In-Person

This is a 72-minute film that features documentary footage of Gandhi's famous Salt March, the 1960 Nashville Students' desegregation of lunch counters, and the Danish resistance to the Nazis.  We will have a few minutes during and after the film for discussion.

Date: December 16, 2025

10 am-12 pm

Location: North Dining, A

This film was used in Rawlings's UMF course on Peace Studies.  Rawlings taught at UMF for 27 years.  He is a co-founder of Veterans For Peace.

In-Person

The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine provides opportunities for all to engage with five centuries of cartographic materials. With half a million items dating back to 1475, our place-based collection invites you to stay curious!

In the OML's Cohen classroom, you will receive a brief history of the collection and an introduction to the different digital resources available after your visit. In our Reading Room, you’ll have a chance to look at our permanent globe display and a selection of “Gems from the Collection.”  There will also be time to visit our gallery space, which has rotating exhibitions throughout the year. OML staff members will be on hand to answer questions about the various items on display.

January 7, 2026

Snow date: January 14, 2026

Location: USM Osher Map Library, 314 Forest Avenue, Portland, Maine, 04101

Kelsey Riordan arranges tours and events at Osher. Other library staff may lead the tour.

In-Person and Hybrid

This course will discuss critical and rare earth minerals, their distribution globally, and their importance to society and a low-carbon future. Also discussed will be the occurrence of these deposits in Maine and controversies over potential mining.

January 21, 2026

2:30 - 4:00 pm

Location: The Landing, Olsen Learning Center, Lower Level

John Slack is a retired geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, where he worked for 42 years. He holds a Ph.D. in economic geology from Stanford University (1976) and is on the editorial boards of three scientific journals. Over the past decade, John's research has focused on critical and rare earth minerals, especially in Maine.

Online

Oh NO! Our list of accomplished women is growing rather than shrinking, and our study groups were making such progress! To make matters worse, some very important women, such as Harriet Tubman, are being erased from U.S. history. Continue with us to bring these women to light and learn the stories of their discoveries, scientific work, and trailblazing.

Come blaze a trail with us.

January 22 and 29, 2026

10:00 am

Mary Frank has been an active participant in our prior study group on this subject, which was known as Hidden Figures Revealed.  She will send to all participants a list of possible women from which to choose.  Mary will work with Eileen Kreutz, and the two will co-present this offering.

In-Person

This will be a tour of both the Farmington Public Library and the Mantor Library at UMF. The directors of each library will lead the tours. The Farmington Public Library tour will start at 10:30. After a lunch break, the Mantor tour will start at 1:00. More detailed information will be sent to participants shortly before the tour date.

The Farmington Public Library (Cutler Memorial), established in 1890, provides all Farmington area residents with ready access to a broad collection of materials in a variety of media that record knowledge, ideas, and culture.  

Mantor Library, located at the heart of the University of Maine at Farmington campus, serves students, faculty, staff, and the wider community by offering access to a wide range of academic and recreational materials in both print and digital formats. 

January 27, 2026, with a snow date of February 3

10:30 am at the Farmington Library, 117 Academy St, Farmington, ME

1:00 pm at Mantor Library, 116 South St, Farmington, ME 

Jessica Casey came to Farmington to attend UMF, where she studied English and Psychology. Jess began working at the Farmington Public Library in 2018, took on the role of director in 2020, and received her MLIS shortly after. Her favorite author is Stephen King.

Bryce Cundick has been at UMF since 2007 and has been the director at Mantor since 2017. He has served as the President of the Maine Library Association and is the current Chair of the Maine Library Commission. In his spare time, he writes books under the pen name Bryce Moore and is an avid player of Magic: The Gathering.

In Person

Join us for six weeks to discover the poet in you and to discover how to appreciate poetry in general.

Many of us broach the subject of poetry with a feeling of trepidation—mostly because we were made to "analyze" poetry in our high school or college years. We will learn to enjoy poetry—starting with a haiku, moving on to some of the most famous poems from the 1600s to today.

We'll take former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins' advice and not *"beat it [a poem] with a hose/to find out what it really means." Rather, we will find that the only **"trouble with poetry is/that it encourages the writing of more poetry."

At the end of our time together, we will plan an "open mic" to share what we have created. *Billy Collins, “Introduction to Poetry” from The Apple that Astonished Paris. 2006. University of Arkansas Press.**--"The Trouble with Poetry" from The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems. 2005. Random House.

February 23rd, 2026

March 2nd, 9th, 16th 23rd, 30th, 2026

1 pm - 2:30 pm 

Location: TBD

Cynthia earned a BFA in creative writing from UMF in 2005. She published a poetry journal (the Aurorean) for twenty-five years (1995-2020), during which she published over 1,500 poets worldwide.

Cynthia has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in poetry, served as membership chair for the Maine Poets Society, and now serves as treasurer for the Haiku Society of America. She teaches a yearly poetry workshop/retreat in the Adirondacks. Cynthia lives near Farmington with her husband.

It would be helpful for participants to have THE POETRY HANDBOOK by Mary Oliver, $10.99 on Amazon.