An Evening with the First Female President of Middlebury College

Description

Patton is the first woman to lead Middlebury College as the 17th president in the institution’s 218-year history. She is a leading authority on South Asian history and culture, having published or edited 11 books in these fields, as well as authored three books of poetry—the most recent, House Crossing, was published in May 2018. She has also translated the ancient Hindu text, The Bhagavad Gita, for the Penguin Classics Series.

Middlebury College, founded in 1800 by Congregationalists in Vermont, is the first American private institution of higher education to grant a bachelor’s degree to an African-American, Alexander Twilight (class of 1823). Following the trustees’ decision in 1883 to accept women, it was one of the first formerly all-male liberal arts colleges in New England to become a co-educational institution.

‘Leader, Intellectual and Poet’ is a part of Asia Society’s Global Education Series.