Professor of English at Wellesley College, Timothy Peltason writes and teaches on nineteenth and twentieth-century British and American literature and Shakespeare. His essays on Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, focuses on its relationship to Wilde’s life, its origins in earlier Victorian literature, and its extraordinary afterlife in 20th and 21st century literature and culture. He… Read more

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Declan Kiely is the Director of Exhibitions at New York Public Library where he oversees exhibitions at the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. He was most recently the Robert H. Taylor Curator at the Morgan Library and Museum and Head of its Department of Literary and Historical Manuscripts. During this time he curated major exhibitions focusing… Read more

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Each year, on the third Saturday of October, The Big Question brings people together with expert guides to grapple with question. In 2017, we asked the question “How can we know?”  Listen to MHC Program Officer Meghan Reedy  talk to folks about how they know things in the work they do. As you listen, you may… Read more

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Each year, on the third Saturday in October, The Big Question brings people together with expert guides to grapple with a question. In 2017, the question we asked ourselves was ‘How can we know?’ One of the most exciting things about asking this question was getting to talk with all sorts of people about how… Read more

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“Violence & Belonging: The 14th Amendment and American Literature” is a Let’s Talk About It book and discussion series that addresses issues of diversity, identity, and inequality. For many Americans, the promises of citizenship fall short of reality, and the books in this series remind us that the more expansive version of American citizenship brought… Read more

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In this audio story we visit the 20th annual Winter Weekend, held March 10-11, 2017, at Bowdoin College. Read more

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Khaled Fahmy is a Professor of History at the American University in Cairo. With a BA in Economics, an MA in Political Science from AUC and a DPhil in History from the University of Oxford, Fahmy taught for five years at Princeton University, then for eleven years at New York University before joining AUC in… Read more

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In this story, we visit Buckfield Junior-Senior High School. Supported by a grant from the Maine Humanities Council, their Civil Rights Team hosted Portland-based artist Pigeon for a discussion on identity, belonging, and street art. Read more

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A Muslim scholar, educator, and writer, he is the coordinator of multicultural student affairs at the University of Southern Maine and advises Muslim students at Bowdoin College. His most recent work includes the 2013 book Homesick Mosque and Other Stories as well as the 2015 play The Poets and the Assassin, which offers historic and contemporary… Read more

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On Monday, May 23, 2016, over 500 students and teachers gathered at the Augusta Civic Center for the Civil Rights Team Project State Conference. Hosted by the Office of the Maine Attorney General, the conference was the first event of its kind since 2010. In addition to schools attending from across the state, the event… Read more

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Isabel Alvarez-Borland, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities in the Department of Spanish at the College of the Holy Cross, examines of the role of language and identity in One Hundred Years of Solitude at Winter Weekend 2016. Her books include Cuban-American Literature of Exile: From Person to Persona (1999) and Discontinuidad y ruptura en Guillermo… Read more

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Matthew Pettway completed his doctorate in Hispanic Cultural Studies at Michigan State University in June 2010. Dr. Pettway joined the faculty at Bates College in August of the same year where he serves as Assistant Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies and is affiliated with the African-American Studies program. Professor Pettway examines the African… Read more

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Allen Wells discusses “Interpreting the Past through the Prism of the Present:  The Banana Strike, La Violencia, and the Cuban Revolution’s Impact on García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude”. Allen Wells is the Roger Howell, Jr. Professor of History at Bowdoin College. His scholarship focuses on modern Mexican history, especially Yucatán, the history of… Read more

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Professor Ilan Stavans was the keynote speaker at Winter Weekend 2016. He is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College where his teaching interests include popular culture in Hispanic America, world Jewish writers, and the cultural history of the Spanish language.     Read more

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MHC Board Member Reza Jalali discusses the lives of Muslims in the U.S. and gives an overview of Islam, a faith practiced by many of our neighbors. This talk was recorded on December 16, 2015 at Portland Public Library. A Muslim scholar, educator, and writer, he is the coordinator of multicultural student affairs at the University… Read more

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