All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Path to Power

Professor Thomas Schaller makes sense of institutional shifts in modern American politics
in The Stronghold.

The Republican Party has lost four of the last six U.S. presidential elections and lost the popular vote in five of the last six, while at the same time establishing powerful majorities in both houses of Congress. How can we make sense of these seemingly contradictory trends in the party’s popularity?

In his new book The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House (Yale University Press, 2015), Thomas Schaller examines the institutional transformation of the national Republican Party since President Ronald Reagan left office in 1989. Schaller, professor and chair of political science, is a nationally recognized scholar of American politics and political institutions. He has already received widespread praise for the book, which is poised to make a lasting impact on political discourse in America.

“I call this book an ideological institutional argument,” explains Schaller. “It talks about the lining up of the Republican Party, as it’s become more conservative, with congressional strength, and that makes intuitive sense.”

The core argument of Schaller’s book centers around the idea that Republicans have not just become a congressional party, but one that is focused on the House of Representatives. In conducting research for his book, Schaller observed that Republicans have pursued a path of what he calls “retrenchment” over the last 25 years — maximizing the power of a fixed share of Republican voters who tend to show up at the polls more during midterm elections.

Schaller argues that by pursuing retrenchment with a focus on its congressional wing, the Republican Party has shifted attention away from developing a fuller national strategy that would help presidential candidates become more competitive.

“The Republicans, despite their presidential woes, are doing pretty well on the rest of the ballot, but it sends a bit of a false confirmation of their message because it’s appealing to a somewhat significantly contracted electorate in a country where we’re lucky to have 60% of the eligible voters turn out in a presidential election and 35% of the eligible electorate in midterm elections,” says Schaller. “So it’s appealing to only one-third of the electorate.”

With its in-depth analysis of how and why Democrats have been able to succeed in recent presidential elections and Republicans have become more of a House-centered party, Schaller is hopeful The Stronghold will provide a deeper level of understanding for readers seeking to learn more about modern political institutions.

“There’s this conventional wisdom in the mainstream media and Washington that you have to really prove that you can govern effectively or you won’t be given the reins of power. I just don’t think that’s true anymore,” asserts Schaller. “Americans are upset with gridlock. They hate partisanship and they say they want the two parties to work together, but the structural incentives for both parties, especially for the Republicans, is not to cooperate.”

Schaller is presenting a Social Sciences Forum talk on his new book on Wednesday, February 11 at 4:30 p.m. in the University Center, Room 310. To hear Schaller explain more about the main argument of his book, watch the video below.

Schaller has received extensive local and national media coverage for The Stronghold. For a complete list, see below:

Surrendering the White House? (NBC’s Meet the Press-Press Pass)
Create jobs, defeat ISIS are top U.S. priorities (MSNBC’s Morning Joe)
The GOP’s field of dreams (MSNBC’s The Cycle)
Conservatives better suited to Congress (Baltimore Sun column)
Paul Ryan may not be running in 2016, but he’ll loom large over the election (Talking Points Memo column)
Key to understanding the new Congress: Gingrich’s contract with America (American Prospect column)
What the GOP is losing by winning (National Journal)
Newt’s shocking legacy: Was he more important than Reagan? (Salon)
The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House (Majority Report with Sam Seder)
Tom Schaller: Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd (Blog Talk Radio)
Political Tomfoolery (Nicole Sandler Show- Radio or Not!)
Congressionalization (Slate’s The Gist Podcast)
New Books in Political Science with Heath Brown (New Books Network)
The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House (WYPR’s Maryland Morning)
How the GOP Captured Congress (WYPR’s Midday with Dan Rodricks)
Thomas Schaller on the C4 Show (WBAL Radio)

(Updated 2/10/2015)

© University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Tiny Tools, Big Results

Chemist Ryan White works to transform research on how brain cells communicate with each other.

In his chemistry lab at UMBC, assistant professor Ryan White peers through the microscope at a 25 um sensor, the size of a single strand of hair. Attached to the sensor, beyond the realm of microscopic resolution, are DNA aptamers—single strands of DNA that can change shape when molecules bind to them. The material White works with is incredibly tiny, but it has the potential to lead to remarkable insights.

“The brain is a complicated place,” says White. In the last 100 years scientists have focused on neurons. “They’re thought of as the main player,” he explains. Other cell types in the brain have been overlooked and it turns out that some of them are essential partners in brain function. That means, says White, that scientists now need tools to study interactions between neurons and other brain cells.

White and his team are interested in looking at astrocytes, a type of support cell in the brain. There is evidence that communication between astrocytes and neurons is important in a genetic disorder called Fragile X syndrome, one of the few known genetic causes of autism spectrum disorder.

