On Monday, April 4, Dr. Onur Apul, Dr. Dianne Kopec, Dr. Caroline Noblet and John Peckenham gave their talk, “The Forever Chemical: PFAS in Maine.” Apul is an assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maine. Kopec is a research fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. Noblet is an associate professor in the school of economics at UMaine. Peckenham is a research associate at the Mitchell Center. Together they discussed how PFA chemicals have been in commercial products for over sixty years but only twenty years ago did researchers start analyzing how these substances affect the environment. 

“What a deal we made with the devil! We traded stain fabric for a global environmental and world public health crisis,” Apul said.

Man made chemicals like PFAS have been used in consumer products industry-wide since the 1950s, and are commonly found in items such as ponchos and styrofoam.

“Everybody likes to eat. Some people like to cook. Nobody likes to clean up, so teflon pans were a really big hit,” Kopec said. “But then PFAS also moved into your food. It moved into your popcorn from your microwave popcorn bags. It moved into your food from your takeout containers. So this is why we care that the PFAS are moving into your food.”

In Maine, these PFAS have contaminated the well water and some dairy farms, which has led to the state of Maine trying to figure out how to deal with this problem. The issue with water contamination is how it affects the Earth’s water cycle. For instance, manufacturing and the industrial use of PFAS, as well as the PFAS use by the general population, creates atmospheric PFAS emissions. This then becomes precipitation that affects private wells and drinking water as well as agriculture. This “Forever Cycle” of PFAS is continued through the food web as animals drink the water, and fish swim in contaminated water. People then eat these animals, transferring the PFAS into their bodies. 

“We call PFAS forever chemicals because of its circularity in the environment,” Apul said.

Next, the researchers discussed if nanomaterials can be used to address the PFAS crisis. Removal strategies, both destructive and non-destructive methods, are discussed to break down the chemical. After explaining the potential options for removing these chemicals, they discussed other PFAS Removal Technologies, specifically Granular Activated Carbon, as well as analyzing if these chemicals can permeate landfill liners and soil remediation of PFAS in biowastes treated soil. 

“If you had a sandbox in your backyard, and if you had it polluted with one glass of motor oil in it, how do you even clean it? Do you take it out? Do you treat it inside? So the general approach here is either in situ or executed treatment approaches. Executed meaning that you excavate all the soil put on to trucks. Go to an off-site facility, wash the soil treated, do whatever it takes, and bring it back, in situ meaning that you use water, you use microbes, you use chemicals to pump down water, column or soil column and try to try to purify the soil,” Apul said.

For soil remediation, this would involve minimal use of PFAS products and advanced treatment technologies for source reduction; cyclic process with lesser soil invasion and minimal transport costs for soil flushing and washing; uptake and translocation of PFAS into above ground plant parts for phyto-remediation; stabilizing the soil with sorbent to restrict the movement of PFAS for immobilization; and thermal, oxidative, biological, and electron beam treatments for PFAS destruction. 

On Feb. 17, Downeast Trout Unlimited, a sector of the nonprofit Trout Unlimited which is dedicated to protecting cold water fish species, held their monthly meeting. Arranged by Tammy Packie, the chapter organizer, this meeting discussed critical watersheds and focused on priority waters. 

Ciona Ulbrich, the Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s (MCHT) senior project manager for land protection within the Eastern Midcoast,was first to talk. Ulbrich has worked as a field person for MCHT, where she serves as a conservation resource on restoration processes. 

On MCHT’s website, Ulbrich discusses her work. 

“To me, conservation is one of the most tangible ways to have an impact on the environment and on quality of life. Our work will last for generations – few can say that. We can make sure that land stays available to those who love it, that wildlife have enough natural habitat to live, and that some of Maine’s natural beauty lasts,” Ulbrich said.

Mark Thalhauser, the collaborative management specialist for the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, spoke next. Thalhauser has worked with shellfish, alewives and other fish in providing fish passage.

