Doctoral students diligently work through coursework to become doctoral candidates. But, the process of writing a dissertation sometimes overshadows the joy of moving closer to earning a Ph.D. Family and work responsibilities can pose additional barriers to completing a dissertation.
Ramon Goings, associate professor of language, literacy, and culture, notes that over 40 percent of doctoral students who enter a program and do not finish recognize the dissertation process as a major contributing factor.
His research found that once students finished their classes, projects, and presentations, the structure that had scaffolded their progress throughout the program did not continue during the dissertation process. “In my research, I sought to unpack the beliefs and skills that propel doctoral students to finish their dissertation in one year or less. What I found can be broken down into what I call the 3P Formula. People + Process = Product,” Goings explains to Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities and host of The Academic Minute, a daily show featuring faculty from colleges and universities worldwide speaking about their cutting-edge research.
UMBC’s Academic Minute takeover week
Goings joined five UMBC scholars this fall in UMBC’s first Academic Minute Takeover Week, featuring the latest research in media and communication studies; philosophy; modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication; and history. This series is republished on NPRpodcasts and Inside Higher Ed.
Revolution. Is it a right or a duty? The answer is more of a grey area. Those for and against a revolution have complex reasons for holding their ground. Some point to defending structural systems thought to be the reason for progress and prosperity. Others fight against laws that have legalized inequality and injustice. Centuries of revolution have not clarified this question.
UMBC’s Mike Nance, associate professor of philosophy, studies Johann Benjamin Erhard’s understanding of the right to revolution, which the German philosopher wrote about during the height of the French Revolution (1789 – 1799). Nance, along with James A. Clarke, senior lecturer at York University in England, is translating a volume of Erhard’s Writings on Revolution for Oxford University Press.
“Erhard argues that the right to revolution can be sustained, but only under conditions of what we would call structural injustice,” Nance explains to Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities and host of The Academic Minute, a daily show featuring faculty from colleges and universities worldwide speaking about their cutting-edge research.
Nance joined five UMBC scholars this fall in UMBC’s first Academic Minute Takeover Week, featuring the latest research in media and communication studies; modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication; language, literacy, and culture; and history. This series is republished on NPRpodcasts and Inside Higher Ed.
COVID forced employees away from traditional offices to home offices, making working from home no longer the exception. Before the pandemic, work-from-home proponents advocated a more flexible work week/space to give employees a better work-life balance. Has this proven to be true? As some employers try to find incentives to bring their teams back to cubicles and open-plan workspaces, the argument about which setup gives a better work-life balance continues.
UMBC’s Elizabeth Patton, associateprofessor of media and communication studies and author of Easy Living: The Rise of the Home Office (Rutgers University Press, 2020), is very familiar with this argument. “Through my research, it has become evident that the issue of balancing work and life, and the integration of work into the home, has a deep-rooted history and continues to be a challenge we face today,” Patton explains to Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities and host of The Academic Minute, a daily show featuring faculty from colleges and universities worldwide speaking about their cutting-edge research.
UMBC’s Academic Minute takeover week
Patton joined five UMBC scholars this fall in UMBC’s first Academic Minute Takeover Week, featuring the latest research in philosophy; modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication; language, literacy, and culture; and history. The episode was republished by NPR podcasts and Inside Higher Ed.
Seven years ago, Mejdulene Bernard Shomali began a search for her queer Arab women “banat” ancestors. Shomali, a queer Palestinian poet, was looking for mirrors and searching for hope in other queer Arab women, queer Arab banat. Their lives and names were unknown to her, blurred as they were by Western, Orientalism, and Arab hetero-patriarchal representations of Arab femininity.
Shomali came to UMBC in 2015 as a member of the third cohort of UMBC’s Postdoctoral Fellows which recognizes and supports talented scholars who are emerging as cutting-edge researchers and educators in their fields. In 2016, Shomali joined the faculty as an assistant professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies.
Shomali wondered if one could be queer and Arab and okay all at the same time especially if representation of queer banat desire was missing from popular cultural texts and films. In the darkest of times, during a global pandemic shutdown, she found her answer— it was a resounding, YES. Not only can one be queer and Arab and okay, you can also create queer Arab joy.
In 2019, Shomali received The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship to continue research for her manuscript. After seven years of research throughout the Arab diaspora, Shomali published her first book, Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives. It is the first study of desire that addresses the contemporary cultures and lives of queer Arab women.
“This book is my love letter to my unnamed queer Palestinian ancestors. It is the knowing glance, playful wink, and double entendre between us,” Shomali writes in her book. “It is the ways we call one another, not only for recognition and community but to action and movement toward a joyful and pleasurable queer Arab future.”
Shomali, who has developed university-wide programming around Arab and Muslim identity, discussed her book at the Dresher Center for the Humanities 2023 Spring Humanities Forum. “It is not easy to work at the intersection of several disciplines and build both sophisticated and intelligible arguments for all audiences,” said Carole McCann, professor and chair of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, who introduced Shomali. “However, Dr. Shomali deploys the conceptual tools of critical cultural studies, literary theory, transnational feminist theory, and queer of color critique with great dexterity demonstrating both a sharp intellect and immense writerly talent.”
UMBC Dresher Center for the Humanities 2023 Spring Humanities Forum.
Queer Arab Critique
Moving between Arabic, English, and Arabish (Arab+English), Shomali takes us as far back as the 10th century to analyze the famed Persian, Arab, Indian, and Asian tale of The Thousand and One Nights where Scheherazade saves herself, other women, and the nation by telling the king—who killed his virgin wives each morning—stories over 1001 nights. “As a storyteller and state queen, she evades the three typical representations of Arab femininity: silent veiled Muslima, hypersexual dancer or harem girl, and female terrorist,” notes Shomali. “She is hailed as an ancestor, muse, and icon for many Arab and Arab American writers.”
