UNE Center for Global Humanities to host five events this fall on timely world topics
The Center for Global Humanities at the University of New England is preparing to present its 17th year of programming bringing world-renowned speakers and thought-provoking films to UNE’s campuses.
The center's full 2025-26 schedule was released earlier this summer and will engage the UNE audiences — including students, faculty, professional staff, and members of UNE’s home communities of Portland and Biddeford — in robust conversation and discussion of timely topics, from Middle Eastern affairs and religious freedom to evolutionary biology, culture, world politics, and the human condition.
“We live in a time of unprecedented technological disruption, off-the-charts political polarization, and a host of other worries,” explained CGH Director Josh Pahigian, M.F.A. “The center offers a monthly respite from those worries and the opportunity for visitors of all ages to convene in a warm, lively setting and, most importantly, engage in contemplation of the big issues with which we’re all grappling.”
The new season kicks off on Sept. 29 with a visit from Northwestern University political scientist Wendy Pearlman, Ph.D., who will present “Understanding Syria.” As one of the foremost experts on Syria and the author of two award-winning books on the Syrian refugee crisis, Pearlman will put the stunning collapse of the Assad regime in historical perspective and remind attendees of the human stakes for this nation at a crossroads.
The center will hold its October lecture on UNE’s Biddeford Campus while still offering Portland-area patrons the chance to gather when it “screens Three Chaplains” on Oct. 20. The film tells the story of three Muslim faith leaders fighting for equality and religious freedom in the U.S. military. After the screening, filmmaker David Washburn will join Pahigian and the audience in conversation.
The second lecture of the fall will continue the center’s outreach to the Biddeford Campus when Yale University medical doctor Samuel T. Wilkinson presents a midday lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 22. Wilkinson will build off his extraordinary book “Purpose” in a lecture titled “What Evolution and Human Nature Imply about the Meaning of Our Existence,” in which he will argue that our innate human desire to seek for meaning and purpose — and, ultimately, God — is not at odds with science and evolution.
The center’s Nov. 17 lecture will feature UNE historian Elizabeth DeWolfe, Ph.D., who will build off her recent book, “Alias Agnes,” in presenting “The Mysterious Case of the ‘Girl Spy.’” The lecture will tell of Maine native Jane Tucker’s journey to Washington, D.C., on a secret mission to befriend and ultimately betray Madeleine Pollard, a congressman’s mistress who had sued him for breach of promise when he failed to marry her as pledged.
Completing the fall series, on Dec. 8, Bowdoin College Writer-in-Residence Anthony Walton, M.F.A., will present “The Past is Not Past: Embracing the Politics of Memory,” in which he will build off his recent book, “The End of Respectability: Notes of a Black American Reckoning with His Life and His Country.
All events at the Center for Global Humanities are free, open to the public, and accompanied by refreshments. Most events are also livestreamed on the CGH YouTube channel, which is closing in on 10,000 subscribers. Conversations with guest speakers are also available on the monthly “Oh, the Humanities” podcast.
Learn more about the Center for Global Humanities at UNE and its fall 2025 season.