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A Resounding Success:
Sterling’s First Rural Heritage Institute
W
hat do you get when you mix academics with cross-cut saws, local food and music, traditional rural work, and scholars of all genres? A typical Sterling day—unless it happened to be during the College’s first Rural Heritage Institute (RHI). A resounding success, the RHI
Academic Conference and Workshop ran from June 11 to 15th, 2008.
More than 50 educators, scholars, artists, former students, and rural Vermont enthusiasts gathered for a four-day rural heritage exposition. Weaving together academics with local feasts and music, books and poetry, and issues surrounding environmental sustainability, The Rural Heritage Institute dove into the work, traditions, and crafts of rural life in northern New England. Keep your eyes on the Sterling Calendar for the second annual RHI coming in June 2009.
“RHI was unlike most academic gatherings—we worked hard to balance
“Sterling was the perfect setting to recall and explore Northern New England’s
scholars of cultural studies are separated from the practitioners and the very
tradition of hill farming and the rural lifestyle. What a refresing conference in
seminars with field experiences on farms and in rural communities. Too often, work that is at the heart of their academic subject.” — Pavel Cenkl, faculty
“The RHI at the Sterling Campus in Northern Vermont is a most fitting
rural heritage. The hills of the Kingdom give voice to the rich agricultural today’s crazy world.” — RHI Participant Comment
“It was a privilege to be among such a variety of people, united in their desire
and appropriate and timely gathering of educators and practitioners who are
to live thoughtfully, sustainably, and in healthy rural communities. ... The first
with and between the earth and humans.” — RHI Participant Comment
future.” — RHI Participant Comment
committed to nurturing and sustaining a healthful and responsible relationship
12
Rural Heritage Institute set a high standard. I look forward to attending in the
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