“Our work is mainly in the state of Maine, and we are focused on fishing communities and sustaining those and the culture that come along with that into the future as far as we can see,” Thalhauser said. 

In order to restore the Bagaduce river watershed, Thalhauser and Ulbrich sought collaborative solutions and teamed up with one another.

Ulbrich continued the conversation by discussing the significance of the alewife. The alewife is a northwestern Atlantic fish of the herring family that must swim up rivers in order to spawn before returning to the ocean. 

“These fish need to come home. The impact on the population up here affects the waters all the way down to the Carolina’s. [They n]eed to come back to their home place to spawn,” Ulbrich said.

For this project to come to fruition, Ulbrich first tackled the history and heritage surrounding the watershed and the fish. Moreover, it’s important to understand and acknowledge the culture and history of the land, such as the many mills that were in place in 1877. 

The next step they took was based on the engineering of the physical fish passage. 

“The engineer has to gather enough data and listen to locals who have the familiarity of the place to know what’s needed for the passage,” Ulbrich said. “We made an effort to also create a public space where people could come and see the runs because having people see the fish and see the phenomenon of nature is really important to having them care, and caring over time.”

In this way, Ulbrich mentioned how important it was to help people understand what is happening and to listen to the locals. Project leaders engage the community by introducing public signage, serving as a window into this work, and by bringing relevant lessons to nearby schools. It was also important to use local stone and material not only for aesthetics, but for the environment.

Later on, Thalhauser discussed the alewives and river herring. While river herring can be detrimental to other sport fishing industries due to how invasive they are in places they don’t belong, they are still fundamental to their communities. Particularly, this includes those who rely on the amount of fish produced for a commercial harvest. 

“Commercial harvest is often the connection between people to sustain these fisheries,” Thalhauser said. 

These fisheries play a large role in the economy, so it is vital to estimate how many fish are coming back each year. With attention brought to the pygmy alewives after locals noticed the change in their size, the community set out to find out if this was some sort of sub-species of the alewife or if they were eating less. 

“When you have a commercial fishing community that revolves around this industry for that many years it’s going to be a big deal and connected to the culture and their values,” Thalhauser said. “This research with science and modeling, and Ciona with restoration products have made the bagaduce project stand out.”

At the conclusion of the presentation, both Ulbrich and Thalhauser stressed the importance of the alewife and how it connects to the people. 

“These projects are about fish, but they’re also about partnerships. These projects are so much about people, people of all ages,” Thalhauser said.

On Feb. 9 as part of the Microbes and Social Equity Speaker Series, the University of Maine Institute of Medicine organized a seminar on diet, microbial metabolites and cancer disparities.  Dr. Patricia Wolf, a registered dietitian nutritionist and postdoctoral fellow at the Cancer Education and Career Development Program NCI T32 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, spoke during this session. 

Her research investigates microbial mechanisms of cancer health disparities related to inequitable food access and quality. The techniques in molecular microbiology and novel enzyme characterization helps Wolf to understand the metabolic capacity of the human gut microbiome. Her research looks at whether dietary intake shifts microbial ecology and function toward the formation of deleterious microbial metabolites which contribute to cancer risk. This is due to the fact that dietary behaviors are shaped by social and structural environments and will include works that explore relationships between the neighborhood food environment, and microbial metabolism in order to mitigate the inequitable burden of cancer in certain demographics. 

“I know that dietary intake is often driven by the nutrition environment,” said Wolf. “And so I’m hoping in the future that I’ll be able to look at associations between nutrition environments and dietary intake and then impact policies and structures that shape these nutritional environments.” 

Wolf proceeds to take the audience through her five step research method: identifying the association between microbial metabolites and disease, determining the functional capacity of the human microbiome, characterizing unknown microbial enzymes, determining association between diet and microbiome function and examining diet in context of the nutrition environment. 

