The four fellows’ presentations will be split into two nights to allow for sufficient time. On April 21, Katherine Reardon will be presenting her research titled “What is Was and What I Know: Attempts at Family History”. Nola Prevost will also be presenting that evening and her project is called “All the Girls In The Woods: Feminist Fairy Tales for the Modern World”. The following evening, April 22, Hailey Cedor will be presenting “Local Involvement, Memory and Denial: The Complexities of the Holocaust in Lithuania”. Nolan Alvater will be sharing his project that night as well called “Wabanaki Tools of Diplomacy: Storying Protocols as Political Will”. Those who are interested in attending this event can use to access the presentations on both nights. Passcode  899432 if needed.��

These creative projects have been in the works for about a year, and each student has remained vigilantly dedicated to their chosen topic despite COVID restrictions which disrupted each of their research plans. While each student has been working independently, their research happened to all center around the idea of inter-generational storytelling including: the power of Wabanaki storytelling in education, Irish American family lore, local memory and Holocaust denial in Lithuania, and updated fairy tales for the modern world.

Alvater is a Wabanaki student who is majoring in secondary education. He is concentrating in English and hopes to use his degree to become a tribal educator. Alvater hails from both Sipayik and Island Falls, Maine and with his project he hopes to create a writing camp for people that would focus on the history of Native Maine and native culture. Alvater also wants to draw attention to the lack of resources given to the implementation of the Wabanaki studies law.

Cedor is a graduating history student with a minor in environmental horticulture who is passionate about bringing the stories of the past to life in the modern era. After working with Professor Anne Knowles’ Holocaust Ghettos Project, Cedor became interested in Lithuanians involvement in the Holocaust and how that shapes national discourse and identity surrounding the events today. Unfortunately, Holocaust denial remains on the rise in both Europe and the U.S. which is one of the aspects that makes Cedor’s project relevant in today’s world.

Prevost, of Brewer, Maine, is a graduating English major who is concentrating in creative writing and minoring in women’s, gender and sexuality studies. She is rewriting classic fairytales to have a more feminist message in a combination of both poetry and prose. She will focus on bringing to light the issues marginalized groups face in the U.S. through these reworked fairytales to make a collection of modernized fables.

After a trip to her family’s native Ireland, Reardon who is an English major with a political science minor, became interested in testing the validity of the stories her family members had been passing down to her over the years. Through the use of non-fictional creative writing, oral history and examining historical documentation, Reardon is hoping to differentiate truth from fiction, and examine how the stories have impacted herself and her family throughout the years.

The McGillicuddy Humanities Center chooses four students per semester to participate in its fellowship program, or eight at any given time, at various stages in their research. Participating students earn $4000 per semester to work on the research or creative project of their choice that is rooted in the scope of the arts and humanities. Any student of any major is welcome to apply to hold fellowships during their junior or senior years. There are two annual deadlines to submit proposals, which are October 17 and March 17. Fellowships are highly competitive, but the position is earned based upon the strength of an applicant’s proposal as opposed to their GPA. Each student must apply with a faculty advisor who works closely with the student throughout the duration of their project. All students are required to make their project accessible to the public through a medium such as a talk, gallery show, or journal article.

For more information on these events please contact mch@maine.edu or visit /mhc/.

Thank you to our undergraduate assistant Megan Ashe for this piece.

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The McGillicuddy Humanities Center is sponsoring a two-night research showcase event, “The Stories We Tell,” featuring the research and creative work of our four graduating undergraduate student fellows. While each student has been working independently, their collective research this past year all happened to center around stories that people tell from generation to generation. The showcase will take place on Wednesday, April 21, and Thursday, April 22, from 7-8:30 p.m. on both nights. . Passcode  899432 if prompted.��Email questions to mhc@maine.edu.

PRESENTATION SCHEDULE

Wednesday, April 21, 7-8:30 PM, FELLOWS KATHERINE REARDON AND NOLA PREVOST

Katherine Reardon, “What It Was and What I Know: Attempts at Family History”

Senior English major Katherine Reardon will be reading her creative work discussing family histories and storytelling through the lens of her own Irish family. Reardon was inspired to do this work while studying abroad in her family’s native Ireland. Combining the oral histories and family lore she grew up with sometimes contradictory archival records, Reardon examines where the truth fits in with these stories, and whether or not it is important if a family story is true. She will also discuss her personal reflective process, and locating herself within these stories.