Shomali analyzes an 1855 and 1995 translation and three modern versions. “Scheherazade has also been used as a key figure in the portrayal of Arab women’s femininity, elitism, heteronormative sexuality, and anti-Blackness and has served to perpetuate colonial and Orientalist beliefs of the Arab world,” explains Shomali. Orientalism defines the West as civilized colonizers with progressive ideas and the East as foreign, uncivilized, primitive, and “other” that must be tamed through colonization. “Studying Scheherazade can reveal how representations of Arab women and femininity change given the cultural and political context in which they emerge,” says Shomali.
Where would one find queer Arab representation in a text that defines heterosexuality as the norm of Arab femininity? Like many queer people and people of color who do not see themselves represented in literature, art, business, or academia Shomali had to design her own solution—what she calls a Queer Arab Critique.
Queer Arab Critique is about finding the unseen, “the what ifs,” reading critically and between the lines. Using this lens, Shomali reexamines Scheherazade’s story and two films from the Golden Era of Egyptian Cinema (1940s – 70s). It is as much a mirror for queer Arab women of queer Arab women’s desires, sexuality, space, and time. It is also evidence that Western colonization and Western queer thought do not define nor erase mainstream queer Arab culture.
“Queer Arab Critique allows us to see the traces of queer desire in mainstream Arab cultures and undermines the erasure of queer people from Arab histories,” Shomali explains, “and reveals how queerness and Arabness are constructed relationally, between many locations, texts, and times.”
For and by queer Arab women
Between Banat is equally about undoing the archives of the past as it is about creating a new queer Arab archive. One that centers on literature, arts, film, and activism by and for trans and cis Arab women, femmes, and those Arabs who identify with femininity.
Searching for these vibrant communities pre-pandemic would have taken multiple trips to several countries, scouring state and local archives, and finding the hidden and active network of queer Arab communities. A global pandemic meant shifting gears. Shomali took to digital sleuthing in English and Arabic. Posting questions, following helpers, and clicking through online bootleg archives in Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine.
“Bareed Mista3ji” by Meem.
One find includes three biographical essay collections: “Haqi: An A’ish, An Akhtar, An Akoon” (My Right: To Live, To Choose, To Be) and “Waqfet Banat” (Women’s Stand) by Astwa in Palestine, and “Bareed Mista3ji” (Priority Mail) by Meem in Lebanon. Through anonymous and first-name authorship, banat write about their experiences, identities, and communities and publish their work via queer feminist organizations that advocate for LGBTI+ communities like Astwa and Meem.
In her search, Shomali also found three novels: Elham Mansour’s Ana Hiya Inti (I Am You), Seba al-Herz’s Al Akharuun (The Others), and Samar Yazbek’s Ra’ihat il Kirfathree (The Scent of Cinnamon). Once more written by, for, and about queer Arab women. These rich narratives take place in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria respectively, giving readers a complex, close, and varied experience of same-sex desires and practices within Arab communities, families, spaces, and politics.
“It often comes as a surprise to Western and some Arab audiences that the majority of works about same-sex desires and practices between Arab women are not, as Orientalism would have us believe, originating in the West or in English,” says Shomali, who was named the 2017 Outstanding Faculty Ally at the Lavender Celebration, UMBC’s yearly event honoring LGBTQIA+ students, faculty, and staff. “They are works by Arab authors and artists, produced in Arabic, in Arab nations.”
A free and joyful queer future
In addition to texts, Shomali connected with filmmakers, artists, and designers currently advancing perceptions and practices of gender, sexuality, and liberation from oppressive systems within Arab culture creating a joyful and thriving present and future in film, fashion, and illustration.
Maysaloun Hamoud’s 2016 narrative film Bar Bahar (In Between) tells the friendship of three Palestinian roommates living in occupied Palestine working through issues of cultural expectations, identity, desire, and freedom. Nöl Collective is a clothing production company and intersectional feminist and political fashion collective based in Ramallah, Palestine. It works with Palestinian women artisans to create clothes based on traditional methods as a platform to bring awareness to political, environmental, and intersectionality issues as shared on their website.
“
The political reality for Palestinians is shaped by the military occupation which touches and shapes every element of our lives, including creativity. Isolated from one another geographically most of the artisans we are working with have never met and even need to work together digitally to bring garments to life, representing a creative endeavor which has u003ca href=u0022http://The political reality for Palestinians is shaped by the military occupation which touches and shapes every element of our lives, including creativity. Isolated from one another geographically most of the artisans we are working with have never met and even need to work together digitally to bring garments to life, representing a creative endeavor which has triumphed over imposed borders.u0022u003etriumphed over imposed bordersu003c/au003e.
Nöl Collective
Detroit’s own Maamoul Press is a small multidisciplinary art collective that supports the production and circulation of creative works in the genres of comics, printmaking, and book arts in the Arab diaspora.
“Ultimately, Bar Bahar, Nöl Collective, and Maamoul Press are geared toward a queer Arab future whose ethnic, sexual, and gender politics point toward collective liberation rather than community gatekeeping and social erasure,” says Shomali. “They do so by centering diverse voices, substantiating a future in which queer Arabs not only exist and experience pleasure, but whose existence, pleasures, and activists are essential to a sexually free future.”
“
By positioning the work of diaspora artists alongside the work of artists living in our home countries, we seek to u003ca href=u0022https://maamoulpress.com/Aboutu0022u003ebreak down barriers that fragment our communitiesu003c/au003e.
Maamoul Press
Shomali chose the word banat because it is void of the western, Orientalist, and hetero-patriarchal gaze that has defined queer Arab women into three stereotypes of Arab women’s religion, sexuality, and political beliefs. Between Banat is about all the spaces in between queer Arab women’s loving and living. Their past and future, visibility and invisibility, heterosexuality and queerness, empires and colonies, western and Arab.
“When I felt like it was impossible to write this book, I thought about my Palestinian ancestors and how I was bringing to bear a future we couldn’t have imagined,” says Shomali. “I believe in our joy and I believe our freedom is coming. I am grateful to them for teaching me that I am not alone.”
This year, the U.S. Fulbright Student Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program, has awarded nine UMBC students and alumni top research and teaching placements in countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and North Macedonia.
