Amy Sotherden
Assistant Director
In her position as assistant director at the Center for the Study of Canada and the Institute on Québec Studies, Amy organizes multidisciplinary professional development opportunities for K–16 educators on Canadian and Québec topics with the aim to develop greater awareness and knowledge of Canada in American classrooms. Amy is a regular conference exhibitor and presenter at social studies conferences, such as the National Council for the Social Studies, and is also heightening the involvement of the center’s and institute’s outreach to teachers of French. She has the pleasure of being responsible for the administration of the Summer Institute for K–12 Professionals “Québec Dimensions: Historical, Geographic, and Cultural Explorations,” and the Summer Institute for American Teachers of French, both which are co-organized with the Canadian-American Center, University of Maine. Her recent conference presentations include:
- “Top Things to Know about Indigenous Peoples in Canada”
- “Legacies of New France and Tools for Understanding Contemporary Québec”
- “The Stories We Tell: Aboriginal History, Literacy and Cultural Sensitivity”
- “French Colonial America: People, History and Geography”
- “Battle for the Continent: 250th Anniversary of the Conquest”
- “Promoting Québec in the French Classroom”
- “Developing an Emphasis on the North of Canada: Insight and Outcomes from Nunavik and James Bay Travels”
- “What’s Up North? Contemporary Controversies in the Canadian Arctic”
- “Canada and the American K–12 Curriculum: A Replicable Investigation of Area Studies Content”
- “Truth About Totem Poles”
Amy also enjoys coordinating the Youth Ambassadors Program with Canada — a three-week exchange program in the U.S.A. for Canadian youth and educators to study civic engagement, community service, youth leadership and social inclusion. She also serves as secretary for the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States.
Amy is proud to be an alumna of the SUNY Plattsburgh Canadian Studies Program (1998) and took advantage of many extra-curricular opportunities as an undergraduate student, such as being an active leader in Club Canada, spending three semesters abroad at Canadian Universities, and undertaking three internships. Her education also includes a Master’s of Arts (2004) in international relations, as well as a Certificate of Advanced Study in conflict resolution, from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.
Her career focuses on heightening international understanding and includes fifteen years of working in higher education administration and four years in the non-profit sector. In addition to organizing many study and travel programs in Canada, she has also organized and executed international programs in Britain, France, Morocco, Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda and Thailand, in addition to coordinating the Youth Leadership Program with Francophone Africa which welcomed sixty participants from Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritania and Niger for two three-week programs in the U.S.A.