Four University of Maine students have received Killam Fellowships to help fund their studies at
various Canadian institutions of higher learning during the 25-26 academic year.

The Killam Fellowships Program provides undergraduate students in Canada and the U.S. with
opportunities to spend a semester or full academic year in the other country as exchange students.
Recipients receive a $6,000 stipend per semester, an allowance to offset health insurance costs, and a
grant of up to $800 for an educational field trip. The Killam Fellowship operates under Fulbright
Canada and provides students with academic and cultural connections with the Canadian Fulbright
community. 91���� students awarded the Killam Fellowship enroll for one or two semesters at one
of the participating Canadian universities.

The four 91���� students who received a Killam Fellowship for the 2025-2026 academic year are:

• Blake Getchell, Anthropology – University of Prince Edward Island
• Hannah Peak, Anthropology – University of Ottawa
• Autumn Perley, Microbiology, Maine Top Scholar – McMaster University
• Carly Philbrook, Secondary Education and Honors, Maine Top Scholar – Memorial University of Newfoundland

The support offered by the Killam Fellowship opens up a world of opportunities for students who
have always wanted to expand their horizons.

“I’ve always known that I wanted to study abroad because I’ve wanted to experience the world
beyond Maine,” said Carly Philbrook. “Even though I had originally hoped to go to Spain, Canada is
an exciting opportunity to see a new part of North America and to learn some French.”

Blake Getchell shared, “I wanted to study away specifically in the Canadian Maritimes so I could
have the opportunity to take a Mi’kmaq language course!”, “I’m First Nations Mi’kmaq and learning
the language has been a big goal of mine. I hope to learn about Canadian and Indigenous relations
and make friends I can later come visit after my exchange is over! I have some family in Cape
Breton, Nova Scotia and will definitely be coming back up North again soon.”

Hannah Peak, who will start her experience in Canada in Spring ‘26, offered the following, “I’m an
anthropology major, so I’ve been planning on studying abroad for a while, I’d like to have some sort
of diplomatic role in my future career, so studying abroad is helpful. I chose Canada in particular
because I am currently taking French, and I would like to be able to put that to use in the future.”

“As someone who has always lived at home and rarely had the opportunity to travel, I wanted to
experience living away from home for the first time – and in a city. Canada (and McMaster
University) was the perfect place,” said Autumn Perley. “It was different, but not too far from my loved ones. I was excited for independence and experiencing the diversity of the people and cultures
that populate Canadian cities and academia. While the University of Maine is a large research
university, and our small department has a great curriculum focused on authentic research
experiences,” Perley continued, “there are many areas of biology that I would like to explore. I’m
eager to broaden my research experience to other areas of biology at McMaster … and I look
forward to gaining the skills and knowledge that working in a lab here will provide.”

Of course, while studying and academics are important, they are not the only exciting aspects of
study abroad. It’s also about the experiences.

“The biggest highlights for me so far are the friends I’ve made and the amazing views from Signal
Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland where I am studying,” Philbrook said.

“I’m most looking forward to being in the center of everything (I’ll be going to UOttawa),” said
Peak. “There are a lot of museums and government buildings close by, so I will constantly be
immersed in what I am interested in. I’m also looking forward to the experience of being in Canada
in general. I hope to gain experiences that I cannot have at 91����.”

“[I’m] beginning to explore the many communities of Mi’kmaq there are here in Canada, and
meeting Inuit and Métis people as well,” Getchell said. “It’s been nice to go to the beaches and
coasts here without many tourists around. It’s been a bit foggy as of late October and I really enjoy
the fog, too.”

“I hope to broaden my horizons and develop new perspectives and skills that will help me learn how
to adapt to different situations, groups of people, and aspects of life,” said Perley.

These students’ applications were supported by the Canadian-American Center, the Office of
International Programs and the Office of Major Scholarships.

The 91���� deadline for applications for the 2026/27 academic year is January 18, 2026.

For more information on the Killam Fellowship Program and how to apply, use this .

If you are interested in applying for a Killam Fellowship, please contact Marie-Joëlle St-Louis
Savoie (mariejoelle.stlouis@maine.edu) prior to applying.

Grants up to $4000 for 91���� Faculty

The Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine invites faculty to submit proposals for  Canadian studies course development grants. Proposals for graduate and undergraduate courses  are welcome from full-time faculty in all relevant disciplines.

