Jessica Berman, English, Elected Second Vice President of the Modernist Studies Association

May 9, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

Jessica Berman, Director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities and Professor of English, has been elected to be the Second Vice President of the Modernist Studies Association (MSA). She is set to take office in fall 2014, succeed to be First Vice President in fall 2015 and then become the President of the MSA for the 2016-17 year. The MSA is a 1000-member organization in its 15th year of existence. It was begun to provide an interdisciplinary and international venue for research in what has since been called “the new modernist studies” – modernist studies that question the canon and works… Continue Reading Jessica Berman, English, Elected Second Vice President of the Modernist Studies Association

Maurice Berger, CADVC, Latest “Race Story” in NYT

May 9, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

In the latest essay for his Race Stories column in the NYT, Maurice Berger, CADVC, speaks on the impact of a series of photos that document the 1964 Freedom Summer. According to Dr. Berger, the photos — now being published in a book by photojournalist Matt Herron entitled, Mississippi Eyes: The Story and Photography of the Southern Documentary Project — told a different story than many images of the time that highlighted anger and shock. He says, “Concentrating on educational and artistic activities, [the series] reminds us that the civil rights movement was as much cultural as sociological.” Read “A Cultural History of Civil Rights” and… Continue Reading Maurice Berger, CADVC, Latest “Race Story” in NYT

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, Publishes Chapters in New Book

May 5, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz has published two chapters in a new book out this month titled, “A Spirit that Impels: Play, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis.” The contributing authors in the book look at creativity through a psychoanalytic lens and analyze great works such as The Scarlet Letter, Mahler’s Eighth and The Miracle Worker, as well as great artists Van Gogh and Lennon/McCartney. The book brings together papers presented by scholars at an annual creativity seminar organized by the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center. The authors explore the central questions of how to understand the creative process, contributions of psychoanalysis to that understanding, and what opens up… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, Publishes Chapters in New Book

Jessica Berman, English, Gives Keynote Address at the French Modernist Studies Association Inaugural Conference

May 1, 2014 / 2 minutes of reading

On Thursday, April 24, Jessica Berman gave the opening keynote address at the French Modernist Studies Association inaugural conference, held at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris 3. Berman, Director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities and Professor of English, presented, “Re-Routing Community: Radio, Colonial Voices, and Transnational Listening,” which explored the intersections and interactions among writers from India and the Caribbean, developing an alternative version of modernist community that is transnational, transmedial and often inter-linguistic. The conference explored the notion of community in the modernist period, honoring Berman’s book, Modernist Fiction, Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Community (2001) as a significant event in the… Continue Reading Jessica Berman, English, Gives Keynote Address at the French Modernist Studies Association Inaugural Conference

Rebecca A. Adelman, Media and Communication Studies, Publishes New Book

Apr 30, 2014 / 2 minutes of reading

Rebecca Adelman, assistant professor in the Department of Media and Communication Studies, has authored a new book, “Beyond the Checkpoint: Visual Practices in America’s Global War on Terror” (The University of Massachusetts Press, 2014). Since the 9/11 attacks on U.S. soil, American citizenship has been redefined by the visual images associated with the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Rebecca A. Adelman contends that, in viewing images such as security footage of the 9/11 hijackers, film portrayals of the attacks and subsequent wars, memorials commemorating the attacks, and even graphics associated with increased security in airports, American citizens have been recast… Continue Reading Rebecca A. Adelman, Media and Communication Studies, Publishes New Book

KAL, Visiting Artist, Receives 2014 Thomas Nast Award

Apr 25, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher, visiting artist at UMBC, has been named recipient of the 2014 Thomas Nast Award. The Overseas Press Club of America presents this prestigious award for excellence in cartoons about international affairs. KAL is an editorial cartoonist for The Economist and The Baltimore Sun. He speaks around the globe about the power of editorial cartoons and the importance of a free press. In his role at UMBC, KAL is the adviser and fearless leader behind the politics and current events blog U.S. Democrazy, working with the Imaging Research Center and students in the Sondheim Scholars Program produce engaging… Continue Reading KAL, Visiting Artist, Receives 2014 Thomas Nast Award

