History of UPEI Founding Launched at 6th Annual Founders' Day Ceremony September 8
On Thursday, September 8, a new work reflecting on UPEI's founding and early development was launched, in conjunction with the 6th annual Founders' Day ceremony.
Utopian U: The Founding of the University of Prince Edward Island, 1968-1970 by Dr. Alan MacEachern is a 48-page booklet about UPEI's early beginnings, told in a lively style that is sure to inform and entertain.
"It is time, almost forty years after the establishment of the University of Prince Edward Island, to tell the story of its creation and early development," UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan says in the book's Foreword. "In Utopian U, Alan MacEachern provides a lucid and lively account of the events leading up to UPEI's creation, and of the multitude of steps required to make the new provincial university a reality," MacLauchlan added.
A native of Prince Edward Island, Dr. Alan MacEachern graduated from UPEI with a BA in History in 1988, and went on to do his MA and PhD at Queen's University in Kingston. Director of the Public History Program at the University of Western Ontario, Dr. MacEachern is especially interested in exploring the many ways history can be communicated. He is the author of The Institute of Man and Resources: An Environmental Fable (Island Studies Press) and Natural Selections: National Parks in Atlantic Canada, 1935-1970 (McGill-Queen's University Press). He is currently working on a history of the 1825 Miramichi Fire.
Founders' Day honours those who have made significant, long-term contributions to UPEI or its predecessor institutions. Jack Blanchard, Kay Martell, Georgina Mulligan, and Jim Rigney were honoured as Founders at this year's celebraton. Noted historian Catherine Hennessey was the guest speaker.
