All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Faculty and Students Collaborate With Community on Historical Photos, Digital Stories

Photo

(Above, Bill Shewbridge and Lynn Casabon receive a proclamation from Sam Moxley, representing the county executive. Photo by Vin Grabill.)

In celebration of the new Arbutus Branch of the Baltimore County Public Library, UMBC faculty and students worked with members of the surrounding community to display historic railroad photographs and create a series of digital stories about the area through residents’ eyes.

Lynn Cazabon, associate chair and associate professor of art, worked with students to create a series of mural-sized prints from historical photographs of the railroad in the Arbutus area, which are on permanent display in the new Arbutus Branch.

Intercultural Video Communication students, led by Bill Shewbridge, director of the New Media Studio, collaborated with community residents to combine photos, images and oral history for a series of short films. In “Arbutus Stories,” residents reflect on the community, share experiences and describe their hometown.

The digital stories are available on the Baltimore County Public Library and UMBC New Media Studio websites.

Below is an overview of the project:

Below is the digital story, “38 and a Half Years”:

Christopher Corbett, English, to Speak at National Postal Museum

Professor of the Practice of English Christopher Corbett will speak at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum on Saturday, October 8, at 1 p.m.

Corbett’s talk will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Pony Express. Corbett is the author of “Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth & Lasting Legend of the Pony Express.” A book signing and opportunity to tour the “Pony Express: Romance vs. Reality” exhibit will follow.

This program is free. For more information, contact the National Postal Museum at 202-633-5533 or NPMprograms@si.edu.

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, in the New York Times

Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, was mentioned in a September 18 New York Times Sunday Book Review essay entitled “The Children’s Authors Who Broke the Rules.”

Among the authors mentioned in the essay is Shel Silverstein, who wrote “The Giving Tree.” “[‘The Giving Tree’] was embraced by Christians as a parable of selflessness and has been denounced by feminists as a patriarchal fantasy in morality-tale clothing,” writes essayist Pamela Paul. “Ellen Handler Spitz, the author of the classic study ‘Inside Picture Books,’ wrote that the story ‘perpetuates the myth of the selfless, all-giving mother who exists only to be used and the image of a male child who can offer no reciprocity, express no gratitude, feel no empathy—an insatiable creature who encounters no limits for his demands.'”

Christine Mallinson, Language, Literacy, and Culture, on Patch.com

Sports fans were urged to think carefully about the language they use to describe their teams’ victory in a story that appeared on the Savage-Guilford Patch.com site.

Christine Mallinson, assistant professor of language, literacy, and culture, commented on a number of tweets following the Ravens-Steelers matchup that used the term “rape” to describe the Ravens’ victory. The Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault brought attention to these tweets through their own Twitter page.

“The use of the word ‘rape’ in a sports metaphor may be seen as particularly disturbing because it draws a parallel between a rape, a horrifying event, and a positive athletic outcome—the successful domination of one team or athlete over another,” Mallison said.

“Tweets About Rape a Cause for Concern” appeared on the site on September 16.

Rebecca Boehling, history, and Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, biology, on Patch.com

If you missed the Humanities Forum lecture with history professor Rebecca Boehling, you can read about it on Catonsville’s Patch.com site.

“UMBC Professor Brings Holocaust Story to Life,” which appeared on the site on September 15, recaps the event and the coincidence that brought Boehling and Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, professor of biology, together.

Ostrand-Rosenberg had recently discovered boxes of holocaust-era letters in her aging mother’s closet. “One day I went into the department office, and I was in the Xerox room chatting with a colleague, and she said, ‘You should talk with Rebecca Boehling,” Ostrand-Rosenberg said.

Boehling and her co-author, Uta Larkey of Goucher College, eventually began sorting out a unique and complex correspondence that crossed continents and generations. The result is Boehling and Larkey’s new book, “Life and Loss in the Shadow of the Holocaust.”

Rebecca Adelman, Media and Communication Studies, on Patch

Catonsville personalities remembered what they were doing on and after September 11, 2001, in a Patch.com story entitled “Recalling the Days After September 11, 2001.”

Among those that remembered their reaction to the day was Rebecca Adelman, assistant professor of media and communication studies. She remembers how she was struck by how everyone was processing what they were seeing, and that interest eventually led her to study the imagery of the War on Terror.

Humanities Forum: Ilan Stavans Explores “Spanglish” (10/5)

As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Humanities Forum presents a lecture by Ilan Stavans, the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture (Spanish) at Amherst College, who will speak on “Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language,” Wednesday, October 5, 4 p.m., on the seventh floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library.

Stavans will explore the cultural and linguistic significance of this distinctly American language, comparing it to other languages of minority groups in America such as Yiddish and Black English. He will explain who speaks Spanglish, why it has so many varieties and what its existence says about the United States. He will also speculate on whether it will ever become a standard language.