“Our work so far has focused mostly on colorectal cancer since it’s the third leading cause of cancer incidence and death in the US,” says Wolf. “Colorectal cancer incidence has actually decreased, and this is mostly due to the increase in screening colonoscopy. However, this decrease has been attenuated in certain groups, specifically non-Hispanic Black [people] who have the highest incidence of colorectal cancer in the United States … [W]e think that microbial metabolites could be the environmental trigger sparking this progression.”

Wolf further discusses the greater colorectal cancer incidence and mortality in Black Americans, as well as the hydrogen sulfide produced by bacteria in the gut. While the sulfate reducing bacteria has been well studied, bilophila wadsworthia has been gaining more traction in how it uses the amino acid Taurine through a multi step process to produce hydrogen sulfide. These two pathways, sulfate reducing bacteria and bilophila wadsworthia with Taurine, are important in relation to how they both share the last step in the production of hydrogen sulfide. 

“We found that regardless of disease state, African American Black [people] actually had ten times higher concentrations of these microbes,” says Wolf. 

On Nov. 29, the Mitchell Center hosted a talk on the role of municipal government in implementing state policy priorities. This session, held by Executive Director Cathy Conlow and Director of State & Federal Relations Kate Dufour of the Maine Municipal Association, was a part of the Sustainability Talk Series.

“The intent of this conversation is to talk about the municipality’s role in advancing state policies,” said Kate Dufour, Director of State & Federal Relations. “Municipal government is community.” 

Municipalities are composed of local authorities within the community. In the beginning of the presentation, Dufour discussed the role of engagement in order to encourage municipalities to implement statewide policy principles. This relates to the idea that successful engagement relies on the community’s understanding and recognition of certain attributes of municipalities. 

“Municipality has been relied upon for a large amount, and that list has grown over time,” Dufour said.

In each town there is a lot of reliance on the municipal government for local services that members of the community can use. Services that rely on municipal government include the police department, fire department, EMS services, public works, parks & recreations, tax assessment & collection, elections, and other general assistance. With everything that municipalities do for the community, they need to be more recognized and supported in every community.

“History has taught us that a once very sacred partnership is bountiful … Revenue sharing partners are one of the most fundamental partnerships,” Dufour said. “The state is going to have hard times, but we’re all in this together.”

Municipalities partner with the state in order to aid in revenue sharing, local road assistance programs, state aid for K-12 education and the increasing homestead exemption reimbursement. The state relies on the municipal governments to help advance state policies, and to do so we have to know who we are as a community. 

“It’s important that your voices are heard. Because if we don’t hear a diverse group of people, we can’t accommodate everyone’s needs,” Dufour said. “Municipalities do the right thing. Gets back to that ingenuity and local control. How best to move communities forward … In order for us to advance state policies, we need to understand who we actually are … There’s a community for each and every one of us and that uniqueness is incredibly important.”

To conclude the presentation, Conlow and Dufour discussed the power of local ingenuity. In this respect, it is primarily the community that makes things happen. The decision to not get involved is also a decision that affects how the municipalities can best serve the community. 

“Despite all the challenges, burdens and responsibilities… [m]unicipalities are doing great work … At the crux of sustainability is equity and mutual accountability. We’re all affected by this so it’s important to all work together, to all work in the same direction to get our goals met,” Dufour said. “Municipal government is the best form of government there is. Closest to the people, largest non-partisan, where people get work done.”

On Dec. 3, Dr. Michael Swacha participated in the Philosophy Colloquium in his talk titled, “Reconciling the One and the Many: On the Possibility of Fragmentation and Perception in Virginia Woolf and the New Physics.” Swacha is a lecturer in English and philosophy and his talk was hosted by the philosophy department to discuss Virginia Woolfe’s “The Waves” and its connection to modern physics. 

