Maine Humanities Council

• 1Teachers as Scholars
• 2News from the MHC
• 3Special Event: Power and Architecture in Ancient Rome
• 4Grants and Events
• 5What We’re Reading
• 6Quote of the Month

“In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self of what the book says is the proof of its veracity.”

— Time Regained
Marcel Proust

1. Teachers as Scholars

“Teaching American History Through Biography” is a federally-funded program that aims to help middle through high school history teachers feel invigorated about their profession, think of their work in terms of scholarship as well as teaching, and find ways of making U.S. history come alive for their students. In collaboration with three school districts and district coalitions, the Maine Humanities Council has received three “Teaching American History” grants from the U.S. Department of Education since 2003, offering intensive seminars, institutes, and workshops for teachers in southern and central Maine. One of the program’s requirements is a summer research project—a biography of a historical figure—and in 2008, the group of educators came up with some innovative ideas:

• Baseball star Louis Sockalexis and the question of racial identity
• Mark Gartley’s four years as a POW in North Vietnam and the controversy over his release
• Father John Bapst and his violent expulsion from Ellsworth in 1854
• George Mason, the “forgotten” Founding Father
• The Hubbard family and the challenges of farming in 19th-century Maine
• Abolitionist and educator Prudence Crandall
• The 19th-century Portland-based sculptor Paul Akers (of “Dead Pearl Diver” fame)

Expect students in the 2009 school year to learn some interesting things from the research of these innovative teachers.

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2. MHC News

The Maine Humanities Council has a new staff member: Martina Duncan. Martina is filling the role of Assistant Director and will direct and produce the MHC’s Teaching American History Program (see above) as well as provide administrative oversight as part of the management team. Martina was most recently Director of Community Chamber Partnerships for the Portland Regional Chamber. She earned her AB at Bowdoin before going on to earn a Master’s Degree in American and New England Studies at the University of Southern Maine and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Muskie School for Public Service. Welcome, Martina!

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The August theme for Born to Read’s book list is “Camping”. Books on this list explore the fun of summer adventures outdoors, from the collection of camping poems Toasting Marshmallows to A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Maine author Chris Van Dusen.

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Podcast Update

The MHC has been busy last month with new and fascinating podcasts in our Humanities on Demand podcast program. Several of these are lectures from the MHC’s summer teacher programs, including “What Makes Some Biographies So Good?” from the MHC’s own scholar-in-residence Charles Calhoun and “Family and Gender in Contemporary China” by Bowdoin professor Nancy Riley. Others are from the MHC’s archives (“The Good Life of Helen K. Nearing” from scholar Mimi Killinger and more from the Portland Public Libraries Brown Bag Lunch series, including a talk by Prospect Harbor author Miriam Colwell, whose books include Wind Off the Water and Day of the Trumpet.

3. Special Event: Power and Architecture in Ancient Rome

We’re very excited about an upcoming event that is a little bit different from our usual humanities approach. Power and Architecture in Rome: Augustus to Mussolini is a scholar-led tour offered by the MHC from March 20 to March 28, 2009. Over ten days, participants will study Rome with Professor Peter Aicher of the University of Southern Maine, exploring how past leaders used Rome’s urban design to project their political ambitions and cultural values of the period.

Peter himself has designed this tour to be both intimate and active. Limited to only 20 participants, it will explore the ancient city, most often on foot, to experience the scale and sense of place in a way that is impossible with larger groups or through the windows of a bus. Peter is a remarkable guide: the author of two acclaimed books about Rome and its architecture, and consultant to NOVA on Rome’s aqueducts, he has also developed numerous MHC programs, as well as having led a number of prior trips to Rome with students. Peter has designed an itinerary that will take participants around the city, often off the beaten path, with ample time for individual explorations.

We expect that this tour will sell out quickly, so please reserve [Word document] your place at Hewins Travel soon if you wish to join us. We’re fond of noting how the humanities offer a chance to tour the world and its ideas from our own living rooms. This is a chance to go a step further, to see the humanities applied in the context of a great trip, while supporting the humanities in Maine. We hope that you will join us.

For more information, contact Diane Magras, Director of Development.

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4. Grants and Events

Events funded by MHC grants include a day-long art symposium in Kittery; a lecture about Marsden Hartley in Bethel; and a “Story Bank” storytelling performance and opportunity in Bangor.

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The recently funded grants list includes:

$1,000 to the South Portland Historical Society, South Portland, for Evening Chat Series
South Portland Historical Society’s Evening Chats are a series of three oral history programs which are filmed for preservation and airing on the South Portland Community TV cable access station. Each Evening Chat has a pre-selected topic pertaining to South Portland around the time of World War II.

$1,000 to PCA Great Performances, Portland, for The Ties That Bind: Maine’s Connection with Africa and Canada
“New Orleans: Culture & Crisis” will gather musicians, craft artists, scholars and others for public discussions, workshops, film screenings, art exhibitions, craft demonstrations, and concerts to explore and experience the significance of culture to community recovery and development in New Orleans and rural, coastal Maine.

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5. What We’re Reading

This booklist includes personal favorites of MHC staff members, as well as books used by MHC programs. This month, featured titles are Hey, Little Ant; Spoonhandle; This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War; Soul Catcher; and Out Stealing Horses.

 

 

 

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6. Quote of the Month

“Last week at Penobscot County Jail, one of the women was standing off to the side at the end, handling her books, and she looked up and said, sort of to me and sort of to no one, ’I had no idea how to read a book before. There’s all this I never knew to see in a book. It will change how I read forever.”

—From a New Books, New Readers scholar who facilitates the program within a jail.

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