Policy & Society

In his latest Baltimore Sun column, UMBC political science professor Thomas F. Schaller explores the causes of decreased class mobility in the U.S. Having just returned from a trip to Finland, Norway and Sweden, Schaller writes that in Scandinavia “a person’s income is far less dependent upon his or her parents’ income than it is here in the United States. In contrast to the U.S., Scandinavian countries are less class-anchored and more egalitarian and feature higher rates of political participation — all features that we aspire to have here in America but which have vanished in recent decades.” Schaller connects… Continue Reading Thomas Schaller, Political Science, in the Baltimore Sun

A film shot last spring about the research of Robert Provine, psychology, and his undergraduate researchers aired in France and Germany on Dec 30.  The English version is forthcoming, but the German version can be seen below. The program is mainly focused on Provine’s research into laughter and his book.  The crew spent about a week in Baltimore and UMBC, shooting material in Provine’s lab, one of my lectures, the Commons, and the American Visionary Arts Museum that had an exhibit featuring his work. Matt Groening of The Simpsons, Patch Adams and others were collaborators in the AVAM show.  See… Continue Reading Robert Provine, Psychology, in Documentary

Robert Provine, psychology, has an essay in a newly published collection entitled This Will Make You Smarter. The book is the latest in a series by the website Edge.org, which focuses on an annual question posed to today’s leading thinkers.  This year’s question was “What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit? “ This is Provine’s seventh contribution to the series, and his essay is entitled “TANSTAAFL” (“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”). It focuses on the fact that everything has its price, a concept relevant to everyday life as well as all sciences. The idea of… Continue Reading Robert Provine, Psychology, in Essay Collection

The University of Michigan Press recently posted to their blog about the travels that Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, completed this winter. The post, entitled “‘Illuminating Childhood’ author recounts her travels in Czech Republic and India,” is based on Spitz’s recent post to UMBC’s Talking Heads blog. Spitz’s book Illuminating Childhood: Portraits in Fiction, Film, and Drama was published by the press and will be available in paperback this March.