Education, Economic Development, Politics Form Focus of Canada Week at UMaine
Contact: Betsy Arntzen, 581-4225; George Manlove, 581-4756
ORONO — Native studies education, Canadian politics and Canadian history are three topics speakers will address as the University of Maine Canadian-American Center presents Canada Week 2006.
The 27th annual Canada Week is designed to highlight Canadian studies at UMaine and showcase research being done by faculty and graduate students, as well as to offer a professional development opportunity to Maine teachers. An educator and Maliseet historian will lead a professional development workshop for Maine school teachers teaching Native studies and teaching Native students. The workshop will aid teachers in implementing LD 291, the recently enacted state law requiring schools to incorporate Native American history and cultural components into their curricula.
The public is invited to the three main events, which are free. Lectures and discussions on Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 are sponsored primarily by the Canadian-American Center at UMaine and supported by Foreign Affairs Canada. Lunch will be provided for two noontime events. Reservations are requested and may be made by calling Nancy Strayer at the Center at 581-4220.
Canada Week starts with a lecture and discussion by Neil LeBlanc of Nova Scotia, Consul General of Canada at the Canadian Consulate in Boston, who will discuss the current political and economic environment in Canada.
Canadian Studies researchers Stephen Hornsby, professor of geography and Canadian Studies and director of the Canadian-American Center, Micah Pawling, a UMaine history graduate student, and Lise Pelletier, also a UMaine modern language and classics graduate student, are the Alice R. Stewart Graduate Lecture speakers, scheduled Nov. 1, from 12-1:30 p.m., in the Coe Room of the Memorial Union.
Hornsby will speak on “Canada in the Historical Atlas of Maine. The title of Pawling’s talk is “The 1820 Joseph Treat Survey on the Saint John River: Maps, Maliseet Homeland and Petitions in the Disputed Territory.” Pelletier will speak on the languages of Acadian novels.
Andrea Bear Nicholas, Maliseet historian and chair of Native studies at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B., will address K-12 teachers about her perspectives on what teachers need to know to teach Native studies and Native students. The title of her discussion, scheduled Nov. 2 from 3-6 p.m. in the Bodwell Lounge of the MCA and Hudson Museum, is “Addressing Pitfalls, Fallacies and Roadblocks in the Education of and about First Nations.”
On Oct. 31, from 12-2 p.m. in the Alfond Family Lounge at the Harold Alfond Arena, LeBlanc is expected to draw from his 14 years in politics and business experience as owner of a fish and lobster wholesale company in his home province of Nova Scotia, as he discusses Canada’s current political and economic environments.