apply three key inclusive design frameworks: clarity; choice and equity; and flexibility. We recognize that access is a practice. Sustainable inclusive design work requires beginning wherever we are and developing our knowledge and skills incrementally.

The Game of Go as a Window to Japanese Arts and Traditions

The game of go is the oldest and most challenging of all board games. Its myriad aspects reflect the arts, religions, and traditions of the cultures where it was nurtured and developed. We will introduce the game and develop several of these key connections.

Visit the website to see the entire series.

How (Not) to Talk About Migration: The Case of Riace, Italy

Mimmo Lucano, the mayor of Riace, in Southern Italy, has encouraged a welcoming, inclusive approach to the many people reaching the shores of his small village since the 1990s. For this, he has been celebrated, criticized, investigated, sentenced to 13 years in jail, and then most recently acquitted end elected to the European Parliament. In this presentation, I will start from Lucano’s and Riace’s case to present the current public and political discourse on migration in Italy.