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Middlebury College

Middlebury College's course descriptions average 67.7 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Middlebury College reads 0.2 points further left.

ShowCompared withDepartments

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)

Middlebury College: 67.7 (likely range 65.8 to 69.6) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

3%Far left92–100

40%Left75–91

35%Center-left59–74

11%Center42–58

2%Center-right26–41

4%Right9–25

4%Far right0–8

122 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

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Framing Subject

Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.

Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.

Furthest-left subjects

BLST 0365 · Literatures of the Black Lusophone Atlantic100

Ethnic & African American Studies

We will think with and learn from Black writers of the Lusophone world across historical periods including enslavement, post-abolition, colonialism, and post-independence, as well as across Africa, the Americas, and Europe. Through writers…

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GSFS 0342 · Social Feminism100

Women's & Gender Studies

What is the relationship of patriarchy to class oppression? We will examine how feminists and the left have attempted to answer this question, from the 19th century to the present-day. We will do so through an exploration of socialist…

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BLST 0174 · Spacing92

Ethnic & African American Studies

In this course we will investigate physical structures encountered daily. Buildings, parks, and infrastructure constitute this built environment, reflecting their societies. But what could abolitionist architecture look like, or how might…

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Furthest-right subjects

BLST 0218 · Slavery and Freedom in the American North0

Ethnic & African American Studies

In this course we will study how the "American North," constituted by New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, became a place of enslavement. Although often treated as a cradle of freedom, we will explore how the region's…

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BLST 0259 · Re-Presenting Slavery0

Ethnic & African American Studies

In this course we will examine 20th century American portrayals of chattel slavery through creative works and situate them in their historical contexts. Working primarily with fiction (Oxherding Tale, Kindred, The Underground Railroad),…

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BLST 0347 · Everyday Life in South Africa, Apartheid and Beyond0

Ethnic & African American Studies

In this course we will explore some of the social worlds of South Africans amid the country's recent decades of turbulent and dramatic change. We will look at how different groups within the nation's diverse population have understood and…

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Why this number, in plain words

Political lean of course descriptions. Average Framing score (0 = far right, 50 = center, 100 = far left) of the scored courses in the group.

50 is the survey-anchored center of US adults on each issue (the "moderate" place of the ANES/GSS/PRRI seven-label ruler), not the cohort midpoint; scores above 50 read leftward, below 50 rightward.

Counted: courses with a Framing score (categories L/R/B/C). The likely range (95% interval) is 65.8 to 69.6; a comparison whose range overlaps this one is not a reliable difference.

Most course descriptions carry no political lean at all and are not in this average; the "share described from the left" view counts them.
Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.

Middlebury College by department (share of courses described from the left)

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Ethnic & African American Studies	72%	25	view
Women's & Gender Studies	59.4%	32	view
English & Comparative Literature	26.8%	41	view
Sociology	20%	20	view
History	17.5%	40	view
Philosophy	16.7%	18	view
Anthropology	11.1%	18	view
Religious Studies	11.1%	27	view
Art & Art History	5.9%	17	view
Political Science	4.7%	43	view
Economics	0%	28	view
Psychology	0%	21	view

Lean (mean Framing score) is not published per department within a school; only the left-framed share is. Department rows carry no interval.

Details: exact rows, definitions and method

Name	Metric	Value	95% interval	n	scored
Middlebury College	mean_bias_score	67.7	65.8 – 69.6	330	70
All 100 schools	mean_bias_score	67.5	67.4 – 67.7	124,290	10,124

Formula: SUM(bias_score) / COUNT(bias_score)
Interval: normal approximation: mean +/- 1.96 * sd / sqrt(n), sample sd (n-1); undefined when n < 2
Model / prompt / snapshot: gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats: Scored courses only (L/R/B/C); N and I carry no score and are excluded, so n here is smaller than the group's course count. Scores are model readings of catalog description text against a fixed anchored definition, not teaching or syllabi. The interval covers sampling noise in the mean only; it does not represent model reading error. Every value carries a `method` label: exact_rows or histogram_midpoint.

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