Middlebury College employs several in-residence professionals. Whether it’s a scholar-in-residence or an artist-in-residence, these people function as resources for the students and other faculty. Writer-in-Residence Julia Alvarez, described these professionals as people with their feet in two worlds, one in the professional world and one in the academic world. These professionals offer their expertise in their fields to students and also help put Middlebury on the non-academic map. Francois Clemmons greatly contributes to the College’s programs in the arts. Jeffrey Lunstead, a long-time diplomat in South Asia, brings real experience to the classroom setting. Sue Halpern, a writer in narrative journalism, spearheads the College’s journalism fellowships and offers her real world experience in an ever-important field. These professionals “in-residence” work both on and off campus to help the College offer the resources necessary to be an institution of the highest caliber.
Jeffrey Lunstead:
Jeffrey Lunstead brings a different element to the international and global studies department — years of experience in the Foreign service.
Before coming to the College to teach a winter term course in January of 2008, Lunstead spent 29 years as a dedicated Foreign Service officer, living and working in
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia. Additionally, Lunstead acted as the ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives from 2003 to 2006.
After many years abroad, Lunstead decided it was time to return to his original career plan and work as an educator.
“I had actually thought I was going to go into teaching, but I didn’t have a job right [when I graduated],” said Lunstead. “I got a job offer from the Foreign Services right at that moment, so I thought I’d try that for a while. And 29 years later, I thought maybe I would go back to my Plan A.”
Lunstead now teaches one course per semester in the international studies and political science departments, and most of his courses deal with his specialty — South Asia. In addition to teaching, Lunstead also advises students who are interested in careers in international relations and others who are working to set up seminars or symposiums. He also works with the Career Service Office, giving talks on international careers to students interested in working overseas or in international affairs in the United States.
Lunstead was originally attracted to the position at Middlebury for his familiarity with the area. His family has vacationed in the Adirondacks for many years. Other than Middlebury’s ideal location, Lunstead was interested in the importance that the College places on global perspectives.
“Middlebury is a funny place,” said Lunstead. “We have this small liberal arts college in rural Vermont with this very strong international emphasis, in terms of international students, students who study languages and students who study abroad.”
To expand upon his experiences, Lunstead connects his classes to the real world using simulations and role-playing exercises. For example, students can play out different scenarios during class by taking on the role of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Through these kinds of hands on learning experiences, Lunstead believes that his experience can bring a new frame of mind to the classroom.
“Both enjoy it because it’s a different perspective on the thing that they’re studying,” said Lunstead.
As a diplomat-in-residence, Lunstead’s position is based on “term appointment,” which means that his length of stay is an agreement between him and the College. Currently, Lunstead is scheduled to remain at Middlebury for another three years. Lunstead wants to continue teaching down the road in hopes of sharing his interests and experience with future students.
“I love interacting with the students here because I find them not only smart, because everyone knows that Middlebury students are smart, but [additionally] students are also extremely engaged and interested in finding out about the world,” said Lunstead. “I love South Asia … and the opportunity to [educate] other people so that they can also be interested is a great opportunity.”
Francois Clemmons:
Francois Clemmons first came to Middlebury in 1980, and observed “the leaves were so beautiful. The weather was so beautiful, and I walked and I thought this is like a magic kingdom. I just love it.”
In the 15 years that Clemmons has been artist-in-residence, he has been given generally free reign to define his position.
“The College really doesn’t tell me what to do,” explained Clemmons. “I make a chronology of what I’ve done throughout the year. And I’ll never forget Robert Shine was the Dean of the Faculty and I had a meeting with him and he said [upon seeing the chronology] ‘if it aint broke, we’re not going to fix it.’”
Clemmons has been prolific with his involvement in the school. Some of his long-standing contributions include teaching a winter term course titled “American Negro Spirituals,” popular among a less-likely musical crowd of first-years and athletes. Another project of his is the Martin Luther King Spiritual Choir, which developed out of the American Negro Spirituals course.
“I’ve got this rag-tag group choir,” said Clemmons, “… through [which] I like to encourage people who are not musicians to have a musical experience before they graduate from Middlebury College. Ninety percent of the kids who sing with me don’t read music, they’re introverts … and they come and I encourage them, I nurture them … to try and help them to contact that deep emotional part of themselves that will allow them to sing.”
The flexibility of Clemmons’s position allows him to move among major departments and share his expertise across various fields of study — from the dance department to literature programs.
“[The College has] just been so receptive, I’ve explored parts of my personality that I don’t think I would have done in New York City.”
Clemmons is also responsible for the conception of the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration, which he delights in, as a lover of Irish music and musicians such as world-renowned Irish-tenor John McCormack.
“I don’t think if I lived in New York they would tolerate an openly-gay black man doing a St. Patrick’s Day celebration,” said Clemmons. “They wouldn’t! … But here in Vermont they let me do it. And I think that’s a huge honor that no one is saying you couldn’t do that because you’re not Irish and you’re black. …They understand that I’m doing it because I love Irish music.”
One of Clemmons favorite undertakings has been singing the national anthem at basketball games.
“I am so patriotic and a lot of the boys are in my class,” said Clemmons. “I have a legacy that goes back 10 to 12 years of [supporting] basketball players.”