Each year, more than 10,000 students apply with just over 2,000 selected from hundreds of colleges and universities across the U.S. In the last decade, UMBC students and alumni have received more than 85 Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards for research and teaching placements in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, South America, and Europe. UMBC was named a Fulbright Top Producing Institution in 2019 – 2020.
This year’s class includes research award recipient Paul Ocone ’22, individualized study, who will be conducting research at Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies in Japan. Fulbright research awards provide funding for research and training efforts overseas with a focus on non-Western foreign languages and area studies. Additionally, there are eight UMBC recipients of the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) award. ETA’s develop their own language skills and knowledge of their host country while working with student in elementary through college to strengthen their English-language abilities and knowledge of the U.S.
Three alumni will be headed to Taiwan to further their passion for global languages and communities: Nailah-Benā Chambers ’23, global studies, Kara Gavin ’20, English, and Milan Richardson ’23, bioinformatics.
Kara Gavin, Nailah-Benā Chambers, and Milan Richardson. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
Gavin brings experience as a Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESOL) volunteer which she completed during her study abroad program at the University of Brighton in the U.K. Chambers began learning how to move between different languages early in life as a student in a Chinese-language skills course. She later became a tutor, a skill she continued at UMBC’s English Language Institute (ELI). Teaching Baltimore City Public Schools’ diverse student population inspired Richardson to apply to the Fulbright program, where she will continue working with students from all backgrounds.
David Bullman ’22, ancient studies, served in the U.S. Army as a musician and public diplomat. He will be returning to North Macedonia, one of the countries he previously served in.
David Bullman. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
In addition to teaching English, Leah Michaels, M.F.A ’19, intermedia and digital arts, will be conducting research for two films and teaching film workshops for the community in Piła, Poland.
Leah Michaels in Cape May shooting the horseshoe crab mating period for a film she’s working on. (Image courtesy of Leah Michaels)
Tiffany Powell ’23, TESOL, spent three years teaching English in Seoul, Korea and will continue teaching in Romania after she graduates in December.
Tiffany Powell in Seoul wearing a hanbok, South Korean traditional clothing. (Image courtesy of Tiffany Powell)
Sianna Serio ’23, computer science, who studied abroad in France, Spain, and the U.K., will head to the Slovak Republic to teach high school students.
Sianna Serio, kneeling on right, in Bristol, U.K. (Image courtesy of Sianna Serios)
As a former marketing assistant at the ELI, Tasneem Mansour ’20, modern languages, linguistics and intercultural communication, supported visiting students from Peru, Nagoya and Tokyo, Japan. Mansour will head to South Korea.
Tasneem Mansour, third from the left, with students from Nippon Sport-Science University in Tokyo, Japan. (Image courtesy of Tasneem Mansour)
UMBC’s global outlook
UMBC’s commitment to international collaboration and research begins at the Center for Global Engagement, which connects students and faculty from the U.S. with students and distinguished faculty from more than 100 countries with unique international academic opportunities. Together, they further the research and skills needed to address long-standing and new global challenges.
Brian Souders, M.A.’19, TESOL and Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy and culture, the associate director of global learning of the Center for Global Engagement, has led students through the Fulbright application process, as UMBC’s Fulbright Program advisor, for the last decade. “Our students are high achievers, the application process is a place for them to share their story,” says Souders. “Faculty and staff are there to ensure each student’s application reflects their years of hard work and the skills they have developed to collaborate with partners across the world.”
With the vast network of Fulbright alumni at UMBC and across the U.S., it’s always helpful to get tips on how to conduct research in a new country and in a new language. Fulbright recipient Ocone, a long time fan of all things anime, began developing his ethnographic research skills with the support of Bambi Chapin, associate professor of anthropology. Chapin, a 1999 – 2000 Fulbright recipient, taught Ocone the theoretical and practical aspects of ethnographic research which he will now use to research the politics of inclusion and exclusion in otaku (anime/manga fan) spaces.
Chapin, along with Julie Christ Oakes, the assistant director of curriculum and retention of the Honors College and a 2001 – 2002 Fulbright research award recipient to Japan, also workshopped Ocone’s research proposal and Fulbright application. Oakes also shared her insights on the Fulbright experience.
“I went to Japan to do research for my dissertation research,” says Oakes. “I have a good idea of what [Ocone] will face as a relative “newbie” abroad and a non-native Japanese speaker and reader.”
The Fulbright experience is also about nurturing relationships with faculty abroad. Ocone said he feels honored for the opportunity to further his research with Kaichiro Morikawa, an associate professor at Meiji University and author of one of the foundational books on otaku spaces. Morikawa will help Ocone navigate the various resources on otaku culture. He wrote in Ocone’s recommendation letter that his “research is highly original as well as effectively focused,” and says he looks forward to supporting Ocone during his time at the university and in Japan.
Paul Ocone. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
“I am immensely grateful to all of my mentors for guiding me on my journey through my undergraduate degree—from my earliest fuzzy and broad ideas of what I wanted to do, to the more specific research plans, and to the rewarding thesis that eventually emerged,” says Ocone. “I’ll be continuing research on topics that I care deeply about, research that I will likely build upon in graduate school and beyond.”
Fulbright support network
The road to being a Fulbright recipient begins day one students’ UMBC experience as they explore majors, create a network of mentors, and hone their research skills. At the end of their junior year, students develop their initial application at the Fulbright Base Camp led by Souders, who is a 2023 – 2024 Fulbright International Education Administrator award recipient. “The camp helps elevate and support students to reach their Fulbright goals,” says Souders. “Students share drafts of their essays with me for feedback prior to the campus deadline, the first day of the fall semester. They participate in a campus evaluation process with UMBC faculty and staff to receive feedback on their applications.”
“The panel gives students advice about how to craft a project, like how to take it apart and re-put it back together, what we see as strengths,” says Chapin. “We support them and encourage them as they go through that really difficult intellectual work, emotional work of figuring out how to make their strong projects even stronger.”
On a warm and bright sunny day in April when the trees in Baltimore City’s Patterson Park are changing from bright green buds to full leaf and the birds are competing with the car horns, Viridiana Colosio-Martinez ’22, modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, and M.A. ’24, intercultural communication, waits in front of the Creative Alliance, a community and performance space a few blocks away from the park. After three years of undergraduate and graduate classes with her professor Tania Lizarazo, Colosio-Martinez is finally meeting her in person.
