2023 Program

Friday September 29, 2023 at the Axinn Center

Panels will run for 60 minutes, with each presentation lasting no more than 15 minutes for 3-person panels with 5 minutes for questions.

11:00 am, Axinn 232: Watchful Eyes
Chair: Erin Eggleston

Ben Cotts, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Watching atoms move: Time-resolved structural studies of II-IV semiconductor nanocrystals

Greg Pask, Assistant Professor of Biology
PiSpy: An Affordable and Flexible DIY Method For Observing Organisms

Alex Lyford, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics
Using Eye Tracking Data to Understand how Students Interpret Graphs

11:00 am, Axinn 103: Community, Connection, and Culture
Chair: Dana Yeaton

Pam Berenbaum, Professor of the Practice of Global Health
Community-connected project-based learning in Global Health

Kari Wolfe Borni, Scholar in Residence in Dance
The Humanimal Dance: Performance-Making Across Species Divides

Olga Sanchez Saltveit, Assistant Professor of Theatre
Las Ofrendas: Building Día de los Muertos Celebrations in Community

11:00 am, Axinn 100: Global Mascots and Heretics
Chair: Jason Mittell

Otilia Milutin, Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies
Namu Amida Kitty: Hello Kitty, the Unlikely Ambassador of Japanese Classical Culture

Louisa Burnham, Professor of History
Heretic Outside the Margins

12:00 pm, Axinn Reading Room: Lunch for participants and attendees

12:50 pm, Axinn Hallway Performance: 27 Breaths

Laurel Jenkins, Assistant Professor of Dance
Matthew Evan Taylor, Assistant Professor of Music

1:15 pm, Axinn 103: Soil, Stars, and Sap
Chair: Greg Pask

Peter Ryan, Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences & Environmental Studies
Investigating the Potential of Tropical Soils to Sequester Atmospheric CO2

McKinley Brumback, Assistant Professor of Physics
Using X-ray bright neutron stars to study the Universe’s strongest magnetic fields

Emily Putnam, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
Maple sap as a model system for microbial community development

1:15 pm, Axinn 232: Dreams and Realities
Chair: Shawna Shapiro

Erick Gong, Associate Professor of Economics
Power of the Pulpit: The Effect of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Speeches on the Civil Rights Movement

Tara Affolter, Associate Professor of Education Studies and Faculty Director of Equity, Justice, and Inclusion
Freedom Dreaming: What We Learned via Interviews and Theatre about Building an Antiracist Middlebury

Caitlin Myers, John G. McCullough Professor of Economics
Mapping a post-Roe America: The Abortion Access Dashboard Project

1:15 pm, Axinn 100: Carnivores, Cavities, and Computers
Chair: Michael Linderman

Alexis Mychajliw, Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies
What Does the Vermont Fox Say?

Grace Spatafora, Dean of the Curriculum and Distinguished Professor, Department of Biology
Can SloR-targeting molecules alleviate dental cavities?

Shelby Kimmel, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
From Point A to Point B with a Quantum Computer

2:30 pm, Axinn 232: Rhetoric and Change
Chair: Jon Isham

Gyula Zsombok, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies
Linguistic innovation and conservative rhetorics: French non-binary pronouns on Twitter

Rebecca Mitchell, Associate Professor of History
The Russian Idea

Frank Van Gansbeke, Executive Scholar in Residence (Environmental Affairs)
Beyond Bretton Woods conference at Middlebury College (May 2024)

2:30 pm, Axinn 103: Experiments and Experience
Chair: Mike Dash

Mark Spritzer, Professor of Biology
Are you lost? Maybe testosterone can help.

Sean Peters, Postdoctoral Fellow of Geology
Linking Lab Experiments to the Natural World

Matthew Kimble, Professor of Psychology
Meaning or Pleasure? A Psychological Take on Nozick’s Famous Thought Experiment

4:00-5:00pm, Mister Up’s Restaurant & Pub: Reception for presenters and attendees
Opening Remarks by Jim Ralph, Dean of the Faculty