However, after years of dedication to the school and community, Clemmons has made the decision to retire at they end of the academic year — to slow down, finish his autobiography (already at an unedited 700+ pages) and of course, continue enjoying a life of music.
“The College has been very generous to me all the years that I’ve been here,” said Clemmons. “I hope to continue when I retire to be a part of the College.”
Sue Halpern:
Sue Halpern came to Middlebury seeking a balance between her career as a writer and her life as an academic.
Halpern is a published writer who focuses on “narratives of all forms.” Her most recent book, Can’t Remember What I Forgot, came out in 2012. The book chronicles Halpern’s exploration of the world of modern memory science and neurology.
At the College, Halpern is a member of the department of English and American literatures.
“I was an academic in an earlier life. I realized that I wanted to focus on writing and not so much on being an academic. Then for a while I didn’t do any teaching and I wasn’t affiliated with any academic institution,” she said.
Since coming to Middlebury, Halpern has been very active in promoting narrative journalism at the College. In 2003, Halpern helped to create Meet the Press, a program which invites journalists to give lectures at the College.
“[Meet the Press] brings journalists into our midst and lets us have a go at them to help us understand what they’re doing in the world,” Halpern said.
Halpern also helped create the Middlebury Fellowships in Narrative Journalism in 2008 along with Matt Jennings, editor of Middlebury Magazine. This program produces the “How did you get here?” audio slideshow series, which recounts students’ pre-Middlebury histories.
Halpern mentioned that she enjoys collaborating with students on this and other projects.
She said that she thinks Middlebury students are “very adventurous both intellectually and academically. They’re really willing to try new stuff; they want to be entrepreneurial and be out in the world. I find that really refreshing.”
Halpern frequently engages with students, providing students interested in narrative journalism and storytelling in general with an outlet for their interest.
“Right now I’m working with a group of students on ... producing podcasts for a project that I’m working on for the New York Review of Books,” she said. “We read books together and talk about them and do background work on them and then we interview the authors. We then do digital editing and make audio slideshows.”
Halpern also mentors students participating in independent study projects.
Halpern’s husband is Bill McKibben, an environmental author and activist who also works as a scholar-in-residence. Halpern said that while she and her husband both enjoy working at Middlebury, the divergent nature of their work doesn’t allow for many opportunities to collaborate academically.
Overall, Halpern said that her experience working at the College has been immensely positive.
“It’s a great place to be for all sorts of reasons,” Halpern said.
“The facilities are unparalleled, [and] the faculty is really welcoming. People here are doing interesting work, and they’re working collaboratively as well,” she said.
“Then you’ve got this incredible student energy as well, which I think is just remarkable.”
Julia Alvarez:
Julia Alvarez first set her eyes on the green mountain state when she came here in the summer of 1969 to attend the Breadloaf Writer’s Conference after winning a poetry prize at Connecticut College for Women.
“I came up to Breadloaf and fell in love with the place,” said Alvarez. After attending the conference Alzarez decided that she had to transfer to the College.
“I walked into the admissions office and I said I have to come here,” she said.
Her enthusiasm threw the admissions officer at the time for a loop. He tried to tell her there was a whole process to which she had to apply to transfer.
After hearing this, Alvarez responded, “I’ll just move to town and work until I can get in.”
With her persistent attitude, Alvarez received a call a week later and enrolled in the College. Alvarez explained that she loved every minute of her time at the College, but that the teachers were really what made the difference in her undergraduate education.
“Excellent teachers really nurtured what I called my calling,” said Alvarez. The calling to which she refers is writing, especially poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction.
“I call myself a migrant poet,” said Alvarez, who earlier in her career worked as a teacher, travelling from place to place teaching whenever she could and always writing. When Alvarez got a call from the College asking about whether she would want to have a temporary teaching position at the College for one year she immediately said yes. Her one-year gig quickly turned into a 10-year commitment, and soon after that she was being considered for tenure.
The one problem with granting Alvarez tenure was that she needed to have published work in order to be considered. Alvarez quickly compiled her writing and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents was published in 1991.
“I got tenure and I thought of this as my tenure book,” she said. Yet, with the great success of Garcia Girls, Alvarez became overwhelmed with the great task of both teaching and writing.
“I gave up tenure to be a full-time writer,” she said, but I had also fallen in love with the classroom.” Wanting to remain involved with the College, Alvarez worked with the administration to create a role for her on campus. The College’s only writer-in-residence, Alvarez expressed how grateful she is to the College for being so accommodating.
“I really get a lot out of it because it gives me a community that keeps me thinking and learning and growing,” she sad. Alvarez just finished her first creative non-fiction book, A Wedding in Haiti.
“I’m really interest in creative non-fiction. The older I get, the world becomes more and more baffling,” said Alvarez.
Alvarez enjoys remaining connected to the College and acts as the adviser to the Alianza student group and is also a thesis adviser as well. Alvarez credits the College with keeping her constantly engaged and continues to ask questions about the nature of her work.
“The quandary now for me as a writer is, what is the role of the storyteller in the circle of transformative change?”
LAUREN DAVIDSON, MICHELLE SMOLER, and JOSH KRUSKAL contributed to this report.
