Canadian-American Center

New Canadian Books at Fogler Library

Fogler Library has released its newest selection of Canadian related books! To view the list of books, click here! 

2013-2014 Graduate Awards Announced

The Canadian-American Center would like to announce the following graduate students who have been awarded a graduate award for the 2012-2013 academic year:

New England/Atlantic Provinces-Quebec Fellowships

• Ann Morrisette (History, Ph.D.)
• Michael Perry (History, Ph.D.)

Canadian-American Center Fellowships

• Ian Jesse (History, Ph.D)
• Greg Rogers (History Ph.D.)
• Rachel Snell (History, Ph.D)

Foreign Language and Area Studies Awards

• Amanda Black (History, M.A.)
• Carol Blasi (History, Ph.D.)
• Sarah Domarecki (Canadian Literature, I.Ph.D.)
• Gabriel Levesque (History, Ph.D.)
• Erica Quin-Easter (History, Ph.D.)
• Meghan Sills (English, M.A.)

The Canadian-American Center would like to congratulate all graduate award recipients!

Center’s Director recieves award for Surveyors of Empire publication

Stephen J. Hornsby, director of the Canadian-American Center has been awarded The Pierre Savard Award by the International Council for Canadian Studies for his recent book Surveyors of Empire: Samuel Holland, J.F.W. Des Barres, and the Making of The Atlantic Neptune.

The Pierre Savard Awards are designed to recognize and highlight outstanding scholarly monographs on a Canadian topic.  The awards form part of a strategy that is aimed at promoting, especially throughout the Canadian academic community, works that have been written by members of the Canadian Studies international network.  The awards are intended to designate exceptional books, which, being based on a Canadian topic, contribute to a better understanding of Canada.

Stephen J. Hornsby’s Surveyors of Empire: Samuel Holland, J.F.W. Des Barres, and the Making of The Atlantic Neptune was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in April 2011.  The book examines British surveying and mapping of northeastern North America in the 1760s and early 1770s, and the publication of The Atlantic Neptune, a monumental four-volume nautical atlas.  Professor Matthew Edney, University of Southern Maine and Director of the History of Cartography project, comments:  “Surveyors of Empire is an outstanding work of scholarship, well grounded in the archive, a project that provides a telling parable of imperial power.  Accessible and understated, it should be of interest to a wide array of readers.”  The book is lavishly illustrated with maps and historical images.

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Center’s Historical Atlas of Maine featured in Bangor Daily News

Stephen J. Hornsby, director of the Canadian-American Center was featured in the Bangor Daily News to discuss the Historical Atlas of Maine publication and the Center’s involvement with the Maine Humanities Initiative.

To read the full article, please  click here.

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New Permanent Exhibit at Maine State Archives Based on Canadian-American Center Faculty Research

A new permanent exhibit at the Maine State Archives in Augusta has its roots in the Ph.D. research of a recent University of Maine alumnus and newly appointed assistant professor.

Ethnohistorian Micah Pawling, Assistant Professor of History and Native American Studies, is the guest curator of “Choosing Survival: Wabanaki Documents at the Maine State Archives.” The exhibit features 18th- and 19th-century Wabanaki documents — petitions and an original watercolor map — that provide a unique perspective on the Maine tribes’ struggle to preserve their homeland. Among them: an 1821 petition on behalf of the Passamaquoddy Tribe to the Maine legislature seeking assistance in staving off the influx of American and British settlers who were dramatically transforming their homeland. Such petitions were an attempt by the Penobscots, Passamaquoddies and Maliseets in present-day eastern Maine, western New Brunswick and the southern shore of Quebec to navigate a new, ever-changing geopolitical landscape. With their very survival on the line, the tribes learned to use petitions as a political tool to negotiate, assert concerns and articulate aboriginal rights to governments.

