Stephen J. Hornsby, Professor of Geography and Canadian Studies and former director of the Canadian-American Center, received the Governor General’s International Award for Canadian Studies from the International Council for Canadian Studies at a ceremony at York University, Toronto, on 26 June 2025. The award is given biennially to an international scholar who has made a significant contribution to teaching, outreach, research, and program development in Canadian Studies.

The Canadian-American Center wishes to express it’s sincere congratulations to Dr. Hornsby, as much of the work that earned him this award was closely intertwined with the Canadian-American Center’s numerous successes and goals.

The cartographer Margaret Pearce will be at Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, for an artist residency October 6th to November 12th. Margaret Pearce is an independent cartographer and author of several award winning maps, such as ��(Penobscot Cultural & Historic Preservation, 2015) in collaboration with Penobscot C&HP,��and��They Would Not Take Me There: People, Places and Stories from Champlain’s Travels in Canada, 1603-1616��(Canadian-American Center, 2008), in collaboration with Michael J. Hermann. Pearce also recently worked with the Canadian-American Center to release a new map, marking the 150th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada, Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada. The map honors Indigenous place names in Canada and the assertion of Indigenous authority through place names. To learn more about Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada, click here.

The Yaddo Artistic Residency is a historic Residency that takes place in Saratoga Springs, NY. The residency has been taking place since 1900, and their mission is to “nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment”. You can learn more about Yaddo . Pearce will be spending her time in residency focusing on the two maps of Inuit Nunangat commissioned by the Center.

This May, sponsored by the Canadian-American Center, director Frederic Rondeau and center staff took students to Quebec for a week long francophone language immersion course. Students visited important cultural sites throughout the region, including the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Assemblée nationale du Québec, the Wendake indigenous site of the Huron-Wendat Nation, and more.

The 91���� College of Liberal Arts and Sciences shares the full story here.

The Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine extends congratulations to independent cartographer, Margaret Wickens Pearce, who was recently named as one of 2023’s recipients of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship under the Geography and Environmental Studies category. Pearce has worked extensively with the Canadian-American Center on cartographic projects producing maps such as They Would Not Take Me There: People, Places and Stories from Champlain’s Travels in Canada, 1603-1616 and Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada.��

The Guggenheim Foundation grants fellowships to “mid-career individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts and exhibit great promise for their future endeavors.” The foundation receives roughly 3,000 applications each year, and only awards up to 175 fellowships.

“The fellowship will support my project about Mississippi River flooding in the context of an Indigenized river,” says Pearce. The project will follow her current work on a new map project in collaboration with the Canadian-American Center, which investigates climate change and its impact on northern Indigenous communities. To see some of Pearce’s recent projects, click here.��

The Canadian-American Center continues to celebrate Pearce’s successes and is proud to count her among its colleagues. To learn more about the fellowship, and to see a full list of the other awardees, please visit the Guggenheim Foundation website .

Today, the University of Maine announced that 21 faculty members have received tenure and/or promotion this spring. The annual announcement recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching, scholarship and research, and community engagement.

“These are world-class faculty members who contribute to the quality of the 91���� and 91���� Machias student experience, and to the mission of the state’s R1 university in meeting the needs in Maine and beyond,” says John Volin, 91���� executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. “We are extremely proud of their achievements and the difference they make through their teaching, scholarship and outreach.”

Three of the 21 faculty members—Mark McLaughlin (History and Canadian Studies), Joshua Stoll (Marine Policy), and Bonnie Newsom (Anthropology)—are involved with Canadian-American Center programs, activities, and the teaching of Canadian content within their courses.

McLaughlin serves on the Canadian-American Center’s Executive Committee and teaches, among history courses, an Introduction to Canadian Studies (CAN 101). As a regular part of his CAN 101 course, McLaughlin also takes groups of students to visit Ottawa and Fredericton to observe the history, art, culture, and politics of both cities.

Stoll is an affiliate member of the Canadian-American Center, and has organized events with the Canadian-American Center focused on Canada-US and sustainable fisheries.

Newsom is an affiliate member of the Canadian-American Center, and her course offerings include Canadian content.

Please join us in congratulating our colleagues in their recognition of service to the University of Maine community, to the Canadian-American Center, and for their continued dedication to Canada and the US.

When: Tuesday, March 28th 2023 from noon to 1 PM

Where: Coe Room in the Memorial Union

Please join the Canadian-American Center in coordination with Bridgewater State University, as we welcome Dr. Will Garrett-Petts to the University of Maine to present The Vernacular Rhetoric of Cultural Mapping: Everyday Canadian Cartographers in the Public Sphere.

This event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided!

Thursday March 30, 2023

Fernald APPE Space

104 Stewart Commons, University of Maine

Free and Open to the public!

Please join the Canadian-American Center and the 91���� English department in welcoming award-winning author, Suzette Mayr to the New Writing Series, where she’ll give a reading and engage in discussion of her works.

Suzette Mayr is the author of six novels including her most recent,��The Sleeping Car Porter, winner of the 2022 , and nominee for the Republic of Consciousness Prize (US and Canada) and the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Mayr’s other novels have won the ReLit Award and City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, and been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean Region, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Best First Book and Best Novel Awards, and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction.��Mayr has done inter-disciplinary work with Calgary theatre company Theatre Junction, and visual artists Lisa Brawn and Geoff Hunter. She is a former President of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. Mayr teaches Creative Writing at the University of Calgary.

Director of the Lobster Institute, and professor in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine, Dr. Richard Wahle, will now lead a study to research the effects of arctic warming and its effects on the North American lobster. Dr. Wahle is a Canadian-American Center affiliate, and has received funding sponsored by the Center’s Department of Education National Resource Center funding for his recent projects.

To read the full article, click here!

Dr. Stefano Tijernina, Canadian Studies Faculty at Maine Business School, will be conducting a field trip to Montreal, Quebec November 10-13, 2022 with students from his courses that focus on Canadian-U.S. economics and business. They will network with Concordia University’s business school and explore the business culture of Montreal via customer service, use of space, local business dynamics, bilingualism and business, marketing, public relations, and the adaptability of foreign businesses inside Québec and Canada. They will also visit cultural sites such as the Chamber of Commerce and Québec International.