The four fellows’ presentations will be split into two nights to allow for sufficient time. On April 21, Katherine Reardon will be presenting her research titled “What is Was and What I Know: Attempts at Family History”. Nola Prevost will also be presenting that evening and her project is called “All the Girls In The Woods: Feminist Fairy Tales for the Modern World”. The following evening, April 22, Hailey Cedor will be presenting “Local Involvement, Memory and Denial: The Complexities of the Holocaust in Lithuania”. Nolan Alvater will be sharing his project that night as well called “Wabanaki Tools of Diplomacy: Storying Protocols as Political Will”. Those who are interested in attending this event can use to access the presentations on both nights. Passcode  899432 if needed. 

These creative projects have been in the works for about a year, and each student has remained vigilantly dedicated to their chosen topic despite COVID restrictions which disrupted each of their research plans. While each student has been working independently, their research happened to all center around the idea of inter-generational storytelling including: the power of Wabanaki storytelling in education, Irish American family lore, local memory and Holocaust denial in Lithuania, and updated fairy tales for the modern world.

Alvater is a Wabanaki student who is majoring in secondary education. He is concentrating in English and hopes to use his degree to become a tribal educator. Alvater hails from both Sipayik and Island Falls, Maine and with his project he hopes to create a writing camp for people that would focus on the history of Native Maine and native culture. Alvater also wants to draw attention to the lack of resources given to the implementation of the Wabanaki studies law.

Cedor is a graduating history student with a minor in environmental horticulture who is passionate about bringing the stories of the past to life in the modern era. After working with Professor Anne Knowles’ Holocaust Ghettos Project, Cedor became interested in Lithuanians involvement in the Holocaust and how that shapes national discourse and identity surrounding the events today. Unfortunately, Holocaust denial remains on the rise in both Europe and the U.S. which is one of the aspects that makes Cedor’s project relevant in today’s world.

Prevost, of Brewer, Maine, is a graduating English major who is concentrating in creative writing and minoring in women’s, gender and sexuality studies. She is rewriting classic fairytales to have a more feminist message in a combination of both poetry and prose. She will focus on bringing to light the issues marginalized groups face in the U.S. through these reworked fairytales to make a collection of modernized fables.

After a trip to her family’s native Ireland, Reardon who is an English major with a political science minor, became interested in testing the validity of the stories her family members had been passing down to her over the years. Through the use of non-fictional creative writing, oral history and examining historical documentation, Reardon is hoping to differentiate truth from fiction, and examine how the stories have impacted herself and her family throughout the years.

The McGillicuddy Humanities Center chooses four students per semester to participate in its fellowship program, or eight at any given time, at various stages in their research. Participating students earn $4000 per semester to work on the research or creative project of their choice that is rooted in the scope of the arts and humanities. Any student of any major is welcome to apply to hold fellowships during their junior or senior years. There are two annual deadlines to submit proposals, which are October 17 and March 17. Fellowships are highly competitive, but the position is earned based upon the strength of an applicant’s proposal as opposed to their GPA. Each student must apply with a faculty advisor who works closely with the student throughout the duration of their project. All students are required to make their project accessible to the public through a medium such as a talk, gallery show, or journal article.

For more information on these events please contact mch@maine.edu or visit /mhc/.

Thank you to our undergraduate assistant Megan Ashe for this piece.

The post McGillicuddy Humanities Center Fellows Presenting Two Night Research Showcase appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

The McGillicuddy Humanities Center is sponsoring a two-night research showcase event, “The Stories We Tell,” featuring the research and creative work of our four graduating undergraduate student fellows. While each student has been working independently, their collective research this past year all happened to center around stories that people tell from generation to generation. The showcase will take place on Wednesday, April 21, and Thursday, April 22, from 7-8:30 p.m. on both nights. . Passcode  899432 if prompted. Email questions to mhc@maine.edu.

PRESENTATION SCHEDULE

Wednesday, April 21, 7-8:30 PM, FELLOWS KATHERINE REARDON AND NOLA PREVOST

Katherine Reardon, “What It Was and What I Know: Attempts at Family History”

Senior English major Katherine Reardon will be reading her creative work discussing family histories and storytelling through the lens of her own Irish family. Reardon was inspired to do this work while studying abroad in her family’s native Ireland. Combining the oral histories and family lore she grew up with sometimes contradictory archival records, Reardon examines where the truth fits in with these stories, and whether or not it is important if a family story is true. She will also discuss her personal reflective process, and locating herself within these stories.

Nola Prevost, “All The Girls In The Woods: Feminist Fairy Tales for the Modern World”

Nola Prevost will present selections from her original collection of feminist fairy tales, All The Girls In The Woods. Prevost, a senior English major and a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor, will explore the ability of the fairy tale genre to create and disseminate knowledge and values, and how this can be useful for social justice activism. She will also discuss the impact of inclusive and diverse representation in stories on women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community.

