MIDDLEBURY — Earlier this month the country and the world expressed shock when President Trump reportedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some African countries in expletive-ridden language, asking why we should accept their citizens as immigrants.
While certainly an extreme case, the sentiment behind Trump’s remarks is not uncommon in the United States’ rhetoric around aid and development. Much of U.S. and now international aid policy is predicated on ideas of poor nations’ inferiority.  It is this theme that Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs’ 5th annual student organized conference will take up late next week at Middlebury College. 
This year’s conference, taking place on Wednesday, Jan. 24, and Thursday, Jan. 25, is called “Power and Culture in Foreign Aid: Beyond the Savior Complex.” It aims to critically analyze policy discourse in the foreign aid and international development complex.
Speakers will include scholars in sociology/anthropology, history and education studies, each of whom will be given an hour for their presentation and questions. There will also be a screening of the documentary film “Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden” on Jan. 24, at 7:30 p.m.
All events will take place in the Robert A. Jones conference room in the Rohatyn Center on the Middlebury College campus. The principal student organizers are seniors Eleanor Eagan and Vignesh Ramachandran.
A full schedule of events can be found online at tinyurl.com/y8tx39xm.