Ken Burns' American Revolution Screenings and Panel Discussions

The American Revolution, a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt, premieres on November 16, 2025 on Maine Public Television.

Watch the series trailer here!

Maine Public is holding two community preview events in October replete with post-viewing panel discussions.

Donald M. Gay Performing Arts Center at Edward Little High School
77 Harris Street in Auburn

Thursday, October 16 at 6:30 pm

Click here to secure your free tickets!

Panelists:

• Liam Riordan, PhD, Adelaide and Alan Bird Professor of History, Department Chair at UMaine
• Joseph M. Hall Jr., PhD, Associate Professor of History at Bates College
• Mihku Paul, BA, MFA, Wolastoqey Poet & Activist “Core Advisory Council at Atlantic Black Box”
• Strother E. Roberts, PhD, Associate Professor of History at Bowdoin College

Hannaford Hall on the campus of the University of Southern Maine
88 Bedford Street in Portland
Thursday, October 30 at 6:30 pm

Click here to secure your free tickets!

Panelists:

• Darren J Ranco. PhD, Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of Native American Research at UMAINE
• Ashley Towle, PhD, Associate Dean, CAHS, Associate Professor of History and Women & Gender Studies at USM
• Libby Bischof, PhD, Professor of History, University Historian, Executive Director, Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at USM

Additional background on our panelists:

Liam Riordan, PhD, is Bird & Bird Professor and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Maine. He specializes in the American Revolution, and his current research is about loyalists, those who opposed the patriot movement. He is the co-editor of What We Know, What We Wish: Maine Statehood, Historical Commemoration, and the Urgency of Public History (UMass Press, 2025) and is working on a special issue of the journal Maine History about the 1776/2026 commemoration of the Revolution. He helps to organize National History Day in Maine, a statewide research contest for grade 6-12 students. He is also on the Board of Directors of Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust, the Nominations Committee of the New England Historical Association, the City of Bangor’s Historic Preservation Commission, and the Collections Committee of the Wilson Museum in Castine.

Joe Hall, PhD, is Associate Professor of History at Bates College, where he teaches courses on Native American history, environmental history, and the history of North America before 1820. He is currently team-teaching a course on the comparative history of American wars for independence, looking at the revolutions of 1775-1825 from Boston to Buenos Aires.

Darren J. Ranco, PhD, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation, is a Professor of Anthropology, Chair of Native American Programs, and Faculty Fellow at the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine. He has a Master of Studies in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School and a PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University. His research focuses on the ways in which Indigenous Nations resist environmental destruction by using Indigenous science and diplomacies to protect their natural and cultural resources. He has published extensively and teaches classes on Indigenous intellectual property rights, research ethics and methodology, environmental and climate justice, and tribal governance.

Ashley Towle, PhD, is Associate Professor of History and Women and Gender Studies, and Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Southern Maine. Her research and teaching interests include nineteenth-century United States history, the history of enslavement and emancipation, and the history of gender and sexuality.