Alumni Colloquium Schedule

Schedule

Friday, December 1

7:30 a.m. - 9 a.m.

Breakfast (as you are free)
Meal tickets are provided in registration packets.
Valentine Dining Hall

8:15 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Trip to Historic Deerfield
A private tour and lecture at an authentic 18th-century New England village in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts.

Please meet in front of the Alumni House by 8:15 a.m. to take our charter bus to the program. We will leave promptly at 8:30 a.m. If you are meeting us at Historic Deerfield, meet at the The Flynt Center of Early New England Life, 37D Old Main Street, Deerfield, MA by 9 a.m. The bus will return our group to campus by 1 p.m., in time for lunch before the first lecture.
Alumni House, 75 Churchill Street

8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Checking in
If you are not going on the Deerfield tour, you can pick up your packet with a name tag, schedule, participant biographies, list of open classes and meal tickets at the Pontypool Building. There is a small driveway in front available while you pick up your packet. Those going to Deerfield will receive their packets at the bus.
Pontypool Building, 22 Snell Street

8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Visit Open Classes (if not attending Deerfield trip)
A list of open classes is available online and will also be provided in registration packets.
Various locations

11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Lunch
Meal tickets provided in registration packets.
Valentine Dining Hall

2 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Checking in
Check in and pick up your packets on site at the program.
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

The Geology of the Connecticut River Valley
The geology of central Massachusetts lies under our feet, but also underpins and influences the ways we have lived on this land. Colliding and rifting continents, floods of lava and sheets of ice, and the meandering flow of the Connecticut River have all contributed to build this landscape and has shaped the way it can be used. Explore this science and history with Tekla Harms, Massachusetts Professor in Chemistry and Natural History.
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

3:35 – 4:35 p.m.

Native American History in the Connecticut River Valley
Lisa Brooks, Associate Professor of English and American Studies
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

4:35 – 4:45 p.m.

Break

4:45 – 5:45 p.m. 

Student Research Presentations
Students from the Global Valley course, which also explores the history of this area, will share their original research into letters exchanged during the mid-19^th century between members of an affluent Hadley farming family.
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

6 - 6:45 p.m.

Reception and Gallery Talk at the Dinosaur Tracks
Fred Venne, Museum Educator, will offer a gallery talk exploring one of the world's largest and most studied collections of fossil dinosaur tracks, most collected here in the Connecticut River Valley.
Beneski Museum

7 p.m.

Dinner
Share a meal and conversation with students from the Global Valley course.
Lewis-Sebring Dining Commons

Saturday, December 2

7:30 – 9 a.m.

Breakfast (as you are free)
Meal tickets are provided in registration packets.
Valentine Dining Hall

9 – 10 a.m.

Shay’s Rebellion
With Frank Couvares, E. Dwight Salmon Professor of History and American Studies
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

10 – 10:15 a.m.

Break

10:15 – 11:15 a.m.

Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening
With Rev. S. Mark Heim ’72, the Samuel Abbot Professor of Christian Theology at Andover Newton Theological School and visiting professor at Yale Divinity School
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

People as Property: Stories of Northern Colonial Enslavement
With Michael Lord ’93, Director of Content Development for Historic Hudson Valley
Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

Lunch
Lewis-Sebring Dining Commons

1:45 - 2:15 p.m.

Gallery Talk
Explore artists and subjects from the Connecticut River Valley.
Mead Art Museum

2:15 – 3 p.m.

Closing Reception
Mead Art Museum