“I’m nervous and excited,” she says, waving to Lizarazo, associate professor of modern languages, linguistics and intercultural communication and global studies, as Lizarazo crosses the street to meet her and collaborator Yesenia Mejia, director of Creative Immigrant Educators of Latin American Origin (CIELO) and the Artesanas Latin American cultural enrichment program coordinator at the Creative Alliance.
“I can’t believe it’s the first time I’m seeing them outside of Webex,” says Colosio-Martinez.
There was a lot of hugging—the kind of hugging that is reserved for a friend you haven’t seen in years. Together, the group is gathering to review digital storytelling projects they’ve been working on virtually for the past year. They will present the story at the International Digital Storytelling Conference in Baltimore this summer.
Led by Lizarazo and in collaboration with local Latin American communities, they are collecting and sharing a range of unrecognized immigrant journeys.
“Lived experience is knowledge and should be part of knowledge production. A lot of our students are immigrants or their parents are immigrants and seeing experiences of migration beyond academic writing motivates them to explore their own personal and family stories,” says Lizarazo.
Tania Lizarazo, Viridiana Colosio-Martinez ’22, M.A. ’24, and Yesenia Mejia have been working together to tell the immigration stories of Baltimore’s Latin American communities.
Making teaching and research accessible
When Lizarazo moved from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) to teach at UMBC in 2015, she felt an urgent need to create community. It had been easy to find a Latinx community in Davis but less so in Maryland.
“I arrived in Baltimore and suddenly I’m walking into places where I’m the only Latina. I don’t think that it’s healthy for anyone,” says Lizarazo. She began volunteering at the Creative Alliance, where she met Mejia and started Latinas in Baltimore.
During the pandemic, Lizarazo, who is chronically ill and immunocompromised, has found that virtual classes and tools allow her to continue teaching and engaging in research with the community. In fact, the pandemic made accessibility that had previously been considered impossible the norm.
Mejia shares pieces of her family history, including a cotton huipil (tunic) hand embroidered with red and orange nahuales, and a family picture with her mother wearing it.
“We were so close to reimagining what community care could look like in 2020. We should not leave anyone behind or require people to choose between showing up or protecting themselves, their families, and their communities,” says Lizarazo.
“I am also committed to showing that we don’t have to choose between presence and safety. We can imagine collaborations that do not require additional exposures during an ongoing pandemic. We can acknowledge that we have different access to resources, such as healthcare, and that we value interdependence and community care. Not only do I want to collaborate in producing knowledge, but I want to be mindful of the context of these collaborations and not pick and choose what justice is when marginalized people keep being the most affected by the pandemic.”
Together with the Baltimore Field School, a part of UMBC’s overarching public humanities programming, and her partner researchers, Lizarazo has spent numerous hours building the relationships needed to help community members tell their stories.
“In the same way, community members rarely feel included in academia in different ways than research subjects. Creating opportunities for dialogues opens up opportunities to imagine new interactions and collaborations where not only the researcher’s knowledge is valued. Researchers would not be able to do anything without relationships and collaborations with students and community members.”
Slow research
The researchers sit around a table and listen to Mejia describe photos of her family back in Santa María Zacatepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, during the 1990s. A faded photo shows her and her sister riding horses at a ranch. She picks up a picture of her father and pauses. “I didn’t get to see him.” Mejia has not been able to return to Mexico for almost 20 years, during which her father died. Colosio-Martinez and Lizarazo nod, understanding the pain and joy in between Baltimore and Oaxaca.
Mejia, a Baltimore Field School fellow, is working on a digital story, a story map, and website for her project on Representations of Indigenous Traditions from Latin America in Baltimore. She unfolds a calf-length, white cotton huipil (tunic) hand embroidered with red and orange nahuales and proudly shows a family picture with her mom wearing the same huipil.
“My mom always wears her huipil,” says Mejia. “Nahuales are spirit animals that are assigned to a baby according to the day they were born.” This spurs a lot of questions about the nahuales while she shows another hand-embroidered item, a bag with nahuales made by a fellow Indigenous Tacuate artist from Zacatepec.
This community-centered approach to research where students and community members are the knowledge creators is a key approach to Lizarazo’s community-engaged research on Latin American studies, transnational feminism using collaborative methods. It’s a shift away from the colonial-minded ethnography methods created by academics in the global north to research communities in the global south.
“We need to recognize that trust-building is a slow process,” says Lizarazo. “It’s based on reciprocity and it’s essential to meaningful communication and collaboration with communities.”
“Academia has historically excluded marginalized groups while extracting their knowledge. This extraction translates into personal gain for researchers but rarely benefits the communities that have been researched. As universities are not always reflections of the local communities where they are located, I have always been interested in learning from community members,” says Lizarazo. “I enjoy creating, collaborating on, and supporting projects that would not have an exclusively academic audience and won’t exist (only) behind paywalls. This is particularly important in public universities.”
Lizarazo calls this “slow research.” She had been practicing it in her home country of Colombia and at UC Davis as a doctoral student.
“Tania was an early proponent of experimenting with digital storytelling as a research method. She was uncomfortable with academic ‘interventions’ into communities. Tania liked the idea of putting digital communication tools in the hands of vulnerable groups, like migrants, who might not otherwise have access to share their experiences with the public,” shares Lizarazo’s mentor, Robert Irwin, director of the UC Davis Global Migration Center.
“She was an advocate for listening to and learning from migrants. Hers was an important voice in the research group that designed our first strategies for deploying this methodology.”
At left: Lizarazo (center) meets with community journalist Lucely Rivas (left) and Gender Commissioner Julia Susana Mena Becerra at the Atrato River. At right: Working with partners on the Mujeres Pacíficas project at the Gender Commission’s office in downtown Quibdó in 2013. Pictured (l-r): Rubiela Cuesta Córdoba, María del Socorro Mosquera Pérez, Yenny Palacios Romaña, Carmen Aides Navia Mena, Banessa Rivas López (in blue), Luz Adonis Mena Becerra and Ana Rosa Heredia Cuesta. Photos courtesy of Lizarazo.
