The Jack Pine Project: Crisis Meets Community Arts
The arts are needed more than ever at a time like this. The Jack Pine Project responds to the current crisis by connecting teachers in the arts with cohorts of students from around Maine.
Through a series of workshops, Maine artists, musicians, writers and others will work with various groups to help them express their thoughts, feelings, concerns, and hopes for the future. The project is coordinated by the Maine Folklife Center and Maine Studies Program, with support from the university’s Hutchinson Center in Belfast.
The title of the project is drawn from the Jack Pine, a species native to Maine that thrives in areas burnt by wildfire, needing the heat of fire to release its seeds. The image of a pine seedling emerging from burnt ground is emblematic of Maine’s reemergence from the COVID-19 pandemic and state of social crisis that we find ourselves in, and the role of the arts in this process.
Click here to learn more about the project and get involved.
Maine Studies and the COVID-19 Pandemic
As you know, the COVID-19 situation has proven highly disruptive to communities around the globe. The University of Maine has not been spared, as all on-campus classes and most events, including athletics and performing arts, for Spring semester have now been cancelled.
The Maine Studies Program is an exception, in that most of our classes are already online, and most of our students take their classes from their homes around the state. So with the exception of one or two classes, our schedule has not been affected.
That said, we were looking forward to several events this spring, including the visit of Puerto Rican artist Allan Jeffs Ulloa as the University of Maine’s spring Libra Diversity Professor. Allan’s visit has been postponed until the fall, with dates to be announced.
Fortunately, we did not have a Framing Maine event planned for this spring. We do plan to have FM#5 next year, but will probably schedule that for Spring 2021 so as not to overlap with Allan’s eventual visit. The topic is still under discussion.
Applications to the Maine Studies Program through the MA in Interdisciplinary Studies will still be accepted for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 as usual. If you would like more information about that program, please reach us directly through our Contact page, or contact the Division of Lifelong Learning’s Advising
Please note that our physical office in South Stevens Hall is currently closed and will remain so until further notice. We invite you to contact us through email or by phone.
Thank you for your interest, and be well.
– Kreg Ettenger, Coordinator, Maine Studies Program
About Maine Studies
The Maine Studies (MES) Program explores the places, people, culture, history and stories of Maine. The program offers undergraduate and graduate options, including tracks in the Bachelor of University Studies (BUS) and Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS) degrees, as well as a Minor in Maine Studies.
Our courses cover a wide range of topics and are taught by faculty from several departments, including Anthropology, History, English, Political Science, and others. Many courses are available through UMaineOnline, helping students throughout Maine and beyond explore the richness of the Pine Tree State.
The Program also sponsors and organizes events related to the study of Maine from a broad perspective. This includes the series Framing Maine: Conversations with Storytellers and Imagemakers from the Pine Tree State. We are also connected with the Maine Folklife Center, which conducts research and training in areas such as oral history, digital storytelling, and the vernacular arts and crafts of northern New England and the Maritimes.
We welcome you to explore this site to learn more about our programs, courses, faculty and students. To ask us questions, please use the Contact Us page.
Three Maine Studies students receive MAIS Degrees
Three students in the MA in Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS), conferred by the UMaine Graduate School, completed their degrees in May of 2020. The students were Christopher Betts of Bangor, Brandan Roberts of Waterville, and Paula Sheehan-Kopp of Portland.
Chris Betts completed a written master’s project that reported on his extensive experience with high school students in Maine’s alternative education system, including the Carleton Project, a private, experiential-learning based program that ran out of the Shaw House in Bangor. Chris employed numerous techniques in projects involving nature, the arts, and hands-on vocational learning, and reported on his experiences and the challenges of working with youth from difficult life circumstances as they negotiated their education.
Brandan created a web-based project using ArcGIS Story Maps on the historical figure Molly Ockett (Mary Agatha), an Abenaki woman who lived most of her life in 18th century western Maine. She was renowned as a healer and “medicine woman,” and is perhaps best known for saving the life (possibly) of an infant who later became Abraham Lincoln’s vice president, Hannibal Hamlin. Brandan’s website talks about her actual life, and describes how she has become both mythologized and caricatured in the parts of Maine she once called home.
Paula Sheehan-Kopp prepared a lengthy, deeply researched presentation on Maine’s Irish heritage that was presented in a COVID-modified virtual conference hosted by the British Association for Irish Studies. In addition, she began work on a website that will serve as a much-needed resource for teachers, researchers, Mainers of Irish descent, and others interested in the long and proud heritage of the Irish in Maine.
All three of the students gave presentations on their work at a virtual graduation ceremony on May 13, 2020. Following their presentations, Dr. Scott Delcourt, Associate Vice President for Graduate Studies and Senior Associate Dean of the Graduate School, virtually “hooded” the three MAIS recipients. The three also received copies of the Historical Atlas of Maine, edited by UMaine Professor of Geography Stephen Hornsby, and emeritus Professor of History Richard Judd, courtesy of the Maine Studies Program.
We heartily congratulate all three graduates of the MAIS degree, Maine Studies track, and wish them well in their future journeys!
