Vermont Humanities

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Woman speaking with hand over heart beside statue

Using the humanities, we connect with people across Vermont to create just, vibrant, and resilient communities and to inspire a lifelong love of learning.

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Attend

Come enjoy 400+ humanities
events held across Vermont.

upcoming events

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Watch

Miss an event or discussion? Watch a recording on your
own time.

recorded events

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Listen

Dive into our two humanities podcasts to engage and learn about new perspectives.

discover podcasts

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Book

Bring a speaker or event to your library, community, or school.

find out how

Featured Events

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Live Event

New England Uncovered

What lies hidden beneath the popular images of New England with its white spires and Yankee frugality? More than meets the eye! Featured novel: I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson

Hybrid Event

Dancing in the Street: Carols and Songs of the Holiday Season

Sometime in November each year, holiday music — mostly Christmas carols, but others as well — begins to saturate the soundscape of North America. Every song has a story; what’s the story of this music? Why does it have such a cultural hold? Is it a kind of folk tradition? How is it related to dance and drama? This presentation will include singing and will offer lore about the origins of these songs, their practice, and the resonance they have in our lives.

Image of drawing of "Eugenics Tree"
Live Event

Outsiders: Those Who Fell Outside the Cultural Norm

This discussion series examines the treatment of populations outside the cultural norms of the late 19th and early 20th century America. The books cover the historical conditions and treatments of Native Americans, women deemed mentally ill and locked away, and those considered developmentally handicapped, mentally handicapped and/or genetically inferior.

Hybrid Event

Drawing Hidden Systems

Have you ever wondered how the internet works, where electricity comes from, or how there’s (mostly) enough water for everyone all the time? Where did these systems comes from, and how do they affect our challenges like inequality and climate change? Join Vermont author and artist Dan Nott for a look at these questions and more as he discusses his new nonfiction graphic novel, Hidden Systems for this all-ages event.

An illustration of Don Quixote on a horse with a yellow sky in the background
Digital Event

Don Quixote of La Mancha

Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote de La Mancha, published in the early 1600s, is often considered the first modern novel. Scholar and author Ilan Stavans discusses the novel’s origins, structure, and characters, and the way it continues to redefine us.

Image of painting of medieval kitchen helpers
Live Event

Soup to Nuts: An Eccentric History of Food

The history of what and how we eat encompasses everything from the prehistoric mammoth luau to the medieval banquet to the modern three squares a day. Find out about the rocky evolution of table manners, the not-so-welcome invention of the fork, the awful advent of portable soup, and the surprising benefits of family dinners – plus some catchy info on seasonal foods.

Colorful Squares with the words Hanging Out interspersed.
Digital Event

Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time

With the introduction of AI and constant Zoom meetings, our lives have become more fractured and isolated. In Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time, author Sheila Liming shows us what we have lost to the frenetic pace of digital life, and how to get it back.

Image of Vermont forest in winter
Live Event

Murder in the Vermont Woods: A Story About Race, Class, and Gender in the 19th Century

Historian Jill Mudgett tells the story of an Indigenous man from southern New England who came to central Vermont during the late 19th century and was the victim of a murder. Recreating community connections in a rural Vermont hill town, this story is about poverty, racism, disability, and gendered violence against women, but is also an account of Indigenous movement and choice despite great obstacles.

Statue of the Wampanogas chief against a blue sky
Digital Event

Monumental Mobility: The Memory Work of Massasoit

A monument depicting Massasoit welcoming the Pilgrims was installed in Plymouth, MA in 1921 to mark the 300th anniversary of the landing of the English. Historian Jean O’Brien considers if the monument prompts us to reckon with the structural violence of settler colonialism, or further entrenches celebratory narratives of national origins.

Image for Alfred Hitchcock and the Art of Suspense
Live Event

Alfred Hitchcock and the Art of Suspense

Hitchcock famously said “Some films are slices of life; mine are slices of cake.” His career spanned forty years and many film eras. Film expert Rick Winston will discuss the evolution of Hitchcock’s craft, exploring his favorite themes, his relationship with his collaborators, and his wry sense of humor no matter how grisly the subject matter.

Image of Vermont forest in winter
Live Event

Murder in the Vermont Woods: A Story About Race, Class, and Gender in the 19th Century

Historian Jill Mudgett tells the story of an Indigenous man from southern New England who came to central Vermont during the late 19th century and was the victim of a murder. Recreating community connections in a rural Vermont hill town, this story is about poverty, racism, disability, and gendered violence against women, but is also an account of Indigenous movement and choice despite great obstacles.

Image of ancient alphabet writing
Live Event

Endangered Alphabets, Cultural Erosion, and the Future of the Written Word

What does the age of digital convergence, Facebook, and globalization mean for the future of the written word? Writer/carver/painter Tim Brookes offers remarkable and thought-provoking perspective on this question by looking at a range of forms of writing from all over the world that are in danger of extinction.

See All Upcoming Events

We recently gave a $5000 project grant to the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction to print and distribute a comic to schools and literacy organizations throughout Vermont.

How We Read, A Graphic Guide To Literacy will help kids experience the joy of reading and overcome the stigma of struggling to read.

Learn more about our Project Grants

Image courtesy Center for Cartoon Studies

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Our Programs

Vermont Humanities has developed a broad range of programs that serves Vermonters of all ages and backgrounds. In 2022, 38,188 people took part in our programs, and we held 677 activities, either hosted by us or by our community partners.

Learn More about Our Programs

The Anne Commire Fund for Women in the Humanities supports projects that focus on women writers. Anne (at far left) is shown with the cast of her play “Melody Sisters” in 1984.

The fund was created through a legacy gift of $125,000 from Anne’s estate, one of the largest individual gifts ever made to Vermont Humanities.

Learn more about this gift

Support Our Work

By giving to Vermont Humanities, you support education for people of all ages through early literacy programs, Humanities Camps for middle-school children, and programs held in libraries, community centers, schools, and correctional facilities.

Learn More about Supporting Us

Vermont Humanities*** January 13, 2015