This panel will examine Franco American experience during and after World War I. This spring marks one hundred years since the first Red Scare, landmark pieces of linguistic and educational legislation in New England, and Franco Americans’ Worchester convention, all which were closely connected to Francos’ wartime experience.
Speakers
Severin M. Beliveau, “My Father’s experience in World War I”
Patrick Lacroix, “Arduous Ascent: Ethnic Transition in the Northeastern United States, 1914-1924”
Mark Richard, “It is not necessary to be more American than the American himself”: French Speakers Fight the Great War Abroad and at Home
Elisa Sance, “‘The war has taught us the need of a more united people, speaking one language, thinking one tradition, and holding allegiance to one patriotism—America’: consequences of WWI on education in the Saint John River Valley”
Panel Moderator and Commentator
David Vermette, author of A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans, Industrialization, Immigration, Religious Strife
Franco Americans, Acadians, and the Great War is supported in part by a grant from the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Fund, the Canadian American Center, the McGillicuddy Humanities Center, the History Department, and the Department of Modern Languages and Classics.