It turns out that healthy astrocytes can help repair the abnormal neurons. However, not much is known about the communication between astrocytes and neurons. White and his team aim to develop a tool—a tiny sensor—that will help scientists study the interactions between these two cell types.

White makes the sensor by inserting a piece of gold wire into a micropipette. The pipette is pulled—fashioned into a polished glass needle with a gold disk at the end. Attached to the gold disk are aptamers. When an aptamer changes shape White is able to record an electrical signal that allows him to calculate how many molecules of ATP are released. “Right now we’re looking at tens to thousands of molecules,” he says.

ATP is typically thought of as the energy currency of the cell, but in this case White and his team are looking to see if cells communicate with each other through ATP. The big question: is there a hotspot for ATP activity in the astrocyte and can White determine the mechanism of ATP release? Answers to those questions could help White and his collaborator, Mary McKenna at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, unravel some of the mysteries behind Fragile X syndrome.

White doesn’t plan to stop with Fragile X syndrome. “The most exciting thing about the sensor,” he says, “is we can just change out the aptamer to look at different molecules” that may hold the key to answering other important questions in science and medicine.

White, who joined UMBC in 2011, also has a vision for research that goes beyond the microscope. His research builds on his experiences as a graduate student at the University of Utah and a post-doc at the University of California, Santa Barbara, but White attributes much of his success in science to an undergraduate research experience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He shares, “I don’t think without that I would be where I am today.”

Now White is carrying on that tradition. His lab currently includes four undergraduates and two graduate students. Two of his former undergraduates, Samiullah “Sam” Wagan ’13, biology, and James Taylor ’14, chemistry, have gone on to careers in science and medicine. Wagan is a medical school student at the University of St. Louis and Taylor is a graduate student in chemistry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

White says Wagan and Taylor were integral to lab experiments while at UMBC and published their research alongside graduate students. He believes it’s essential to give undergraduates projects they can make their own, rather than assigning them minor tasks simply supporting other research, as is the norm at many other universities. “This is your chance to get hands on experience,” he tells them, “Your project is not set in stone.”

“I encourage undergraduate students to formulate their own questions in the lab,” White explains. Even if their projects don’t work out as planned, he notes, that is “a valuable lesson if they want to go on in research.”

White’s lab demonstrates how, by working together on complementary projects, undergraduate and graduate students can contribute the fresh perspectives that research thrives on as they develop into the next generation of innovative scientists.

(03/19/2015)

© University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

The Science of Attraction

Biologist Tamra Mendelson explains how sexual selection plays a major role in the evolution of vibrant features, from stripes to tail feathers.

Male cardinals are red. Male peacocks have bright tail plumage. Conventional biological wisdom says that species look different because they are adapting to different environments — food, predators, or climate. That assumption is missing a major piece of the puzzle, say researchers at UMBC and the University of Colorado, Boulder.

In a recent study published in the journal Ecology Letters and featured in The Baltimore Sun, Tamra Mendelson and her co-authors suggest that sexual attraction plays a significant role in how animals — even those of the same species living in similar environments — can adapt different characteristics to attract mates. The researchers propose that animals don’t just respond to their environments, they respond to each other.

“It turns out males in particular don’t have to adapt to the environment,” says Mendelson, an associate professor of biological sciences at UMBC and lead author on the study. “They’re adapting to the opposite sex.”

This implies, says Mendelson, that populations in similar environments may come up with different ways to solve the same problem. For example, males in one population might evolve a flashy feather to attract females, whereas males in another population might evolve a colorful beak.

This helps explain the wide array of vivid colors and arresting features we finding in creatures like birds-of-paradise. It also highlights the point that just because two individuals don’t look the same or act the same, doesn’t mean they’re not the same species.

The next steps will involve testing the model, Mendelson explains. She will do experiments called reciprocal transplants: placing species A in the habitat of species B, and species B in the habitat of species A. According to Mendelson’s model there shouldn’t be any difference in how the males perform in their reversed habitats.

Next, Mendelson and her colleagues will do a reciprocal transplant of the sexual environment. This involves allowing males of species A to compete with each other for females of species B and vice versa.

Mendelson says, “I want to understand why and what ornaments are going to be particularly attractive.” She hopes this will help scientists understand the development of such varied and complex ornamentation.

“What kind of a mutation would be successful?” Mendelson asks. “Mutations drive evolution. You could argue that it is mutation that is the most important thing. What is it about the female fish brain that makes certain male ornamentation more attractive?”

Mendelson and Natalie Roberts, PhD student in biological sciences, will use video animations of darter fish to ask that question in their ongoing research. Amazingly, fish respond readily to video images of other fish, so the researchers will manipulate videos of male darters to see if and how they can make them more attractive to fish of the opposite sex.

“We can use the videos to create mutations that don’t exist yet, to see what could happen in the future,” says Mendelson.

