There is a reason that the story of globalization pre
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sented in this atlas starts in Middlebury. It is in this
small Vermont town, home of Middlebury College,
where the concept for this atlas was conceived and
developed, where most of the maps were designed
and drafted, and where the analytical texts were dis cussed and crafted. As critical scholars and profes sors at this liberal arts college, we are keenly aware
of the need for fact-based analysis and of the dearth
of reliable maps about global processes and flows.
We joined together to create an illustrated text that
could cast light on the complex nature of globalization.
We developed a comprehensive outline of topics
and a list of about 100 maps. We were fortunate to
have drafts of about half of the maps from the Perthes
World Atlas that Guntram had edited previously, but
it was clear that we needed to make substantial
revisions, develop at least 50 maps on our own, and
design a companion website for data updates and
additional imagery. We decided to draw on the skills
and insight of our students to master this challenge, not
just to help us conduct research and design maps,
but also to bounce off ideas for the text and maps,
and to develop an atlas that was most effective for
classroom use. We recruited 15 Middlebury College
student research assistants with profound inter
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national experience and training in data manage ment and visualizations, such as Q-GIS, Adobe
Illustrator, and coding. As a team, we researched
options for data collection, discussed strategies for
the best representation of data classes, and con ferred about design choices. We faced many difficult
choices, such as how to represent data for regions
in the world that are occupied by foreign countries,
how to draw international boundaries that are con
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tested, what to use as the most reliable indicator for
social phenomena, or where to source photos for the
website. In the end, the strength of the education of
IMPRINT our Middlebury students, our own scholarly work,
the experience in the classroom, and Middlebury's
international links helped us address these challenges.
Middlebury was instrumental in making this atlas a
reality. It offered generous support for our research
students and the production of the atlas and website.
Its deep commitment to global education served as
an inspiration. Middlebury College attracts students
from all over the world who come here to pursue an
undergraduate degree in liberal arts. Every summer,
the campus houses its renowned language school,
where students learn 13 world languages, including
Abenaki, which is spoken by the Indigenous inhabi
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tants who call this place home. Just up the road in
the Green Mountains, the annual Bread Loaf School
of English and Writers' Conference draws teachers
and writers from all over the globe. Middlebury's
presence extends far beyond the east coast. On the
other side of the American continent is the Middle
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bury Institute of International Studies, its Graduate
School in Monterey, California, and Middlebury is in
places as far-flung as China, Russia, India, France,
Morocco, Cameroon, Brazil — there are a total of
32 Middlebury C.V. Starr Schools Abroad in 16 dif
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ferent countries. It is from these diverse places that
the photos on our website are sourced. To discover
more about Middlebury's vision, its schools, and its
research centers, click on the QR code below.
The webpage features a map of Middlebury's global
community of learning that shows the location of its
schools and the home countries of students, faculty,
and alumni.
Guntram H. Herb
Sujata Moorti
Kemi Fuentes-George
Guntram H. Herb Ph.D
Guntram H. Herb, Ph.D., is a scholar of national identity, maps, geopolitics, and
borders. His most recent publications include the edited volume Scaling Iden tities: Nationalism and Territoriality (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), Perthes World
Atlas (2008), and the multi-media website Indigenous Borderlands and Border
Rites, which is based on more than 25,000 miles of fieldwork and documents the
challenges of Native nations divided by the U.S.-Canada border (www.border rites.org). He is the recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright Scholars Program,
National Endowment of the Humanities, and the Digital Native American and
Indigenous Studies Project. He is Professor of Geography and International and
Global Studies at Middlebury College.
Atlas Geographie Middlebury College Globalization