Faculty at Home: Series redefines the classroom

When campus closed for students last spring, Professor of Economics Caitlin Myers and Professor of Political Science Sarah Stroup — both on sabbatical at the time — began looking for ways to keep people academically connected. From their collaboration, the Faculty at Home Series emerged. 

 The Faculty at Home Series, a webinar-style lecture series open to the public, premiered on April 22 and has continued into the fall. Each session features a lecture by a Middlebury faculty member, followed by a brief Q&A moderated by Stroup or Myers. Since April, the series has featured twenty lecturers presenting on topics ranging from food systems’ transformation to Frankenstein. Attendees register online and then receive a Zoom link to join the live talk.

Stroup and Myers envisioned the series as a way to create a virtual public sphere where academic conversations could resume after the closure of the campus. The program received funding from the Engaged Listening Project, a “faculty training program with a focus on techniques to better engage students with controversial topics” led by Stroup, which had independent grant money at its disposal, specifically to support work in the digital space. 

In partnership with the Office of Advancement, the series emphasizes connection with the broader Middlebury community, including alumni, parents and other friends of the college. The series also acts as an adaptation of the Faculty on the Road series, wherein similar programming is offered in cities across the country, according to Associate Vice President for Alumni and Parent Programs Meg Storey Groves ’85. Myers says that the Faculty at Home series is more accessible by nature. Since its start, the series has had 2,500 unique attendees from 49 states and 43 countries. 

Spring and summer lectures have included as broad-ranging topics as “The perils of being black in public: A conversation with Carolyn Finney,” “Diagnosing Dissent: Soldiers and Psychiatry in Germany from WWI to the Nazi Era” and “Assessing coral reef resilience to thermal stress in the face of climate change.” 

“It was a dream come true. For us to have this way of engaging in a really robust way was incredible,” Groves said.

Groves has received a number of messages from participants expressing their gratitude for and excitement about the series. In addition to being of value to the community as a whole, she sees the series as being mutually beneficial and rewarding for attendees and lecturers alike.

Professor of Political Science Bert Johnson says that the series offers attendees a distinct scholarly perspective of phenomena that they may not get from the daily news cycle, while simultaneously providing a platform for the scholars themselves. 

“It’s important for scholars to be able to communicate with the broader interested public, and to be able to explain why we think what we think, why what we are observing is sometimes different than what you might see in the media or in other popular conversations,” Johnson said. “We offer a different perspective than what you get in the day to day.”

The talks also give current students a glimpse into the Middlebury community out in the world, which can be hard to conceptualize while attending the Vermont campus, according to Johnson. The next talk will be on October 16, featuring Assistant Professor of Film & Media Culture Natasha Ngaiza. It is entitled “‘Black Lives Matter’ and Abortion at the Movies.” Recordings of all previous lectures can be found at go/facultyathome.