Listening and learning
“Mujeres Pacíficas” was Lizarazo’s first digital storytelling project in collaboration with Afro-Colombian women activists in the department of Chocó, in Western Colombia. They were also advocates for land rights and women’s rights. She met the group in 2008. “Women were doing the work alongside men for years, but their work had gone unrecognized,” says Lizarazo.
One of the first shared stories, recorded after five years of community building, was created in collaboration with Luz Adonis Mena Becerra. She was a member of the Main Community Council of the Integral Peasant Association of the Atrato River. It is a Black farmers’ association in the Colombian Pacific, where Black communities were officially granted territorial rights in 1993.
“In the process of creating Luz Adonis’s story, I found out she had faced forced displacement and had lost everything she owned in a fire years later,” says Lizarazo. “Despite this, she reconstructed her memories through community photographs for her story.”
The project inspired Lizarazo’s forthcoming book from the University of Illinois Press, Postconflict Utopias: Performing Everyday Survival in the Colombian Pacific, a part of the “Dissident Feminisms” series. “The willingness to imagine these stories before they had audiences, and in spite of the absence of personal archives, is utopian,” says Lizarazo. “Not because these stories are ideal or unrealistic but because they invite the audience to imagine what seems impossible: the end of decades of violent conflict into a material reality.”
Student-teacher and the teacher-student
Parting with colonial-minded immigration research means developing new frameworks that humanize data. It requires a shift in the process of gathering and disseminating information from one person to a community with a diverse and evolving set of skills and expertise.
“Equipping immigrants with the tools and methods to co-create personal stories can help us understand migration as a hemispheric experience. It can help us understand the context of globalization, colonialism, neoliberalism, genocide, and marginalization, especially in Black and Indigenous communities in Latin America,” says Lizarazo.
These voices highlight the multitude of paths immigrants take that are equally stories of joy, success, family, and community love as they are stories of survival, sacrifice, separation, and pain. There isn’t one Central American experience, Mexican American life, or Latin American journey. Before immigrants became people of color, Latinos, or minorities, they were Aymara, Taino, Mayan, Colombian, Mexican.
“It’s important to critically study the connections between local and global contexts of production and consumption of these stories,” says Lizarazo.
“It’s a more horizontal teaching-learning experience, where students, community members, and instructors are teaching and learning. The world is messy; when we listen to each other, we can do things that we didn’t know were possible before.”
Colosio-Martinez shares photos and stories of her family’s journey with Mejia and Lizarazo.
One penny
After Mejia places her photos and huipil on the table, Colosio-Martinez, research assistant for the Moving Stories: Latinas In Baltimore digital storytelling project led by Lizarazo, takes a deep breath. She preempts the debut of her digital story draft by apologizing for the tears to come. A clip of a map shows a blue line tracing the miles of her life from Caborca, Sonora, Mexico, three hours from Phoenix, Arizona, to New Haven, Connecticut, to Baltimore.
A small picture of a penny appears on the screen.
“I’ll never forget when me and my mom tried to register for community college,” she begins, “but we were short one penny.” With each description, the penny gets bigger. “The registrar said she didn’t have a penny and shut the window in our faces.” The penny fills the screen. “My mom and I went outside and searched the floor until we found a penny.”
The pursuit of education is the connecting thread throughout the narrative. A photo of Colosio-Martinez wearing her cap and gown and celebrating with her husband after earning her associate’s degree is followed later by a screenshot of an email welcoming her to UMBC.
Colosio-Martinez covered her eyes to hide her tears. Lizarazo hugged her. Mejia touched her shoulder. They suggest she not cut her story.
Avi Newman, who is graduating from UMBC this spring, knows all too well about learning to navigate unexpected detours beyond his control. Managing the compounding effects of COVID-19, meant letting go of his original college plan and embracing much-needed time for self-care and reflection. It also meant asking for and accepting help from a network of faculty who were ready to listen, offer guidance and encouragement, and help him pursue his interests in new ways.
Avi Newman. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
Newman originally envisioned himself walking a straight line from College Signing Day to Commencement. Instead, he found that a zig-zagging seven-year path took him where he needed to go, and that his success was a collaborative process. One of his greatest sources of support was Songon An, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
“Avi came to my lab with great potential to become a biochemist. However, the COVID pandemic changed everything about his course of life,” says An. “I remember telling him that it’s OK to pause his undergraduate life and take advantage of such time to try out many different things, beyond academics, that he may find himself enjoying and feel rewarding.”
Newman began taking courses in a broader range of fields and is graduating with majors in biochemistry and molecular biology, biological sciences, and philosophy, plus minors. He has worked as a tutor, volunteered with a public health organization, and practices meditation to keep himself grounded. Accessing support gave Newman the confidence to rethink his assumptions about who he is now and who he wants to be.
Avi (at right) with friends at the UMBC Chapter of the American Chemical Society Saccharide Social. (Image courtesy of Newman.)
“I think initially it was hard to come to terms with not graduating ‘on time,’ but after a while I realized that there’s no rush to life and that it was better for me to take my time and learn as much as I could,” says Newman. “I wanted to enjoy my time and take care of my mental, emotional, and physical health, which ultimately is much more important than rushing through things being excessively stressed.”
Maneuvering daily challenges
Like Newman, Jennifer Boateng will soon cross the stage to accept her degree seven years after she enrolled at UMBC. Throughout her journey, she has kept a clear goal in mind: finding the best way to use her creative talent to support people who, like her, live with sickle cell disease, and similar challenges.
Boateng found a perfect match in global studies, with a focus on creating multimedia content for humanitarian groups with a global audience. Pursuing this dream has meant adeptly maneuvering the complexity of living with sickle cell disease. Boateng completed research, taught herself her Final Cut Pro, wrote papers and lab reports, and attended classes both in person and at the hospital, virtually, as she received necessary care.
