The Center for Community Engagement

Service Translation is a student-led program that translates primary source documents and oral histories of those impacted by Executive Order 9066 and the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. This introduction to Service Translation will feature our 2024 project translating subtitles (English to Japanese) of the documentary Removed by Force, which shares the experiences of Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. All interested welcome! No prior language or linguistic abilities required.

Does a Friday, home-cooked brunch sound good to you? Come relax at the Center for Community Engagement, learn about our programs, and hear from Midd students leading community-connected programs focused on language access, local food and farms, democracy initiatives, elementary school mentoring and so much more! This is an optional orientation event and all years are welcome.

What do people seek when they seek justice? A judgment may establish responsibility. A truth commission may create a public record. An oral history may give someone the opportunity to tell a story that has long gone unheard. Although these processes have different powers and purposes, each can provide something fundamental: acknowledgment. Drawing on her work as a human rights lawyer and co-founder of Rerooted, Anoush Baghdassarian, along with her co-founder Ani Schug, will explore acknowledgment as the connective tissue among law, memory, storytelling, and peacebuilding.

This will be an opportunity 1) to share your experiences and learning and insights; 2) to hear from your peers about their experiences and learning and insights; and 3) to enjoy a tasty meal together.

By invitation

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs Global Fellows Program presents “Interactive Peacemaking and Coordination in Complex Peace Processes” with Susan Allen.

This public event will welcome a delegation of Maori and Pasifika colleagues visiting Middlebury College from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Panel members will discuss the role of purakau (storytelling), waiata (song), and whakatauki (proverbs) in Indigenous Maori and Polynesian practices of wellbeing and planetary stewardship. Through the teachings of the kuaka, a shorebird known for its remarkable migration from Aotearoa to North America, this event invites attendees to explore the idea that journeys are collective and community futures can soar in spaces of mutual learning, responsibility, and relationship.

Dr. April Edwell (she/they) is the 2025 Projects for Peace Alumni Award recipient. Projects for Peace is a global program of the Center for Community Engagement at Middlebury, and the award, now in its third year, offers $50,000 to support the ongoing peacebuilding efforts of a past Projects for Peace grant recipient who demonstrates innovation and persistence in working for peace and transforming conflict. An Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, Dr. Edwell works as a Pediatric Intensivist helping critically ill children and their families. In this keynote, Dr. Edwell will address how they approach and transform conflicts in the healthcare setting in an approach that includes the integration of trauma-informed care with anti-racist frameworks.

Please stop by to hear world music and purchase delicious food and fun merch in support of a Vermont-based nonprofit organization, the Vermont Language Justice Project. 

Come purchase yummy snacks and cool merch— all benefiting the Vermont Language Justice Project, a local nonprofit organization.

Middlebury College Access Mentors will be tabling at Davis Library from 5-6:30 on Monday, 12/1 and Tuesday, 12/2. Stop by to learn about mentoring a high schooler through the college application process!