Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, spent her winter break traveling to the Czech Republic, for research, and to India, where she gave the first annual alumni lecture to English Alumni Association of Ravenshaw University in Cuttack and the keynote address at the International Seminar on Children’s Literature and Politics.
Spitz shared an account of her journeys on Talking Heads, UMBC’s faculty expert blog. Her post can be read here.
A number of Baltimore County public officials use Twitter, Owings Mills Patch noted.
Rebecca Adelman, assistant professor of media and communication studies, predicts Twitter use among public officials will soon become the norm.
“I could see how that could be a real benefit for someone trying to maintain a relationship with their constituents,” she said.
The story, “Baltimore County Public Officials To Follow on Twitter,” appeared on the website on January 17.
Inside Higher Ed reported that on Tuesday, January 10, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter joined other Obama administration officials and higher education luminaries at the White House to make the case that an engaged citizenry will bolster the country’s democracy and economy. The meeting follows a report prepared by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement that makes the case for an elevated level of civic knowledge and democratic engagement among college students.
Among the attendees at the White House event was Catie Collins ’12, the UMBC student government association president. She said that such engagement “can be a great tool for students to get to know the world around them.” Collins serves as the nation’s only undergraduate student on the steering committee of the American Commonwealth Partnership (ACP), which has partnered with the U.S. Department of Education and Association of American Colleges and Universities to develop this initiative.
The story, “Call for Civic Learning,” appeared on Inside Higher Ed on January 10. Read more about Collins’ attendance at this event here.
UMBC is one of several universities working closely with the White House to launch a new effort to promote engaged citizenship. The initiative officially kicks off January 10 with “For Democracy’s Future: Education Reclaims Our Civic Mission,” an all-day event at the White House featuring U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and education leaders from across the country.
Catie Collins, UMBC Student Government Association president, serves as the nation’s only undergraduate student on the steering committee of the American Commonwealth Partnership (ACP), which has partnered with the U.S. Department of Education and Association of American Colleges and Universities to develop this initiative. She will attend the White House event, which will also stream live at www.whitehouse.gov/live (2:00-4:00 p.m. ET and 5:30-6:00 p.m., with Secretary Duncan’s remarks).
This will launch what the White House describes as “a national conversation about the importance of educating all students, from grade school to graduate school, for informed and engaged citizenship” (see press release). It also coincides with the release of two reports from the Department of Education, “A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future” and “Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy: A Road Map and Call to Action.”
UMBC has emerged as a leader in the movement to energize campus and community engagement. In a time of widespread skepticism about the capacity of our democracy to respond to society’s needs, UMBC programs and partnerships are demonstrating the power of individuals to foster meaningful change and renewal.
This work is deeply embedded in a campus culture that builds community from diversity and celebrates ingenuity and resourcefulness. Over the past decade, UMBC has developed campus and civic engagement projects that have served as national models, such as Prove It!, featured in a video at the White House event.
Prove It! is an annual, campus-wide contest that funds student-led projects to improve UMBC, such as a program to convert waste oil from campus eateries into biodiesel fuel for university vehicles. Prove It! has been a powerful way to spread our student government’s core message: all UMBC students can apply their skills and energy to addressing community challenges.
In Fall 2012, UMBC will launch BreakingGround, a campaign to connect and make more visible courses, events and activities that embrace a culture of civic agency. BreakingGround will highlight the potential of UMBC students, faculty and staff to become problem solvers, resource creators, coalition builders and agents of social transformation.
To learn more about BreakingGround and UMBC’s role in the American Commonwealth Partnership, contact Communications Manager Dinah Winnick, dwinnick@umbc.edu. Press inquiries for the event “For Democracy’s Future” should be sent to Sara Gast, Sara.Gast@ed-gov. To become involved in the national initiative, visit http://civicyouth.org/democracyu.
(1/9/12)
Constantine Vaporis, professor of history and director of the Asian studies program, has published a new book. Voices of Early Modern Japan: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life during the Age of the Shoguns is part of ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Press’s “Voices of an Era” series.
The book spans an period of Japanese history ranging from the unification of the warring states under Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early 17th century to the overthrow of the shogunate just prior to the mid-19th century opening of Japan by the West. Much of what we think of as quintessentially Japanese emerged during the time of the Tokugawa shoguns, including Kabuki theatre, sushi, sumo wrestling, woodblock prints and the tea ceremony. Vaporis’s book brings that time to life through the voices of those who experienced it, focusing on the day-to-day lives of both the rich and powerful and ordinary citizens.
Robert Deluty, associate dean of the graduate school, has published a new book of poetry, “A Scratch On The Wall.”
In his review, Ronald Pies writes: “Robert Deluty’s latest collection takes its cue from William Faulkner’s observation that the writer ‘wants to leave a scratch on [the] wall… that somebody a hundred, or a thousand years later will see.’ Indeed, whether it is the ‘renowned scientist/ requesting to be buried/ holding his reprints’ or ‘the frightened man/ wishing he could be bold/ outside his dreams,’ Deluty’s memorable poetic characters often embody the deep desire to ‘leave a scratch’ on the wall of immortality. As a writer and poet more aware of life’s brevity than most, Deluty has already left much more than a ‘scratch’ on that wall. His gemlike poems inscribe both our darkest fears and fondest hopes—and do so with humor and empathy for the human predicament.”