Pawling’s research on the Native petitions culminated in a Ph.D. and master’s degree, both in history, from UMaine in 2010 and 1999, respectively. In 2007, in conjunction with the Penobscot Indian Nation, Pawling published the book, Wabanaki Homeland and the New State of Maine: The 1820 Journal and Plans of Survey of Joseph Treat. Pawling is now a UMaine assistant professor of history and Native American studies.

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745

http://umaine.edu/news/blog/2012/11/27/new-permanent-exhibit-at-maine-state-archives-based-on-umaine-research/

UMaine-UNB History Graduate Student Conference

The UMaine-UNB History Graduate Student Conference is held annually during the Fall semester. Jointly hosted by graduate students at both universities since 1998, the conference site alternates every other year between the two campuses in Orono, Maine, and Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. The conference offers a wonderful opportunity for History graduate students from the University of Maine, the University of New Brunswick, as well as universities across the U.S. and Canada, to present their work in a relaxed and amiable setting among friends, fellow graduate students and faculty from the host institution. The conference allows graduate students to gain experience presenting a paper at a conference, and hear feedback about their research. In past years, the UMaine-UNB Conference has hosted participants from many universities in North America including Miami University, the University of Vermont, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Memphis, the University of Saskatchewan, McGill University, Universite de Moncton, Universite Laval, and the University of Alberta, among others.

Call for Papers

14th Annual University of Maine/University of New Brunswick International

Graduate Student History Conference

October 12-14, 2012

On the Margins: Experiences and Perspectives

The History Graduate Student Association (HGSA) of the University of Maine wishes to announce the 14th Annual International Graduate Student History Conference to be held October 12-14, 2012.  Sponsored by the graduate students of the University of Maine in Orono, Maine, and the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, the conference alternates biannually between the two campuses.  Over the years, the conference has attracted participants from universities throughout the United States and Canada.

Interested graduate students are invited to submit proposals that deal with the theme On the Margins: Experiences and Perspectives.  Margins are a physical, social, and conceptual reality of the human experience. Marginality can be experienced in any number of ways; geography, economics, society, politics, and culture can all exclude people from the mainstream. As a trans-national collaborative effort, this conference is always mindful of the political border that creates a marginal zone between the United States and Canada. With the rise in the last century of progressive politics, civil rights movements, and “history from below,” we have become increasingly sensitive to the fact that many groups in all societies are marginalized for various reasons. Further, the experience of marginalization affects identity and the way in which individuals think about themselves and their place in society. We welcome papers on any historical topic, and especially those exploring any dimension of this experience.

Dr. Gail Campbell will deliver the keynote address on October 12, 2012.  Dr. Campbell is a specialist in 19th century Canadian social and political history.  Her publications include “Are we going to do the most important things?” Senator Muriel McQueen Fergusson, Feminist Identities, and the Royal Commission on the Status of Women and Disfranchised but not Quiescent: Women Petitioners in New Brunswick in the Mid-19th Century, which has been reprinted in several anthologies.  Dr. Campbell served as editor of Acadiensis from 1994-1998 and is currently Chair of the Editorial Boards of Acadiensis and Acadiensis Press.

Please submit a title, brief abstract, and CV or brief biographical sketch including current contact information electronically by July 15, 2011 to: Annie Morrisette (umaineunb2012@gmail.com)

Associate Director featured in UMass Alumni Magazine

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2012-2013 CAN-AM Graduate Awards Announced

The Canadian-American Center would like to announce the following graduate students who have been awarded a graduate award for the 2012-2013 academic year:

New England/Atlantic Provinces-Quebec Fellowships

• Ann Morrisette (History, Ph.D.)
• Michael Perry (History, Ph.D.)

Canadian-American Center Fellowships

• Patrick Callaway (History, Ph.D.)
• Andrew Reiser (History, Ph.D.)
• Greg Rogers (History Ph.D.)

