Alternative Geographies:(Re)Imaging Place Through Passamaquoddy ImageMaking

Please join the Osher Map Library in welcoming artist and scholar, Nolan Altvater, for the annual DiMatteo Family Lecture titled Alternative Geographies: (Re)Imaging Place Through Passamaquoddy Image Making. Through engaging with Passamaquoddy knowledge and material forms of image making, this discussion offers a different approach to understanding the history of spatial production in the Northeast that refutes spatial colonization while celebrating the continued praxis of image making by contemporary Wabanaki photography.
Nolan Altvater, Passamaquoddy from Sipayik, currently resides near Panuwapskek (Penobscot Nation Reservation). After growing up in Sipayik and what is now Aroostook County, they attended the University of Maine studying secondary education. Following their undergraduate studies, they spent a few years in what is now known as Cambridge at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where they received a master’s degree in education policy. They are now a current interdisciplinary studies ph.d student at the University of Maine while working in a shared position for the Passamaquoddy Cultural Heritage Museum and Maine Coast Heritage trust. Their research is interested in mobilizing Indigenous research methodologies and engaging with Passamaquoddy knowledge in order to build a framework for the care of petroglyph sites.
WHAT: 2026 DiMatteo Family Lecture featuring Nolan Altvater
WHERE: McGoldrick Center Salons, 35 Bedford St. (2nd Floor), University of Southern Maine Portland campus
WHEN: Thursday, November 19, 2026 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Reception from 5:30 – 6 PM, Lecture begins at 6 PM
COST: Free