Vin Grabill, Visual Arts, in The Faculty Voice

Nov 5, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

The artwork of Vin Grabill, associate professor and chair of visual arts, was included in the October 2013 issue of The Faculty Voice. Read about his video pieces and digital prints in the article “The Art of Vin Grabill” or view one of the works discussed, Frontier, at Vimeo. The article also mentions the work of Steve Silberg, visual arts, and Neal McDonald, visual arts, which will be exhibited with Grabill’s at the Howard County Arts Center in Ellicott City from January 10 to February 21, 2014.

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, to Participate in New York Review of Books Panel

Nov 4, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz has been invited to speak on a panel at McNally Jackson Bookstore in New York City. The New York Review of Books has been republishing time-honored classic books for children for the past decade, and this panel has been convened to celebrate this venture on its tenth anniversary. Edwin Frank, editor of the NYRB’s Children’s Collection, and Betsy Bird, New York Public Library Children’s Librarian, will discuss the changing character of children’s books with Ellen Handler Spitz and other children’s literature experts. The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Sunday, November 10th at… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, to Participate in New York Review of Books Panel

Piotr Gwiazda, English, Publishes a Book

Nov 4, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

Associate Professor of English Piotr Gwiazda has just published his translation of Polish writer Grzegorz Wroblewski’s book of prose poems KOPENHAGA. This project was awarded a grant from the PEN American Center and UMBC’s Dresher Center for the Humanities. Gabriel Gudding calls KOPENHAGA “one of the most important books of our time.” Joshua Clover describes it as “grim, glancingly beautiful, always necessary.” Marjorie Perloff comments: “Wroblewski is the true poetic chronicler of our 21st century diaspora in all its absurdities and anxieties.”

Helen Burgess, English, Selected for NEH Review Panel

Nov 1, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

English Associate Professor Helen Burgess has been selected for a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) review panel for the Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant Program. The grant program is designed to encourage innovation in all aspects of the digital humanities. The panel reviews proposals that involve approaches to new media, e-literature, innovative uses of technology, and new digital modes of publication. The NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants have averaged 151 applications per competition over the last five years, and the program has issued an average of 26 awards each year. You can find more information about the grant program here.

Lia Purpura, English, Featured on The Academy of American Poets Website

Oct 16, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

English department Writer in Residence Lia Purpura is featured on Poets.org, From the Academy of American Poets with her poem “Gone” listed as the poem-a-day for Wednesday. In describing the poem, Purpura writes: “The traditional fearsomeness of death (at least when thinking about my own) comes bearing a paradox that’s been palpable to me (and slippery) since childhood. Visually, I guess the paradox would look like a moebius strip, the inside twisting around to become outside…I was finally able to slow it down enough to catch the sensation and pace it out and tack some words to it. The writing of the… Continue Reading Lia Purpura, English, Featured on The Academy of American Poets Website

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College Professor, in Artcritical

Oct 14, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City is hosting an exhibit on Belgian Surrealist painter Rene Magritte. The show, Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938, is running through January 12, 2014. Artcritical has published an article about Magritte by Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz in conjunction with the exhibition. The show is attracting thousands of visitors from around the world. After New York City, it travels to Houston and then Chicago. You can read the full article by Ellen Handler Spitz here.

Ellen Handler Spitz, visual arts, Featured in Philadelphia Museum of Art Exhibition

Oct 8, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

Honors College Professor of Visual Arts Ellen Handler Spitz is one of the authors represented in a prominent exhibition catalog at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is hosting “The Malcolm X Steles,” an exhibition by distinguished visual artist, novelist and poet Barbara Chase-Riboud. Riboud divides her time between Paris and Rome and is originally from Philadelphia. The exhibition is the first solo show by a woman artist of African American descent since the museum’s opening in 1876. It features sculptures dedicated to assassinated civil rights leader, Malcolm X. Dr. Spitz wrote for the exhibition catalog, found here.

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College and Visual Arts, contributes to Springer’s recently published “Handbook of Child Well-Being”

Oct 8, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College and Visual Arts, explains the power of the arts in child well-being and parenting as an invited author of the “Handbook of Child Well-Being” chapter entitled “Images of Child Well-Being in the Arts.” Dr. Spitz invites readers to consider ways in which the depiction of children in the arts can teach us about childhood by showing us how children have been regarded (and treated) over time. One example featured in her chapter is the depiction of the Holy Child in Christian art, a presentation that over time became gradually more attuned to the physiognomy and… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College and Visual Arts, contributes to Springer’s recently published “Handbook of Child Well-Being”

Tom Goldstein, Music, and Alumni Perform at Bruun Studios

Sep 30, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

The percussion quartet Umbilicus, featuring Tom Goldstein, music, Shelly Purdy ’10, Will Redman ’98, and Rob Wolk ’11, performs Friday, October 4 in the program Feeling Different — an event that “explores what it means to feel different.” “When is [feeling different] a good thing, or a bad thing? Empowering, or marginalizing? When does difference generate harmony, and when chaos?” Attendance is free, but registration is required for attendance. Please email Peter Bruun at peter@bruunstudios.com, to reserve your space. Bruun Studios is located at: 302 E. Federal Street 4th Floor Baltimore, MD

Language, Literacy and Cultural PhD Students Publish and Present

Sep 25, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

Language, Literacy and Cultural (LLC) doctoral candidate John Fritz has been named editor of the “reflective practitioner” section of the new Journal of Learning Analytics published by the Society of Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR). Earlier this year, the Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR) published Fritz’s research bulletin “Using analytics at UMBC: Encouraging student responsibility and identifying effective course design” (free Educause login required until October 30, publicly available thereafter). Several LLC students have published book reviews in HyperRhiz, the peer-reviewed online journal specializing in new media criticism and net art: Quinn Slobodian, Foreign Front review by Romy Hubler Stacy Alaimo,… Continue Reading Language, Literacy and Cultural PhD Students Publish and Present

Kevin Wisniewski, LLC Doctoral Student, Publishing and Presenting Research

Sep 23, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

UMBC Language, Literacy & Culture doctoral student Kevin Wisniewski is publishing the lead chapter in the new anthology Kidding Around: The Child in Film and Media (Bloomsbury, January 2014). The chapter, “Betwixt and Between: Reading the Child in M. Night Shyamalan’s Films,” appears at the start of the first section of the book, “Rites of Passage and Impasse.” Wisniewski will also present a paper at the upcoming conference of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) & Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP), Nov. 8-10. Wisniewski will present his paper, “Improving the Art of Paper War:… Continue Reading Kevin Wisniewski, LLC Doctoral Student, Publishing and Presenting Research

Exhibition Curated by Lisa Moren, Visual Arts, Features Panel with Anupam Joshi, CSEE

Sep 16, 2013 / 1 minute of reading

A panel discussion for the exhibition, Cyber In Securities, curated by Lisa Moren, visual arts, and presented by the Washington Project for the Arts will take place Saturday, September 21 at 3 pm in the Pepco Edison Place Gallery. Participants in the panel, moderated by Moren, will include, Kevin Bankston, senior counsel and director of Free Expression Project, Center for Democracy and Technology; Heather Dewey-Hagborg, information artist and PhD candidate, electronic arts, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; David Rokeby, interactive sound and video installation artist; and UMBC faculty member, Anupam Joshi, computer science and electrical engineering, director of the Center for Cybersecurity. “Cyber In Securities is an exhibition that… Continue Reading Exhibition Curated by Lisa Moren, Visual Arts, Features Panel with Anupam Joshi, CSEE