Humanities Department Stories

May 2008

JSC's 15th annual Multilingual Poetry Jam, organized by Cynthia West, took place on April 22, 2008 in the Ellsworth Rooms of the Library and Learning Center. As April 22 was Earth Day, this year's theme was the Earth. Many world languages were represented at the jam. After a brief introduction, two readers presented each poem in its original form and then in its English translation.

Bill Doyle's "My Turn" columns ("State's citizen legislature at risk" 2/23/08 and "Vermont legislature did well" 5/11/08) appeared on the editorial page of the Burlington Free Press.

April 2008

Life in Orleans County, a new video documentary by Bill Doyle and students in his Vermont History and Government class in conjunction with videographer Vince Franke, was screened on Vermont Public Television on March 2.

December 2007

Professor Fred Wiseman played an important role at an October hearing held by the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs. The public hearing addressed legislative attempts to craft an amendment to a law passed in 2006. The law granted Abenaki state recognition, but stopped short of allowing Vermont Abenaki to meet federal rules for selling their arts and crafts as native made. The Commission met November 29 to complete wording of proposed legislation, then seek a sponsor in the Legislature, where several members have pledged to help change the law.

Part-time faculty member Cynthia West worked closely
with Sara Kinerson (Career Center) to coordinate and host a cultural Mask Making Project. This project paired each student in Cynthia's First Year Seminar, Cultivating the Cross Cultural Mind, with an international student at JSC. Working in pairs, the students learned to cast one another with plaster and created masks of their hands and/or faces. Prior to and during this event, the international students shared a bit about their culture with their partners and discussed what it is like to be a student in the United States.

JSC students with Professor Bill Doyle are working again in collaboration with professional videographer Vince Franke of Peregrine Productions to bring history alive through interviews with long-time residents and the use of local historical photographs, obtained with the help of the Orleans Historical Society. Orleans County, where the rivers run north, is defined by agriculture (including logging, woodworking, extensive maple orchards, dairy farming), by its stunning geography (including deep water, spring-fed lakes like Willoughby and Shadow Lake, mountains including Jay Peak), and the long, peaceful border with Canada. Capturing this history though the interviews with the county's elders is the goal of the project. The world premier of the film was on Friday, December 14, at 7 p.m. at the Barton Community House in Barton. The film will also be shown at JSC on Thursday, December 13, in the Ellsworth Rooms of the Library and Learning Center at 2:30 p.m., with all the student filmmakers in attendance.

October 2007

Professor Paul Silver performed this summer in the Vermont Philharmonic orchestra.  Paul has also published several reviews for Choice, a publication of the American Library Association, used by libraries to select books for their collections.

Professor Fred Wiseman uses his research to promote Native awareness in Vermont.  He is part of a Native American advisory team that is helping the museum at Fort Ticonderoga revamp its exhibits to portray the native participation in the history of the fort.  He gave a presentation regarding the Vermont Abenakis at the "Festival of Nations” held at Crown Point State Historic Site in New York on September 14.  A few days before, he attended a meeting at the ECHO Center in Burlington to discuss the creation of native exhibits and programming using his own collection of artifacts.

   Fred continues to advance the professional development of area teachers through activities such as a keynote speech at this December’s, upcoming VASS conference; and November 5 he will be presenting his work on Abenaki history at a presentation for Vermont teachers during the Vermont Quadracentennial.  He also is working with the UVM Osher Institute to present Native-based programming to seniors in St. Albans and Barre, VT. 

   Professor Wiseman is co-producing a film with NY film producer Ted Timreck on the creation and natural and cultural evolution of the Lake Champlain Basin.  He will be filmed this October for Caro Thompson's (VPT) upcoming movie about native and European life in the Champlain Basin from 1609-1763.  He is the representative of the VT Native American Commission to the VT Lake Champlain Quadracentennial Commission.

Part-time faculty member Cynthia West wrote “The Long View of Foreign Language Teaching,” which appeared in the recent issue of the Vermont Foreign Language Association (VFLA) Newsletter.  In it, among other themes, she discusses the way language study opens the way to wider thinking about cross-cultural teaching and learning.  In addition, Cynthia has served on the VFLA board of directors for over twenty-five years in various capacities.  

Humanities