What proposals are eligible for funding? 

     Proposals may use funds for one of the following: 

1. Create a new course in Canadian studies (100% Canadian content)
2. Include Canadian content in a new or existing course (25% or more)
3. Increase Canadian content in an existing Canadian  Studies course (to 50% or higher)
4. Redesign an in-person course with Canadian content  to an online format (in cooperation with CITL)
5. Develop online courses related to Canada (in cooperation with CITL)

To be eligible for funding, the course must contribute to the knowledge of Canada or of Canada’s  ties with the United States. Courses with the potential to be consistently offered or become  permanent additions to the Canadian Studies Minor will be prioritized.  

Stipends will be granted to faculty to support the revision of an existing course in the amount of $2,500 and to support the development of a new course in the amount of $4,000.

All work on the newly constructed course must take place between June 16, 2024 and August 30, 2024.

Stipends will be paid at the beginning of September, provided the obligations listed below are fulfilled and the following documentation is provided to the Director of the Canadian-American Center.

How to apply for a course development grant 

Download the application:

2024 Course Development Grant Application

Please include the following in your application:

1. Cover sheet
2. Description of how the new course or upgraded course will fit into the home

department’s goals for academic focus and its relevance for students studying that

discipline; please estimate the number of students expected to enroll.

• Description of the course to include learning objectives (not to exceed 1000 words)
• Draft syllabus of the new course. If this is a proposal to upgrade an existing course,

provide both the current syllabus and the proposed new syllabus.

• Brief description of the amount of work that will be required to develop the course (not to exceed 500 words)
• (Optional) Additional funding is available for the purchase of books through the Canadian Studies collection at Fogler Library. You may include a list of top titles useful for research in preparing for the new/upgraded course and/or for students taking the course.

To discuss your interest in this opportunity and any related questions, please contact Frédéric Rondeau: Frederic.Rondeau@maine.edu

Please note that all Center supported course development stipend projects require pre-approval from the Director of the Canadian-American Center.

Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis between June 1st and June 15th, 2024. 

Submit applications by email to Dr. Frédéric Rondeau (Director of the Canadian American Center and Associate Professor of French): Frederic.rondeau@maine.edu.   

The American Council for Quebec Studies (ACQS) is looking for proposals for papers for the Emerging Scholars Colloquium, held in conjunction with the 2024 ACQS conference. They’re looking for proposals from graduate students and junior faculty whose research involves Quebec, Francophone Canada, and Franco-America.

Accepted proposals will be featured in a series of panels as part of the 2024 ACQS conference. Scholars are also expected to attend the full ACQS conference. The best papers from the colloquium will also be submitted for publication in Québec Studies. Each accepted scholar will receive a 2-year membership to the American Council for Québec Studies, complementary registration for the conference and a 1000$ US stipend to support the cost of travel and lodging.

Submission are around 250 words. The deadline to submit is May 1st, 2024. To submit, head to the ACQS website:

For more information, head to the , or check out the attached flyer.

The Canadian-American Center at UMAine is once again holding a competition for semester long FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) Awards for the Spring 2024 semester. FLAS Fellowships support undergraduate students who have an interest in area studies expertise and language proficiency in Canadian Studies and French or Wabanaki languages (Maliseet, Mi’kmaq/Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Abenaki/Penobscot).

Graduate students can be awarded a $10,000 stipend, tuition coverage up to $9,000, and %50 of health insurance premiums, if bought through the University of Maine. Undergraduate students can be awarded a $2,500 stipend, tuition coverage up to $5,000, and 50% of health insurance premiums, if bought through the University of Maine.

Eligibility Requirements:

French Language Study (Graduate Students Only):

• Students should be working at the Graduate level on a Canadian-related subject (comparative work is accepted (ex. US/Canada))
• Students must demonstrate an intermediate level or higher proficiency in French

Wabanaki Languages (Undergraduate and Graduate Students):

• Includes: Maliseet, Mi’kmaq/Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Abenaki/Penobscot
• Undergraduate or graduate students must demonstrate an intermediate level or higher proficiency in Wabanaki language

Application Deadline: December 1st, 2023

For more information, download the flyer below or check out this page on FLAS awards. For inquiries, please contact Frederic Rondeau. Submit any applications to Aaron Lefebevre at aaron.lefebevre@maine.edu

Grants up to $4000 for 91���� Faculty

The Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine invites faculty to submit proposals for Canadian studies course development grants. Proposals for graduate and undergraduate courses are welcome from full-time faculty in all relevant disciplines.

