Humanities Collaboration

Recent event:

Recognizing the importance of community-connecting conversations (such as those found in PAA), members of the Orono High School English Department and a variety of humanities faculty from UMaine developed a collective called the Humanities Collaboration in 2014. The Collaboration’s aim is to deepen connections, appreciation and discussions among OHS faculty and students, UMaine faculty and students, and community members around our shared interests in the humanities.

The Collaboration has brought together an impressive array of people—including scores of high school students and teachers, UMaine faculty and students from English, studio art, art history, philosophy, history, education, marine science and more, a range of administrators from both schools, as well as local community members.

Since the collaboration began, we have held over twenty seminar-style discussions following humanities-focused events in our communities on such topics as: the affective aftereffects of war on soldiers and their families (in conjunction with Outside the Wire’s “Theater of War”); family, stability, and mental health in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (prior to the National Theater Live presentation of the play); personal and political experiences of “wearing the veil” (along with seeing Reza Jalali’s play “The Poets and the Assassin” during Islamic Awareness Week); the existential and political dimensions of child labor (in conjunction with attending a presentation by Pulitzer prize-wining photojournalist Larry Price); and, the nature of story in our lives and history (in conjunction with reading Nobel-novelist Halldór Laxness’s Independent People and attending programs in 2016-17’s UMHC Symposium “Saga and Story.”

The Humanities Collaboration is a rich, diverse, and ever-expanding group of people who recognize that community discussion can enrich humanities programming by providing an opportunity for active and civically-diverse reflection in conjunction with such events.

Past Humanities Collaboration events:

2016-17 academic year

In conjunction with the 2016-17 UMHC symposium “Saga and Story: An Interdisciplinary Exploration from the Vikings to Our Time” on the same topic, the Humanities Collaboration held a four-part discussion series to examine Independent People by Nobel-novelist Halldór Laxness, a contemporary Icelandic saga. These discussions gathered a diverse mix of students and faculty from both UMaine and Orono High School as well as members of the local communities for four rich discussions across the year. Thanks to funds from a UMHC grant for the Humanities Collaboration, participants were given a copy of the book.
October 20th, 2016: seminar-style discussion led by Michael Lang (Associate Professor of History and Director of International Affairs, UMaine) about Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society. Thanks to funds from a UMHC grant for the Humanities Collaboration, participants were given a copy of the book.
November 2nd: the Humanities Collaboration helped to support a discussion on the topic “Can a Prison Be a Home?” led by Drew Leder (Loyola University Maryland) with video participation by Vincent Greco. Participants engaged in a seminar-style discussion of a selected reading from The Soul Knows No Bars, a book co-authored by Leder and inmates in a maximum-security prison. See the event poster for more details.

2015-16 academic year

October 2015: seminar discussion on the Past and the Future of the University in advance of Dr. Edward Baptist’s lecture “How to Save American Higher Education From Its Saviors: The Morrill Act and What It Can teach Us Today.”
October 2015: seminar discussion of “Leap Before You Look!” (the catalog for the Black Mountain College exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston).
November 2015: pre-event seminar discussion of poetry reflecting on the effects of war before the Outside the Wire presentation of “Theater of War.”
November 2015: seminar discussion of Hamlet prior to the National Theater Live presentation of the play at the CCA.
February 2016: presentation followed by a seminar discussion of a recent undergraduate’s experience of life after graduation: “Notes towards an essay…The Promises and Problems of a Liberal Arts Education, OR Tying Up With a Liberal Bow What Might In Reality Be Nothing More Than Garden Variety Angst.”
March 2016: discussion and salon event at the UMMA on appropriation and originality in art and life.
March 2016: discussion-rich field trip to Portland to see Shakespeare’s First Folio, listen to an accompanying lecture by Prof. Dick Brucher, and visit the Osher Map Library to view maps from Shakespeare’s time.
April 2016: seminar discussion of Marjorie Satrape’s graphic novel Persepolis during Islamic Awareness Week (when Humanities Collaboration members were also encouraged to attend a variety of humanities programming including Reza Jalali’s play “The Poet and The Assassin.”
April 2016: discussion with Pulitzer prize-wining photojournalist, Larry Price, following his presentation of his recent series of photos on child gold-mining and on the environment.

2014-2015 academic year

A discussion led by Kirsten Jacobson (Associate Professor of Philosophy, UMaine) and Jim Bulteel (English, Orono High School) about John Dewey’s Democracy and Education. A group of faculty from both UMaine and Orono High School gathered to discuss the 1916 book which examined issues in education, a large number of which paralleled those facing educators nearly a century later. Thanks to funds from a UMHC grant for the Humanities Collaboration, participants were given a copy of the book.