Bilingualism & Heritage Language Maintenance: A Community Class with Dr. Jeanne Heil
2026-06-08 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Franco-American Collection — LAC, 51 Westminster St, Lewiston, ME, 04240, United States
The Franco-American Collection at the University of Southern Maine is proud to announce a free community class taught by USM professor Dr. Jeanne Heil. There is no fee for our programs, which are made possible by the Québec Delegation in Boston, Schooner Estates and the Hilton Garden Inn Auburn Riverwatch.
This community class discusses the challenges and opportunities of the maintenance of minority/heritage languages. Particular attention will be paid to minority/heritage languages in Maine, including but not limited to French. A minority language is any language used by a subset of a population in a region, and both monolingual and actively bilingual regions can have minority languages. Minority languages that reflect a family or community identity–such as those used by children of immigrants–are often referred to as heritage languages. The four sessions of the class will present and layer various perspectives on heritage languages: cognitive perspectives, social perspectives, and educational perspectives. The result is a shared knowledge base that highlights both what’s at stake for bilingual families and what’s necessary for language maintenance.
Jeanne Heil is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Southern Maine. Originally from Ohio, she studied Hispanic Linguistics and Bilingualism at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she worked for nearly a decade in their bilingualism and code-switching laboratory. She has been a faculty member at USM since 2017, teaching courses on introductory linguistics, second language acquisition, syntax, research methods, and Spanish. In 2021, she received both USM’s Faculty Senate Honors for Excellence in Teaching and the President’s Award for Achievement, and she has mentored four Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program students between 2018 and 2024. Jeanne’s research examines cognitive and linguistic perspectives on bilingualism, including second language acquisition and heritage language acquisition.
To register for this class, follow this link, or email Anna at anna.faherty@maine.edu: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScKGOdMtmybE5apVNwJzXbsyQxLxbHXLF_6TCkqlUO1wDiCSg/viewform?usp=publish-editor
For more information, or if you have questions about disability access or need to request disability accommodations, please contact the FAC archivist, Anna Faherty, at anna.faherty@maine.edu or by phone (207) 753-6545. Requests should be made as soon as possible to allow sufficient time for the accommodation process.

Little Draggy Adventure
2026-06-09 10:00 - 11:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
Fly out to the farthest reaches of the universe and up through Earth’s atmosphere to gain an astronaut’s view of your home—the only planet currently known to support life.

The Sun Our living Star
2026-06-09 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-10 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-22 14:00 - 15:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
The Sun has shone on our world for four and a half billion years. The light that warms our skin today has been felt by every person who has ever lived.
It is our nearest star and our planet’s powerhouse, the source of the energy that drives our winds, our weather and all life.

Hot and Energetic Universe
2026-06-10 14:00 - 15:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
High Energy Astrophysics plays a key role in understanding the universe. These radiations reveal the processes in the hot and violent Universe.

Unveiling the Invisible Universe
2026-06-11 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-12 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-12 19:00 - 20:00, 2026-06-13 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-17 14:00 - 15:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
For thousands of years the humans observed the light coming from the night sky with their eyes. In the beginning of the 17th century, the invention of the telescope by Galileo revolutionized our knowledge of the Universe.

Dinosaurs at Dusk
2026-06-12 15:30 - 16:30 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
Dinosaurs at Dusk: A whirlwind time travel adventure back to the epoch of the dinosaurs! A larger than life extravaganza rife with roaring monsters from the ancient age.

Rusty Rocket's Last Blast!
2026-06-15 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-16 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-06-17 13:00 - 14:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
Join Rusty Rocket and his band of rocket rookies as they explore the solar system. Fly across Saturn’s rings, soar along a Martian canyon; delve deep into the solar interior!

Natural Selection
2026-06-15 14:00 - 15:00, 2026-06-16 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-19 15:30 - 16:30 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
Natural Selection: Join Charles Darwin on a voyage of exploration circumnavigating the World with the HMS Beagle, to the Galapagos islands. Witness the thrill of scientific discovery by seeing the world through Darwin’s eyes, make observations of the most beautiful natural scenery and let the pieces of the scientific puzzle slowly but surely fall into place.

(Cancelled) Distant Worlds, Alien Life.
2026-06-18 13:00 - 14:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
Distant Worlds, Alien Life: Explore one of the most enduring questions of humankind – are we alone? For millennia our ancestors watched the stars, questioning the origin and nature of what they saw. Still today we ask these questions, knowing that the Universe is a vast place filled with billions and billions of stars and planets — but yet, Earth is the only planet we know for sure to be inhabited

Distant Worlds, Alien Life.
2026-06-19 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-19 19:00 - 20:00, 2026-06-20 13:00 - 14:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States

Solstice at Stonehenge
2026-06-20 19:00 - 20:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
Embark on a virtual tour of Stonehenge at the Southworth Planetarium. Just before each solstice, we conduct our popular “Stonehenge” lecture. Who built Stonehenge? What was its purpose? How much can we know about it?
Join Stonehenge scholar Lawrence Price as he guides you through the world’s most famous megalithic structure.
Experience summer’s arrival with “Midsummer at Stonehenge”!

The Little Star That Could
2026-06-22 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-06-23 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-06-24 10:00 - 11:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
A story about Little Star, an average yellow star in search of planets of his own to protect and warm. Along the way, he meets other stars, learns what makes each star special, and discovers that stars combine to form star clusters and galaxies.

Destination Solar System
2026-06-22 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-23 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-24 13:00 - 14:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
The year is 2096. Space tourism is thriving and “Space Express Tours” is the world’s leading company in space. You’ve signed up for a quick trip around the Solar System.

Fragile Planet
2026-06-24 14:00 - 15:00 | Southworth Planetarium — Science Building, 70 Falmouth St, Portland, ME, 04103, United States