Which proposals are eligible for funding? 

Proposals may use funds for one of the following:

1. Creating a new course in Canadian studies (100% Canadian content)
2. Incorporating Canadian content in a new or existing course (25% or more)
3. Increasing Canadian content in an existing Canadian Studies course (to 50% or higher)
4. Reformatting an in-person course with Canadian content to an online version (in cooperation with CITL)
5. Developing online courses related to Canada (in cooperation with CITL)

To be eligible for funding, the course must contribute to the knowledge of Canada or of Canada’s relationship with the United States. Courses with the potential to be consistently offered or become permanent additions to the Canadian Studies Minor will be prioritized.

The amount of each grant award (up to $4000) will be determined based on the percentage of Canadian content in the course. Time required by faculty to develop or restructure a course will be considered.

How to apply for a course development grant 

Please include the following in your application:

• A cover sheet
• A description of how the new course or upgraded course will fit into the home department’s goals for academic focus and its relevance for students studying that discipline; please estimate the number of students expected to enroll.
• A description of the course to include learning objectives (not to exceed 1000 words)
• A draft syllabus of the new course. If this is a proposal to upgrade an existing course, provide both the current syllabus and the proposed new syllabus.
• A brief description of the amount of work that will be required to develop the course (not to exceed 500 words)
• (Optional) Additional funding is available for the purchase of books through the Canadian Studies collection at Fogler Library. You may include a list of top titles useful for research in preparing for the new/upgraded course and/or for students taking the Course Dev. call for proposals (2023) course.

Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis between April 1 and June 1, 2022.

Direct questions and submit applications by email to:

Dr. Frédéric Rondeau, Director of the Canadian American Center, and Associate Professor of French

Email: frederic.rondeau@maine.edu

Information and Application PDF:

Call for Proposals: Course Development in Canadian Studies

The Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) has announced its call for papers for a student colloquium, set to take place alongside its biennial meeting and conference this coming November in Washington, D.C. . They’re looking for strong proposals in from students at both the graduate and undergraduate level, individual submissions as well as group proposals. These proposals must all be related to the theme ‘Canada: Near and Far’.

Students accepted to the colloquium will receive funding support from ACSUS in the form of:

1) $125 USD to cover registration and a 2-year ACSUS membership and
2) $1,000 USD to assist with travel and accommodation costs

Head to the for more information. The deadline to submit for the student colloquium is April 15th, 2023, and the deadline to submit to the ACSUS main conference program is March 1st, 2023.

L’Association d’études canadiennes aux États-Unis (ACSUS) a lancé un appel à communications pour un colloque d’étudiants, qui se tiendra parallèlement à sa réunion et conférence biennale en novembre prochain à Washington, D.C.. L’ACSUS est à la recherche de propositions solides de la part d’étudiants de premier et de deuxième cycle, qu’il s’agisse de propositions individuelles ou de groupes. Ces propositions doivent toutes être liées au thème ‘Canada : Proche et Lointain’.

Les étudiants acceptés au colloque recevront un soutien financier de l’ACSUS sous la forme de :

1) $125 USD en frais d’inscription, qui incluent un abonnement de 2 ans à l’ACSUS et
2) $1000 USD pour contribuer aux coûts associés au transport et au logement

Rendez-vous sur pour plus d’informations. La date limite de soumission pour le colloque étudiant est le 15 avril 2023, et la date limite de soumission pour le programme de la conférence principale de l’ACSUS est le 1er mars 2023.

Applications for the FLAS Fellowship through the Canadian American Center are now open. This fellowship is available to both graduate and undergraduate students, provided they meet all of the qualifications. Click here to learn more about the FLAS fellowship, and here to learn how to apply.

The Faculty Research Fund program aims to support faculty in establishing or maintaining high-quality research programs and other creative achievements. Competitions are held annually and funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School through a review and nomination process by the Faculty Research Fund Committee.

This year ten recipients received Faculty Research Fund awards through three programs: the Regular Faculty Research Award, the Summer Research Award, and the Scholarly Equipment and Materials Award.

