Provost's Office

A presentation of four new initiatives that illustrate Middlebury’s strategic framework. 

Public Humanities Labs Initiative – Presented by Marion Wells, Henry N. Hudson Professor of English and American Literatures and Co-Director of the Axinn Center for the Humanities and Febe Armanios, Professor of History and Co-Director of the Axinn Center for the Humanities

Nineteenth-century Americans often saved or exchanged locks of hair as mementos, constructing elaborate items of jewelry or keepsake wreaths that embodied familial relationships and kinship networks. These tokens could serve memorial purposes or solidify friendships. This material, crafted from the body, was often worn on the body, near the heart, or displayed within the intimate space of the home. In more recent decades, hair has become a potent political medium for artists highlighting feminism and ethnic or racial identity.

Conspiracies and Disinformation: New Challenges or Sources of Timeless Turmoil?

Jason M. Blazakis will discuss the international security challenges posed by conspiracies and disinformation and how these have manifested during the COVID-19 pandemic. He will also share some observations from his own research and that of the Middlebury Institute Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism.

In this talk, James Chase Sanchez argues that contemporary rhetoric of white supremacy is built around structures of preservation. Using ethnographic and autoethnographic research in his hometown of Grand Saline, Texas, Sanchez pinpoints the ways communities preserve their white supremacy via tactics of identity formation, storytelling, and silencing.

After the last military dictatorship in Argentina ended in 1983, the long decades of post-dictatorship posed a challenge: how to transmit the memory of that period to younger generations. This talk will explore questions such as: Is there a pedagogy of memory? Is it possible to build a curriculum that addresses the difficult issue of traumatic memories? Are institutions willing or able to deal with this issue? Professor Evangelista will also address the complex ways in which Argentine schools and universities, along with human-rights organizations, have dealt with memory.

Last March, theatre professor Dana Yeaton and actor-playwright Cole Merrell ’21 started writing a play together. Their inspiration was the legendary teacher-student relationship between Aristotle and Alexander the Great. Actor Ethan Bowen joined the weekly Zoom sessions to improvise the role of Aristotle, with Merrill playing the teenaged Alexander. Join Bowen and Merrill for a performance of excerpts directed by Assistant Professor of Theatre Michole Biancosino.

Ekphrastic poetry—poetry that describes a work of art, real or imagined—has been around since Homer described the complex decorations on the shield of Achilles in the Iliad, and countless poets since then have tried to translate visual artworks into words. How are we to understand this cross-media genre? Professor Antonia Losano will talk about a few notable examples of ekphrastic poets, including Keats, Browning, Auden, Sexton, Komunyakaa, and Trethewey. You’ll also look at the artworks they describe and explore the complex relationship of word and image.

Many of us first encountered algebra and geometry as two separate and very different areas of mathematics, but the two fields are intricately interconnected. Starting from the basics of Euclidean geometry and elementary algebra, award-winning teacher Emily Proctor highlights the relationship between these fields and shows how algebra is one of our strongest tools for understanding geometric objects and the world around us.

CryptoParties are part of a “global and decentralized grass-roots movement to help everyday people learn how to improve their internet security with open source tools.” With political and social polarization at work in this country, we believe that activists and allies will need to protect themselves from increased surveillance, harassment, doxxing, and other digital dangers. DLINQ’s Activists and Allies Cryptoparty aims to help protect people who are on the front lines of activism in our community and country, and/or people who work with and support marginalized communities.

Please join us for a conversation with Carolyn Finney whose piece, “The perils of being black in public: we are all Christian Cooper and George Floyd”, recently appeared in The Guardian. With Caitlin Myers and Sarah Stroup as moderators, Dr. Finney will address current issues around race and the environment. Webinar attendees will be able to submit questions before and during the webinar.

This is a webinar taking place via Zoom. Please visit the website to register for this event. There is no charge.