Foreign Language and Area Studies Awards

• Amanda Black (History, M.A.)
• Sarah Domarecki (Canadian Literature, I.Ph.D.)
• Teresa Hess (French, M.A.)
• Gabriel Levesque (History, Ph.D.)
• Erica Quin-Easter (History, Ph.D.)
• Rebecca White (History, Ph.D.)

The Canadian-American Center would like to congratulate all graduate award recipients!

Five New Canadian-Content Courses

• Four course development grants yield five new Canadian-content courses With funds from the Canadian-American Center’s US Department of Education Title VI grant, the Center initiated a Canadian Studies Course Development competition.  This provided $16,000 (four grants of $4,000) to UMaine faculty to develop a new course on Canada or Canadian-American relations or to modify an existing course to include at least 25% Canadian content.  Priority was given to proposals made by faculty who do not at present teach on Canada or Canadian-American relations. Awards were made to:

(i)               Elizabeth DePoy, (School of Social Work) with Stephen Gilson (Inter-disciplinary Disability Studies) for DIS 450 and DIS 530: Disability Policy: Comparative Canadian and American Approaches.  “We developed and included Canadian policy/legislation content in 2 course, DIS 530 a graduate course “Disability Policy;” and DIS 450 an undergraduate course “Disability as Diversity II.  We developed specific course sessions/lectures and readings related to the examination of US and Canadian Disability policy and developed assignments directly related to specific Canadian policy/legislation.”

(ii)              Carol Toner (Maine Studies Program) with Betsy Beattie (Canadian Studies and Reference Librarian) for MES 540: Maine and the Borderlands: An Integrative Approach to Maine, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces.  “April 11, 2012 the Graduate School curriculum committee enthusiastically approved the new course that Betsy and I designed, MES 540, Maine and the Northeast Borderlands: An Integrative Approach to Maine, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces. We will offer the course Spring 2013 and every other spring after that. We will cross-list with MES498, which is the Maine Studies upper level topics course, so that upper level undergraduates can also take the course, and with CAN 401.”

(iii)             Robert Lilieholm (School of Forest Resources) for FTY345/FTY 617: Acadian Internship in Regional Conservation and Stewardship.  “The Acadian Internship in Regional Conservation and Stewardship is a highly selective 5.5 week program sponsored by the Quebec Labrador foundation, Schoodic Education and Research Center, the Frenchman Bay conservancy and several universities including the University of Maine and Unity College.  The goal of the internship is to expose international college undergraduate and graduate level students in academic work and hands on instruction in landscape conservation with the Acadia Region, which spans the US-Canadian border from the Penobscot River to southwestern New Brunswick.  The Institute was offered summer 2011 and will be offered summer 2012 as FTY345/FTY 617: Acadian Internship in Regional Conservation and Stewardship”

(iv)             Liam Riordan (History Department) for modification to HTY 398: Creation of the Atlantic World, 1450-1888”.  Professor Riordan, who is on sabbatical Spring 2012, will work on this course in Fall 2012.

Director Stephen Hornsby receives award

Director Stephen J. Hornsby has been awarded the John Lyman Book Award for Naval and Maritime Science and Technology from the North American Society for Oceanic History for his recent book  Surveyors of Empire: Samuel Holland, J.F.W. Des Barres, and the Making of The Atlantic Neptune.

Stephen J. Hornsby’s Surveyors of Empire: Samuel Holland, J.F.W. Des Barres, and the Making of The Atlantic Neptune was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in April 2011.  The book examines British surveying and mapping of northeastern North America in the 1760s and early 1770s, and the publication of The Atlantic Neptune, a monumental four-volume nautical atlas.  Professor Matthew Edney, University of Southern Maine and Director of the History of Cartography project, comments:  “Surveyors of Empire is an outstanding work of scholarship, well grounded in the archive, a project that provides a telling parable of imperial power.  Accessible and understated, it should be of interest to a wide array of readers.”  The book is lavishly illustrated with maps and historical images.

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