Swacha’s work discusses the relation of Virginia Woolf’s 1931 novel “The Waves” with the new discoveries in physics made during the early 20th century and the rise of Modernism. Dominated by events such as World War I, World War II, the Spanish flu pandemic, nuclear weapons and power, space exploration, nationalism and decolonization and the Cold War, many members of society began to ask questions reflecting the welfare of culture and society at the time. 20th century Modernism is often referred to as the global movement in society and culture which looked for a realignment with different values of industrial life. Swacha was able to explain the Modernist notions of perception and fragmentation, and how they allow readers to imagine new ways of knowing, existing and relating to one another. 

“Time would appear to slow for the observer at the pole, however interceptively this would be such a relatively close cognitive distance. While this notion maintains the concept of individuation where two moving objects are discrete and distinct from one another, it also shows that their respective qualities are a function of perspective, and with various possible perspectives the perceived nature of any given object exists within a multiplicity. And what Einstein’s special theory of relativity therefore shows most strikingly, at least for this paper, is that perception involves an entanglement or intertwining of this seemingly mutually exclusive concepts of singularity in a mulitplicity or individuation in a collective unity,” Swacha said.

Swacha continued by explaining theories of electromagnetism and how electrodynamics could be applied to moving bodies and moving in time. Specifically, he referred to how Einstein needed to develop a strict definition of simultaneity to import the concept of time without the complications that two different accelerations would pose, and how our judgments in which time plays a part are always simultaneous events. 

“That a given time, a simultaneous time is simply when two things happen concurrently,” Swacha said. “The concept of time is relational, just by definition. The time that something occurs is by definition, temporally connected to what is occurring on the clock you observed at the same moment. Time in of itself is meaningless, it only matters, or only has significance when you observe it with something like a clock with the moving hands and so on. But perception becomes a much more interesting concept when Einstein proceeds to discuss the nature of space and its intertwining with time.”

Virginia Woolf’s “The Waves” is a novel which elaborates on the connected lives between the characters. It has been argued that the book was used to reflect the beliefs of Modernist artists at the time, who believed that art must reflect the distorted nature of reality and its complications. 

“It’s hard to tell whether this is one person with different characteristics or a full group of friends. Through this nature of perception we have found, the fluidity of the characters and the fluidity of our own perceptions as readers prevents us from locking down a stable notion of an object,” Swacha said. “Through Woolf’s narrative, we apprehend the quality of each character but we can not know for certain they are not the complex unified qualities of one voice.”

Swacha concluded the lecture by discussing the importance of particular characters to the overall structure of Woolf’s work. There was a Q&A segment which followed this discussion, that addressed the concepts of reality as perception and thematic commonalities between “The Waves” and another of Woolf’s works, “To the Lighthouse”.

On Nov. 18, the University of Maine MARINE Initiative hosted an event to highlight the importance of the Blue Economy, in the state of Maine. The Blue Economy refers to the income the state makes from marine-based businesses, including the fishing industry and the lobstering industry. This virtual event gathered a panel of speakers, Curt Brown of Ready Seafood, Alex de Koning of Hollander and de Koning and Kate Dempsey of The Nature Conservancy in Maine, to elaborate on the Blue Economy and the role UMaine plays in the economy. UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy introduced the importance of the Blue Economy at the beginning of the meeting.

“I’m delighted to open this discussion of the Blue Economy in Maine. As a state with over 3,478 miles of coastline and 6,000 lakes and ponds and almost 2,200 miles of rivers, the Blue Economy is critically important to the state and impacts so many lives. At our university we educate and engage with the public and we are compelled to address the Blue Economy topics and issues to help strengthen this exciting venture and area for our economy in the state of Maine,” Ferrini-Mundy said. 

With an average of 46 bachelors degrees, 13 masters and 6 doctoral degrees per year in the last five years, the UMaine School of Marine Sciences contributes a lot of time and research into the Blue Economy.

“We at the University of Maine and across the University of Maine system educate the Blue Economy workforce through academics as well as hands-on education and training in our research centers and institutes across the state,” Ferrini-Mundy said. “We enhance the Blue Economy through research development and innovation in our research development and innovation in our research centers and institutes.”