Regular Faculty Research Awards

Assists members of the faculty in establishing or maintaining high-quality research programs that will extend the limits of existing knowledge and lead to a tangible final product (e.g., performance, showing, publication, grant proposal, etc.)

1. Marcus LiBrizzi, Professor, Arts and Letter, University of Maine at Machias. “The Ghost Story in Brazil: Preserving Undocumented Cultural Narratives.”
2. Karissa Tilbury, Assistant Professor, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering. “Development of In-Vitro Tumor Microenvironment Models for the Identification of Hierarchical Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) Imaging Studies.”

Summer Research Awards

Provides $8,000 awards for faculty summer salaries for a minimum of 1.5 months of research effort.

1. Hollie Adams, Assistant Professor, English. “Morley Callaghan and Canadian Literary Modernism.”
2. Elizabeth DePoy, Professor, CCIDS and Social Work. “Professional Knowledge: Cultural Difference.”
3. Gregory Gerbi, Assistant Professor, School of Marine Sciences. “Ocean Dynamics of Coastal Maine.”
4. Sepideh Ghanavati, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information Science. “Towards Enhancing Developers’ Privacy Comprehension through Automated Classification of Privacy Behaviors in Software Applications.”
5. Peter Stechlinski, Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Statistics. “Nonsmooth Neural Networks and Machine Learning Algorithms.”
6. Kristin Vekasi, Associate Professor, Political Science. “The Politics of Supply Chain Security in the Indo-Pacific.”

Scholarly Equipment and Materials

The Scholarly Materials and Equipment Award assists faculty in establishing or maintaining high-quality research programs by providing items of equipment and library collections.

1. Rebecca Schwartz-Mette, Associate Professor, Psychology. “Dyadic Synchrony and Co-Regulation: Putative Vulnerability Markers for Socioemotional Maladjustment and Contagion.”
2. Yingchao Yang, Assistant Professor Mechanical Engineering, “A Fume Hood to Enhance Lab Safety and Fulfill Research Objectives.”

Grantees will have the opportunity to learn from each other and from previously funded RRF grant projects in a series of meetings and events offered throughout the next year.

For more information about the program contact Executive Director of Research Development Jason Charland, jason.charland@maine.edu.

Grants up to $4000 for 91���� Faculty

The Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine invites faculty to submit proposals for Canadian studies course development grants. Proposals for graduate and undergraduate courses are welcome from full-time faculty in all relevant disciplines.

Which proposals are eligible for funding? 

Proposals may use funds for one of the following:

1. Creating a new course in Canadian studies (100% Canadian content)
2. Incorporating Canadian content in a new or existing course (25% or more)
3. Increasing Canadian content in an existing Canadian Studies course (to 50% or higher)
4. Reformatting an in-person course with Canadian content to an online version (in cooperation with CITL)
5. Developing online courses related to Canada (in cooperation with CITL)

To be eligible for funding, the course must contribute to the knowledge of Canada or of Canada’s relationship with the United States. Courses with the potential to be consistently offered or become permanent additions to the Canadian Studies Minor will be prioritized.

The amount of each grant award (up to $4000) will be determined based on the percentage of Canadian content in the course. Time required by faculty to develop or restructure a course will be considered.

How to apply for a course development grant 

Please include the following in your application:

• A cover sheet
• A description of how the new course or upgraded course will fit into the home department’s goals for academic focus and its relevance for students studying that discipline; please estimate the number of students expected to enroll.
• A description of the course to include learning objectives (not to exceed 1000 words)
• A draft syllabus of the new course. If this is a proposal to upgrade an existing course, provide both the current syllabus and the proposed new syllabus.
• A brief description of the amount of work that will be required to develop the course (not to exceed 500 words)
• (Optional) Additional funding is available for the purchase of books through the Canadian Studies collection at Fogler Library. You may include a list of top titles useful for research in preparing for the new/upgraded course and/or for students taking the Course Dev. call for proposals (2022)course.

Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis between April 1 and June 1, 2022.

Direct questions and submit applications by email to:

Dr. Frédéric Rondeau, Director of the Canadian American Center, and Associate Professor of French

Email: frederic.rondeau@maine.edu

Information and Application PDF:

Call for Proposals: Course Development in Canadian Studies