MARCH 1 • Suzanne Brown

Jane Austen lived in exciting times, and yet until recently was considered “untouched by the political, intellectual, and artistic revolutions of her age.” Drawing on Austen’s novels, Dartmouth visiting assistant professor Suzanne Brown shows how Austen was in fact a keen observer of her era’s values who both shared and critiqued them.
Underwriter: Merchants Bank

APRIL 5 • Erin Sassin
Middlebury College professor Erin Sassin examines how American reformers and homeowners have, in pursuit of “the simple life,” attempted to reinvent the form and idea of the single-family home, from farmhouses and communal experiments to the current tiny house phenomenon.
Underwriter: Crosby-Gannett Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation

OCTOBER 5 • Catherine Sanderson

Amherst College professor Catherine Sanderson describes cutting-edge research from the field of positive psychology on the factors that do (and do not) predict happiness, and shares practical ways to increase one’s own psychological well-being. A UVM Humanities Center Lecture on Happiness.
Underwriter: University of Vermont Humanities Center