Moderating the panel discussion was Dr. Caroline Noblet, an associate professor of economics at UMaine, whose research focuses on working with citizens and consumers to understand the choices we all make about our natural resources. Noblet continued the conversation by introducing Heather Johnson, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic Community Development.

“[We have] to think about the resilience and innovation that Maine fisheries have always had,” Johnson said. “We need a lot of research and a clear understanding of how to do it in a climate responsible way, and with a workforce that is engaged and passionate about the work and training to be prepared for all of the pieces of that.”

The Blue Economy plays a crucial role in the state of Maine, especially for multigenerational fishermen who have been relying on it for decades. The next panelist to present was Curt Brown, a marine biologist with Ready Seafood, who spoke on the role the industry has played in his life, both professionally and within his family.

“I think about the Blue Economy as an opportunity. An opportunity can mean many different things to so many different people, but ultimately the Blue Economy provides opportunities to people young and old,” Brown said. “Most people think of work out on the water when they think of the Blue Economy, but we are talking about everything from accounting to aquaculture and sales to science. We talk about opportunity. The sky is the limit for many different groups and when I think Blue Economy that’s when I think opportunity, and I think UMaine plays a pivotal role in not just the past but going forward in terms of the Blue Economy here in Maine.”

The next panelist to speak was Alex de Koning, who joined his family business of mussel farming, Hollander and de Koning, after graduating from UMaine with a degree in engineering. He spoke on the changing environment’s impact on the community and the many different degree paths that can contribute to the Blue Economy.

“I felt one of the coolest things was seeing how broad and diverse all of the interests in the Blue Economy are everywhere you go. It seems to be that UMaine has something for everyone,” de Koning said. 

The final panelist to contribute to the importance of the Blue Economy in Maine was Kate Dempsey, the state director of The Nature Conservancy.

“One of the important things we are invested in at the conservancy is working with our ground fish fisheries and electronic monitoring systems. It is great for the fishermen because what they are saying on the water gets recognized by regulators, but then the data is much more relevant to the University that is doing research,” Dempsey said.

With climate change on the rise, it was no surprise that one of the first questions asked was how climate change affects the Blue Economy.

“The business model will have to change drastically, which has pushed us to invest in a new collection system. We are seeing constant changes with everything,” de Koning said. “We have to throw it [tradition] out the window because the environment is changing, and we have to adapt as growing rates are changing.” 

On Nov. 4, Cindy Isenhour, an associate professor of anthropology and climate change, gave the presentation for the third installment of the Socialist and Marxist Studies Series. Isenhour focused on the relationship between climate change and inequality. 

Isenhour’s background in anthropology and climate change led her to investigate the connection between inequality and the carbon footprint emitted on the local and global scale. While people have been aware of issues related to power, equity and justice as it relates to inequality, there has not been much discussion on how wealth and social status play a role in mitigation while planning climate adaptation programs. 

Isenhour elaborated on the amount of time developed nations have been enabling their development through fossil fuels. The cost of development has been shared globally, but the responsibility has been unequal. 

 Isenhour shared reports from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). “Available evidence indicates that this relationship is characterized by a vicious cycle, whereby initial inequality causes the disadvantaged groups to suffer disproportionately from the adverse effects of climate change, resulting in greater subsequent inequality.” 

Paying attention to individual wealth, Isenhour discussed how there are many privileges the wealthy have regarding climate change that are not brought to light. For example, members of the wealthier class have the ability to move or build barriers to protect their home. On the other hand, families that are impoverished have more barriers to overcome and a lack of resources to mitigate, flee the general inability to protect their home, revise the architecture or have the ability to deal with environmental consequences at the most basic level. 

Isenhour further elaborated about this inequality. “Those who contribute the least greenhouse gases are the projected group to be the most impacted by climate change,” Isenhour said.

