Canadian-American Fellow Feature: Darcy Stevens

University of Maine PhD student, Darcy Stevens, is one of several recipients of the New England-Atlantic Provinces-Quebec (NEAPQ) Fellowship for the 2022 academic year.

The NEAPQ Fellowship is offered by the Canadian-American Center and the University of Maine Graduate School. It is available to graduate students in disciplines that focus on Canada or Canada-US relations. Each academic year, the fellowship provides a $20,000 stipend, tuition waiver, and 50% of University issued health insurance. The award is available to citizens of any country.

Stevens learned about this fellowship from her advisor, Liam Riordan, and Mark McLaughlin and Micah Pawling, who are on her dissertation committee. All three of them are involved with the Canadian-American Center, and encouraged her to explore the Center’s available opportunities for graduate students. To any students looking to earn the same fellowship, she recommends listening to the guidance of advisors, and to seek out previous fellows to learn more about their experiences.

Stevens originally earned her MA in History in Kansas, and moved toward teaching with the intention to one day earn her PhD. Her current research focuses on the influences of the American Revolution in the Northeast Borderlands of the Maine-Nova Scotia-Wabanaki communities. “I was drawn to the American Revolution partly because although it is widely studied there are still so many facets yet to be explored. My work on allegiance and neutrality in the Borderlands here in the Northeast is one such area. Generally, we still think of the Revolution as a war between America and England, Patriots and Loyalists. My interest is in the inhabitants who were not motivated by ideology but rather forced to make pragmatic decisions about their political positions as the war impacted their personal lives. Bringing their experiences to light and reflecting on the implications for our history as well as our current events is incredibly rewarding,” she says.

This summer Stevens presented some of her work at the Atlantic Canada Studies Conference and the Conrad E. Wight Conference. She also worked with a panel of scholars sponsored by the Omohundro Institute discussing the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which drew her toward work with the Wilson Museum in Castine. She was also awarded a Summer Research Fellowship through the Graduate Student Government, and a 2022-23 David Center for American Revolution fellowship, which will allow her to spend a month in Philadelphia this spring to conduct research.

Outside of her research, Stevens enjoys hiking, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, true-crime television and knitting. She also often travels to the Midwest to spend time with her daughters. Once she’s obtained her degree, she hopes to return to teaching at a university, but is also open to opportunities in public history.

To read some of Stevens’ work, click here.