Nola Prevost, “All The Girls In The Woods: Feminist Fairy Tales for the Modern World”

Nola Prevost will present selections from her original collection of feminist fairy tales, All The Girls In The Woods. Prevost, a senior English major and a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor, will explore the ability of the fairy tale genre to create and disseminate knowledge and values, and how this can be useful for social justice activism. She will also discuss the impact of inclusive and diverse representation in stories on women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community.

Thursday, April 22, 7-8:30 PM, FELLOWS HAILEY CEDOR AND NOLAN ALTVATER

Hailey Cedor, “Local Involvement, Memory and Denial: the Complexities of the Holocaust in Lithuania”

Senior History major Hailey Cedor will present part of her Honors thesis research about local involvement and memory of Lithuanians in relation to the Holocaust. The complex relationship of current Lithuanians with past atrocities shows the difficulties of acknowledging and reconciling difficult history, and the dangers of that ignorance. In Lithuania, the country’s complicated past has left ample room for self-victimization and denial that favors the public memory of non-Jewish Lithuanians, leaving the small Jewish community that survived the Holocaust to be continually marginalized. Cedor has worked with Holocaust material since the fall of 2018, and this past experience sparked an interest in Lithuania’s relationship to the Holocaust.

Nolan Altvater, “Wabanaki Tools of Diplomacy: Storying Protocols as Political Will”

Using Indigenous research methodologies, senior fellow Nolan Altvater’s project aims to center the needs and voices of Wabanaki communities to inform education policy in the State of Maine. Altvater, a Passamaquoddy citizen and future Tribal educator, addresses the current barriers of implementation of the Wabanaki Studies Law (LD 291) and presents how Wabanaki diplomacy can lead the way to address these issues and serve as political will toward decolonization and antiracist conviction in Maine education. In addition, it explores the concepts and protocols of wampum and its later form of Indigenous writing and how Wabanaki people have used traditional intellect to use these tools for empowerment to resist colonialism. Altvater is also a board member of Wabanaki Reach.

Click here for more information on the McGillicuddy Humanities Center fellowship program, or email mhc@maine.edu with questions.

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On Thursday, November 12, the McGillicuddy Humanities Center will be sponsoring a panel on “The Humanities as Activism in Chicago.” This session of the Socialist and Marxist Studies Series will feature three remarkable panelists whose work at the intersection of the humanities and activism has garnered national attention: Tonika Johnson, Kevin Coval, and Nicole Marroquin. Free and open to the public. Join at 12:30p.m. EST at:

Karen Sieber, humanities specialist at the MHC, proposed the panel to series facilitators Professor Doug Allen and lecturer Michael Swacha, seeing the pivot to a virtual format this semester as the perfect opportunity to bring in voices from beyond Maine. Sieber, who will moderate the panel, is currently doing research on what she calls “tactical humanities,” or using the humanities in strategic outside-of-the-box ways to draw attention to urgent issues. The three humanists she selected for the panel are individuals she knows from her time working as a public historian in Chicago that she feels embody this activist spirit.  “There is an immediacy to their work. I wanted to highlight the way in which these artists use their craft to draw attention to issues that are at once local and universal. The outreach work that Tonika, Kevin and Nicole each do with youth in their community can serve as a model elsewhere about the power of the humanities to engage tomorrow’s leaders. ”

Kevin Coval is an Emmy-nominated, award-winning poet & author of Everything Must Go: The Life & Death of an American Neighborhood, A People’s History of Chicago & over ten other full-length collections, anthologies & chapbooks. He is a founding editor of The BreakBeat Poets imprint on Haymarket Books. Coval is Creative Director of the MacArthur Award-winning cultural organization, ,  and a founder of , the world’s largest youth poetry festival, now in more than 19 cities across North America. He’s shared the stage with The Migos & Nelson Mandela & his work has been feature on The Daily Show, Poetry Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, CNN.com, and four seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.��Coval was the recipient of the 2018 Studs Terkel Award.

