Incoming fellow Luke Miller, a history major from Tewksbury, Massachusetts, will spend the next academic year exploring, “How Government Policy Affects the Homeless Population In Maine: From Vietnam to Today.” Miller will study state and local policies and data on homelessness, and conduct interviews within the homeless population and those who serve them, to better understand how needs could be better addressed. While comparing data and policies from across the state, his research will focus on Bangor in particular. Miller will be advised by Dr. Brian Pitman from the Department of Sociology.

Sabrina Paetow, a Sociology major from Topsham, Maine, will spend her fellowship analyzing “Rhetoric in the Age of Trump: Presidential Discourse on the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which is tied to her Honors thesis of the same title. Paetow, who will be advised by Dr. Amy Fried from the Department of Political Science, hopes to understand how this particular public health crisis has been framed across the pandemic, and how Trump’s rhetoric affected public perception and discourse on the topic.

Also joining the new cohort will be Stephanie Tillotson from Cumberland Foreside, Maine, who is majoring in Spanish with a minor in Legal Studies. Tillotson is the first student from the Department of Modern Languages and Classics to be awarded a McGillicuddy Humanities Center Fellowship. For her proposed project, “Making Foreign Language Education Accessible through Spanish Animation,” she aims to create a plan and prototype for a mini series of animated, Spanish learning videos featuring the adventures of a dog named Moxie, inspired by her own dog. Tillotson’s research will be advised by Dr. Katie Quick from the Honors College.

Lastly, nursing student Heather Webb of Bangor, Maine, will be writing a series of interconnected personal reflective essays titled, “When Teacher Becomes Pupil: Writing My Way Through Career Transition.” Webb, who worked as an English teacher for many years, is making a career transition into the field of nursing. Her essays will explore the nature of teaching and learning through her experiences going back to school in an unfamiliar field. Nilda Cravens, MSN, RN, will be advising the project. Webb is the first nontraditional student, and first Nursing student, to be awarded a MHC student fellowship.

The MHC funds a rotating cohort of eight undergraduate fellows, providing $4,000 each per semester for two semesters to complete the research or creative projects of their choosing.�� In addition to honing their research skills and building their academic networks, fellows serve as humanities ambassadors to their peers, the campus, and beyond. Many past MHC Fellows have stayed on at 91���� for graduate school.

Students interested in becoming a McGillicuddy Humanities Center undergraduate fellow have two deadlines to apply annually, on March 17 and October 17. Research and creative work of all types across the humanities will be considered, from academic papers and art gallery shows, to community workshops or films. More information, including application instructions, proposal guidelines, and a rubric, are all available at umaine.edu/mhc/research/for-students/undergraduate-fellowship/ or by contacting the MHC’s Humanities Specialist Karen Sieber at karen.sieber@maine.edu.

The post Four Students Selected to Join McGillicuddy Humanities Center as Fellows in Fall 2021 appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

Four University of Maine students have joined the McGillicuddy Humanities Center (MHC) this semester as research fellows: Delaney Burns, Elizabeth Dalton, Grace Royle, and Haley Santerre. This new cohort joins existing fellows Nolan Altvater, Hailey Cedor, Nola Prevost and Katherine Reardon, who will finish their research at the MHC in Spring, 2021.

Incoming fellow Delaney Burns is exploring the intersection of art and science.�� Burns, a fourth-year student from Gorham, Maine, is double-majoring in Studio Art and Marketing with minors in Art History and Graphic Design. For her fellowship, Burns will create a series of large-scale wood block prints titled, “Pinus Iongaeva: Discovering Form and Value through Ancient Bristlecone Pine Trees.” She hopes to learn and share new printmaking techniques, understand more about Ancient Bristlecone Pine Trees, and their importance to the ecosystem, and explore their personal connection to her father, a 91���� Forestry graduate.

Elizabeth Dalton has begun her research into, “Analyzing the Harmful Effects of Historical Inaccuracies in Medieval History as Seen in Popular Culture.”  A third year History major from Lamoine, Maine, Dalton is minoring in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.�� While recognizing the potential that binge-worthy shows and popular movies have to engage the public with history, Dalton’s project will investigate and describe the problematic ways in which accuracy is overlooked for the sake of entertainment. Her fellowship research will focus on depictions of the Medieval Age, as in Netflix’s The King.

Grace Royle is a third year Communication major and Legal Studies minor from Minot, Maine. Royle has begun work on a scholarly paper tentatively titled, “From Self-Help to Self-Harm: An Analysis of the Dangers that Fester in the Self-Help Industry.” She is particularly interested in exploring the hidden dangers of the industry, with self-proclaimed gurus practicing without certification, or sufficient qualifications or regulation. Her research will also look into the complicated psychology that comes into play, where people are being promised self-help but instead partaking in dangerous, self-harming activities.

Incoming fellow Haley Santerre asks, “Are the Gods to Blame?” Santerre is a third year Studio Art major and Art History minor from Portland, Maine. She is creating a series of six paintings that examine recent catastrophic events, such as the Coronavirus pandemic or Australian wildfires, through an historical and theological lens. By examining how ancient cultures, particularly those in Greece, would have responded, she hopes in turn to learn more about people’s beliefs today.�� Haley is the inaugural Richard and Karin Anderson Undergraduate Fellow, whose generous donation funds the research of one fellow per year.

