Photograph by Angela Jane Evancie, at the Middlebury College Organic Garden

John Elder, professor emeritus of English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, gave a lecture at the Monterey Institute entitled “Field Stories: Learning Beyond the Campus” on Tuesday, April 2, 2013.

In this lecture John reported on his recent experiences of pursuing the goals of liberal education through work off campus and outside the traditional classroom structure. John introduced the concept of “ecotonal education,” a concept that maps ecology and systems thinking on education and perhaps offers us a means to re-frame interdisciplinary teaching and learning.   An ecotone is defined as the space between habitats or fields; at the edges or boundaries of natural habitats these spaces tend to be rich in bio-diversity where new species develop, and adversity and opportunity abound.  John offered the ecotone as a new metaphor for thinking about the relations between academic disciplines, between the university campus and the ‘real world,’ between online and face-to-face teaching and learning, and between cultures.  He offered examples of immersive classes dedicated to sustainable rural communities and online discussions of poetry.

John Elder taught English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and the Bread Loaf School of English for 37 years. He edited the Norton Book of Nature Writing with Robert Finch, and his most recent three books, Reading the Mountains of Home, The Frog Run, and Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa, all combine discussion of environmental literature, description of the Vermont landscape, and memoir. In addition to stories of Frost, Bashō, ballads, and pastorals, comparative studies of the literature and landscape of Japan, Italy, and Ireland have complemented his work in northern New England. Read more about him here.

Recorded Tuesday, April 2, 2013 – Morse Lecture Hall, Monterey Institute of International Studies

With an emphasis on understanding the deep complexity of the human voice and the soundscapes we live in, this hands-on workshop explored what happens when we turn off the visual and turn up our attention to the voices and sounds around us.  The session was offered in collaboration with Barbara Ganley, a former Middlebury writing professor, and DLC expert-in-residence on community development and digital storytelling.

Participants learned about MIIS Radio, Blogs @ MIIS, Midd Media, and MiddLab@MIIS as platforms for documenting academic research and field experiences for academic and professional purposes.   Tools and practical implications for how digital audio can be used in field research, storytelling and documentary were also discussed.

Dr. Dale Rogers is Co-Director of the Center for Supply Chain Management at Rutgers University. He was instrumental in building the two highly successful SCM programs at the University of Nevada and Rutgers University, measured by national rankings and graduate internship and job placements. Dr. Rogers believes that SCM is taking the center stage in addressing the key sustainability issues in today’s businesses. It is the nexus for the environmental impact, social impact, and ethical behavior of contemporary business and management. In other words, SCM is general management with substance.

Listen to Dr. Rogers’s experience in developing winning degree programs and his vision on sustainable business education.

Dr. Norse has worked at the conservation science-policy interface for his entire career. After earning his B.S. in Biology from Brooklyn College, he studied the ecology of blue crabs in the Caribbean and the tropical East Pacific during his doctoral years at University of Southern California and his postdoctoral fellowship years at University of Iowa. Starting in 1978 he worked at the US Environmental Protection Agency, White House Council on Environmental Quality (where he defined biological diversity as conservation’s overarching goal), Ecological Society of America, The Wilderness Society and Ocean Conservancy before founding Marine Conservation Institute in 1996. Dr. Norse’s 150+ publications include Global Marine Biological Diversity: A Strategy for Building Conservation into Decision Making (1993) and Marine Conservation Biology: The Science of Maintaining the Sea’s Biodiversity (2005). He is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, was President of the Society for Conservation Biology’s Marine Section, received the Nancy Foster Award for Habitat Conservation from the National Marine Fisheries Service, was named Brooklyn College 2008 Distinguished Alumnus and winner of the 2012 Chairman’s Medal from the Seattle Aquarium.

This talk draws on findings from a two-year study co-directed by Professors Beryl Levinger and Evan Bloom, which examined the organizational development practices of 15 Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies around the world. Through the prim of this research, Beryl explores what social change organizations need to do to remain relevant and make a sustainable difference in the lives of those they serve.

If you are likely to work for or with organizations that constantly face new challenges in an environment of uncertain resources, then this post is for you!

In this 17-minute final podcast, class members explore the more complicated issues of sustainability they uncovered during semester long action research projects.  Through interviews with team members, discussions of topics covered in class sessions, and creative recreations of class discoveries, the podcast presents the ups and downs, confusions and triumphs of the two teams’ experiences along with the lessons they learned on the way.  Follow along to the podcast on their class website for more information!

Steven Gorelick is the US Program Director for the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC), and teaches Economics and the Environment at Sterling College, in Craftsbury, Vermont. He is the co-director of the documentary film The Economics of Happiness (ISEC, 2011), author of Small is Beautiful, Big is Subsidized (ISEC, 1998), and co-author of Bringing the Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness (Kumarian Press, 2002). He lives with his wife and two children on a small organic farm in South Walden, Vermont.

President Ramaswamy delighted MIIS students with his talk entitled Elephants Can Dance: an Assessment of India’s Economic Performance and Potential. The President gave the talk on the Monterey Institute of International Studies campus on Thursday, May 3 during the Emerging Markets Colloquium.

President Ramaswamy is widely recognized for his scholarly and professional work in international and development economics, particularly in India and Africa. He has written and edited books, authored articles for a variety of scholarly journals focused on development and international economics, delivered presentations at international conferences on four continents, and been quoted in local, national, and international media.

Photo an biography from MIIS Website.

Paul Schweigl graduated from St. Norbert College in beautiful De Pere, Wisconsin, with a Bachelors Degree in History and Religious Studies. He is currently a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame and a high school religious studies teacher in Wisconsin.

Nathan Lutterman is currently a Computer Science undergraduate student at University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. He also works part-time at Family Video, a movie rental company. He hopes to one day become an astronaut.