Vermont Humanities

Talking In Place: What Can Vermont Town Meetings Teach Us About Bridging Divides?

Colorful illustration of hands casting ballots in a box
Grants

Author Susan Clark, historian Paul M. Searls, podcaster Erica Heilman, and UVM professor Cheryl Morse reflect on what Vermont’s rural town meeting tradition can teach us about our nation’s democracy today.

We invite you to listen to “Town Meeting,” a new half-hour show in the award-winning Rumblestrip podcast series. You’ll enjoy sound from the floor of town meetings and some surprising stories from participants who normally don’t share their opinions: Vermont’s town moderators.

We were pleased to help sponsor this talk as part of the Vermont Civics Collaborative, part of the nationwide “Why it Matters: Civics and Electoral Participation” initiative sponsored by the The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

Photo of the East Montpelier town meeting by Terry J. Allen.

Listen to the Rumblestrip Town Meeting episode

In most of New England, town citizens become legislators for one day a year. They get together in school gyms and town halls and vote in person, and in public. This centuries long practice of towns doing the slow and hard work of disagreeing and arguing and compromising on how to govern themselves—this has a profound impact on a place, and what it means to be from a place.

Civics Collaborative Recordings

Speakers Delma Jackson III and Kesha Ram

Kesha Ram and Delma Jackson: What Does Race Have to Do With It?

The day after the verdict in the George Floyd murder trial was announced, the Center for Whole Communities in Burlington hosted a discussion between Senator Ram and Delma Jackson, the co-host of the Dive-In-Justice podcast.

Author Tim Wise speaking at the St. Josephs Cathedral in Burlington, VT

Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance Ceremony 2021

Tim Wise, a prominent anti-racist writer and educator gave this keynote presentation on January 17 for the Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center at the St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Burlington as part of a remembrance of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Woman speaking into a microphone at East Montpelier Town Meeting. Photo by Terry J. Allen

Talking In Place: What Can Vermont Town Meetings Teach Us About Bridging Divides?

Author Susan Clark, historian Paul M. Searls, podcaster Erica Heilman, and UVM professor Cheryl Morse reflect on what Vermont’s rural town meeting tradition can teach us about our nation’s democracy today.

State Curator David Schutz in front of State House

Vermont’s Temples of Democracy: A Tour with State Curator David Schutz

In an exclusive video tour, Vermont State Curator David Schutz explores the architectural symbolism of our beautifully-restored capitol building, and visits a rural town hall, another Vermont civic structure that enables us to govern ourselves.

Colorful illustration of hands casting ballots in a box

Why Does the Electoral College Matter?

When the national vote and the electoral vote reach different conclusions, as happened in 2016, voters on the losing side cry foul. Why do we have an electoral college in the first place? Meg Mott considers the rationale behind this 18th century institution.

Two women with National Suffrage Association banner

Women’s Suffrage: Moral Advancement or Politics as Usual?

The suffrage movement operated under two very different principles. Elizabeth Cady Stanton saw women’s suffrage as a right that had been unfairly denied to women, while Frederick Douglass saw women’s suffrage as a means to save the country’s soul.

Vermont Humanities*** March 1, 2021