Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Dates: Tuesdays, September 17, 24 & October 1
Time: 3-4:30 p.m.
Location: Ilsley Public Library
Cost: $40 suggested; books, purchased separately, are available at the Vermont Book Shop at a discount.

Description: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, is a courageous, scathingly honest novel about a love turning bitter, a mother protecting her son from his father, and an imperfect but well-meaning man at war with his own heart. First published in 1848, the striking parallels to contemporary society will make for compelling discussion.

Instructor: Frankie Dunleavy received her education in London, where she majored in French and minored in English. In addition to those subjects, she has also taught Latin, Spanish, and German in England, France, Germany and, most recently, Middlebury, Vermont.

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Seeking Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Legacy of a Vermont Family

(Rescheduled from summer)

Date: Thursday, September 26
Time: 10-11:30 a.m.
Location: Ilsley Public Library
Cost: $20 suggested

Description: Learn what’s new at the Rokeby! This National Landmark site is a historical treasure, telling the story of the Underground Railroad through the many generations of the Robinson family who lived at Rokeby in Ferrisburgh from 1793 to 1961. The Robinson family is unique because of the abolitionists who were active in the antislavery movement— and the later generations who saved the antislavery documents. Meet Rokeby Museum’s new director and learn about her research in upgrading the exhibition on the Underground Railroad and the antislavery movement in Vermont.

Instructor: Lindsay Varner is the executive director at Rokeby Museum. She has over a decade of experience in public history. Her research background is on the history of Quakerism and the Reformation in Early Modern England. She has taught at several higher education institutions, including Dickinson College and Elizabethtown College.

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Exploring Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change

Date: Wednesday, October 2
Time: 10-11:30 a.m.
Location: Congregational Church of Middlebury
Cost: $20 suggested

Description: Strategies to address the climate crisis have rightly focused on the need to transition away from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy, but there are additional steps we can and must take to safeguard the future. This class will focus on nature’s role in sequestering carbon and its role in supporting biodiversity, clean water and resilient communities. According to the National Academy of Science, our forests, soils, wetlands and grasslands can provide 37 percent of cost-effective CO2 mitigation needed through 2030. Join longtime climate activist and leader Betsy Taylor in learning more about the growing efforts to conserve, restore, and manage lands for our climate.

Instructor: Betsy Taylor is a philanthropic consultant, author, speaker and campaigner with four decades of directing NGOs, strategic campaigns and philanthropic foundations focused on confronting major environmental and social problems. She has served as executive director for multiple foundations and national non-profit organizations and currently chairs Dr. James Hansen’s Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions board and the board of the Volgenau Climate Initiative. For more information go to www.betsytaylor.com.

Climate Conversation

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Plants, People, Planet: In Search of Perennial Roots, Relationships and Rhythms

Date: Thursday, October 3
Time: 10-11:30 a.m.
Location: Ilsley Public Library
Cost: $20 suggested

Description: An ongoing discussion with Bill Vitek, director of the New Perennials project at Middlebury College. New Perennials explores the intersections between what we eat and how we think, and the exciting and emerging efforts in agricultural and educational research to develop long-lived and deeply rooted varieties of both. From the big philosophical questions to the practical challenges of transitioning to a just and livable future in the midst of cascading crises, the conversations will be lively, informative and fun. Short readings, provided in advance by the instructor, will guide the conversations.

Instructor: Before moving to Middlebury in 2019 with his family, Bill Vitek taught philosophy for 32 years at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. Much of his work engages ecological issues, including collaborations with Wes Jackson for over three decades. Also a musician, Bill founded The Jazz Collective. The group performs all around Vermont, and every Thursday night at the Middlebury Inn.

Climate Conversation

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Life Is Full of Surprises: Two Compelling Novels of Midlife Discoveries

Dates: Tuesdays, October 8, 15 & 22
Time: 10-11:30 a.m.
Location: Congregational Church of Middlebury
Cost: $40 suggested; books, purchased separately, are available at the Vermont Book Shop at a discount.

Description: A seminar-style discussion of two well-crafted and readable novels—noted English novelist Penelope Lively’s The Photograph (2003) and renowned Lebanese-French writer Amin Maalouf’s The Disoriented (2012). Both stories feature middle-aged protagonists abruptly forced to figure out that there’s still a lot to figure out. We will contemplate the artfully rendered retrospective explorations of a marriage and complex family relationships in The Photograph and of enduring friendships and existential questioning in The Disoriented when Adam returns suddenly to Beirut following 25 years of French self-exile.

Instructor: After earning his Ph.D. at Stanford, Professor Emeritus of Chinese John Berninghausen established Middlebury College’s Department of Chinese Language and Literature. Along with teaching Chinese, he led popular seminars on Western and Asian literature. An avid reader, he collects Chinese paintings and is a world traveler.