Isenhour then introduced the five reasons affecting the question of inequality and climate change: high incomes driving emissions, inequality enables environmental degradation, inequality is the root of cost externalization and artificially cheap consumption and inequality results in failures of climate cooperation. 

Isenhour presented evidence from multiple sources. “[The] most reliable predictor of carbon footprint is income,” Isenhour said, referencing a 2018 study by Moser and Kleinhückelkotten.

This means that even the members of the wealthier class who are trying to be “green” still contribute a large carbon footprint and are responsible for a disproportionate amount of emission. To put this into perspective, Isenhour elaborated how on average, wealthy U.S. households emit 12 MT Co2e from driving, which is greater than the total footprint for the average poor household over eight months. 

“What we consume is very much a part of what group we want to belong to,” Isenhour said. “Satisfaction was linked to whether or not they (the households) were making the same amount as those in their peer groups.” 

 Her next slide presented how inequality drives status competition/consumption, which means that different class backgrounds compete for a higher status in society. This notion is linked to the idea of belonging, showcasing how society’s desire to belong has a stronger bearing than consumption, as more contentment was found in lower consumption and happiness had no link to household income. 

 At the end of her presentation, Isenhour discussed the idea of burden-shifting and how inequality causes a failure in contributing to help the climate crisis.

“At what extent do you trust that other people will be compliant, or will they free ride?” Isenhour said. “We know we can’t bring everyone up where we are, so we have to meet in the middle.” Isenhour ended her talk by describing how collective action is undermined, and there must be limitations and leveling.

On Oct. 26, Chancellor Dannel Malloy and his team presented alongside the University of Maine System and UMaine leadership members on academic collaborations, budget development, strategic planning and accreditation. 

“We are so grateful to this university and to all of our universities for the great work that’s been done in managing the pandemic,” Malloy said. “We are doing extraordinary work with the fewest number of cases on campus that we have seen in quite a while, so I just want to say thank you to everyone for responding, particularly I’m very proud of our students in the background, and the vaccination rate that we were able to achieve, quite frankly exceeding our initial goal but not necessarily our expectations of the people who make up our student body.”

Unmistakably, the ongoing global pandemic has played a major role in the upkeep of the UMaine System across all campuses. Ryan Low, the vice chancellor for administration and finance discussed the financial impact of COVID-19. Between COVID-19 tests, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and quarantine costs, the total state fund rested at $14,929,462.

“I think you can see here the support that we received from our state and federal partners was substantial and that’s the point I like to emphasize every time I talk about COVID[-19] and the impact, I always like to make sure I at least pause and acknowledge that incredible support that we got from our federal government and our two senators for sure, as well as Governor Mills and the legislature,” Low said.

Earlier in the meeting Robert Placido, vice chancellor of academic affairs, talked about academic collaboration and partnerships, as well as UMS enrollments. 

“We wanted to talk about collaboration… [For] some institutions it’s important for them to see that [enrollment] because they’ve had as much as 30% declines in some areas. So when they want to ask me, ‘Why collaborate?’ I would point to, because there is a real problem. If we can do it by having stand alone programs, if we can do it by collaborating on programs, all the better,” Placido said. “If I could pander a little bit for [The University of Maine System] is that you all have been leaders for decades in partnership and collaboration.”

From marine science to engineering, many faculty members have already been connecting and working with other individuals in their field. Placido went on to discuss how the other side of partnerships has been the administration and he deliberated on how these members have been leaders across the state. Besides having statewide roles in research, Placido also emphasized how members such as Robert Dana, vice president for student life and inclusive excellence and dean of students, has been a mentor to the other Student Life Leaders around the state.

“Student success and retention is one of the four major areas of the Alfond gift and with that gift and the student success and retention, we have three major areas or initiatives that we’re looking at. Research Learning Experiences, Pathways to Careers and Gateways to Success,” John Volin said, UMaine provost.