Lynn Cazabon and Eric Dyer, Visual Arts, Receive Ruby Artist Project Grants

Apr 22, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

Ruby Artist Project Grants, awarded by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, are presented to Baltimore area artists in support of projects “that reflect a diversity of talent and creativity in immersive theatre, interactive media experiences, documentary film and musical composition.” This is the first year the GBCA has awarded Ruby Artist Project Grants. Lynn Cazabon, visual arts, was awarded a prize for Portrait Garden, a project centered upon work with long-term inmates at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women that will be presented throughout Baltimore-area commercial display spaces. Eric Dyer, visual arts, was awarded a prize for The Zoetrope Tunnel, a 9-foot tall by 20-foot… Continue Reading Lynn Cazabon and Eric Dyer, Visual Arts, Receive Ruby Artist Project Grants

Robert Deluty, Graduate School, Publishes His 44th Book

Apr 22, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

Robert Deluty, associate dean of the graduate school, has published a new volume of poetry, “Rock Piles and Cathedrals.” In his review, Ronald Pies writes: “Robert Deluty’s marvelous new collection of poems takes, as its leitmotif, Saint-Exupery’s observation that ‘A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.’ This is reminiscent of Michelangelo’s revelation that his art aimed at freeing the ‘inner statue’ from within the rough marble. So, too, with Deluty’s observations, in which he perceives the inner light, concealed within so many of… Continue Reading Robert Deluty, Graduate School, Publishes His 44th Book

Catalyst with Presenters Steve Bradley, Visual Arts, and Nicole King, AMST (4/28)

Apr 21, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

Catalyst, the interdisciplinary lecture series, presented by CIRCA (UMBC’s Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts), continues with Steve Bradley and Nicole King, Monday, April 28, beginning at 12 Noon in the Dresher Center Conference Room (PAHB 216). UMBC associate professor Steve Bradley of Visual Arts and assistant professor Nicole King of American Studies will present their collaborative research Mapping Baybrook, an interdisciplinary exploration of place that uses digital mapping to illustrate research on the history and culture of an industrial community in Baltimore, Maryland referred to as Baybrook—a merging of the names of two neighborhoods, Brooklyn and Curtis Bay. The story… Continue Reading Catalyst with Presenters Steve Bradley, Visual Arts, and Nicole King, AMST (4/28)

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, Writes Essay in City Paper for National Library Week

Apr 18, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

For National Library Week, Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz wrote an essay in City Paper that examines the value of borrowing books, especially children’s books, from the library. “Feeling rebellious over our dizzying speed-mad era of e-books, e-readers, digital and virtual realities, I want to advocate for the practice of borrowing a good old-fashioned book from the library—especially now, during National Library Week. I want to remind everyone of the simple joy of settling down in a cozy nook, turning well-worn pages, and reading aloud to a child,” Spitz writes. She discusses the value of reading children’s books of the past and… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, Writes Essay in City Paper for National Library Week

Visual Arts Faculty and IMDA Candidate in Socially Engaged Art Journal

Apr 17, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

Visual arts faculty Tom Beck, Tim Nohe and Steve Silberg, and IMDA candidate, Charlotte Keniston were featured in the first edition of Socially Engaged Art Journal (SEAJ). “Engaging Community: Art and Food In Baltimore City” written by Charlotte Keniston discusses the artists’ work and UMBC thesis project centered upon food deserts in Baltimore; “My Station North” focuses on a collaborative exhibition by Keniston and Nohe, in which they work with children at Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School to document the Station North neighborhood of Baltimore through sound and photography; and “The Hughes Remix Project” written by Beck and Silberg details the development of the new Project archive containing “175… Continue Reading Visual Arts Faculty and IMDA Candidate in Socially Engaged Art Journal

Piotr Gwiazda, English, Publishes a Review in The Times Literary Supplement

Apr 16, 2014 / 1 minute of reading

Piotr Gwiazda, Associate Professor of English, has published a review of Beautiful Twentysomethings by Polish writer Marek Hłasko (1934-1969) in the April 4, 2014 issue of The Times Literary Supplement. Professor Gwiazda describes Beautiful Twentysomethings as “primarily a literary memoir. Hłasko adeptly recreates the world of his fellow writers, poets, critics, actors, film directors — the ‘beautiful twentysomethings’ of his title who, despite the repressive political climate of the 1950s, ‘kept faith that the moment would come when it would be possible to say: ‘No.’” He also notes that the book “shines a spotlight on emigration as a major theme… Continue Reading Piotr Gwiazda, English, Publishes a Review in The Times Literary Supplement