“I am fascinated by stories,” says Carol Dickson. “The house in which I grew up—in which my grandparents lived—resonated with stories. From my father’s anecdote of the pony in the bedroom prank gone awry, to weather details noted in the 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—all of these fired my imagination as a child, and made me curious about the past and its inhabitants.” She continues, “I 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.”

A product of traditional schooling, Dickson 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—from 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 18 in Vermont, and it is this place that has the biggest influence on her, as well as her own stories—in particular its farming heritage and its mix of cultures. Dickson’s hobbies seem to grow from a lifetime of living near the northern border: traditional Quebecois fiddle music, ice hockey, and cross-country skiing. She serves on the Board of the Vermont Folklife Center and the Northeast Heritage Music Camp. She and her partner raise sheep and are in the process of rehabilitating a long-neglected farm in East Montpelier.

Profile

Award	Institution
AB	Smith College
MA	University of Vermont
PhD	University of Wisconsin-Madison

Presentations
“Gendered Landscapes in Early Twentieth-Century New England Ballads”—Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Lawrence, KS; May 2013).
“La Frontière/La Frontera”—Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Bloomington, IN; June 2011).
“Maps and the Cultural Landscape of Vermont”—Rural Heritage Institute at Sterling College (Craftsbury Common, VT; June 2008).
“The Geography of Home: Proto-Feminist Visions of Nature in Nineteenth-Century Geography Textbooks”— Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Spartanburg, SC; June 2007).
Food & Agriculture panel chair—Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Spartanburg, SC; June 2007)
“Legacy: Stories from a New England Landscape”—Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Eugene, OR; June 2005).
“‘No Picture Postcard’: The New Regionalism and David Budbill’s Vermont”—Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Boston, MA; June 2003).
“A Path towards Engagement: Service-Learning and Environmental Literature”—Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Flagstaff, AZ; June 2001).
“Cooking with Mrs. Appleyard: Food, Landscape, and the Domestication of Rural Vermont”—American Women Nature Writers Conference (Castleton, VT; June 2000).
“Mary Austin, John Muir, and Early Twentieth-Century Narratives of Nature”—Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Kalamazoo, MI; June 1999).
’Recounting’ the Land: Mary Austin and Early Twentieth-Century Narratives of Nature”—American Women Nature Writers Conference (Portland, ME; June 1998).

Publications
“Tilling New Ground: Smith Alumnae in Farming”—Smith Alumnae Quarterly (Fall 2013).
“‘Recounting the Land’: The Nature of Narrative in Mary Austin’s Narratives of Nature” 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 ‘Truth’ of Nature in John Burroughs and Mary Austin” In Sharp Eyes: John Burroughs and American Nature Writing. Ed. Charlotte Z. Walker (Syracuse University Press, 2000).
"Mary Baker Eddy,” “Julia Ward Howe,” and “Mildred Didrikson Zaharias”—Entries in A Reader’s Guide to Women’s Studies. Ed. Eleanor Amico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998.
“‘Through the Teepee Door’: Lessons in and of the Native American Storytelling of Zitkala-Sa and Mary Austin.” Phoebe: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Feminist Scholarship, Theory, and Aesthetics 9.2 (Fall 1997).

Accomplishments

Co-Organizer, Cultural Sustainability Symposium; Vermont Folklife Center and Sterling College (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).

Three Books You Recommend?

Books: Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (Nature Writing, option) Annie Dillard, The Living (Nature Writing, option) Camille Dungy, ed. Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (Nature Writing) David Budbill, Judevine (Literature of the Rural Experience) Films: Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing (Writing & Speaking to the Issues) Chris Eyre & Sherman Alexie, Smoke Signals (Race & Gender in Images of the American West) Maggie Greenwald, The Ballad of Little Jo (Race & Gender in Images of the American West)

Carol's Recent Blog Posts

Folk & Fiddle: Cultural Studies of Cape Breton Island

Posted April 6, 2016 by Carol Dickson read more