Environmental Studies

In each meeting of the “Reflection Fridays” series, hosted by the Innovation Hub and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, a member of the Middlebury community is invited to reflect on the question “What matters to you, and why?” For these informal gatherings, the interviewers are selected by the speakers themselves, enhancing the connectivity and intimacy of the conversations.

How do we make real change to ensure all living beings on our planet are nourished, both socially and ecologically? How do we enact justice and generate health? And, how do we do this together in place, in diverse groupings that can adapt and endure? Join us as we enter into a conversation with thought leaders and practitioners in education, agriculture, and community building who are imagining new stories, remembering valuable wisdom, and creating innovative relationships and pathways to address the urgency of transformation.

Join us for a lecture and Q&A by Brazilian artist Néle Azevedo.  She will be discussing her installation Minimum Monument: Art as Emergency.

Brazilian artist Néle Azevedo brings her internationally known “Minimum Monument” event to Middlebury. With help from students, faculty, staff and members of the Middlebury community, she will install 300+ ice sculptures (little men and women) outside Davis Library. And then we will leave them to melt… or will we? A visual metaphor for climate change, Azevedo’s work challenges the traditional meaning of the public monument: “in the place of the hero, the anonym; in the place of the solidity of the stone, the ephemeral process of the ice.” A community event not to be missed.

Sustainable architecture in the 21st century tends to work without explicit attention to disability. In this public lecture, Johnna S. Keller, RA discusses ways that architecture can consciously consider both sustainability and accessibility as creative design challenges, thus promoting a socially just and ecologically restorative environment.

Co-sponsored by Middlebury’s Advisory Group on Disability Access and Inclusion, Architecture Studies/History of Art & Architecture, Franklin Environmental Center, and the Program in Environmental Studies.

“Farms, Fish & Forests: An Ethnography of Climate Change in Maine” by Kathryn Olson ‘05, MA, PhD Candidate, Boston College.

How is climate change changing our places? This talk will examine data from interviews with farmers, fishers, and foresters throughout the state of Maine on their experiences and observations of climate change. Part of the Living Change project, this work documents the profound, but often subtle changes in place—and therefore culture and livelihood—that people are observing on the ground in Maine.

Carolyn Finney, PhD will present a talk as part of the Howard E. Woodin ES Colloquium Series (rescheduled from 2/13). Lunch served starting at 12:15p.

“The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability” by Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Assistant Professor of Food Studies and Affiliate of the Departments of Geography and Women’s and Gender Studies at Syracuse University.

“Climate Struggle: A Working Class Strategy for the Climate Movement” by Matt Huber, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Syracuse University.