Jennifer Boateng. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
Boateng credits her positive and successful college experience to the long-term support of her friends and family as well as kindness and flexibility from UMBC faculty, staff, and peers. Her mentor Brigid Starkey, principal lecturer of political science and director of global studies, notes that the program worked closely with Boateng, especially over the last year, to strategize on how to finish her degree.
“We worked on course selection and navigating academic appeals processes, and her disability rights,” says Starkey.
With the moment she will turn her tassel in sight, Boateng and her mentors are looking toward what’s ahead. “Lately, my mentorship has involved talking to her about the future and where she may want to focus her efforts in the job market,” says Starkey. Boateng’s mentor is leveraging the department’s alumni network to connect her with career possibilities that will help her fulfill her vision.
Community support leads to success
Finding success through community support is familiar to many UMBC graduates. UMBC was the second university Victoria Joya Euceda attended, searching for a mentor who understood her story as a first-generation college student whose parents immigrated from Central America. At UMBC, she connected with Yolanda Valencia, assistant professor of geography and environmental studies, and other supporters. Now, Joya Euceda ’23, geography and environmental systems, is heading to a Ph.D. in geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Victoria Joya Euceda ’23, geography and environmental studies. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
Beatriz Soriano Luna’23, social work, transferred from Montgomery College to UMBC at the Universities at Shady Grove, where she became an integral member of a close-knit community. Valuing the mentorship of M. Nicole Belfiore, clinical instructor of social work, Soriano Luna herself mentored more than two dozen students as a peer advisor. She’ll next pursue a master’s degree through the University of Maryland School of Social Work.
Beatriz Soriano Luna (right) with (left to right): Dominique Culley ’23, social work; Angelo McClain, former chief executive officer of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW); and Betsy Vourlekis, professor emeritus of social work and chair of the NASW Social Work Pioneer Committee. (Image courtesy of Soriano Luna.)
This May, on College Signing Day (which celebrates students’ college decisions), Joel DeWyer, director of campus life operations, welcomed UMBC’s next incoming class in a video on Twitter, reminding them of the excitement that lies ahead and the support they can access along the way.
“College can be a nerve-wracking and anxious experience, right? So when you have a question, or when you are feeling uncertain, when you are feeling overwhelmed, do me one favor,” said DeWyer. “Find someone around you in your community and ask for help.”
He shared a message that Newman, Boateng, Joya Euceda, and Soriano Luna have worked to pass along to others: that support can be found everywhere at UMBC. “There’s people all around you who care about your success and we are here to help you,” said DeWyer. “So never, ever, be afraid to ask for help.”
Degree: B.A., Global Studies Hometown: Bowie, MD Post-grad plans: Multimedia content creation for a global humanitarian organization
Jennifer Boateng is ready to take on the world, with a supportive community cheering her on. Boateng joined UMBC with a love for the creative process and interest in designing solutions for people who were also living with sickle cell disease. Later, she was drawn to global studies to explore other approaches to having a global impact through creative work.
Boateng decided to pursue a global studies major with minors in entrepreneurship and visual arts (focusing on cinematic arts), combining methods from a broad range of fields. These approaches also introduced her to the concepts of cultural sustainability and comparative justice, preparing her to find new solutions to both old and new problems and reach a wide and diverse audience.
During a seven-year journey to graduation, Boateng developed an awareness of the importance of investing time in relationships and listening as a crucial skill in creating content that is relevant to the intended audience. She could often be found having deep conversations with faculty, peers, and staff. She strongly believes in the power of human connection and encouragement, celebrating others’ successes, lending a friendly ear during challenging times, and drawing from helpful support and guidance when needed.
Boateng shares that the kindness of this community made it possible to manage the complex challenge of balancing college life and longer-term goals while dealing with sickle cell disease, even when taking classes in the hospital. She feels that it has taken a village for her to complete her undergraduate journey and she is grateful for all the faculty and staff at UMBC and her family and friends, who she says went above and beyond to make it happen. She wants anyone who is facing adversity to know that with the right support, they can graduate, no matter how long it takes or what challenges they encounter
Jennifer Boateng and Brigid Starkey. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
Has there been a mentor or fellow student who influenced your time at UMBC?
“Brigid Starkey, principal lecturer of political science and director of the global studies program, has been my biggest cheerleader. Right from the very beginning, she was determined to help me and shared valuable insights about my courses that shaped my path in an incredible way. She helped me not to give up, even though it took me seven years to get to the finish line.”
What has been the best part of your UMBC experience?
“I have appreciated the small classes. I thought I would only have large lecture classes and wouldn’t have an opportunity to connect, not only with the professor, but with the other students in the classroom. We were encouraged to share our different perspectives on things that were happening around us, like racial issues, police brutality, and politics.”
The Inclusion Imperative is a six-year initiative funded with a $750,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. Run by the Dresher Center, the Inclusion Imperative promotes diversity and inclusion in the humanities in partnership with Bowie State University, Coppin State University, and Howard University. The initiative has supported cutting-edge humanities-centered inclusive practices and community collaborations in the Mid-Atlantic, with the goal of creating a national ripple effect.
From left to right: Lindsay DiCuirci, associate professor of English, director of the English Honors program at UMBC, and the director of the HT Labs; former Faculty Visiting Fellow Elizabeth Groeneveld, associate professor and chair of women’s and gender studies at Old Dominion University; former Faculty Visiting Fellow Tracy Perkins, assistant professor in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University; and Jessica Berman, director of the Dresher Center and professor of English; gender, women’s, and sexuality studies; and language, literacy, and culture. Both Groeneveld and Perkins have since completed and published the projects they worked on during their fellowships. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
The Visiting Faculty Fellows Program has welcomed 14 full-time faculty from area universities to join UMBC for a semester or year as residential research fellows. The Diversity Teaching Network has brought together visiting fellows, UMBC faculty, and other interested scholars to work on curricular and civic-engagement projects. Through HTLabs, faculty, staff, and students have practiced innovative humanities-centered approaches to teaching and learning, from decolonizing assessments to teaching with the Smithsonian Learning Lab.
At the convening this spring, faculty and staff from institutions across the Mid-Atlantic gathered to share their approaches to community-engaged humanities research, teaching, and learning focused on race, equity, inclusion, and social justice issues.