Tonika Johnson is a visual artist, photographer, and community activist from Chicago’s South side Englewood neighborhood. Her  project examines the long history of redlining and segregation in the city. Johnson works to address inaccurate negative perceptions about the South and West sides of Chicago, and open a dialogue about institutional racism and segregation.��She is co-founder of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E.) and lead co-founder of Englewood Arts Collective. In 2017, Johnson was named a Chicagoan of the Year, and in 2019, she was named one of Field Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago. She was recently appointed as a member of the Cultural Advisory Council of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events by the Chicago City Council.��

Nicole Marroquin is an interdisciplinary artist who’s practice includes art making, collaboration, research and cultural production with youth and in communities. She has exhibited locally and internationally, including the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares in Mexico City and the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. She is a member of the feminist collective Multiuso, and a former Joan Mitchell Fellow at the Center for Racial Justice Innovation. Marroquin is the creator of Chicago Raza Research Consortium, a grassroots effort to map, gather, and present Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano, Latinx, and Raza history in Chicago. She is at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

For more information on the Socialist and Marxist Studies Series click here.

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The Fall 2020-Spring 2021 McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellows are, from left to right, Hailey Cedor, Nola Prevost, Nolan Altvater, and Katherine Reardon.��

Joining the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center (MHC) as Fall 2020 through Spring 2021 Fellows are Nolan Altvater, Hailey Cedor, Nola Prevost and Katherine Reardon. The new cohort joins returning Fellows Ivy Flessen, Bria Lamonica, and Leela Stockley, who will be completing their research this semester. Fellows receive $4000 each semester for two consecutive semesters, to work on a humanities project of their own devising. They serve as humanities ambassadors to their peers, the campus, and beyond. The MHC currently supports seven undergraduate Fellows, and will be expanding to eight next semester.

Nolan Altvater, of Sipayik and Island Falls, Maine, is a Wabanaki student majoring in Secondary Education with a concentration in English. He will be doing his fellowship research on “Decolonizing Maine Education: Creating an Educational Resource to Improve the Implementation of The Wabanaki Studies Law.”  As a future tribal educator, Altvater hopes to address the poor implementation and lack of resources related to LD-291, also known as the Wabanaki Studies Law. At the culmination of his MHC Fellowship he plans to create a writing camp centered around Maine’s Native history, culture, and epistemologies.

History major Hailey Cedor, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, was selected as a MHC Fellow to complete research related to local involvement of Lithuanians in the Holocaust and how that currently informs national views and identity in relation to that event. Cedor, a History major minoring in Environmental Horticulture, became interested in the topic after working the past year on Professor Anne Knowles’ Holocaust Ghettos Project, which involves GIS mapping. With Holocaust denial on the rise in Europe and here in the U.S., Cedor believes that bringing stories like this to light are as important now as ever.

Fellow Nola Prevost of Brewer, Maine, is an English Major concentrating in Creative Writing and minoring in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is interested in the historic use of fairy tales to represent societal issues or moral messages, and is curious how this genre could be used to engage with current socio-political discourse. Her fellowship project, “Feminist Fairy Tales,” will use modern fairy tale conventions and feminist scholarship to create her own collection of fables in hybrid prose poetry form. This collection will address feminist issues, writing especially for marginalized groups within American society.

Katherine Reardon, an English major with a minor in political science, hails from Westwood, Massachusetts. Reardon will be spending her fellowship working on her project, “Family Stories, The Truth, and How It Shape Us.” After a trip to Ireland where her ancestors are from, Reardon became curious about the validity of certain family stories, particularly those told by her late grandfather. Her research will combine oral history, historic documentation and nonfiction creative writing to examine the sometimes-fictional stories families pass down, and how they can shape us.

Students interested in becoming a McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellowship have two deadlines to apply annually in October and March. The deadline to become a Spring 2021 through Fall 2021 Fellow has been extended until Wednesday, October 28. 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.

