When the French Were Here
Champlain Quadricentennial
Symposium
As part of the quadricentennial of Samuel de Champlain’s exploration of Lake Champlain, Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont will host an international academic symposium on July 2-5, 2009. Scholars from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences are invited to participate in this event.
The theme of the celebration, “When the French Were Here,” invites the broadest possible consideration of Samuel de Champlain’s achievements, his life, and of his world as a cultural, social and ideological context.
Photos from the Symposium are available online.
Description of Topics
Our conference is not divided along rigid lines. Instead, we prefer to encourage talks from many and varied perspectives that examine Samuel de Champlain and the lake named for him. Paper topics may include the following, while not limited to these few:
- Life and achievements of Samuel de Champlain
- France at the time of Samuel de Champlain
- Exploration of the New World — background
- Navigation history
- Military history
- Social history
- Maps and mapmaking
- Contact of civilizations
- Previous centennial celebrations
- “New France” and “New England”
- History, geology and culture of Lake Champlain
Symposium sponsored in part by the Lake Champlain Basin Program