Jill Vasbinder, adjunct instructor of dance at UMBC, at left, discusses humanities music and dance topics with Scott Muir, director of undergraduate initiatives at the National Humanities Alliance. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
Building teaching and learning communities
Colleagues from University of Lynchburg, Community College of Baltimore County, Lehigh University, DewMore Baltimore, and Bard High School Early College-Baltimore presented on topics such as public humanities curriculum development, LGBTQ+ histories and resources, and poetry by local students.
UMBC faculty also shared several high-impact projects.Sarah Fouts, assistant professor of American studies and assistant director of the public humanities minor, spoke about her ongoing work with the Baltimore Field School 2.0. Earl Brooks, assistant professor of English, reported on his course Sounds Like Social Justice, redesigned through support from an Inclusion Imperative/HT Labs Course Transformation Grant.
Earl Brooks speaking with Steven Park, faculty director of Community-Engaged Learning and Scholarship and assistant professor of English at Loyola University Maryland (on Brooks’s right); Tanya Saunders, associate professor of language, literacy, and culture at UMBC (middle); and Michael Casiano, assistant professor of American studies at UMBC (directly across from Brooks). (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
The funds provided recording equipment for students to work in collaboration with the Meadow Community Fellowship Church in Catonsville’s Beechfield and Irvington communities to document their experiences during and after the 2016 and 2018 floods in the “Underwater/Underserved” podcast (as shared in The Baltimore Banner). “What most people don’t know is that all that water flows downhill into the Irvington and Beechfield community, which is a little more than a mile from UMBC,” explains Brooks. The class created “Underwater/Underserved” podcast about flooding in the Irvington and Beechfield neighborhoods in Baltimore, MD.
The grant included funding for students to work on interview skills with Rona Kobell, science editor and writer with Maryland Sea Grant. Brooks explains, “I wanted my students to tell a story about the ways that the church community was underserved as a way of thinking about the role of sound in storytelling.”
Disability justice
Also at the event, faculty from La Salle University, University of Delaware, and Bowie State University shared insights into how diversity, equity, inclusion, and accommodation (DEIA) have become central to their humanities practice. To emphasize the role of accessibility and accommodation, leaders of two UMBC faculty working groups presented their ongoing work related to disability justice.
Dresher Center Disability Studies faculty working group leaders Drew Holladay, assistant professor of English, and Sharon Tran, assistant professor of English, discussed the disability justice movement and the pitfalls of ableist institutional policies that limit student and faculty engagement and success.
UMBC faculty Sharon Tran, Elizabeth Patton, Lindsay DiCuirci, Sarah Fouts, and Drew Holladay gather at at the Inclusion and Public Humanities convening, at the table closest to the podium. (Marlayna Demond ’11 /UMBC)
Disability justice does not equal accessibility, especially in the way that it is institutionally defined, and it does not equal DEIA, Holladay suggested. The way he prefers to approach disability justice is to center his research and classroom practice as examples of disability justice, not as a topic that is part of the curriculum.
Tran explained strategies to implement disability justice in the classroom. “We need to think of how we can [adjust] the normative clock in the classroom to better accommodate disabled students rather than forcing those students to meet those temporal pressures,” she said.
Members of the Anti-Racism and Our Actions faculty and staff working group, Michael Hunt, director of UMBC’s McNair Scholars Program, and Amy Tondreau, assistant professor of education, talked about their work to demystify, destigmatize, and magnify anti-racist practices in the academy and in K-12 education.
Michael Hunt (center) with colleagues from UMBC and partnering institutions. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
Leading a national conversation
Although the Inclusion Imperative’s formal programming will come to a close this summer, the work itself will continue in several ways. Many of the program’s participants will gather again in June for the 11th International Digital Storytelling Conference, hosted by UMBC in partnership with Montgomery College and the Smithsonian Institution.
“I firmly believe that the humanities offer us crucial tools for addressing pressing issues of civic life,” says Berman who presented this work in partnership with the NHA at the 2023 NHA annual meeting. “Now more than ever, we need the tools of the humanities to advance local and national conversations about our history, our identities, and our common future.”
Degrees: B.S., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; B.S., Biological Sciences; B.A., Philosophy Hometown: Derwood, MD Post-grad plans: Graduate school
Embracing all of the academic and social opportunities UMBC has to offer has been Avi Newman‘s approach to undergraduate life. He was originally scheduled to graduate sooner, but when complications from COVID extended his time at UMBC, he decide to take that as a chance to expand his learning, completing majors in biochemistry and molecular biology, biological sciences, and philosophy, plus minors.
He has pursued challenging research projects with chemistry faculty, supported peers as a chemistry and biological sciences teaching assistant, and held almost every leadership position in the UMBC Chemistry and Biochemistry Council of Majors. Appreciating the value of support, he has also served as a peer tutor with the Math and Science Tutoring Center and the Academic Success Center, sharing that he particularly enjoys helping fellow students learn and gain an appreciation for science.
Beyond academics, Newman has found meditation as a strategy to keep his mind and life grounded. He appreciates the art of teaching his brain to focus, to be mindful and cognizant of what is going on around him. Newman sees meditation and philosophy as having a reciprocal relationship, where both teach about having a broader outlook on life, to remain humble, and to remain open to different possibilities.
Newman has also volunteered with groups like UMBC’s chapter of Global Brigades, which enables students to provide public health support to communities worldwide.
Avi Newman with Global Brigades partners. (Photo courtesy of Newman)
Is there a particular academic achievement you’re most proud of?
“Introduction to moral theory was the first philosophy course I took at UMBC. It gave me such a different world view and outlook about how people think about their goals and their frame of mind. I began with a few classes then decided to do a certificate, then a minor, and finally decided to make it one of my majors. I loved philosophy of science with Jessica Pfeifer, associate professor of philosophy, so much that it became my focus area, along with philosophy of logic and probability. What guides me in philosophy, in science, and in life in general is that I’m a person who is always asking questions.”
Has there been a mentor or student who influenced your time at UMBC?
