President, Khmer Maine

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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.

Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine

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Libby Bischof explores American society through the lens of history—and the lens of a camera. A nineteenth-century American cultural historian, Professor Bischof specializes in the history of photography, particularly in Maine. Her other research interests include Maine history, modernism, how friendship informs cultural production, and nineteenth-century New England women writers. 

Bischof co-curated of the exhibition Maine Moderns: Art in Sequinland, 1900-1940 at the Portland Museum of Art with Senior Curator Susan Danly. The show won the critic’s choice award for best Historic Show in the 2011 New England Art Awards.

Talks

Maine at 200: A Visual History

History of Photography in Maine 

Visual History of Maine Through Postcards

The World War I Centennial and WWI Monuments and Memorials in Maine 

Professor of History, University of Maine

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Liam Riordan is a faculty member in the Department of History at the University of Maine in Orono. He is a specialist on the American Revolution, and has published about religious, racial and ethnic diversity in the Philadelphia region from 1770 to 1830, and the history of Loyalists. Riordan currently serves on Bangor’s Historic Preservation Commission.

He is the past the Director of the University of Maine Humanities Center, and a former board member of the Maine Humanities Council. He helps organize Maine National History Day, a statewide history contest for middle and high school students. Liam’s wife is the principal of Reeds Brook Middle School in Hamden and they have two children.

Talks

Picturing Maine’s Indigenous Context: Colonialism and the Penobscot

This illustrated lecture uses the recent removal of the Gomez Memorial in Bangor, Maine, and four works of art created from 1835 to 2020 to reconsider how we understand colonialism in the lower Penobscot river and bay as well as the experiences of Penobscot people and their nation. Contemporary Wabanaki vitality has profound implications for how we should understand colonialism and this region in the past, present, and future. Our shared landscape is inscribed with memories about the past (from place names to monuments and more) that provide a rich point of entry to better understand ourselves and our history. 

What Did We Learn from the Maine State Bicentennial? Reflections on Historical Commemoration 

What are the Humanities, and Why are They Essential for our Future? 

The Five Most Important Things to Know about the American Revolution 

The American Revolution & the Origins of Multiculturalism in the U.S. 

Does the American Revolution Look Different from the Penobscot River?

Historian, scholar, independent museum professional

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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. 

Storyteller and oral historian

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Before returning to her family home in western Maine as a freelance storyteller and oral historian, Jo Radner spent 31 years as a professor at American University in Washington, DC. There she taught literature, folklore, women’s studies, American studies, Celtic studies, and storytelling.

In 2023 she published a book, Wit and Wisdom: The Forgotten Literary Life of New England Villages, about a 19th-century tradition of creating and performing handwritten literary newsletters. Radner received her PhD from Harvard University and is a past president of the American Folklore Society and the National Storytelling Network.

Talks

Burnt into Memory: How Brownfield Faced the Fire

Drawing on interviews with townspeople, letters, photographs, and newspaper reports, Jo Radner tells the history of the furious 1947 wildfire that in a few hours destroyed almost all of the little town of Brownfield in western Maine.

Neighbors fought and fled the fire, saving what they could and supporting one another, then returned to the devastated town to rebuild their community. In the Brownfield citizens’ own words Radner tells an epic story of terror, courage, generosity, and hope. 

Family Stories: How and Why to Remember and Tell Them

Telling personal and family stories is fun – and much more. Storytelling connects strangers, strengthens links between generations, and gives children the self-knowledge to carry them through hard times. Knowledge of family history has even been linked to better teen behavior and mental health.

In this active and interactive program, storyteller Jo Radner shares foolproof ways to mine memories and interview relatives for meaningful stories. Participants will practice finding, developing, and telling their own tales.

Wit and Wisdom: Homegrown Humor in 19th Century New England 

Whatever did New Englanders do on long winter evenings before cable, satellite and the internet? In the decades before and after the Civil War, our rural ancestors used to create neighborhood events to improve their minds. Community members would compose and read aloud homegrown, handwritten literary “newspapers” full of keen verbal wit.

