Assistant Professor, School of Legal Studies, Husson University

Professor Kamorski is a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 24 years of active-duty service, including a combat tour in Afghanistan, 4 years at the Pentagon, and preparing Congressional testimony for the US Air Force Director of Operations.

He has served on faculty at the US Air Force Academy, the University of Virginia, Liberty University, James Madison University, and Piedmont Virginia Community College. Professor Kamorski become a full-time faculty member for Husson University in 2014 after retiring from military service.

Talks

Criminal Justice Discussions: Law Enforcement, Courts, Correctional System Challenges 

200 Days in Afghanistan: USAF Deployment in 2009/10 as an Inspector General

Counterterrorism/Counterinsurgency Discussions: A Strategic Look at the Terrorist Threat

Leadership: Personal and Organizational, Defined and Applied 

President, Khmer Maine

he/him

Marpheen Chann is an author, thinker, advocate, and speaker on social justice, equity, and inclusion.

As a gay, first-generation Asian American born in California to a Cambodian refugee family and later adopted by an evangelical, white working-class family in Maine, Marpheen uses a mix of humor and storytelling to help people view topics such as diveristy, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice through an intersectional and empathetic lens.

Marpheen Chann lives in Portland, Maine. He works in the nonprofit and advocacy sector and holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Southern Maine and a law degree from the University of Maine School of Law.

Talks

​​Welcome Home: My Journey Through Foster Care, Coming Out, and Reuniting with Family 

Life is complicated and full of twists and turns. In “Welcome Home,” Marpheen shares his insights, lessons learned, and maybe a few laughs as he shares his story as a second-generation Cambodian American who went through foster care and adoption, struggled with fitting in and adapting to a white-majority community, and coming out as gay to his devoutly religious family.

The Empathy Effect: How to Have Conversations That Lead to Change

In a time of great division and anger nationwide, how do we go about changing hearts and minds when it comes to issues like diversity, inclusion, and equity? In a 40 minute presentation followed by Q+A discussion, Maine politician, author and civil rights advocate Marpheen Chann shares his personal story of growing up in Maine, coming out to his religious adoptive family, and the lessons he’s learned about how change can happen.

Moon in Full: A Modern-Day Coming-of-Age Book Talk

Moon in Full, a contemporary coming-of-age story, shines light on one young man’s search for truth and compassion in a complicated era as it unwinds the deep-seated challenges we all face finding our authentic voice and true identities. Author Marpheen Chann’s heart-warming journey weaves through housing projects and foster homes; into houses of worship and across college campuses; and playing out in working-class Maine where he struggles to find his place. Adopted into in a majority white community, Chann must reconcile his fears and secret longings as a young gay man with the devoutly religious beliefs of his new family. Chann, a second-generation Asian American, recounts what he has learned, what he has lost, and what he has found during his evolution from a hungry refugee’s son to religious youth to advocate for acceptance and equality.

Scholar of Cultural Narratives

she/her

Gaudet is a member of the Humanities faculty and associate director of the University Honors Program at the University of New Hampshire, where she teaches courses on topics like addiction, criminality, and plagues.

She is the editor of What Is a Criminal?, a collection of essays by people with diverse knowledge of the U.S. justice system, which is forthcoming in 2022. She is also working on a scholarly collection about literature and addiction. She lives in Saco with her spouse and two children. 

Talks

Drug Tales: Old and New Stories about People Who Use Drugs 

The stories we know influence how we see the world. This interactive talk will discuss some familiar narratives about drug use, and explore how those stories can fail the people most affected by them. Participants will be invited to shape new narratives and imagine how to disrupt the conventions of drug tales. 

Stories of Epidemics

Are we living through a Biblical plague? Or are we feeling the wrath of the gods on our society, like Thebes in the time of Oedipus? This talk considers what stories, histories, and legends of epidemics have to tell us about how to understand our own time. 

Historian, scholar, independent museum professional

she/her

Kate McBrien currently serves as Maine State Archivist, overseeing Maine State Government’s archives and records management programs. As curator of the award-winning exhibition “Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives,” McBrien is also an historian for the Malaga Island community. She previously held positions as Chief Curator and Director of Public Engagement at the Maine Historical Society and as the Curator of Historic Collections for the Maine State Museum. 

Talks

Malaga Island

This presentation and discussion explores the true history of the community who lived on Malaga Island, off the coast of Phippsburg, Maine, in the late 1800s. The program examines the individuals who were part of this community and the state’s actions to evict them from their homes through the complex history of racism and eugenics in Maine. 

Assistant Professor of Media Studies, University of Maine

Judith E. Rosenbaum (Ph.D. Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands) has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on the theoretical foundations of mass communication, strategic communication, race, gender and the media, research methods, as well as courses on social media and digital cultures.

Her research interests include the impact of digital media on daily life, political dialogue and meaning making on social media platforms, media selection and enjoyment, and health and media usage. Her latest book, Constructing Digital Cultures: Tweets, Trends, Race and Gender, was published by Lexington in 2018.

