Please join us for this week’s edition of Topics on Tap, held at Thompson House, Friday January 27 at 5pm. This week’s speaker is Carolynn McNally, a second year doctoral student. Prior to coming to McGill, Carolynn completed her MA in History at the Université de Moncton and worked as a researcher for the Institut d’études acadiennes. Her paper is entitled: ‘L’union fait la force’: Intermarriage and the Construction of Acadian identity at the Time of the Acadian Renaissance. Please see the abstract below and hope to see you there! 

Abstract: At the 1884 Acadian National Convention, L’Union fait la force was chosen as the motto of the Acadian people. This decision was one of many taken by the Acadian elite at the turn of the century to encourage national consciousness among Maritime French-speaking communities. Because of these attempts to define, express and defend a collective identity, many historians have identified this period as the Acadian renaissance. Carolynn’s doctoral research reexamines this period to better understand the creation of Acadian identity and to consider the influence of out-group marriage on future generations’ grasp of their own identities as well as the impact of exogamy on the interrelationship of various groups in the Maritime provinces.