“There have been many, including my research advisor Songon An, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. He has been very influential on my growth as a scientist by giving me a ton of opportunities to explore different areas of research and work in his lab to help prepare me for graduate school. He has also helped me learn how to focus my energy and has been very supportive helping me work through personal hurdles.
Allison Tracy, senior lecturer in chemistry and biochemistry; Sarah Leupen, principal lecturer in biological sciences; and Daniel Jenkins, philosophy instructor, have helped me through some very rough times and given me the inspiration of how I want to be as a professor and a teacher for students of all different backgrounds, different knowledge levels, and abilities. Elizabeth Stanwyck, principal lecturer of mathematics and statistics, helped me connect a wide variety of statistic material.
Whitney Schwab,associate professor of philosophy, made ancient Greek and Latin come alive; and Blake Francis, assistant professor of philosophy, taught macabre topics like climate change ethics and ethics concerning rights of the dead in a sensitive and engaging manner. All of these faculty are so knowledgeable, kind, and passionate about teaching and helped shape my understanding of the world around me.”
Newman with friends at UMBC’s Hispanic Latino Student Union formal event. (Photo courtesy of Newman)
Degree: B.S., Social Work Hometown: Montgomery County, MD Post-grad plans: M.S.W., University of Maryland School of Social Work
A Universities of Shady Grove (USG) Kendall Scholar, Beatriz Soriano Luna has worked to develop the knowledge, skills, and network needed to serve as a successful clinical social worker and a leader in her field.
Soriano Luna came to UMBC ready to pursue a career in service after earning her associate’s degree at Montgomery College in American Sign Language. She found clinical social work the ideal path to meet her interests in child and family psychology and human rights. During her senior year, Soriano Luna earned a highly competitive internship for senior social work students at the Title IV-E Education for Public Child Welfare Program, a partnership the Maryland Department of Human Resources that prepares social work students for public child welfare practice. She will continue the internship as a graduate student.
While making the dean’s list every semester, working as a caretaker, and completing a field placement with the Prince George’s County Family Preservation Unit, Soriano Luna also supported fellow students. She mentored more than two dozen current students as a member of the UMBC at USG’s Peer Advisory Team. She has also helped organize and facilitate events to connect incoming students with resources offered at USG.
In the summer of 2022, she led the Social Work in Action summer program in collaboration with Katie Morris, Ph.D. ’21, language, literacy, and culture, and director of the social work undergraduate program at USG. She also volunteered in UMBC’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program which offers free tax return preparation assistance to low income households.
Beatriz Soriano Luna at the USG student fair petting zoo. (Image courtesy of Soriano Luna)
Has there been a mentor or fellow student who influenced your time at UMBC?
“M. Nicole Belfiore, clinical instructor of social work, has been an amazing Kendall Scholar mentor and teacher. I had to write a lot of research papers and Dr. Belfiore gave me a lot of feedback to improve my writing for a professional audience. Now I get a lot of compliments about my writing. She was also my research and policy instructor and introduced me to legislative action. I had no idea that social workers could have such an important role in influencing national policy. This realization was really crucial for me because there are a lot of legislative changes that I would like to see, particularly to protect children and adolescents.”
What has been the best part of your UMBC experience?
“The best part of my UMBC experience has been the social aspect of being a student. Since the minute I started, I’ve noticed that USG students are close knit. Everyone is friendly and knows each other. I really do appreciate that. I think that was extremely important coming out of the pandemic and switching from being online to being in person. As a result, I have made invaluable personal and professional networks and relationships with the UMBC faculty, professors, and peers.”
Beatriz Soriano Luna in Paris with friends from the Title IV-E Education for Public Child Welfare Program. (Image courtesy of Soriano Luna)
Degree: B.A., Geography and Environmental Studies Hometown: Gaithersburg, MD Post-grad plans: Ph.D. in geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
McNair ScholarVictoria Joya Euceda feels honored to be in the first in family to earn a college degree, as well as a sense of responsibility to her family and Latinx community. Her parents, who are immigrants from Central America, never had the opportunity to prioritize academics. As she crosses the stage, she will be thinking particularly of her dad, who was deported to Central America during COVID-19.
Beyond excelling academically, Joya Euceda has participated in UMBC’s STRiVE Program and Multicultural Leadership Experience, served on the leadership of Moot Court, and completed research with faculty at UMBC, the BIG 10 Alliance, and the Ohio State University. She has also worked as a legal assistant and has volunteered with Baltimore’s Esperanza Center.
Joya Euceda has faced substantial challenges as a first-generation immigrant student, from financial challenges and housing insecurity to not feeling a sense of belonging (recently shared withThe Chronicle of Higher Education).
She believes that succeeding despite these challenges offers a reassuring example for her younger family members and others, showing that taking the leap to attend college can be a risk, but it’s worthwhile.
Joya Euceda presenting her research at the Ohio State University Summer Research Conference. (Image courtesy of Joya Euceda)
Has there been a mentor or fellow student who influenced your time at UMBC?
Joya Euceda (r) and fellow McNair Scholars at the McNair Scholars Research Conference. (Image courtesy of Joya Euceda)
“The person who has had the most direct impact on me is Yolanda Valencia, assistant professor of geography and environmental studies. I met her my first semester after I transferred to UMBC from American University. It was the first time in my entire college experience that I knew someone understood my story and all the challenges I have been through. Professor Valencia is also a McNair Scholars Program alum and was the first professor who encouraged me to apply to the program, to do research, and to keep going. My relationship with Dr. Valencia has inspired me to want to be a professor one day and inspire many other Latinx and first-generation students to complete their higher education.”
What has been the best part of your UMBC experience?
“Becoming an environmental justice intern for the White House Council on Environmental Quality was a big moment. I believe getting this internship allowed me to reflect on my full potential of what I bring to the table as a first-generation college student and Latina. It made me realize that if I set my mind to something, I should not be afraid to take risks as long as I am honest and demonstrate how passionate I am about my goal of supporting my community.”
Joya Euceda (bottom center) celebrating her last day as an Environmental Justice Intern for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. (Image courtesy of Joya Euceda)
