The Feminist Resource Center serves as an informational, educational, and cultural resource for the students, staff, and faculty at Middlebury.

Chellis House, the epicenter of extracurricular activity for our vibrant program, is located on 56 Hillcrest Road, right behind Proctor Dining Hall. Please come by and visit us! Read about our history.

Student workers pose outside of Chellis House on campus.
Chellis House workers: a force to be reckoned with.

Alison Fraker Library

The Feminist Resource Center is also home to the Alison Fraker Library, an architectural gem of a reading room filled with materials relating to feminist issues, sexuality, and gender studies. Our fine collection of books includes first editions of Alison Bechdel’s comics and Our Bodies, Ourselves, as well as works by faculty authors Julia Alvarez and Laurie Essig. The library is open to students, staff, and faculty and offers a quiet place to study and a computer.

Our Spaces

By serving as an educational and cultural resource, Chellis House aims to provide a forum for the advancement of feminist issues at Middlebury College.

Various organizations use the space for meetings, workshops, and social activities, among them Feminist Action at Middlebury (FAM), It Happens Here, and the Sister-to-Sister and Brother-to-Brother Programs.

The Living Room

The Mary Smyth Duffy living room is an ideal location for small events and meetings. Some students have also been known to take a restorative nap on the sofas in front of the fireplace, below Kamakshi Murti’s triptych The End of Patriarchy. Our popular Life of the Mind lecture series, poetry readings, and organizational meetings take place here as well. The living room is fully equipped to host small film screenings. Students also gather here to study, chat, or have coffee with friends. Chellis House is open to students until 11 p.m.

The Library

The Alison Gwen Fraker Reading Room is located directly adjacent to the living room downstairs. It holds our collection of books on feminist, sexuality, and gender studies, as well as an archive of feminist activity at Middlebury.

The Deck

Our best kept secret is our deck. Weather permitting, we gather on the deck to have lunch or relax in the backyard. An annual highlight is the Feminists of the Year Award ceremony, which takes place during our lively, artistic “Chell-ebration” after the last day of classes in May.

Helpful Links

National Feminist Organizations

Social Justice Organizations (Vermont)

International and Transnational Organizations

Feminist Media

Feminist Art

For Girls*

Health and Reproductive Justice

Sexual Violence Prevention

Abolition Feminism

Scholarships and Grants

Gender Pay Gap

LGBTQIA+ Advocacy Organizations

Feminist Resource Center at Chellis House
56 Hillcrest Road
Middlebury, VT 05753