Spring 2023 Recorded Series
Spring 2023 Recorded Series
Recordings are available for the following Faculty at Home webinars that have already happened. Recordings are usually available about two weeks after the webinar.
John Elder-How to Read a Poem Together, and Why
I often found in classes at Middlebury and Bread Loaf that a group’s close consideration of a single poem could generate sustained and authentic conversations of a quality rare in daily life. My aim in this event is to share some of my related strategies and experiences as a teacher and at the same time to facilitate a rewarding discussion of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30. Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent… | Poetry Foundation
Joyce Mao-How China Made the "New Right" New: A Brief History
After Japanese bombs hit Pearl Harbor, the American Right stood at a crossroads. Generally isolationist, conservatives needed to forge their own foreign policy agenda if they wanted to remain politically viable. Joyce Mao, Associate Professor of History, will discuss how foreign policy changes following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and during the Cold War led to American conservatism as we know it today.
Amanda Gregg-Corporations Under Autocracy
The past is full of useful economics. This presentation outlines what we can learn from studying corporations in the Russian Empire, a key “emerging market” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Using newly collected data from historical sources such as balance sheets and corporate charters, this presentation explains the strategies that corporations in the Russian Empire used to finance operations and expansion, to design their charters to attract outside investment, and to decide whether to remain in operation or exit the market. Overall, this research presents an optimistic picture of the Russian economy under autocracy with several important caveats. For example, I will highlight the distortions created by restricting access to the corporate form.
Netta Avineri-Pedagogies of Interdisciplinarity: Possibilities and Prospects for the Social Issues of Our Time
In this talk, Netta Avineri will explore how dialogue among different experiences and identities can create new avenues for hope and change. She highlights the ‘pedagogies of interdisciplinarity’ she uses in her coursework and community engagement at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). She will discuss case studies including educational/language inequities, housing insecurity, immigration, Indigenous representation, and public health. By bringing together a range of viewpoints, recognizing the conflicts involved, and ‘coalescing’ around common intentions and goals, these intercultural exchanges can foster students’ critical abilities to address the world’s most complex problems.
Philipp Bleek-Assessing Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Terrorism
The United States—and the international community more generally—devotes a lot of effort to reducing the threat of terrorists using chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. How should one think about the seriousness of the threat? What about its character? And based on both the magnitude and character of the threat, how should policy makers think about appropriate responses to it?
Jennifer Grotz- Poets on Paintings, Take 2
Building on Professor Antonia Losano’s presentation last spring, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference director and poet Jennifer Grotz will revisit the topic of ekphrastic poetry, this time primarily taking a poet’s, rather than a scholar’s, perspective. She will present a case study of a Caravaggio painting, The Conversion of Paul, looking at poems addressing it written first by British poet Thom Gunn, and then by American poets Stanley Plumly and his student Paul Otremba, and, finally, reading her own ekphrastic poem on the painting. This deep dive will provide opportunities to amplify many of Professor Losano’s observations but also extend the understanding of the ekphrastic to include artistic strategies, connection, and conversation over time.