Student sustainability journal launch celebration May 4 at Hudson Museum
The inaugural edition of “Spire,” an online journal of conservation and sustainability based at the University of Maine, will be launched Thursday, May 4.
A public celebration with food and beverages will mark the occasion 6–8 p.m. May 4 in the Hudson Museum at the Collins Center for the Arts.
The Maine Woods National Park Photo-Documentation Project, which has photographs in “Spire: The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability,” will have more on exhibit at the celebration and at the museum through June 30.
The student-produced journal seeks to promote awareness-raising dialogue to unite Maine communities to effect positive environmental change.
Kaitlyn Abrams, editor-in-chief, says her experience with “Spire” has been transformative.
The graduate teaching assistant in the UMaine Department of English, wanted to be a fiction writer when the project commenced in December 2015. But next fall, Abrams will be attending Oxford University to earn a master’s degree in nature, society and environmental governance.
“It’s been an extremely rewarding experience professionally and personally,” says Abrams. “‘Spire’ is a great platform — it invites others to join the conversation and gives young people a chance to help shape the future.”
Dan Dixon, sustainability director and a research assistant professor with the Climate Change Institute, is faculty adviser of “Spire.”
Along with the rest of the editorial team, Dixon, Abrams, and a number of contributing authors and artists will attend the May 4 celebration.
Colby Fogg, a new media major, created the cover art and has several other designs in the journal.
In addition to photographs and other pieces of art, “Spire” features work from the fields of biology and ecology, folklore, climate science, English, graphic design, nursing and forest resources.
Abrams says the multidisciplinary perspective strengthens the journal.
“We all live here and we all have a stake in this effort to address the shared challenges we face,” she says.
Abrams visited Dixon at the end of the fall 2015 semester to share her idea for creating such a journal. “It doesn’t exist yet…but it could,” she remembers saying.
She and Dixon then formed an advisory board and invited students to join the online journal’s editorial team. Abrams and other “Spire” staffers then reviewed multiple student and community submissions with environmental, conservation and sustainability themes.
As of May 4 the journal will exist online. Abrams says she’s proud and excited to see it continue to flourish.
People statewide interested in submitting articles, essays, data, artwork, photography or poetry with an environmental, conservation or sustainability theme are invited to visit umaine.edu/spire/submit.