Sometimes serious, sometimes sentimental but mostly very funny, these “newspapers” were common in small villages across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and revealed the hopes, fears, humor, and surprisingly daring behavior of our forebears. Jo Radner shares discoveries about hundreds of these “newspapers” and when possible, provides examples from villages in your region. 

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.

Poet, Writer, Archivist

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Jefferson Navicky is the archivist for the Maine Women Writers Collection. He is the author of four books, most recently Head of Island Beautification for the Rural Outlands (2023) as well as Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments on Short Prose (2021), which won the 2022 Maine Literary Award for Poetry.

Talks

The Offshore Islands Belong to Themselves: Ruth Moore & Her Poetry

Ruth Moore was one of Maine’s most beloved 20th century writers. Jefferson’s presentation includes highlights from the Ruth Moore collection at the Maine Women Writers Collection. This talk touches on some of her most well-known books as well as her often-neglected poetry. Jefferson will share a variety of Moore’s poems and invite audience participation. 

Elizabeth Coatsworth & Kate Barnes: Processing the Literary Archives of Mother & Daughter

Jefferson Navicky had the rare good fortune of processing the extensive archival papers of Elizabeth Coatsworth, one of the most accomplished children’s book authors and poets of the mid 20th century, as well as the papers of her daughter, Kate Barnes, Maine’s first Poet Laureate.

Together, their papers present an intimate glimpse into the makings of a matriarchal line of Maine writers. Jefferson will speak about his experience processing these collections, as well as present illustrative work from each writer, and provide historical and biographical context. 

A Day in the Life of Maine Women: Diaries of Everyday Life

The Maine Women Writers Collection has numerous diaries spanning the 19th and 20th century kept by Maine women across the state whose lives were remarkable in their unremarkableness. In the quotidian passing of their days – from weather to chores to historic moments – the accumulation gives shape and significance to their lives.

By sampling and discussing a selection of these diaries across time, we will all connect with the common struggles and small triumphs of what it’s like to be human and to live day by day. 

Community Support Coordinator, Lewiston Public Schools

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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.

Chair, Native American Programs and Director of Native American Research, University of Maine

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Dr. Ranco serves as Chair of Native American Programs and Coordinator of Native American Research at the University of Maine. His research focuses on the ways in which indigenous communities in the United States resist environmental destruction and how state knowledge systems, rooted in colonial contexts, continue to expose indigenous peoples to an inordinate amount of environmental risk.

A member of the Penobscot Indian Nation, he is particularly interested in how better research relationships can be made between universities, Native and non-Native researchers, and indigenous communities. 

Talks

Wabanaki Climate Justice & Adaptation 

Dr. Ranco examines current and future climate change impacts to the Wabanaki Tribal Nations and their climate adaptation priorities and activism.

Emphasis will be on how climate change is threatening indigenous livelihoods such as agriculture, hunting and gathering, fishing, forestry, energy, recreation, and tourism, and in turn how these threats are already impacting the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of Wabanaki and other indigenous people. 

Native Americans, the 14th Amendment, and Voting in Maine

Cultural Historian, Penobscot Nation

she/her

Carol Dana works to preserve, share, and teach Penobscot language and storytelling.

She was born in Bangor in 1952 and attended school on Indian Island until the fifth grade. She later attended college in Machias, got married in 1971, and had her first child in 1972 before moving to New York and working on Akwesasne Notes.

Dana returned to Maine to raise a family on Indian Island and started working on the Penobscot Dictionary in 1982. She currently works in the Cultural Historical Preservation Department for the Penobscot Nation. Available for speaking December - March 

Talks

Atlohkewe: Tell Me a Story 

Dana has researched 189 stories from the Folger library that were oral tradition stories told in winter. Dana’s talk also features stories from In Indian Tents by Abby Alger, Algonquian Legends of New England by Charles Godfrey Leland, Gluscabe the Liar and other Weird Tales by Horace P. Beck, and Silas T. Rand’s Legends of the Micmacs. Dana is winner of the Maine Humanities Council’s 2022 Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize