Dr. Carol Dickson

Associate Dean of Academics & Advising, Faculty in Environmental Humanities

Carol Dickson stands in front of trees holding a violin and playing it.

鈥淚 am fascinated by stories,鈥 says Carol Dickson. 鈥淭he house in which I grew up鈥攊n which my grandparents lived鈥攔esonated with stories. From the weather details noted in my grandparents鈥 guest book started in 1902, to the antique spinning wheel and muskets in the attic, to the pock-marked wood trim made from chestnut trees felled by blight鈥攁ll of these fired my imagination as a child, and made me curious about the past and its inhabitants.鈥 She continues, 鈥淚 teach writing because I enjoy helping students realize and tell their own stories, and I teach literature because I enjoy seeing students make connections with others across time and culture.鈥

A product of traditional schooling, Carol is drawn to alternative education settings, in which students can direct their own learning and benefit from a range of pedagogical approaches. She has taught in diverse settings鈥攆rom Goddard College and The Putney School, to an outdoor education center, to a service-learning faculty consulting program, to student travel programs in Ghana, Nepal, Israel, New Zealand, and Kazakhstan. She has lived most of her life in New England, and the last 27 in Vermont, and it is this place that has the biggest influence on her, as well as her own stories鈥攊n particular its farming heritage and its mix of cultures. Dickson鈥檚 hobbies seem to grow from a lifetime of living near the northern border: traditional Qu茅be莽ois fiddle music, ice hockey, and cross-country skiing.

These days, Carol鈥檚 storytelling mainly centers on , the sheep farm in East Montpelier that she and her partner, Bruce Howlett, jointly operate: 鈥淗ere I鈥檝e found stories in the rusty old milking equipment found in remains of the old barn, in the antics of newborn lambs, in the customers we meet vending at farmers鈥 markets, in the sounds of peepers while boiling the last batch of sap for the season, in canoeing to feed sheep during last summer鈥檚 flood, in the tracks of the coyotes who trot by the sheep paddocks without slowing down.鈥 She notes that conveying the joys, challenges, and complexities of small-scale farming in central Vermont is almost as difficult as farming itself, but that鈥檚 the beauty of it: the farm is its own story.

Carol started teaching at 快猫视频 in August 2009.

    • B.A. from Smith College

    • M.A. from University of Vermont

    • PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • American literature and literary history, environmental literature, race and gender in literature, regional and place-based literature, cultural studies, African-American studies, gender studies, writing & composition, folklore.

  • Intensives in Writing, Literature & Culture:

    • HM107  Foundations of Environmental Humanities

    • HM229 Creative Writing

    • HM326 Nature Writing

    • HM345 Literature of the Rural Experience

    • HM391 Race & Gender in Images of the American West

    • HM481 Global Environmental Literature

    • HM264 We Are What We Tell: Oral History Methods & Meanings

    Experiential Endeavors:

    • HM481B The Meaning of Things: Curating Culture & Nature

    Scaffolding Seminars:

    • INT398 Capstone Year Workshop

    Carol also coordinates Sterling鈥檚 Advising program and directs the Learning Center, which includes training and supervising student Learning Center Mentors.

    • 鈥淕endered Landscapes in Early Twentieth-Century New England Ballads鈥濃擟onference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Lawrence, KS; May 2013).

    • 鈥淟a Fronti猫re/La Frontera鈥濃擟onference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Bloomington, IN; June 2011).

    • 鈥淢aps and the Cultural Landscape of Vermont鈥濃擱ural Heritage Institute at 快猫视频 (Craftsbury Common, VT; June 2008).

    • 鈥淭he Geography of Home: Proto-Feminist Visions of Nature in Nineteenth-Century Geography Textbooks鈥濃 Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Spartanburg, SC; June 2007).

    • Food & Agriculture panel chair鈥擟onference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Spartanburg, SC; June 2007)

    • 鈥淟egacy: Stories from a New England Landscape鈥濃擟onference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Eugene, OR; June 2005).鈥

    • 鈥楴o Picture Postcard鈥: The New Regionalism and David Budbill鈥檚 Vermont鈥濃擟onference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Boston, MA; June 2003).

    • 鈥淎 Path towards Engagement: Service-Learning and Environmental Literature鈥濃擟onference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Flagstaff, AZ; June 2001).

    • 鈥淐ooking with Mrs. Appleyard: Food, Landscape, and the Domestication of Rural Vermont鈥濃擜merican Women Nature Writers Conference (Castleton, VT; June 2000).

    • 鈥淢ary Austin, John Muir, and Early Twentieth-Century Narratives of Nature鈥濃擟onference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Kalamazoo, MI; June 1999).

    • 鈥橰ecounting鈥 the Land: Mary Austin and Early Twentieth-Century Narratives of Nature鈥濃擜merican Women Nature Writers Conference (Portland, ME; June 1998).

    • Tilling New Ground: Smith Alumnae in Farming鈥濃擲mith Alumnae Quarterly (Fall 2013).

    • 鈥楻ecounting the Land鈥: The Nature of Narrative in Mary Austin鈥檚 Narratives of Nature鈥 in Such News of the Land: U. S. Women Nature Writers. Ed. Thomas S. Edwards and Elizabeth A. DeWolfe (University Press of New England, 2001).

    • Sense, Nonsense, and Sensibility: Teaching the 鈥楾ruth鈥 of Nature in John Burroughs and Mary Austin鈥 In Sharp Eyes: John Burroughs and American Nature Writing. Ed. Charlotte Z. Walker (Syracuse University Press, 2000).

    • 鈥淢ary Baker Eddy,鈥 鈥淛ulia Ward Howe,鈥 and 鈥淢ildred Didrikson Zaharias鈥濃擡ntries in A Reader鈥檚 Guide to Women鈥檚 Studies. Ed. Eleanor Amico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998.

    • 鈥楾hrough the Teepee Door鈥: Lessons in and of the Native American Storytelling of Zitkala-Sa and Mary Austin.鈥 Phoebe: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Feminist Scholarship, Theory, and Aesthetics 9.2 (Fall 1997).

    • Dean of Academics, 快猫视频 (2014-2018)

    • Co-Organizer, Cultural Sustainability Symposium; Vermont Folklife Center and 快猫视频 (2013).

    • Selected Participant, Wildbranch Writing Workshop; Craftsbury Common, VT (2010).

    • Short-Term Fellowship in the History of Cartography, The Newberry Library; Chicago, IL (2006).

    • Selected Participant, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, The Newberry Library; Chicago, IL (2005). 

    • Kenneth E. and Dorothy V. Hill Fellowship, Huntington Library; San Marino, CA (1994).

    • Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony

    • Annie Dillard, The Living

    • Camille Dungy, ed. Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry

  • Board Member, Vermont Folklife Center (2013-2019, 2024- )

    Board Member, Northeast Heritage Music Camp (2012-2021)

  • Association for the Study of Literature and Environment

    American Studies Association

    American Folklore Society

  • Traditional fiddle music and dance, sheep farming, ice hockey, gardening & cooking, hiking, cross-country skiing, pinochle, word game competitions.

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