IN PERSON AT AUBURN-LEWISTON AIRPORT

One of the pressing issues of our time is social and political polarization in the United States. What causes polarization and what can we do to lessen it? Maine author Colin Woodard has addressed these questions in his book Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America (Viking, 2025). In this class, we will spend four weeks reading Woodard's book and discussing his analysis of our polarization and his prescriptions for change. The book is available in hardcover, ebook and audio book formats. Many libraries in Maine own copies, but you may need to get on a waiting list to borrow it.  

Jean Potuchek holds a PhD in sociology from Brown University and spent 40 years teaching sociology and gender studies to college students. She is committed to using the insights of social science to understand contemporary social and political issues.  

IN PERSON AT LA METRO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Whatever we think about immigration into the United States now and in the past, we can agree, I think, that immigration has shaped the character of the United States and also that immigration is implicated in much of the partisan divide we have today.

Issues of economic growth and fiscal health, crime, climate, culture change, racial, religious and national identity (among others) are all connected to immigration matters.

Positions around immigration defy easy labelling of ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative.’ In six short weeks, this course will try to help its participants find their bearings in the immigration debate. 

Doug Bennett taught political theory and public policy at Temple University, Reed College, and Earlham College for 25 years. From 1997 to his retirement in 2011 he was president of Earlham College. He holds a B.A. from Haverford College and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. Now living in Topsham, he is a member of Durham Friends Meeting (Quakers).