Stavans has taught courses on a wide array of topics such as Spanglish, Jorge Luis Borges, modern American poetry, Latin music, Don Quixote, Gabriel García Márquez, Modernismo, popular culture in Hispanic America, world Jewish writers, the cultural history of the Spanish language, Pablo Neruda, the history of the Spanish language, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Yiddish literature, Jewish-Hispanic relations, cinema, Latin American art, and U.S.-Latino culture. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

This event is sponsored in part by the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics & Intercultural Communication and the Language, Literacy & Culture Ph.D. Program.

Robert Provine, Psychology, in the New York Times

In a story entitled “Scientists Hint at Why Laughter Feels So Good,” the New York Times reports on a study that attempts to pin down exactly why laughing until it hurts feels so good.

The study suggests that the pleasure lies in the physical act of laughing. The simple muscular exertions involved in producing the familiar “ha, ha, ha,” he said, trigger an increase in endorphins, the brain chemicals known for their feel-good effect.

Robert Provine, professor of psychology and a noted expert on laughter, said he thought the study was “a significant contribution” to a field of study that dates back 2,000 years or so.

Tyson King-Meadows, Political Science, Elected President of National Conference of Black Political Scientists

Tyson King-Meadows, associate professor of political science, was elected president of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS), effective March 17, 2011.

King-Meadows joined UMBC in 2003 as an assistant professor of political science and recently earned promotion to the rank of associate professor with tenure. He is a Faculty Fellow of UMBC’s Honors College and is an affiliate of the UMBC’s Department of Public Policy and the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR). His service to UMBC includes membership on the Shriver Center Faculty Advisory Board, on the Honors College Advisory Board, on the committee for the Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD), and on the President’s Commission for Women. He recently became co-chair of the CAHSS Black Faculty Committee as well as chair of the Honors College Advisory Board.

His research addresses legislative politics, racial representation, political parties,
elections and public opinion. He is co-author with Thomas F. Schaller, a colleague in UMBC’s Department of Political Science, of “Devolution and Black State Legislators: Challenges and Choices in the Twenty-first Century” (2006), and he is sole author of “When the Letter Betrays the Spirit: Voting Rights Enforcement and African American Participation from
Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama” (2011). He was recently nominated to appear in the “People” section of PS: Political Science and Politics, an academic journal published by the American Political Science Association (APSA).

King-Meadows has received prestigious research awards and recognition for teaching and community service. His current projects examine public attitudes about redistricting and the success of black candidates in contests for the U.S. Senate.

U.S. News Again Recognizes UMBC as Top Innovator

From President Freeman Hrabowski and Interim Provost Philip Rous

We are delighted to let you know that UMBC has again been recognized as a national leader in innovation and undergraduate teaching in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges guide.

For the third year in a row, UMBC tops the U.S. News ranking of national universities everyone should be watching—a designation recognizing that we consistently find new ways to improve students’ educational experiences.

U.S. News also ranks UMBC fourth on the list of top national universities “where the faculty has an unusual commitment to undergraduate teaching.” UMBC is tied with Yale University and ranks just ahead of Brown and Stanford universities.

Our faculty and staff lead the way nationally, finding new ways to understand and enhance student learning and to engage students in the process of discovery.

For example, the University has redesigned its foundational science, engineering, and psychology courses to promote student engagement. The changes have not only produced higher pass rates, but also have encouraged more students to prepare for careers in these fields. Model scholars programs for undergraduates in the humanities, arts, and social sciences also promote engaged learning.

The culture of innovation at UMBC is possible because of the hard work of our faculty and staff, who strongly support the success of our students, and because of our students, who inspire us every day. This national recognition also results from the support of the Governor, the Legislature, and our alumni and friends.

Thank you for all you do to support UMBC.

Donald Norris and Eric Zeemering, Public Policy, in the News

UMBC public policy faculty have offered valuable perspectives on local politics in the lead-up to the Baltimore City primary election, appearing in print media as well as on TV and radio. Most recently, Eric Zeemering, a new assistant professor of public policy, spoke about the role of Baltimore’s city council president on WYPR. He noted, “a lot of power can come to an individual through their ability to persuade and lead other people towards decisions. And the council president can exercise that persuasive power both on the City Council as a whole and on the Board of Estimates.”

Donald Norris also appeared on WYPR, discussing the always-contentious issue of redistricting on the program “Maryland Morning” with Todd Eberly, a UMBC alumnus and now assistant professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Norris also reflected for the Baltimore Sun on the final push for votes in city’s mayoral primary as well as early fundraising by Howard County Executive Ken Ulman ahead of the next statewide election.

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