On Tuesday, October 11, at 1 p.m., Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American studies, will be a featured guest on WYPR’s “Midday with Dan Rodricks.” She will discuss Baltimore in film. The segment can be heard on 88.1 FM or streamed live here.
Lafayette Gilchrist ’92, Africana studies, may be best known in Baltimore as the pianist and composer at the helm of the New Volcanoes, ever-evolving, avant-garde big band. But before he became a big name in the jazz scene, he could be found practicing his skills in UMBC’s practice rooms. “Gilchrist… describes himself as a ‘ghost’ in the music department. ‘My Grand-mommy said, ‘You’re going away to a fancy college; make sure you meet the people who scrub the toilets.’ I did. And they had keys to everything,’ Gilchrist recalls. He began to spend nights in the practice rooms, waving goodbye… Continue Reading Lafayette Gilchrist ’92 in Urbanite and on “The Signal”
Occupy Wall Street arrived in Baltimore this week, with Occupy Baltimore participants gathering at McKeldin Square (at Light and Pratt Streets). Protestors have mentioned causes such as fighting income inequality, corporate greed and corruption, but the broader movement has not yet released specific goals. Laura Hussey, assistant professor of political science, told the Baltimore Business Journal, “We can look at some of the contemporary social movements today, social rights movements, anti-war, labor unions… Their policy demands are fairly specific. This seems to be a broader coalition and their demands are very vague.” Hussey said both left-wing and libertarian protesters are… Continue Reading Laura Hussey, Political Science, in Baltimore Business Journal
Maryland Democrats currently control both of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats and six of eight House seats, “and now they’re looking to make it seven,” writes Thomas Schaller, professor of political science, in his latest Baltimore Sun column. Although the GOP controls the process of drawing Congressional maps across much of the nation, the reverse is true in Maryland. In the last ten years, the state population has grown 9% to nearly 5.8 million residents. Schaller writes, “That growth was anything but uniform statewide, of course. Continued population shifts away from Baltimore City toward the Baltimore suburbs, Washington suburbs… Continue Reading Thomas Schaller, Political Science, in the Baltimore Sun
NPR’s Morning Edition reports the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote today on a temporary measure — or “continuing resolution” — to keep the government funded through mid-November, after having missed its appropriations deadline for the 14th year in a row. Congress uses continuing resolutions when they can’t complete work on appropriations bills before the start of a new fiscal year. UMBC political science professor Roy Meyers told NPR, “What that means is that there’s a great deal of uncertainty when you’re running a program about how much money you have to hire people or to sign contracts… Continue Reading Roy Meyers, Political Science, on NPR and in USA Today
“When an older family member needs supportive housing, there’s often a rush to find a place with the ‘best quality,’” wrote Leslie Morgan, professor of sociology, in a Baltimore Sun op-ed. “But what is quality?” she asked. “Do family or friends value the same things as the future assisted-living resident?” In searching for assisted living for a family member, Morgan recommends looking beyond a facility’s cosmetic factors to attend to the individual habits, interests and needs of the person who will live there. “What are their priorities?”; “How important is flexibility in their daily routine?”; “What about continuing lifelong behaviors,… Continue Reading Leslie Morgan, Sociology and Anthropology, in the Baltimore Sun
This week, the New Yorker published a letter from Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, regarding an essay on the Oxford philosopher Derek Parfit. Spitz compares a literary device used by the writer to one used in “The Tin Woodsman of Oz.” Her letter can be read here.
In the face of another political stalemate on Capitol Hill, Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein turned to Roy T. Meyers, professor of political science, to understand the possible impact of a government shutdown. Meyers, a former Congressional Budget Office analyst, argues that we may underestimate the costs of shutdowns by not accounting for the value of lost work hours, decreased federal parks revenue or the reduced pace of IRS audits. Klein writes, “Meyers suggests that contractors might start charging the government a premium after shutdowns to compensate for the uncertainty of their payments. And a large body of work shows… Continue Reading Roy T. Meyers, Political Science, in the Washington Post
Christopher Corbett, professor of the practice of English, may be from Maine, but the author enjoys traveling through America’s West and is currently teaching a course entitled “America’s Road Trip.” The Baltimore Sun recently interviewed Corbett for a story entitled “UMBC Professor, Author Heeds Call of the West” in which he describes the experience of traveling through these deserted parts of the country. “You can see enormous distances—the road in some spots is so straight that your eye almost can’t comprehend the distance you are taking in. It just melts into the horizon. You’re so far out in the middle… Continue Reading Christopher Corbett, English, in the Baltimore Sun
Baltimore magazine recently reviewed “Since You Have No Body,” the latest book of poetry from Michael Fallon, senior lecturer of English. “These interrelated, elegiac poems dance around the mysteries of death, as they celebrate friendship and ponder the notion that life’s grand waltz eventually slows to a roaring silence that can make even the most avowed atheists and religious devotees flinch,” says John Lewis in a review for the magazine. The review appeared in the October 2011 issue of the magazine.
Lipitz Professor Leslie Morgan, sociology and anthropology, responded to the announcement that an advocate against elder abuse received a MacArthur “genius” grant through a powerful letter in the Washington Post, recognizing the importance of this advocacy but also the unsung heroes of elder care. “Studies show that 60 million Americans provide care to adult relatives, with an average lifetime economic cost per person of $300,000, mostly from early retirement or reduced work hours… The great majority of these caregivers do exemplary jobs, sacrificing free time, sleep and sometimes their own health,” she wrote. Morgan went on to reference research she… Continue Reading Leslie Morgan, Sociology and Anthropology, in the Washington Post
“By now, hundreds of children’s books about the Holocaust have been published—fiction and non-fiction, as well as hybrids of varying quality: books about hiding, about substitute parents, about successful and failed escapes, attempted rescues and resistance,” writes Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, in “Pedagogy in Purgatory,” her latest essay for the New Republic. “Two recent non-fiction books… reveal that the choice of any particular book—and, similarly, the decision to visit a memorial or a museum—may be less important than what surrounds the experience whenever it does occur.” Spitz goes on to review Ruth Thomson’s “Terezín: Voices… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, in the New Republic