More information will be announced soon about a two-part showcase event in April featuring the research of the four fellows completing their research this spring. Future tribal educator Nolan Altvater has been doing his fellowship research on “Decolonizing Maine Education: Creating an Educational Resource to Improve the Implementation of The Wabanaki Studies Law.”  Fellow Hailey Cedor is completing research related to local involvement of Lithuanians in the Holocaust and how that currently informs national views and identity in relation to that horrific moment in time. Like many, Fellow Nola Prevost is interested in the historic use of fairy tales to represent societal issues or moral messages. She has been using fairy tale conventions and feminist scholarship to create her own modernized collection of fables. Lastly, Katherine Reardon is putting final edits on her work on, “Family Stories, The Truth, and How It Shape Us,” which examines family lore and storytelling within her own Irish family.

The MHC funds a rotating cohort of eight undergraduate fellows, providing $4,000 each per semester for two semesters to complete the research or creative projects of their choosing.�� In addition to honing their research skills and building their academic networks, fellows serve as humanities ambassadors to their peers, the campus, and beyond. Many past MHC Fellows have stayed on at 91���� for graduate school.

Students interested in becoming a McGillicuddy Humanities Center undergraduate fellow have two deadlines to apply annually. Proposals to become a fall 2021 through spring 2022 fellow should be submitted by March 17, 2021. Research and creative work of all types across the humanities will be considered, from academic papers to art gallery shows, community workshops to educational video series. While the project has to be centered in the humanities, students from other disciplines are welcome to submit proposals for humanities-based projects. Students must be in their junior and/or senior year during the length of the two-semester fellowship term.

More information, including application instructions, proposal guidelines, and a rubric, are all available at umaine.edu/mhc/research/for-students/undergraduate-fellowship/ or by contacting the MHC’s Humanities Specialist Karen Sieber at karen.sieber@maine.edu.

The post New Cohort of McGillicuddy Humanities Center Fellows Begin Research appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

The Spring 2020-Fall 2020 McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellows are, from left to right, Ivy Flessen, Leela Stockley, Bria Lamonica.��

The Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center is proud to announce that 91���� students Ivy Flessen, Bria Lamonica, and Leela Stockley have been chosen as our Spring 2020-Fall 2020 MHC undergraduate fellows. Fellows receive $4000 each semester for two consecutive semesters, while they work on a humanities project of their own devising. They serve as humanities ambassadors to their peers, the campus, and beyond.

Ivy Flessen is from Oswego, Illinois, and is a third-year political science major, with minors in legal studies, as well as ethics and political philosophy. She is involved with a number of honor societies and student organizations, including the 91���� Singers, the Pre-Law Society, and Phi Beta Kappa. Ivy’s project, “The Morality of the Life of the Mind in Plato’s Dialogues” will also serve as her honors thesis. Her research examines the perennial tension between self-interest and altruism in the dialogues of Plato. She is interested in determining whether Plato regarded a life dedicated to wisdom as the zenith of public service, or as a selfish enterprise. She was drawn to this research because she hopes to one day work in academia, and sees modern academics still facing charges of elitism and irrelevance.��

Bria Lamonica is a third-year English major with a concentration in creative writing and a minor in psychology. A native of Turnersville, New Jersey, Bria is particularily interested in the work of feminist poets like Gertrude Stein, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Adrienne Rich, as well as contemporary poets. Her fellowship research, which will also inform her capstone and honors thesis, will involve creating a collection of poetry titled, “Out of Darkness: Contemporary Feminist Poetry.” She is hoping to use poetry as a way to fight back against oppression and speak up for women who cannot speak for themselves. Bria also writes for the Maine Campus, is involved with the Phi Mu fraternity, and is a member of  the Sigma Tau Delta National English Honors Society.��

Leela Stockley is a third-year journalism and anthropology double major from Chester, Maine. As news editor at Maine Campus, she thinks a lot about journalists’ duty to provide unbiased media coverage. Her research, “Ethical Implications of the Protest Paradigm on Marginalized Communities: Examining the portrayal of social justice movements in mass media based on lines of class and race” hopes to further examine how language choice in news coverage often conflicts with this ethical duty. When the media coverage uses language that emphasizes deviant behavior, violence and confrontation, but ignores the core tenets and goals of a movement, Stockley believes it blurs the reader’s understanding of the social justice movement and marginalized communities.��

Returning for their second semester as McGillicuddy Humanities Center Fellows are Noah Loveless, doing research on Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project, Sarah Penney who is examining Icelandic sagas, and Matthew Ryckman who has been exploring the history of geometry textbooks through the lens of a 1732 edition of Euclid’s Elements. All six of the current McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellows will be attending the National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium at Johns Hopkins University on April 3-4.��

For students interested in becoming a McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellowship, applications for the Fall 2020-Spring 2021 cycle are due March 27. More information, including application instructions, proposal guidelines, and a rubric, are all available at umaine.edu/mhc/grants-scholarships/ or by emailing mhc@maine.edu.��

For more information on this event, please contact Karen Sieber [karen.sieber@maine.edu] or Margo Lukens [lukens@maine.edu] at the McGillicuddy Humanities Center at 91���� (207) 581-1848.��

The post New McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellows Announced appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

Are you an undergraduate student at 91���� studying art, music, history, performing arts, English, journalism, communications, new media, philosophy, languages or other humanities fields?

Would you like to earn $4,000 per semester for two consecutive semesters working on your own independent research or creative project?

The McGillicuddy Humanities Center is holding an information session and pizza party for students interested in learning more about this unique opportunity. Join us on Thursday, March 5, from 5-6 p.m. in the Totman Room of Memorial Union to learn more about the fellowships and application process from MHC staff and current and former fellows.

More information about the fellowships, including proposal guidelines and rubrics, can be found at: /mhc/grants-scholarships/for-students/the-clement-and-linda-mcgillicuddy-humanities-center-undergraduate-fellowship/

The post McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellowship Information Session appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.