Calendar of Events
Humanities for Everyone
November 2021
The Refugee Journey
Putney’s Sandglass Theatre helped create the board game “Refugee Journey,” which illustrates the challenges of refugees attempting to find safety. In the game, trained facilitators personify border guards, smugglers, and immigration officers as players draw cards describing actual refugee experiences. Sandglass members talk about the impact of the game as audience members are invited to play. Read More »
December 2021
Responsible Investing: One Tool in the Toolbox to Fight Climate Change
We need to use every means at our disposal to alter the current trajectory of climate change and stave off the most devastating effects of a warming planet. Financial services professional Joy Facos explains that responsible investing—along with innovation, creativity, compassion, and hope—can serve as an effective instrument of change. Read More »
January 2022
Slow Democracy and the Power of Community
Author and advocate Susan Clark explains the Slow Democracy movement in which ordinary people mobilize to find local solutions to local problems. In the process some find they can bridge the “us/them” divide so prevalent in our national politics today. Read More »
February 2022
John Lewis and RUN!
Andrew Aydin, co-author of The March Trilogy with civil rights icon John Lewis, describes the creation of the next book in the series, RUN! Aydin also relates becoming an author, how he became involved in politics, and his experiences working with Congressman Lewis. Read More »
March 2022
*DIGITAL* The Glass Ballot Box and Political Transparency, 1856-2021
In response to concerns about election tampering in the 1850s, New Yorker Samuel Jollie proposed a novel solution: a ballot box made of glass. Emphasizing glass’s transparency and purity, Jollie suggested that his box would ensure fair and just elections. Middlebury professor Ellery Foutch illuminates the contemporary resonance of Jollie’s invention. (Registration required.) Read More »
April 2022
What is Ethnographic Poetry?
Cultural anthropologist Adrie Kusserow illuminates her research by sharing poems from her latest manuscript, Ethnography of a Feverish World. Kusserow focuses on refugees and the globalizing spread of Western ideals and considers how the environments we evolved to inhabit can be a mismatch for new technologies. Read More »