Advancement of Public Action

Taught by a former State Senator who Chaired the Senate Education Committee from 2020-2024, and is a current member of the Vermont State Board of Education, this course focuses on developing state and local policies to improve educational outcomes across the Pre-K through the grade 12 system. The class will ground its work in the 2026 Vermont State Report Card, issued

How do prisons shape society? What socialities do carceral systems produce? What is revealed about societies through their practices of incarceration? Through key works in Black Studies, Anthropology, and Geography, we will explore these questions and more, considering the light that incarceration sheds on the study of society. In

This class will introduce students to creating digital archive that includes digitizing photographs, documents, art works, file management, and basic types of metadata. We will have discussions about why digitizing personal collections is so important. Students will be expected to bring their own materials to

This class will serve as a space for students to develop independent research projects in the field of anthropology and using ethnographic methods. Shared readings and exercises will center around ethnographic methods, ethics, and writing. Students’ independent projects will anchor their work in this class.<

In terms of public action, Ganas remains a community-driven, cross-cultural association that offers students volunteer opportunities to engage with the predominantly undocumented Latine migrant worker population. We maintain relationships with local organizations and members while developing new ones, along with more conventional classes and readings. Over the past

This hands-on course explores the harvesting, drying, and processing of medicinal herbs grown in a no-till organic garden at Purple Carrot Farm. Students will learn to apply regenerative growing practices and identify optimal harvest times for roots, leaves, and flowers to maximize potency and quality. Along the way, students will become

This course explores the broad field of sustainable agriculture. This class consists of a series of field trips, meeting with a cross-section of local producers ranging from organic vegetable farms, mushroom cultivation, livestock, flower farms. Through these field trips, readings, and in class discussion, students will explore pathways to creating sustainable

This course recognizes the essential role that the arts and culture play in a healthy democracy. Arts and culture invite us to experience perspectives and ways of life different from our own; they shape conversations about freedom, equal rights and other values that are at the core of American society; and they help us engage with the world in new and important ways.

This class will examine contemporary cconflicts through the lens of complex systems. The class will include a 16 hour training in Mediation and Negotiation skills. Through readings, discussion, exercises and role-plays, the class will examine and deconstruct the complexities of current democratic and environmental issues related to local, national and global governance, We

In this class we will explore the practice of meditation as a physical and mental training exercise and

Almost a century ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt alerted Americans to the impending global conflict pitting democracies founded on individual liberty against rising fascist dictatorships pursuing “final solutions.” Drawing inspiration from John Dewey’s progressive philosophy, FDR emphasized, ""In this conflict the part which education plays in each ideology is crucial. Democracy

This hybrid class will examine the current situation in South Sudan. By interviewing in real time, farmers, journalists, students and artists onthe ground in South Sudan, we will hear the voices of people who are directly experiencing living in a conflict zone.  We will also study the history, politics, economics and ecology of South Sudanb to inform our conversations.

If progressive scholarship holds anything sacred, perhaps it is critique. Over the past century, critique has become not only the guiding commitment of radical scholarship but also the unflappable identity of the public intellectual. Yet a number of unfortunate assumptions have been built into this manner of engaging the world. Among them, that