In the latter half of the meeting, Joanne Yestramski, vice president of finance, discussed revenues and expenses as well as strategic investments for growth. Examples of these strategic investments include additional faculty and leadership for growth in engineering, business, computer science and other areas; incentive-based reallocation of indirect cost recovery to expand research programs; diversity, equity and inclusion incentives, including financial aid; strategic software efficiency solutions for academic affairs and research operations and other strategic initiative and growth opportunities, including student retention efforts. 

There has also been renewed efforts in the master plan for 2022, as the Information Technology and Space Committee will be appointed to help manage unprecedented capital growth and space considerations. Additionally, the completion of the Ferland Engineering, Education and Design Center will open in fall 2022 and bring in more engineers to UMaine through the UMS TRANSFORMS projects in Engineering, Computing and Information Science, Graduate and Professional Center and Athletics. There will also be a research expansion, UMaine Energy center, deferred maintenance and space reduction, public/private partnership potential and renovation and renewal of residence halls. 

James Thelen, the vice chancellor in strategic initiatives and chief legal officer, ended the meeting in the discussion of the historical context of UMaine. He emphasized how working better can help serve the state of Maine and drive our own in alignment with the general framework and strategic plan.

On Oct. 21, Doug Allen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Maine held the second installment of the Socialist and Marxist Studies Series this fall. In this lecture, Dr. Allen discussed the development of modern capitalist perspectives, Gandhi-informed and Marx-informed socialist perspectives. 

“Socialism is a beautiful world where all members are equal, this can not be achieved by non-pure means… and can result in greater meaning and happiness,” Allen said. 

Allen points out that socialism is a very vague term as it has so many meanings. Many who call themselves socialist often have been anti-marxist. 

In this lecture, Allen presents the socialist perspectives of Mahatma Gandhi and Karl Marx. Marx was a German philosopher, critic of political economy, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist and socialist revolutionary, whose theories on economics, politics and society led to the development of Marxism.

“Marx is a lot clearer on socialism in his analysis of the primacy of the capitalist load of production and how socialism on the abstract level arises out of the fundamental contradiction in capitalism between the capitalist reusing class and social producers, as well as the domination of those who own the capital over the social producers,” Allen said. “Socialism is to overcome that contradiction.”

Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who used nonviolent resistance to successfully campaign for India’s independence from England. Gandhi believed that the socialist perspective can create a deeper meaning to life and living. 

“Gandhi-informed perspectives are remarkably insightful and in some areas are stronger than Marxism,”’ Allen said. “Gandhi is more aware of the dynamic integral between means and ends and the dangers of capitalist and Marxist perspective that the ends justify the means.”

Allen discussed how Gandhi valued this idea of interconnectedness. Specifically, it is fundamental to understand what divides us, but it is even more important to have this deeper realization of our connection with other people and nature. Socialism allows a movement toward this higher level thinking that capitalism destroys. 

“Gandhi does emphasize the interconnectedness of all of life positively and negatively. And he has many formulations that can be contextualized in different ways. I find that sometimes his analysis is not adequate because sometimes what he says is that you have to start with the individual,” Allen said. “Unless you achieved inner peace and harmony you cannot relate to the outer world. The problem with that dynamic though is that Gandhi does not have a capitalist individualistic view of the self as an individual. So in this social relationship, we are interconnected.”

Allen emphasized of Ghandi’s focus on the individual. “Gandhi does emphasize the local because he thinks we have more control if we are focusing on ourself individually and our intimate connections.”

Gandhi had tremendous admiration for the nonviolent, moral and truthful values that you find in the oldest Hindu, Indian and Buddhist texts, and had a notion for the welfare of all. While Gandhi and Marx agree that the state is a violent coercive institution, Marx saw more of a need for the state. Marx, an enlightenment thinker who believed in science and technological progress, saw the traditional mode of production as more capitalist and developed a serious lack of development. 

Allen then concluded the lecture.“I don’t romanticize young people, their world and future is pretty threatening. But there is so much happening now, so many groups of people with a vision, who practice at a much higher developmental level. Racism, sexism, homophobia, these examples that are patriarchal. There are so many inspiring things happening among young people that give us hope.”