Will an extra fin stripe or spot of color make a fish more attractive? Only the TV-watching darters can tell us.

(Updated 2/6/2015)

© University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Thinking Out Loud

URCAD 2015 celebrates undergraduate student experiences in research and creative achievement.

As a transfer student from Montgomery College, Trevor Blank ’05, American studies, was fascinated by the history and folklore of a structure that once stood on UMBC’s campus: the Hillcrest Building, constructed in 1921 as the Spring Grove State Hospital. A different person might read a book about their new interest and move on, but Blank chose to write the book on it instead.

His research on the site as an undergraduate carried through to his graduate studies at Indiana University’s Folklore Institute and Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, and produced a co-authored volume on the hospital facility. Today, Blank is an assistant professor of communication at SUNY Potsdam and author or editor of seven books, including The Last Laugh: Folk Humor, Celebrity Culture, and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Digital Age (University of Wisconsin Press 2013). On April 22, 2015, UMBC welcomes him back to campus to reflect on his path as a researcher as featured speaker for the 19th annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD).

Diane M. Lee, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, shares that UMBC began organizing URCAD in the late 1990s to highlight the particularly robust research opportunities that UMBC undergraduate students experience. She expects this year’s participating students will find inspiration and insight in Blank’s remarks. “Dr. Blank’s story is a wonderful reminder about the value of the distinctive undergraduate experience UMBC provides,” she explains.

For Janet McGlynn, director of communications and outreach for the Office of Undergraduate Education, URCAD itself provides students with an essential piece of research training: a foundation in research communications. She shares, “Undergraduate researchers and URCAD presenters who go on to graduate school find that they are well prepared to present their work in department meetings or larger symposia. They know how to make a poster and how to talk about their work to either a general or an expert audience.”

URCAD 2015 features over 200 presentations, including artistic performances, film screenings, and oral and poster presentations, across all disciplines. A few highlights:

Paul Tschirgi ’15, visual arts, and Courtney Tyler ’15, dance, filmed original choreography and animated the videos to allow viewers to experience the performances using game controllers.

JR Smith ’15, computer science; Savannah Myers ’16, visual arts; Paul Tschirgi ’15, visual arts; Ben Walsh ’15, computer science; Samantha Carestia ’15, visual arts; Brandon Cole ’15, visual arts; Celeste Haskett, ’16, visual arts; and Jeff Hurd ’15, computer science, created an educational video game, Bandit, where the player becomes a fox running through Baltimore as the Pratt Street Riot breaks out during the American Civil War.

Jack Neumeier ’16, interdisciplinary studies; Jasper Dudley ’17, design and interdisciplinary studies; and Mai Huong Vu Huynh-Teage ’16, design, constructed “The Kraken,” an entry for the Kinetic Sculpture Race that explores the effect of pollution on aquatic ecosystems.

Julie Norton ’15, biological sciences; Kevin Liao, ’16, biological sciences; Mimi Way, ’15, biological sciences; and Brittnie Prakash ’15, biological sciences, isolated the Bacillus bacteriophage from soil found in central Russia.

Shannon Mitchell ’15, American Studies and psychology, analyzed geographic differences in newspaper coverage of the 2012 Trayvon Martin case.

Nnamdi Edokobi ’15, biochemistry and molecular biology, examined environmental and other risk factors impacting disparate rates of breast cancer among Baltimore City populations.

Hunter Somerville ’15, computer engineering; Kevin Sears ’15, computer engineering; Michael Warren ’15, mechanical engineering; and Sergei Grishin ’15, computer engineering, worked to develop a device that can automatically control airflow, increasing HVAC efficiency.

Each of these projects represents months or years of independent and collaborative research and creative production.

Savannah Myers is enthusiastic about showcasing her group’s interdisciplinary work on the video game Bandit, which teaches players about the Pratt Street Riots. She shares, “I’m excited to show what can be accomplished with 3D animation and a group of both artists and programmers at the student level. Often times people don’t realize how much work and research goes into creating interactive experiences.”

The interdisciplinary team behind “The Kraken” emphasizes the labor and rewards of their collaborative experience as well, which they describe as a demonstration of best practices for arts integration in STEM. The team members also see the project as a reflection of their values as researchers, artists, builders and designers. For Mai Huong Vu Huynh-Teage, creating “The Kraken” as an entry into Baltimore’s Kinetic Sculpture Race is an opportunity to bring greater attention to “pollution, environmental change and conservation.” It’s appropriate that the team’s “sneak peek” demonstration of the moving sculpture at URCAD coincides with Earth Day.

For a full list of URCAD presenters and abstracts, see the URCAD website. Support student presenters and get a glimpse of research projects throughout the day on social media via #URCAD.

(04/21/2015)

© University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •