Policy & Society

Sports fans were urged to think carefully about the language they use to describe their teams’ victory in a story that appeared on the Savage-Guilford Patch.com site. Christine Mallinson, assistant professor of language, literacy, and culture, commented on a number of tweets following the Ravens-Steelers matchup that used the term “rape” to describe the Ravens’ victory. The Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault brought attention to these tweets through their own Twitter page. “The use of the word ‘rape’ in a sports metaphor may be seen as particularly disturbing because it draws a parallel between a rape, a horrifying event, and… Continue Reading Christine Mallinson, Language, Literacy, and Culture, on Patch.com

If you missed the Humanities Forum lecture with history professor Rebecca Boehling, you can read about it on Catonsville’s Patch.com site. “UMBC Professor Brings Holocaust Story to Life,” which appeared on the site on September 15, recaps the event and the coincidence that brought Boehling and Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, professor of biology, together. Ostrand-Rosenberg had recently discovered boxes of holocaust-era letters in her aging mother’s closet. “One day I went into the department office, and I was in the Xerox room chatting with a colleague, and she said, ‘You should talk with Rebecca Boehling,” Ostrand-Rosenberg said. Boehling and her co-author, Uta… Continue Reading Rebecca Boehling, history, and Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, biology, on Patch.com

Catonsville personalities remembered what they were doing on and after September 11, 2001, in a Patch.com story entitled “Recalling the Days After September 11, 2001.” Among those that remembered their reaction to the day was Rebecca Adelman, assistant professor of media and communication studies. She remembers how she was struck by how everyone was processing what they were seeing, and that interest eventually led her to study the imagery of the War on Terror.

As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Humanities Forum presents a lecture by Ilan Stavans, the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture (Spanish) at Amherst College, who will speak on “Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language,” Wednesday, October 5, 4 p.m., on the seventh floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library. Stavans will explore the cultural and linguistic significance of this distinctly American language, comparing it to other languages of minority groups in America such as Yiddish and Black English. He will explain who speaks Spanglish, why it has so many varieties and what its existence… Continue Reading Humanities Forum: Ilan Stavans Explores “Spanglish” (10/5)

It has been a big week for UMBC’s social science faculty in the national media. A new feature in the Chronicle for Higher Education highlights UMBC’s Erickson School, noting its success with attracting students to careers in aging services through new and engaging multimedia and interdisciplinary courses. Dean Judah Ronch says the number of students enrolled in aging-related courses at UMBC has grown from 290 to 750 over the past two years. Program graduates have moved on to work in industries from consumer goods to travel and transportation, in addition to traditional sectors like senior housing and medical services. Also… Continue Reading UMBC Social Sciences in the News

The University of Pennsylvania Law School reports that Christopher DiPompeo ’04, economics, attained a highly-coveted clerkship in the U.S. Supreme Court for Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. He started his clerkship in July. DiPompeo earned his law degree from UPenn in 2009, having served nearly half of his law school career as editor-in-chief of the Law Review. Read the full article here.

Manil Suri, professor of mathematics, will serve on two panels at the Centre Pompidou library in Paris as part of an event with Indian authors. Suri’s most recent book is “The Age of Shiva.” Suri also teaches in the Asian studies program.