 Two more talks will appear in the Socialist and Marxist Studies Series this fall, including a talk on Nov. 4 by Cindy Isenhour, “Climate Change Exacerbates Inequality, but Does Inequality Exacerbate Climate Change?” and on Nov. 18, a talk by Nathan Godfried, “Activist Scholars and Social Unionism: The Meaning of the Walsh-Sweezy Case at Harvard University, 1935-1938.”

On Oct. 21, Doug Allen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Maine held the second installment of the Socialist and Marxist Studies Series this fall. In this lecture, Dr. Allen discussed the development of modern capitalist perspectives, Gandhi-informed and Marx-informed socialist perspectives. 

“Socialism is a beautiful world where all members are equal, this can not be achieved by non-pure means… and can result in greater meaning and happiness,” Allen said. 

Allen points out that socialism is a very vague term as it has so many meanings. Many who call themselves socialist often have been anti-marxist. 

In this lecture, Allen presents the socialist perspectives of Mahatma Gandhi and Karl Marx. Marx was a German philosopher, critic of political economy, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist and socialist revolutionary, whose theories on economics, politics and society led to the development of Marxism.

“Marx is a lot clearer on socialism in his analysis of the primacy of the capitalist load of production and how socialism on the abstract level arises out of the fundamental contradiction in capitalism between the capitalist reusing class and social producers, as well as the domination of those who own the capital over the social producers,” Allen said. “Socialism is to overcome that contradiction.”

Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who used nonviolent resistance to successfully campaign for India’s independence from England. Gandhi believed that the socialist perspective can create a deeper meaning to life and living. 

“Gandhi-informed perspectives are remarkably insightful and in some areas are stronger than Marxism,”’ Allen said. “Gandhi is more aware of the dynamic integral between means and ends and the dangers of capitalist and Marxist perspective that the ends justify the means.”

Allen discussed how Gandhi valued this idea of interconnectedness. Specifically, it is fundamental to understand what divides us, but it is even more important to have this deeper realization of our connection with other people and nature. Socialism allows a movement toward this higher level thinking that capitalism destroys. 

“Gandhi does emphasize the interconnectedness of all of life positively and negatively. And he has many formulations that can be contextualized in different ways. I find that sometimes his analysis is not adequate because sometimes what he says is that you have to start with the individual,” Allen said. “Unless you achieved inner peace and harmony you cannot relate to the outer world. The problem with that dynamic though is that Gandhi does not have a capitalist individualistic view of the self as an individual. So in this social relationship, we are interconnected.”

Allen emphasized of Ghandi’s focus on the individual. “Gandhi does emphasize the local because he thinks we have more control if we are focusing on ourself individually and our intimate connections.”

Gandhi had tremendous admiration for the nonviolent, moral and truthful values that you find in the oldest Hindu, Indian and Buddhist texts, and had a notion for the welfare of all. While Gandhi and Marx agree that the state is a violent coercive institution, Marx saw more of a need for the state. Marx, an enlightenment thinker who believed in science and technological progress, saw the traditional mode of production as more capitalist and developed a serious lack of development. 

Allen then concluded the lecture.“I don’t romanticize young people, their world and future is pretty threatening. But there is so much happening now, so many groups of people with a vision, who practice at a much higher developmental level. Racism, sexism, homophobia, these examples that are patriarchal. There are so many inspiring things happening among young people that give us hope.”

 Two more talks will appear in the Socialist and Marxist Studies Series this fall, including a talk on Nov. 4 by Cindy Isenhour, “Climate Change Exacerbates Inequality, but Does Inequality Exacerbate Climate Change?” and on Nov. 18, a talk by Nathan Godfried, “Activist Scholars and Social Unionism: The Meaning of the Walsh-Sweezy Case at Harvard University, 1935-1938.”