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On Friday, September 25, 2020, the University of Maine’s McGillicuddy Humanities Center will offer a virtual workshop on applying for NEH grants. It will be conducted by Mark Silver, Senior Program Officer in the Division of Research Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities. The workshop is open to the public. Anyone interested in learning about NEH funding opportunities and application strategies is invited to attend, although space is limited and priority will be given to those in the Mid-Coast, Downeast and Highlands regions of Maine. The workshop will run from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Although the event is free, you must register in advance. Registration is now open

During the first half of the workshop, Dr. Silver will provide an overview of a variety of NEH funding opportunities and offer guidance for writing competitive proposals. In the second half of the workshop, he will run a mock application review panel, where panelists will discuss and rank sample proposals using NEH guidelines to provide insight into how applications are evaluated and recommended for NEH funding.

Dr. Silver will also be available during the afternoons of Thursday, September 24, and Friday, September 25, to meet virtually with prospective applicants to discuss their projects and offer advice about their proposals. Those interested in scheduling a twenty-minute appointment will be asked to submit a one-page single-spaced overview of their project in advance.

For more information, email mhc@maine.edu or follow us on social media.

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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.��

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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/

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The Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center invites community members, faculty and students to attend a showcase of current research and creative projects in the humanities. The event, “2020 Visions: The Humanities at 91����,” will be held on Friday, January 31, 2020 at the Buchanan Alumni House from 2-5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The afternoon will begin at 2:00 p.m. with a poster session and digital project display in the Andrews Leadership Hall of Buchanan Alumni House. Attendees have the opportunity to converse one-on-one with students and faculty across diverse fields in the humanities about their research. Heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served.

At 3:00 p.m. students from the Opera Workshop will perform in the McIntire Room, followed by brief remarks by Dean Emily Haddad from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Professor Margo Lukens, Director of the McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

The highlight of the event will be a research slideshow beginning at 3:30 p.m., where faculty from a variety of different humanities disciplines and university departments will present brief overviews of their recent research and creative projects.

The day’s events aim to highlight the diverse interdisciplinary expertise and interests of our academic faculty and staff involved in research and teaching on campus, and outward-facing humanities work. This afternoon will also familiarize the public with the roles of the McGillicuddy Humanities Center, from student fellowships and faculty grants to campus lectures, performances and community outreach.

The following day, Saturday, February 1, the McGillicuddy Humanities Center is also organizing Bangor Humanities Day, a city-wide celebration of local humanities initiatives off campus in the local area. A full schedule of Saturday’s events will be available on the MHC website soon.

More information about the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center is available online or by emailing mhc@maine.edu.

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The McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellows program offers junior and senior humanities students the support needed to concentrate on their coursework and develop research and creative projects, work collaboratively with a select group of peers, participate in interdisciplinary humanities programs, and gain professional skills. Fellows attend, help plan, and promote the Center’s various programs, putting them in meaningful contact with their peers and faculty, as well as the public. Fellows also act as student representatives of the Center’s mission on campus and in the community.

Benefits and Duration

MHC Undergraduate Fellows receive $4000 per semester for two consecutive semesters to create an ongoing overlap of activity and personnel. The current cycle of funding is for the Spring and Fall semesters of 2020. Fellows will work individually with Financial Aid to ensure their eligibility to accept the MHC Undergraduate Fellowship. An MHC Undergraduate Fellowship can be rescinded after the first semester if the Fellow does not fulfill the duties as outlined below.

Duties and Expectations

In addition to attending MHC events and programs, fellows participate in a bi-weekly group meeting with a Fellows Coordinator (MHC humanities professional, faculty member, MHC Director) to discuss their coursework, research, and MHC’s programs. Fellows must present their research to a live audience on campus, and are expected to attend events involving MHC supporters.

Application Process

Fellowships are competitive. Applications will be accepted until October 28, 2019. Please read over the new proposal instructions and formatting guidelines on our website before applying, and give faculty advisers sufficient notice to write letters of recommendation.�� Prior to winter break we will choose two or three fellows to begin their two-semester terms in the spring 2020 semester.

Instructions, proposal guidelines, and the application portal can be found at: /mhc/grants-scholarships/for-students/the-clement-and-linda-mcgillicuddy-humanities-center-undergraduate-fellowship/

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