USM Lewiston-Auburn College Humanities Program Faculty

Professor Schaible received his Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Tennessee. His interests encompass interdisciplinary studies and the importance of multicultural studies in American history. Dr. Schaible was the last holder of the prestigious Walter E. Russell Chair in Philosophy and Education. He recently delivered the keynote address at Drury University's fourth annual conference on Interdisciplinary Research and Teaching held last March. He also directed a seminar on “The Meaning of Human in the Poetry of Stephen Dunn” at the 48th annual Star Island Conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science. Professor Schaible is Vice-president for Conferences of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS). He also recently conducted a workshop entitled “Is Nature Enough? - An Answer from Two American Poets” at a recent IRAS Conference, and during the fall of 2002 he presented a paper entitled “Religious Naturalism: A Unity of Science, Religion, and Poetry” at the national conference of the Association for Integrated Studies at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri.

Prof. Raimon received her Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University in 1995. Her book, The "Tragic Mulatta" Revisited: Race and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Antislavery Literature, was published by Rutgers University Press in 2004. She also co-edited a collection entitled Harriet Wilson's New England: Race, Writing and Region, which was published by University Press of New England (2007) and includes a forward by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Wilson was a nineteenth-century indentured servant in New Hampshire who wrote Our Nig: Or Sketches in the Life of a Free Black. Prof. Raimon teaches courses in ethnic studies, gender studies, literary theory, critical race theory, creative nonfiction, critical thinking, and expository writing. Her research interests intersect American studies and cultural studies. She also teaches in the M.A. program in American and New England Culture and in the Women's Studies program in Portland. Other publication topics include the the rhetoric of higher education curricular reform, the mammy figure in film, the political history of U.S. miscegenation, and the interdisciplinary teaching of race.

Barry Rodrigue was born and raised in Maine. He lived in Alaska for twenty years, making a living in the commercial fishing industry as a cannery worker, mariner and biologist, as well as conducting research in rural Alaska, California and Central America. He worked with the indigenous communities of Alaska. When not at sea, Barry served as founding editor of the journal, Archipelago, which produced one of the largest collections of regional folk music in the United States for the legendary Folkways Records (available through the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Sound series). His work has won awards from National Public Radio and the American Museum of Natural History.

A Fulbright Scholar, Barry studied in Ireland, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Alaska, as well as in Maine and Canada. He is trained in cultural research as an archeologist, geographer, historian, biologist and ethnographer. He served as a Research Geographer for the Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises (Interuniversity Center for Québec Studies) and the Laboratoire de géographie historique (Laboratory of Historical Geography) at Laval University in Québec City before joining the faculty of the Arts & Humanities Program at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College.

His research focuses on World Studies, and he is active in developing the new field of Big History or Macrohistory. Barry also serves as the Scholar for USM’s Franco-American Collection, and is director of French North American Studies and co-director of Global Studies. A book for which he was an editor and principal writer, Histoire régionale de la Beauce-Etchemin-Amiante, was runner-up for the prestigious Sir John A. MacDonald Prize of the Canadian Historical Association in 2003. He presents at conferences sponsored by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Praxis Education and Research Group in the post-Soviet area, as well as being involved in support of the Victor Serge Public Library (Moscow) and an ecological field camp in Crimea (Ukraine).

A strong advocate for interdisciplinary studies and student-centered learning, Barry involves students in real-life projects and professional field research. His classes perform archeological surveys for the Maine State Historic Preservation Commission, during one of which the students unraveled the mystery of two bodies found in Auburn from 200 years ago. He and his students have organized conferences of the world’s leading authorities on French North America, which contributed to anthologies in which Barry has published, Vision et Visages (2001) and Franco-Amérique (2008). Students also worked on his recent book, Voyages: A Maine Franco-American Reader (2007), which Barry co-edited with Nelson Madore of Thomas College in Waterville.

Barry also has brought many speakers, performers and artists to USM, including folksingers John McCutcheon and Utah Phillips, Archbishop Lazar Puhalo of the Orthodox Church of North America, Somali cinematographer Maady Mahweel, Franco-American novelist Clark Blaise and ethno-musicologist Andy Cohen. He and his students began the annual celebration of International Human Rights Day and of Earth Day at USM-LAC.

Barry is a founder and faculty advisor to the International Student Organization of Lewiston-Auburn (ISOLA), one of the most active such student organizations in the State of Maine. They have held seminars with activists from around the world, round-table discussions with leaders of a variety of political parties, and town-meetings to discuss referendum issues and candidates’ points-of-view. Their projects have included the gathering of supplies for a primary school in Botswana with the help of the U.S. State Department and established a treaty of exchange with the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban (South Africa). They recently founded the Métis Alliance of Maine.

Most recently the students have been involved with humanitarian assistance for Chechnya and the north Caucasus region of Russia, one of the most war-torn regions on the planet. As a part of this effort, the Maine State Legislature passed a resolution on Russia and the Caucasus that Barry wrote and Legislator Elaine Makas sponsored (Elaine is also a professor at USM-LAC). They are now involved with the U.S. Congress and Senate in furthering this work.

Barry lives in Bath (Maine) with his wife Penelope, son Kenai, grandson Dimitri, and their two dogs–Yukon and Cherry Blossom. He is a military veteran and a member of Veterans for Peace, a scuba diver, and spends a lot of time hiking in the forest in the course of his work. He plays Highland and Lowland bagpipes, reads science fiction, and writes both fiction and non-fiction.

Professor Romanoff received his Ph.D. in Educational Humanities and English Education from New York University in 1984. His interest in the humanities extend from the inter-relatedness of all things and our limitless options for peace through creativity and communication. He directs and teaches in the internationally- recognized Russell Scholars Program, an interdisciplinary residential learning-community on the Gorham campus. Russell Scholars students from all majors complete many core requirements through collaborative learning in linked courses that emphasize writing, critical thinking, and service. Prof. Romanoff's article entitled "A Case Study: Linking Students Across Geographical and Cultural Distances" recently appeared in New Directions for Teaching and Learning, (Jossey-Bass, Summer 2003). His other research includes traditional song, as well as writing and performing his own songs with his internationally- acclaimed folk ensemble, Schooner Fare. Prof. Romanoff published a book of songs, a CD, and has received several awards from the American Society of Composers, Artists, and Publishers (ASCAP). He recently performed his songs at Portland's Merrill Auditorium with the Portland Opera Repertory Theater Orchestra with Boston Pops conductor, Bruce Hangen. In the fall of 2003, he will return to Washington, D.C. to perform at Wolf Trap, America's National Park for the Performing Arts.

University of Southern Maine

Arts & Humanities Program Faculty