Thursday, April 22, 7-8:30 PM, FELLOWS HAILEY CEDOR AND NOLAN ALTVATER

Hailey Cedor, “Local Involvement, Memory and Denial: the Complexities of the Holocaust in Lithuania”

Senior History major Hailey Cedor will present part of her Honors thesis research about local involvement and memory of Lithuanians in relation to the Holocaust. The complex relationship of current Lithuanians with past atrocities shows the difficulties of acknowledging and reconciling difficult history, and the dangers of that ignorance. In Lithuania, the country’s complicated past has left ample room for self-victimization and denial that favors the public memory of non-Jewish Lithuanians, leaving the small Jewish community that survived the Holocaust to be continually marginalized. Cedor has worked with Holocaust material since the fall of 2018, and this past experience sparked an interest in Lithuania’s relationship to the Holocaust.

Nolan Altvater, “Wabanaki Tools of Diplomacy: Storying Protocols as Political Will”

Using Indigenous research methodologies, senior fellow Nolan Altvater’s project aims to center the needs and voices of Wabanaki communities to inform education policy in the State of Maine. Altvater, a Passamaquoddy citizen and future Tribal educator, addresses the current barriers of implementation of the Wabanaki Studies Law (LD 291) and presents how Wabanaki diplomacy can lead the way to address these issues and serve as political will toward decolonization and antiracist conviction in Maine education. In addition, it explores the concepts and protocols of wampum and its later form of Indigenous writing and how Wabanaki people have used traditional intellect to use these tools for empowerment to resist colonialism. Altvater is also a board member of Wabanaki Reach.

Click here for more information on the McGillicuddy Humanities Center fellowship program, or email mhc@maine.edu with questions.

The post The Stories We Tell: McGillicuddy Humanities Center Fellows Showcase appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

The Fall 2020-Spring 2021 McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellows are, from left to right, Hailey Cedor, Nola Prevost, Nolan Altvater, and Katherine Reardon. 

Joining the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center (MHC) as Fall 2020 through Spring 2021 Fellows are Nolan Altvater, Hailey Cedor, Nola Prevost and Katherine Reardon. The new cohort joins returning Fellows Ivy Flessen, Bria Lamonica, and Leela Stockley, who will be completing their research this semester. Fellows receive $4000 each semester for two consecutive semesters, to work on a humanities project of their own devising. They serve as humanities ambassadors to their peers, the campus, and beyond. The MHC currently supports seven undergraduate Fellows, and will be expanding to eight next semester.

Nolan Altvater, of Sipayik and Island Falls, Maine, is a Wabanaki student majoring in Secondary Education with a concentration in English. He will be doing his fellowship research on “Decolonizing Maine Education: Creating an Educational Resource to Improve the Implementation of The Wabanaki Studies Law.”  As a future tribal educator, Altvater hopes to address the poor implementation and lack of resources related to LD-291, also known as the Wabanaki Studies Law. At the culmination of his MHC Fellowship he plans to create a writing camp centered around Maine’s Native history, culture, and epistemologies.

History major Hailey Cedor, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, was selected as a MHC Fellow to complete research related to local involvement of Lithuanians in the Holocaust and how that currently informs national views and identity in relation to that event. Cedor, a History major minoring in Environmental Horticulture, became interested in the topic after working the past year on Professor Anne Knowles’ Holocaust Ghettos Project, which involves GIS mapping. With Holocaust denial on the rise in Europe and here in the U.S., Cedor believes that bringing stories like this to light are as important now as ever.

Fellow Nola Prevost of Brewer, Maine, is an English Major concentrating in Creative Writing and minoring in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is interested in the historic use of fairy tales to represent societal issues or moral messages, and is curious how this genre could be used to engage with current socio-political discourse. Her fellowship project, “Feminist Fairy Tales,” will use modern fairy tale conventions and feminist scholarship to create her own collection of fables in hybrid prose poetry form. This collection will address feminist issues, writing especially for marginalized groups within American society.

Katherine Reardon, an English major with a minor in political science, hails from Westwood, Massachusetts. Reardon will be spending her fellowship working on her project, “Family Stories, The Truth, and How It Shape Us.” After a trip to Ireland where her ancestors are from, Reardon became curious about the validity of certain family stories, particularly those told by her late grandfather. Her research will combine oral history, historic documentation and nonfiction creative writing to examine the sometimes-fictional stories families pass down, and how they can shape us.

Students interested in becoming a McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellowship have two deadlines to apply annually in October and March. The deadline to become a Spring 2021 through Fall 2021 Fellow has been extended until Wednesday, October 28. More information, including application instructions, proposal guidelines, and a rubric, are all available at umaine.edu/mhc/research/for-students/undergraduate-fellowship/ or by contacting the MHC’s Humanities Specialist Karen Sieber at karen.sieber@maine.edu.

