Center for Global Humanities Seminar Series

The CGH Seminar Series course introduces students to some of the greatest challenges facing humanity today.

Become a Global Citizen

The Center for Global Humanities Seminar Series (GLS 490) enables you to deepen your understanding of past and present world issues, hones your abilities of cultural analysis, and encourages you to apply your developing global perspective to your chosen discipline. Through the course, you interact directly with thought leaders who visit campus to share their scholarship.

The class meets weekly on the Biddeford Campus and travels monthly to the Portland Campus for the Health Sciences for public lectures. Prior to each lecture, you read and discuss a relevant text, while conducting further research into the speaker’s topic. In the hour preceding each lecture, you get to chat informally with the speaker. And following each lecture, you participate in the public Q&A session with our guest.

You may take the CGH course for one semester, or may enroll for a second semester and be designated a CGH Scholar.

Before this course I had never had the privilege of having personal conversations with the authors I had studied. The questions you are left with after reading a text can be answered face-to-face, and from the writers themselves. This is a learning experience entirely unique to this course.”

— Alexa Livingston, B.S. Environmental Studies ‘24, Minor in Writing

A student asks a question during a Center for Global Humanities lecture
Two U N E students pose for the camera after a C G H lecture in Innovation Hall
A large group of students stand on stage with a C G H lecturer
U N E students talk in front of two large colorful paintings in U N E's Portland Art Gallery
A U N E student holds a microphone as they ask a question from the audience of a C G H lecture

What Will You Learn?

In the CGH Global Humanities Seminar Series course students learn to:

  • Apply a range of relevant theoretical and/or explanatory perspectives using appropriate investigative and analytical methods to interpret and critically analyze source material.
  • Identify, describe, and interpret diverse forms of human cultural production and assess how they shape and are shaped by global, cultural, and historical contexts. 
  • Read and interpret scholarly works representing a range of disciplines outside their primary area(s) of study.
  • Express the relevance of course texts to their lives, communities to which they belong, and intended future professions.
  • Demonstrate the intellectual curiosity and openness to new ideas and cultures necessary to be a responsible global citizen.
  • Develop the intellectual confidence and maturity to discuss their ideas with classmates, visiting scholars, and members of the general public.

Commitment to a broad perspective

Twice a year, the center honors students who have completed two (or more) semesters of the course, thus earning CGH Scholar designation.

Awardees are called to the front of the lecture hall at the start of our final public events in December and April and commended for dedicating themselves to becoming informed global citizens through their engagement with the course. They are presented with a framed certificate, signed by the UNE president and CGH director, honoring their achievement.

Earning this distinction indicates to graduate programs and future employers that CGH Scholars are well-rounded individuals committed to carrying into their future lives the broad perspective they’ve worked hard to cultivate during their time in the center.  

I am very glad that I put in the work to become a CGH scholar. The skills I learned and practiced in this class continue to be of value both in my personal and professional life.”

Paige Weatherbee, Health, Wellness, and Occupational Studies ‘24

CGH Scholars

The following students have successfully completed two semesters of the CGH Seminar Series course. Names that appear in bold are students who have completed three or more semesters.

2023

Fall

  • Radfar Zohori

Spring

  • Matthew A. Demers
  • Ana Clara D. Fernandes
  • Emily M. Greenleaf
  • Mohamed H. Shaikh
  • Paige B. Weatherbee
  • Natalie J. Gray

2022

Fall

  • Jordan R. Hendricks
  • Courtney E. Lamphere
  • Emily N. Taylor

Spring

  • Danielle K. Bairrington
  • Isabella C. Freitas
  • Alexa L. Gresian
  • Rachel Kaplan
  • Kate A. Moore
  • Julia M. Popson

2021

Fall

  • Emilee Soucie

Spring

  • Jacob D. Audet
  • Sherina M. Balaparya
  • Rachel A. Bryson
  • Tyler J. Goy
  • Kayla M. Gray
  • Augustus F. Mendoza
  • Gabrielle G. Sechio
  • Hannah S. Storman
  • Afnan S. Yahya

2020

Spring

  • Derek K. DeMartinis
  • Christina R. Ellis
  • Alexander J. Martin
  • Madeleine B. Morrison

2019

Spring

  • Alec Beveridge
  • Maeve Campbell
  • Monica Dell’Aquila
  • Amber Jenkins
  • Brian Merz
  • Emma Tobin
  • Nicolas Yousse
  • Kyleigh Bechard (3)
  • Brittany Morrison (3)

2018

Fall

  • Kyleigh M. Bechard
  • Andrea L. Call
  • Ray M. Gjelsvik
  • Brittany Morrison
  • Melissa Sprague

Spring

  • Courtney Gautreau
  • Quinn Lawrence
  • Megan Stevens
  • Mary Elizabeth Warlick
  • Jessica White

2017

Fall

  • Casey Woodward

Spring

  • Robert Rizkalla Hanna
  • Joseph Oliver
  • Vincent Seroussi

2016

Spring

  • Sara Drury
  • Mirisa Klick

2015

Fall

  • Steven Carroll
  • Brittney Lashier
  • Thanh Nguyen

Spring

  • Taxiarhia Arabatzis
  • Stevie Magnan
  • Michelle Pham

2014

Spring

  • Valerie Motter

2013

Spring

  • Amanda Brathwaite
  • Kathleen Collins
  • Lauren D'Ascanio
  • Katie McDermott
  • Sharra Paquereau
  • Christopher Veinotte

2012

Fall 2012

  • Kayla Carr
  • Katherine Warren (3)

Spring 2012

  • Michelle Forbes
  • Marissa Hammond
  • Chloe Maiers
  • Colleen Nickerson
  • Tristian Rowe
  • Katherine Warren
  • Michelle Williams

2011

Spring

  • Brianni Frazier
  • Nicholas Gredin
  • Brandon Hotham
  • Katelyn Kaulback
  • Brittany Mayou
  • John Miller (4)
  • Whitney Underwood

2010

Fall

  • John Miller (3)

Spring

  • John Miller
  • Shannon Stevens
  • Mary Taddia