Copies of “A Scratch On The Wall,” as well as of Deluty’s other books, are on sale at the UMBC Bookstore.
Work done by Robert Provine, professor of psychology, was recently featured in a film shown on the European television station ARTE. The film, ‘Une Histoire Naturelle du Rire’ was broadcast in both German and French on December 30. It can be viewed for a limited time here.
While a student at UMBC, Hasina Jamal Stearns ’09, computer engineering, founded the publishing company Fred & Barrel, Inc. Now, the company’s first book, Guy, a philosophical play by Cinna, is available in the UMBC bookstore. Stearns is the editor-in-chief and illustrator.
Guy—a hybrid novel, play, and movie script—tells the story of Guy, a tall handsome tennis player who thinks deeply about mankind and life. At least, he does in the first act. He would continue to ruminate about such things if he weren’t so swamped with homework and projects. He spends most of his time in an old children’s insane asylum, which is now being used as a studio and research center by architecture students. One day, he decides not to return to campus and instead opts let his whim take him to wherever he is destined.
Other UMBC alumni contributed to the book: Truc Nguyen ’07 helped connect Stearns to its designer; Andrew Shoenfeld ’07 took the cover and illustration photos; Tim Brosius ’08 created the website and Hariklia Karagiannis ’09 edited the website.
Stearns is currently a graduate student at American University studying producing for film and video. One of her inspirations for this course of study is this book, which she hopes to turn into a movie.
Another book that Stearns hopes to eventually publish was written Jamie C. Heard, a UMBC student who passed away in 2008. She is working with Issa Legall ’09 to make this a reality.
Christopher Corbett, professor of the practice of English, wrote about books and New Year’s resolutions in his latest column for Style magazine. Corbett has not resolved to get a Kindle, nor has he resolved to thin his massive book collection.
“Kindle and e-books may be the future, but what kind of future would I have without my boon companions Eeyore and Christopher Robin and Kim and Long John Silver and Squire Trelawney? I still believe we ought to meet them in books, with actual pages,” he writes.
The essay, “One For the Books” appeared in the January 2012 issue of the magazine.
Constantine Vaporis, professor of history and director of the Asian studies program, has been invited to become an advisory panel member at the Walters Art Museum. Vaporis is part of an international panel of humanities scholars advising the Walters Art Museum on the renovation of its Asian Art Collection. This is a two-year commitment for 2012-13. The focus of the renovation will be the Hackerman House section of the Walters. Renovations will begin in 2013, and the section is scheduled to reopen in 2015. Vaporis also works with the National Geographic Museum.
UMBC has again made the Kiplinger’s Personal Finance list of the 100 best values in public higher education. The list ranks four-year colleges and universities that “combine outstanding education with economic value.”
This marks the third year in a row UMBC has appeared among Kiplinger’s best values. On the 2012 list released today, UMBC ranks 84 for in-state students and 63 for out-of-state. Four other Maryland universities made the list, highlighting the state’s commitment to both affordability and excellence in public higher education.
Kiplinger’s assesses quality and affordability based on a number of factors, including retention and graduation rates, student-to-faculty ratios, sticker prices and average debt at graduation. The full methodology is available here. The complete rankings are online at www.kiplinger.com/links/college, or in the February 2012 edition of Kiplinger’s magazine.
The UMBC chess team came in second place on December 30 in the Pan-Am Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, advancing to the 2012 President’s Cup, known as the “Final Four” of chess.
The UMBC chess team headed into the 2011 Pan-Am Intercollegiate Team Chess
Championship with a record nine titles to its name. The competition known informally as the Pan-Am, was held December 27 to 30 in Fort Worth, Texas. Since the tournament began in 1946, dozens of universities throughout the Americas have participated. The Retrievers won their first Pan-Am title in 1996, and then embarked on a five-year title streak from 1998 to 2002.
This year, the University of Texas at Dallas came in first with six points, UMBC came in second with 5 points, and Texas Tech and New York University tied for third with 4.5 points each.
“It was an exciting finish, because we could have won right up until the last match,” says Alan Sherman, Chess Director. The University of Texas at Brownsville surprisingly did not make the cut for the Final Four even though they were the highest ranking team going into the tournament.
The UMBC team, all on chess scholarships, is composed of students not only with exceptional chess skills but also with strong academic records, Sherman says. UMBC requires students to maintain a 3.0 GPA to maintain chess scholarships.
The Retrievers last won the Pan-Am title in 2009, and took second last year. This year’s team will compete in the 2012 President’s Cup, the “Final Four of College Chess,” to be held March 31–April 1 in Herndon, Va.
About the UMBC players
Leonid Kritz, an International Grandmaster from Germany
Giorgi Margvelashvili, an International Grandmaster from the Republic of Georgia
Sasha Kaplan, an International Master from Israel
Sabina Foisor, International Woman Grandmaster from Romania
Average rating: 2521