The post New McGillicuddy Humanities Center Fellows Begin Research appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

The 8th Annual Bangor Humanities Day on Feb. 1 will celebrate music, art, history, literature and other humanities disciplines at venues throughout downtown Bangor. The free public event is sponsored by the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center at the 91±¬ÁĎ.

The day kicks off at Bangor Public Library at 10 a.m. with live music in the atrium by 91±¬ÁĎ’s premiere all-treble a cappella group Renaissance, currently celebrating their 20th anniversary . From 10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m., students from Bangor area high schools will share posters on their humanities-based research in the library’s Crofutt Room.

At the Maine Discovery Museum at 10:30 a.m., Penobscot Tribal member Ann Pollard-Ranco will be leading a demonstration on traditional corn husk doll making. Participants will make corn husk dolls that they can take home.

In Bangor Public Library’s Minsky Lecture Hall, 91±¬ÁĎ professor of philosophy Doug Allen will present a keynote lecture, “The Decline and Potential for the Renewal of the Humanities: Scientific Reductionism and Gandhi-informed Humanities Research.” Allen’s talk from 1–2 p.m. will address the current state of the humanities and how knowledge produced in these fields helps make better sense of the human experience in a changing world.

Stan Wells, a former director with Los Angeles theatre troupe The Groundlings, will lead a two-hour theater improv workshop for ages 12 and older from 2–4 p.m., also in Minsky Lecture Hall at the library.

Matt Bishop, curator of the Bangor Historical Society, will be offering a hands-on history event in the Crofutt Room of the library, also beginning at 2 p.m, featuring postcard images from Bangor’s past.

At 3 p.m. in the Crofutt Room, Shawn Laatsch from Emera Astronomy Center will be giving a talk on “Cultural Astronomy: Human Uses of the Sky.” His lecture will look at different ways in which all cultures have looked up at the night sky and have used it for navigation, measuring time, and agriculture among other uses. From Stonehenge and the Egyptian Pyramids, Aztecs to First Nations to Polynesians, and many more – find out how these groups used the sky as a tool for exploration and discovery.

From 4:30–6:30 p.m. at the 91±¬ÁĎ Museum of Art, there will be a reception and gallery tour, led by museum director and curator George Kinghorn. The catered reception and cash bar are made possible with the help of Basil Creek Catering.

Norumbega Collective 2.0 will host a poetry reading by local writers from 7-8 p.m. at the Bangor Arts Exchange, followed by a 9 p.m. performance by the local improv group “Unredacted,” led by Stan Wells. For mature audiences.

Bangor Humanities Day follows “2020 Visions: The Humanities at 91±¬ÁĎ,” a showcase of current research and creative projects in the humanities, Jan. 31 at Buchanan Alumni House. This event, also free and open to the public, celebrates humanities research and creative projects on campus.

For more information on either event or to request a reasonable accommodation, call 207.581.1848.

The post Bangor Humanities Day 2020 appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

See the Hudson Museum’s flyer below for more details and a list of other Artist Showcases this fall:

Wabanaki Artists Flyer 2019

The post Wabanaki Artist Showcase – James Francis appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

See the Hudson Museum’s flyer below for more details and a list of other Artist Showcases this fall:

Wabanaki Artists Flyer 2019

The post Wabanaki Artist Showcase – Butch Phillips appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

Click here to view a flyer with more details and a list of other Artist Showcases this fall.

The post Wabanaki Artist Showcase – Frances Soctomah appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

Darren Ranco, Chair of Native American Programs and Associate Professor of Anthropology, will be giving this year’s Maine Heritage Lecture on “Protecting Wabanaki Basketmaking Traditions Threatened by an Invasive Pest: Addressing “Wicked Problems” Through Collaborative Research.”

Wabanaki (Micmac, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot) tribal basketmaking traditions use brown ash trees as their primary source material. This resource is threatened by the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive pest from China first found in North American near Detroit in 2002, which has spread to over 35 states and provinces and killed millions of ash trees. It was discovered in Maine in 2018 for the first time. In this talk, Dr. Darren Ranco will discuss his nine-year research project to work with tribal basketmakers and other key stakeholders to prepare for the arrival of this pest in Maine. He will discuss how his team used both sustainability science and indigenous research methods to do research that was inclusive, relevant, impactful, and culturally appropriate for the research partners. He will emphasize the ways that Wabanaki basketmakers and indigenous researchers use indigenous forms of diplomacy to assert sovereignty and influence state and federal resource to this invasive pest.

The lecture will be held Friday, October 25, from 4:00-5:00 pm in Bodwell Lounge, Collins Center for the Arts. Prior to the lecture, from 3:00-4:00 pm there will be a reception in the CCA’s Hudson Museum. Both events are free and open to the public. Sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The Maine Heritage Lecture showcases research and creative work about the state of Maine, with particular emphasis on Maine’s sense of place, history, diverse cultures, society, and policy.

The post 2019 Maine Heritage Lecture by Darren Ranco, “Protecting Wabanaki Basketmaking Traditions Threatened by an Invasive Pest” appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.