Graduate Students Funded by the Canadian-American Center, 2007-2008
Canadian-American Center Assistantships
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Charles Deshaines Charles.Deshaines@umit.maine.edu |
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Adrienne Pelletier Pidacks Adrienne.Pidacks@umit.maine.edu |
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| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie in 1847. Over the next century it was published in over 270 editions and translated into 130 languages (Jobb, 2005, p.16). In 1907 Macmillian Pocket Classics declared it “the most read poem in American literature” (Jobb, 2005, p.17). This international fame translated into something much more important for the Acadian French, whose heartbreaking tale of deportation in 1755 at the hands of the British government occupying the area, was for the first time given public attention. For the Acadians, the story of Evangline was a tale about their ancestors and the hardships they experienced as a result of the deportation. It was their story of survival. The poem as well as the main character Evangeline became a cornerstone of the Acadian culture. Not long after the publication of the poem it was not hard to see the extent its impact had on the Acadians. The name Evangeline did not exist in the Acadian language until this poem. From then on many daughters were named for the heroine. The impact this poem and the actions of the heroine were felt all throughout Acadian communities in Canada and Maine as well as the Cajun communities of Louisiana, since the Cajuns are the deported Acadian cousins. Evangeline has evolved from a literary character into a cultural myth. The goal of this thesis project is to explore the contemporary meanings of Longfellow’s poem and heroine in Acadian and Cajun communities. This project will look at past cultural performances of the poem, such as the spin off stories, monuments and memorials that emerged to represent the poem, how Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Louisiana used the myth to bolster tourism, as well as look at how this poem published over 150 years ago continues to inform the present Acadian and Cajun communities. |
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| This dissertation constitutes an examination of mental illness in women in Quebec between 1890 and 1940. For the purpose of this study, female patient case records were examined at the Clinical Archives of the Centre hospitalier Robert-Giffard in Beauport, Quebec. The themes that emerged from a study of the case records suggest that there were ways in which gender played into the construction of mental illness in Quebec. More significantly, it appears that women’s expressions of mental illness during this time period demonstrate a clear ambivalence about their relationship to two of the cultural foundations of French Canadian society, the Catholic Church, and religion in general, and the domestic, maternal role expected of Quebec women, that of la mère canadienne-française. The two most prevalent themes that appeared in the case records were religious themes and ambivalence toward maternity and domestic roles. Excessive religious devotion or rejection of religion was noted in the largest percentage of the case records. The second most common complaint made by the admitting family member was that the patient neglected the care of her home or children (ne s’occupe plus des soins de son ménage ou de ses enfants). The strong prevalence of themes concerning the practice of the Catholic religion and the fulfillment of maternal and domestic roles in the "expressions" of mental illness from the sampling of female patient records, suggests several interesting interpretations. First, it appears that some women in Quebec in the early twentieth century did respond with a certain amount of ambivalence to the cultural expectations of both the Catholic Church and the domestic/ maternal role expected of them in Quebec society. More importantly, women’s rejection of prescribed roles was often viewed as a clear sign of insanity by both committing family members and the medical community. |
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Paul F. Buck II Paul.Buck@umit.maine.edu Department of History, Stevens Hall |
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Lise Pelletier Lise.Pelletier@umit.maine.edu Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program |
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New England-Atlantic Provinces-Quebec Fellowships |
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Alice Stewart Fellowship Award |
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Shannon Risk Shannon.Risk@umit.maine.edu Department of History, Stevens Hall "In Order to Establish Justice:" The Nineteenth Century Woman Suffrage Movements in Maine and New Brunswick" |
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| My research focuses on the woman suffrage movements in Maine and New Brunswick , from their early beginnings in the era of American Civil War and Canadian Confederacy, to the height of suffrage agitation in the mid-1890s. The dissertation will explore whether or not the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick loomed large in determining woman suffrage strategies. I will look at the rhetoric and goals of the suffragists and the interplay between the two movements as well as from international influence. Ultimately, I will show how both suffrage movements conceptualized a wider citizenry, despite their own adverse reactions to immigration, racial minorities, alcohol consumption, irreligion, and other social factors in the Progressive Era. Finally, I will assess whether or not the suffrage movement declined in the late 1890s. | |
 Last updated: 31 July, 2007 |
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member of the Northeast National Resource Center on Canada with Center for the Study of Canada/Plattsburgh State University of New York |
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