Talks

#BlackLivesMatter to #MeToo: Social Media’s Contribution to Democracy

Associate Professor of Africana Studies

she/her

Judith Casselberry is Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Bowdoin College. Her teaching and research focuses on Black American religious and cultural studies, social movements, and Black intellectual thought with particular attention to gender and liberation. 

She is author of The Labor of Faith: Gender and Power in Black Apostolic Pentecostalism (Duke University Press, 2017) and co-editor of Spirit on the Move: Black Women and Pentecostalism in Africa and the Diaspora (Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People series with Duke University Press, 2019.

Talks

Afrofuturism in 19th century Black Spirituals 

What can 19th century Black spirituals teach us about Afrofuturism? What if we fully embraced the insistence of the spirituals—insisting on humanity, insisting on a divine ethical and moral vision?

Nineteenth century Black spirituals laid the foundations for Afrofuturism as Black people brought God and the battles and heroes of the Old Testament into their history while projecting liberation in the now and future. Through the spirituals Black people insisted on the value of their ways of knowing and ways of expressing life, death, sorrow, and joy.

This talk is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this presentation do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

Black Women’s Freedom Practices: 17th to 21st Century

This talk centers four Black women of consequence who affected the American political landscape between the 17th and 21th centuries—Elizabeth Key, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Stacy Abrams.

Their experiences highlight how power dynamics of race, gender, sexuality, status, and religion converge in different moments and are shaped by social, political, and historical contexts. At the same time, each woman shows how Black women’s activism has had a profound impact on America’s self-understanding—in social, legal, and political realms. 

This talk is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this presentation do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

Intentional Community Building: Blackness in Lesbian Musical Culture 

Based on reflections from a cultural worker/performer at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, this talk address the commitment to building an intentional community rooted in a lesbian feminist musical and artistic ethos.

This talk provides a glimpse into spaces where lesbians of color negotiate questions about autonomy, coalition work, and intentional community building which inform our notions of civil society, citizenship, and social justice. This talk explores these themes by looking specifically at the evolution of the festival’s theme song, “Amazon”

This talk is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this presentation do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

Journalist

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Joyce Kryszak is an award-winning journalist, producer, and feature writer who has reported for NPR, the BBC, Voice of America, the Environment Report, the Buffalo News, and others. Her freelance work appears regularly in Down East Magazine. Joyce has received more than three-dozen Associated Press Awards, as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award. 

Joyce’s journalism regularly examines the environment, education, poverty, racial disparities, and culture. As an interviewer, she has spoken with hundreds of notable people, among them: Jane Goodall, Bob Woodward, Lilly Ledbetter, Salmon Rushdie, Alec Baldwin, and Marcel Marceau.

Talks

Reporting from the Front Line of a Singapore Classroom

An Inconsistent Truth: Finding Truth’s Through-line

What the Hell Does This Have to Do with Me? – Putting a Human Face on the Story

Professor of Political Science, University of Maine at Farmington

Jim Melcher teaches a wide range of courses on American politics, government, and political thought at University of Maine at Farmington. He has a strong interest in the interactions between American politics, geography and history.

Melcher has become known throughout the University of Maine system for his work on the Maine Public Policy Scholars program, and has become a frequent “voice of the University” in his numerous interviews as a political expert with media both within and outside Maine.

Talks

The Warren Court and the 14th Amendment

The Warren Court did much to expand the power of the 14th Amendment and of the national government in the areas of civil rights, voting/districting, and rights of those accused of or convicted of crimes. The impact from this court era is still with us today. 

The Electoral College and Maine

How does the Electoral College work, and why does Maine have a plan for choosing its electors that only one other state–Nebraska–follows? Nothing confuses students of American Government more than the Electoral College, and no section of the Constitution has seen more proposed amendments for change than it.

Community Support Coordinator, Lewiston Public Schools

he/him

James Ford is a public-school employee and a Black man of African descent who is tracing his lineage to the middle passage. As a former Restorative Practices Coordinator, Ford appreciates building relationships with peers, students, and families.

Ford is currently the Family and Community Support Coordinator for Lewiston Public Schools and is working with the Maine Education Association to create an Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee to address issues that impact educators of color and their students.

Talks

Relationships: How Important They Are Today

Pulling from his experience as Community Support Coordinator for Lewiston Public Schools, James Ford’s talk reminds us of the importance of slowing down, listening, and seeking connections with others, both personally and professionally.

Associate Professor, Professional Communication and Journalism

we/us/our

Jacquelyn Lowman has been a professional communicator since her adolescent years. She has worked in a broad array of venues, from commercial publishing and journalism to academia. The one area that she loves even more than communicating is teaching and guiding others to do so: to help them realize their communication gifts.

As founder of and chief instructor in the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s professional communication and journalism program, she has ample opportunity to do just that. The program specializes in marketing, branding and advocacy. 

Talks

Journalists: Watch Dogs of Democracy or Enemies of the People?

Do We Deserve Democracy?