Since its formation, JusTalks has aimed to create a space where everyone could come together and discuss issues of privilege, power, and inequality. Our goal has always been to make JusTalks an integral part of every Middlebury College student’s experience. We ask that our peers take the time to talk about these issues at least once during their time here.

 

Why JusTalks?

 

We have many bodies and organizations on campus dedicated to issues of identity and inequality. For example, the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity encourages scholarship dedicated to incorporating issues of race, gender, ability, and class into a wide range of courses. The Anderson Freeman Center (AFC) works to promote an inclusive and welcoming learning environment for the Middlebury community, particularly for students who have been historically underrepresented or marginalized in U.S. higher education.  PALANA house organizes meaningful discussions and events around related issues of diversity and multiculturalism. Many student organizations also provide a space for students to come together, like the Black Student Union, Alianza, Queers and Allies, and Asian Students in Action, among others.

 

However, the students who are members of these organizations and houses, take courses related to identity and inequality, and attend voluntary discussions around these issues tend to be students who are, for the most part, already thinking critically about these issues. We feel that Middlebury has an obligation to equip all students with the tools for self-reflection and open dialogue in order to adequately fulfill its mission statement. We believe JusTalks provides a structured student-run space for all students to reflect personally and engage their classmates in meaningful dialogue, regardless of their major or personal affiliation with different organizations. We believe that JusTalks will not only provide a space for students to grapple with these issues, but will provide concrete tools for discussing them as well.

​

Our Current Work

J-term Model

For the past four years we have organized a one-day J-term event for first-years and sophomore Febs, usually during the first or second Saturday of J-term. This year we will hold six of these events to accommodate the entire first year class.  These events include several large and small group activities that consist of powerful discussions about issues of privilege, power, and inequality, about our own experiences relating to theses topics, and about the place we want Middlebury to be. We also have around 25 trained upperclassmen facilitators that help us carry out the day’s activities.

​

Phone-a-facilitator

JusTalks also provides facilitators to help guide discussions on a variety of topics. For example, in Spring 2015 the Middlebury Mountain Club began an initiative to make Middlebury's 'outdoor scene' more inclusive. They held discussions and asked JusTalks to help facilitate them. In J-term 2016, It Happens Here and the Student Government Association held an Atwater dinner on community and sexual relationship respect, which JusTalks helped facilitate as well. During this same J-term, we did a two hour training with new faculty from a variety of academic departments, giving professors an introduction to the issues that students face on this campus. We have also done workshops with Community Council and the SGA.  If you are a part of a student organization or group and are in need of trained facilitators, shoot us an e-mail at justalks@middlebury.edu.

​

​

Our Past Projects

FYSE Model

Besides having full participation of the first-year class, JusTalks also aims to create conversations and discussions that are sustainable and go beyond a one-day event.

Therefore, for Fall 2014, we partnered with five First-Year Seminars to create a pilot JusTalks First-Year Seminar discussion section. Students partook in similar activities and conversations to the one-day January event, but they were spread out over the course of a semester. Students in each seminar met with two former JusTalks facilitators once a week to discuss issues including, but not limited to, race, disability, class, and religion. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive, so we decided to implement this program once more for both Spring 2015 and Fall 2015. However, we soon realized that there was not enough buy-in from both professors and students. The majority of professors did not feel comfortable adding additional workload to their students already busy schedules. Therefore, we have discontinued this program.