Troutbeck Symposium 2025 Lead Image
Troutbeck Symposium 2025
The Troutbeck Symposium — the student-led historical educational forum — returns for its fourth consecutive year.
Middle and high school students from 14 regional public and independent schools will gather to listen, present, and discuss findings of their research projects uncovering little-known local histories that tie to our national fabric.
Like their celebrated predecessors, students will gather at Troutbeck to reveal truths — sometimes uncomfortable ones — in a significant site in the history of American thought and social movements.
On Thursday, May 1, distinguished returning guests, Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Associate Professor of History, Ohio State University, Dr. Christina Proenza-Coles, Lecturer American Studies Department, University of Virginia, Taha Clayton, artist, Michael Morand, Director of Community Engagement, and Curator Melissa Barton, both from Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library will once again lead rigorous discussions around the student presentations and how their projects tie to the national fabric.
On Friday, May 2, Troutbeck Symposium will host a panel led by Library’s Michael Morand featuring Morgan Bengel of Oldgate Prison, Jessica Jenkins of the Litchfield Historical Society, Frank Mitchell of CT Humanities, Tony Roy of the Connecticut Council for Social Studies, and Wunneanatsu Lamb-Cason of Brown’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative (as well as the 2024-25 Gilder Lehrman National History Teacher of the year).
BACKGROUND — The Troutbeck Symposium was born out of a collaborative 2020 project between Salisbury School history teacher Rhonan Mokriski and documentary film maker, Ben Willis. Working within the limitations of Covid-19 lockdown, the teachers guided students to create a series of short documentaries that explored under-told African American history in our area. For the next school year, the project expanded by partnering with Troutbeck, inviting more schools to participate, a total of nine, culminating in a multi-day meeting at Troutbeck showcasing the students’ work for the first Troutbeck Symposium. In 2023, fourteen schools participated.
2025 PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
Cornwall Consolidated School, Eugene Brooks School, Hotchkiss School, Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Indian Mountain School, Northwest Community College, Salisbury School, Salisbury Central School, South Kent School, Webutuck High School
Working with the Wassaic Project, students from the following schools are also participating:
Collegiate School, Dover High School, Millbrook Middle School, Millbrook High School, Pawling Middle School, Stissing Mountain School
Photos courtesy of Joshua Simpson