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A Judge’s Perspective on the Supreme Court

NOTE REVISED SCHEDULE

Dates & Times: Thursday, October 10, 10-11:30 a.m. & Wednesday, October 16, 10:30 a.m.-noon
Location: Ilslely Public Library
Cost: $20 suggested

Description: The United States Supreme Court has recently been a major focus in the news. Controversial rulings and questions of ethics have sullied the general public’s confidence in the court. Judge Bill Sessions will discuss issues facing the court and what its future holds.

Instructor: A Middlebury College graduate, Bill Sessions received his law degree from George Washington University Law School. He has worked as an Addison County public defender, taught at Vermont Law School, and had a private law practice. He is currently a U.S. District Court Judge and a Visiting Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. His expertise is in sentencing policy, and he was chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. 

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Do Social Movements Make a Difference?

• NOTE NEW DATE AND TIME

Date: Wednesday, October 30
Time: 1:30-3 p.m.
Location: Ilsley Public Library
Cost: $20 suggested

Description: Social movements are big groundswells of people organizing outside of the government to influence policy, or practices or the culture. In the U.S., we remember some social movements proudly—like the civil rights movement. But movements are often despised while they are happening, even seen as un-American. This course will try to find a way through these opposite attitudes to ask whether and how social movements actually influence politics and our culture.

Instructor: Susan Munkres is a sociologist and educator who teaches about social movements and organizing. Her job at the University of Vermont is training and supporting faculty to teach collaboratively with community partners. Outside of work, she gardens, hikes and quilts. 

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Percival Everett’s James

Dates: Wednesdays, November 6, 13 & 20
Time: 1:30-3 p.m.
Location: Congregational Church of Middlebury
Cost: $40 suggested; books, purchased separately, are available at the Vermont Book Shop at a discount.

Description: In his 24th novel to date, James (2024), Percival Everett responds to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which Ernest Hemingway called “the best book we’ve had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before that.” The problem for the Black American writer is that the second protagonist is a slave named Jim, whose powers of speech are limited and whose mind is full of superstitious lore. He is not accorded the same level of consciousness as Huck Finn, even though Jim often serves in the role of father to the adolescent boy he befriends and accompanies down the Mississippi in pursuit of his freedom. Everett gives to Jim, or rather James, the same range of thought and language as Huck; James observes the world with humor, irony, subtle perception and, at times, anger. For the first time in American fiction, we have a new voice for African-Americans, reminding us that no one race has a superior claim upon knowledge or subjectivity. We are equal in our capacity to learn and grow, according to this novel, which some critics are saying should be taught alongside Twain’s American classic as the first great American novel of the 21st century. This course will discuss the skill and inventiveness of Everett’s creation of James in an open forum, inviting all students to contribute their insights and interpretations of the work. It is recommended for those who may not have read Twain’s novel to read it or find suitable digests of the work before the course begins. 

Instructor: Paul Christensen taught contemporary literature at Texas A&M University and coordinated its creative writing program. His short stories have appeared in national journals and reviews, and he is the author of two memoirs as well as studies of the American poets Charles Olson and Clayton Eshleman. His newest story about the South, “Where Dreams Refuse to Die,” was recently published in The Antioch Review.

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Energy and Climate: Breaking the Link

Dates: Thursdays, November 7 & 14
Time: 10-11:30 a.m.
Location: Ilsley Public Library
Cost: $40 suggested

Description: Planet Earth faces a climate crisis resulting from human activity—predominately burning fossil fuels to produce the energy that runs modern society. This two-part course will explore humankind’s energy use, sources of that energy, the science behind energy’s climate impacts, and steps we can take to break the link between energy consumption and climate change while continuing to enjoy energy’s benefits. The latter will focus particularly on renewable energy and other climate-friendly replacements for fossil fuels. We’ll end with a vision of a planet that supports both its human and non-human inhabitants with a stable climate and ample resources for all.

Instructor: Rich Wolfson is Professor of Physics & Environmental Studies, Emeritus, at Middlebury College. He taught Middlebury’s first-ever climate course in 1992, and continued to teach climate courses on Middlebury’s Vermont and Monterey campuses from 2001 through the early 2020s. He’s done video courses on energy and climate for the Teaching Company’s Great Courses series, and is the author of the textbook Energy, Environment and Climate, most recently updated in 2023.

Climate Conversation

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Reflecting on the 2024 Election

Date: Friday, November 15
Time: 10-11:30 a.m.
Location: Ilsley Public Library
Cost: $20 suggested

Description: The 2024 presidential election has already seen one major candidate survive an assassination attempt and another drop out after winning his party’s primary. It is likely to bring us an unprecedented result as well, with either the first woman president or the first president to be elected after being convicted of a felony. Join us to discuss what happened on November 5 and why.

Instructor: Matt Dickinson teaches at Middlebury College, where he specializes in the study of American politics, particularly Congress and the presidency. Previously, he taught at Harvard University, where he also earned his Ph.D. in Government. He is the author of Bitter Harvest: FDR, Presidential Power, and the Growth of the Presidential Branch.

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