Now in its fifth year, the Troutbeck Symposium invites students to become historians — uncovering the stories of their own communities and sharing them through creative, public storytelling.

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.

April 22 | 5:30 – 7:00 PM
Art Exhibition Opening

A celebration of student artwork rooted in historical research. Student presentation and remarks by Dr. Christina Proenza-Coles, Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries and artist Taha Clayton.

April 23 | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Students as Historians

Student presentations before a live audience, including 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, visual artist Taha Clayton.

• Geography

April 24 | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Troutbeck Symposium: CT Humanities Roundtable led by Creative Futures
Featuring:

• Morgan Bengel, Old-New Gate Prison
• Jessica Jenkins, Litchfield Historical Society
• Tony Roy of the Connecticut Council for Social Studies
• Wunneanatsu Lamb-Cason of Brown University's Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative (as well as the 2024-25 Gilder Lehrman National History Teacher of the year)
• Two student panelists from this year’s Symposium
• Moderated by Dr. Frank Mitchell, Connecticut Humanities

About the Symposium:

Since its founding in 2021, the Troutbeck Symposium has empowered over 1,000 students and dozens of educators to uncover and share local histories that have been lost, buried, or ignored. Through collaborative, place-based research, students become stewards of history, using art, film, and scholarship to bring the past into meaningful dialogues with the present.

Recent Highlights & Accomplishments:

• Cross-school student collaborations
• Rhonan Mokriski of the Salisbury School and Troutbeck Symposium co-founder, named 2024 Connecticut History Teacher of the Year by Gilder Lehrman Institute; and Peter Vermilyea Gilder Lehrman Connecticut History Teacher of the Year in 2006.
• Official affiliate of the America 250/CT Commission
• Student documentaries earning national and internation recognition, including Black Moses (The Marvelwood School): Best Student Film at the Ogeechee Internation History Film Festival. Speak Loud: The Story of Mabel Byrd (The Marvelwood School), selected for the Black History Film Festival in Washington DC, and the film that started this all, Coloring our Past (Salisbury School), winner of Best Student Film at the DownEast Film Festival and the Louisville Film Festival.

2026 PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS

Cornwall Consolidated School, Hotchkiss School, Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Indian Mountain School, Kent School, Northwestern Connecticut Community College, Salisbury School, Salisbury Central School, South Kent School, Washington Montessori School, Webutuck High School, Sharon Center School

Working with the Wassaic Project, students from the following schools are also participating:
Collegiate School, Dover High School, Eugene Brooks Intermediate School, Millbrook Middle School, Millbrook Public High School, Pawling Middle School, Stissing Mountain School

What Educators Are Saying:

“This is about uncovering truths that will indeed set us free”
— Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, The Ohio State University

“This is the most important, productive, most meaningful, and most promising program I have been involved with in my career. The Troutbeck Symposium is the roadmap for the future.”
— Dr. Christina Proenza-Coles, University of Virginia

“It makes my Beinecke Library heart sing to see middle and high school students engaging with tangible archives, community memories, and historical narrative in ways that bring both to life”.
— Michael Morand, Yale University.

While the Symposium is not open to the public, if you are an educator or a member of our community who is interested in observing, please get in touch with our co-founder, Charlie Champalimaud.