Several Middlebury faculty have received support from a project funded by the Sloan Foundation to encourage engagement between faculty at the undergraduate college and other Middlebury entities, such as the Monterey Institute, Language Schools, and Schools Abroad. We will welcome the following visitors to our campus this semester and next fall, and look forward to working with them to build academic bridges between the two campuses.

Tom and Pat Manley, Middlebury geology professors noted for their work on Lake Champlain, are teaching a J-Term course entitled An Ocean Perspective: Energy and Mineral Resources to Coastal Dynamics and Management.

Andrea Olsen, professor of dance and John C. Elder Professor in Environmental Studies, is the author of Body and Earth: An Experiential Guide. She is making plans to offer her Body and Earth workshop at the Institute sometime this spring. Andrea’s writings and performance work focus on the interconnectedness of earth systems and body, and the many roles the arts can play in environmental projects.

Linus Owens, Assistant Professor of Sociology, will spend some time at Monterey this semester pursuing his research on forms of mobility within current forms of radical politics. He’ll work primarily with faculty in nonproliferation and terrorism studies.

Allison Stanger, Russell J. Leng ’60 Professor of International Politics and Economics and Chair of the Political Science Department at Middlebury, will be visiting the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at MIIS during January and May/June 2011. Her research topic–Keeping Elites Honest: Transparency and Accountability in the Information Age—is of relevance not only to researchers at CNS but also to faculty and students within our Graduate School of International Policy and Management.

Stay tuned for more information about opportunities to meet and work with these colleagues.

Put these on your calendar now!  We have two excellent lecturers from Middlebury lined up for the second year of the M-squared lecture series.  In addition, Pushpa Iyer and Barry Olsen will be traveling to Middlebury to lecture and meet with colleagues there.  The M-squared lecture series is just one of many ways we will be celebrating our merger with Middlebury this year, as we continue to explore common academic ground and build communities of mutual interest on both sides of the continent.

February 17, 2011, 5:15-6:50 pm, MG100
Speaker: Professor Sarah Stroup
Lecture title: “There’s No Place Like Home: The National Roots of International NGOs”

Lecture Description: The advocacy strategies and transnational networks of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have received substantial attention from scholars and activists.  While we now have considerable information about how INGOs can shape state policies, there is much work to be done in explaining why particular INGOs choose certain strategies.  Sarah Stroup discusses how the national origin of INGOs shapes INGO advocacy and networking, with examples drawn from the United States, Britain, France, and Japan.

Bio sketch: Sarah Stroup (PhD, UC Berkeley) teaches political science and international relations at Middlebury College,.  Her current book project explores the strategies of Northern NGOs at home and abroad.  She teaches courses on humanitarianism and non-state actors and most recently is author of “National Origin and Transnational Activism” (in Power and Transnational Activism, Routledge, 2010).

April 19, 2011, 12:15-1:50 pm, MG100
Speaker: Professor Jessica Holmes
Lecture title: “The Economics of Sin: What can economists tell us about the inner workings of underground markets?”
Lecture description: Professor Holmes will explore the demand and supply interactions in the markets for crime, drugs, prostitution, pornography, human organs, etc.  She will consider whether buyers in these markets are rational and utility-maximizing and whether sellers behave like firms in legal markets. She will also talk about the role that government plays in regulating “sinful” behavior and the consequences (both intended and unintended) of these government interventions. The talk will assess lessons learned from domestic as well as international markets.

Bio sketch: Jessica Holmes (Associate Professor of Economics) has been a member of Economics Department at Middlebury College since the fall of 2001. She teaches courses in microeconomics, statistics, public finance, health economics, the economics of social issues and the economics of sin. Prior to joining the Middlebury faculty, she taught at Colgate University and worked as a litigation consultant for National Economic Research Associates, conducting economic analyses for companies facing lawsuits involving securities fraud, product liability, and intellectual property. Her research fields include health economics and philanthropy and her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Public Economics, The Economic Journal, Population Research and Policy Review, Economics of Education Review, Clinical Pediatrics, and Southern Economic Journal. She received a Ph.D. in Economics in 1998 from Yale University under the guidance of T. Paul Schultz. and an A.B. in Economics from Colgate University (Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude) in 1993. She is an avid masters swimming competing both nationally and internationally. She is married to Stephen Holmes, a software developer, with whom she has three children, Katherine, Justin and Sarah.