Power, Water, Light, and Time: A Conversation with the Norwich Community
This faculty and student-led roundtable engages the themes of power, water, light, and time, which are central to Lily Brooks Dalton’s The Light Pirate, the Vermont Reads 2025 selection. The panel invites students, faculty, and community members to reflect on resilience, environmental change, and human experience through multiple disciplinary lenses. The event is designed for a broad audience, and all are welcome to join.
Note: This discussion is in addition to the regularly scheduled Women Kicking Glass Book Club Discussion of The Light Pirate scheduled for March 17, 2026 at 7 p.m. both in-person and online. You can register for that discussion here.
Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Time: 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Location: Mack Hall 205 and online
Light refreshments will be provided.
RSVP: Registration is not required but encouraged. Please register for either in-person or online participation below.
Panelists and Themes
Power: Prof. Fianna Verret
Power will be considered through the lenses of institutions, governance, and systems. This portion of the discussion will explore how power is structured, how it becomes visible during moments of disruption, and how authority and responsibility shift when formal systems are strained or fail. Attention will also be given to the role of leadership, policy, and adaptive decision making in conditions of uncertainty.
Water: Dr. Christina Shivers
Water will be discussed not only as an environmental or climatic force, but as something that reveals deeper histories of design, land use, and resource distribution. This conversation will consider how water exposes prior planning decisions, patterns of vulnerability, and inequities embedded in the built environment, as well as how communities interpret and respond to environmental instability.
Light: Dr. Kathryn Warrender-Hill
Light will be approached both literally and metaphorically, emphasizing its relationship to storytelling, interpretation, and meaning making. This portion of the discussion will reflect on how narrative, language, and shared cultural frameworks help individuals and communities orient themselves when familiar structures or systems become unstable.
Time: Dr. Kyle Pivetti
Time will frame questions of memory, endurance, and long horizons. The discussion will consider how experiences of disruption and recovery unfold gradually, how past events shape present conditions, and how resilience is often built across extended durations rather than singular moments.