Center for Teaching, Learning and Research

Undergraduate research is an important academic experience for many students. But imagine if we could provide that experience to all students. Would we want to do that? Why? What would it look like? Join us for a discussion about (re) envisioning undergraduate research. Why is it an important component of a liberal arts education? How do students and faculty benefit? Can we imagine new models of authentic research experiences and attendant creative and/or scholarly processes that make them more available to more students, using fewer resources? Are there new challenges we face?

Despite claims in the popular press that Google has made libraries obsolete, we have found to the contrary that the library continues to serve the campus as a vital intellectual space that brings us together, and connects us to the information and services we need for our academic pursuits. Yet, how will our libraries need to change in the coming decade as the College charts a new direction, and as the information landscape continues to evolve? Who we are and where do we want to go? What are the challenges and opportunities we face?

Working with students in research contexts presents great opportunities for learning as well as new challenges in teaching. How do we prepare students for the unknown? How can they contribute effectively to faculty projects? How do we prepare them to be effective researchers themselves? Join Will Amidon (Geology), Svea Closser (Anthropology), and Amy Morsman (History) in a discussion of the challenges they experience bringing students into their research, helping students develop their own research projects, and integrating research into a course.

Dear Colleagues, Please join us on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, in Center for Teaching, Learning & Research at 12:15 p.m. for an Academic Roundtable on Academic Advising. A few years ago, Richard Light, a leading scholar on American higher education, stated that “good advising may be the single most underestimated characteristic of a successful college experience.” And yet, there is evidence that academic advising at Middlebury and many other liberal arts colleges is not as robust as it could be.

Yes, it’s a college-wide learning goal, an FYS learning goal, and we know it’s a critically important skill, but honestly who can afford the precious class-time it takes to teach oral expression? Colleagues Shawna Shapiro (Writing and Linguistics Programs) and Sarah Stroup (Political Science) will join Oratory Now Director Dana Yeaton (Theater) in a demonstration and discussion of the many ways, large and small, we can use speaking to deepen, broaden, and in some cases even expedite, what we already do.

Background Materials available at go/roundtable

Thinking about a career in a secondary International School? Come meet Dexter Lewis, a retired educator with more than 25 years of experience in International Schools. Dexter will be on campus for a Career Conversation, Friday, May 5th from 12:30 to 1:30 pm in the CCI Library in Adirondack House. Dexter has been a headmaster at schools in Malaysia, Austria, Germany and has consulted with international schools in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. Find out how to get your career in International Schools started!

Come by the atrium of Davis Library to experience some of the 3D initiatives at Middlebury. There will be 3D scanner and an Oculus Rift on display and available for demos. Watch 3D scanning in process, view 3D printed replicas, and experience virtual reality.

Most digital humanities approaches pursue traditional forms of scholarship by extracting a single variable from cultural texts that is already legible to scholars. Instead, this talk advocates a mostly-ignored “digital-surrealism” that uses computer-based methods to transform film texts in radical ways not previously possible. The return to a surrealist and avant-garde tradition requires a unique kind of research, which is newly possible now that humanists have made the digital turn. Lunch provided, so please RSVP at go/dla.

A conversation/workshop with Seth Denbo ‘90, American Historical Association Director of Scholarly Communication & Digital Initiatives, that uses the 2015 AHA “Guidelines for the Professional Evaluation of Digital Scholarship by Historians” as a case study for thinking about the digital liberal arts in relation to issues of professional evaluation, hiring, and promotion.

Open to faculty and administrators. Lunch served. Please RSVP at the URL below, but feel free to attend even if you forget to sign up.

Quoctrung Bui is a graphics editor at the New York Times‘s The Upshot. He has written stories on insurance, inequality, zoning, taxes, and other topics. He started his career in journalism at NPR’s Planet Money after a stint at the Federal Reserve Board.