Provost's Office

Peter Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at CUNY. He is also a Contributing Opinion Writer for The New York Times, a political commentator on MSNBC, and Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents. Over the years he served as Editor of The New Republic and wrote for publications like The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Die Zeit, and the Financial Times. He is the author of four books including The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris (Harper, 2010) and The Crisis of Zionism (Times Books, 2012).

Next Tuesday, March 11, 2025, 4:30pm ET in Dana Auditorium and on Zoom*
 
We are excited to welcome author and educator John Warner to Middlebury this Tuesday, March 11, 2025 for a special presentation titled “Resist, Renew, Explore: How to Think About Human Writing and Learning in the Age of AI.” Now that we have easy access to technology that produces text with unmatched speed and fluency, we’re questioning the role writing plays in school, work, and society and how to maintain the integrity of writing in educational contexts.

Join George Lee (‘88, P’20), co-head of the Goldman Sachs Global Institute and Middlebury Trustee, for an open and frank discussion about the capabilities, impact, trajectory, and risks attendant to Generative AI. Audience members can submit questions in advance or pose them live during the event. Possible topics include questions about the limitations of the current technical architecture, expected future developments, the geopolitical impact of the technology and, of course, the possible impact on higher education.

Building from the approach to decolonization and abolition in the Haitian Revolution as well as from Frantz Fanon’s view of combative decolonization and decoloniality, the presentation makes the case for the abolition of the humanities as a crucial component of the project for decolonizing knowledge today.

Alexis Mychajliw, assistant professor of biology and environmental studies, examines insights from scientific studies of the past with observations from people living with carnivores in the present to consider what it is that makes the conservation of carnivores both so politically polarizing yet ecologically urgent. The full description of this talk can be found at right here.

Phil Chodrow, assistant professor of computer science will examine large language models (LLMs) power modern chatbots and text generators. How do they work and what do they mean for human society? We’ll begin by describing next-token-prediction and reinforcement learning with human feedback, the two technical tasks that underlie contemporary LLMs. The full description of this talk can be found right here.

Sharad Joshi, associate professor in the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies (NPTS) program, examines the multiple strategies through which terrorists exploit conditions created by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and tsunamis (amongst other such catastrophes). These strategies include participating in disaster relief activities with the expectation that it will lead to increased fundraising and enhanced recruitment. The full description of this talk can be found right here. 

Please join Anderson Professor of Environment and Biosphere Studies Molly Costanza-Robinson for a talk entitled “Sources and Ecological Consequences of Salting Vermont’s Streams.”

Talk Description: I will share work from an ongoing collaborative project in which we seek to understand the magnitude, source(s), and ecological consequences of elevated salt levels in Lake Champlain Basin streams.

For more information and to register please visit the Faculty at Home website.

Please join Charles A. Dana Professor of Political Science Murray Dry for a talk entitled “The Presidency and the Constitution: The Founders’ Views and the State of the Office and its Powers Today.” Talk Description: This talk takes its points of departure from two books on the American presidency that were published in 2020. The first is “After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency”, by Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith. The authors provided a roadmap for reform of the presidency in the post-Trump era.

Join us for cider and cookies and meet the faculty and students of the New Directions Arts Festival. The Festival is an interdisciplinary performance with music, dance, visual art, and theatre, led by Dr. Matthew Evan Taylor (Music), Michelle Leftheris (Studio Art), Laurel Jenkins (Dance) and Michole Biancosino (Theatre).