Policy & Society

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.

Manil Suri, professor of mathematics, reflects on returning to Mumbai, the Indian city of a million incarnations, in the July 17 issue of Newsweek magazine. Suri also teaches in the Asian studies program. In his piece, he compared Mumbai to a Hindu goddess. “In some ways, Mumbai is called upon to be even more subsuming than other goddesses. Her population is enormously diverse and regularly at odds on the basis of religion, language, ethnicity, and a host of other schisms. Her visibility attracts benign and malignant elements from inside and outside the country. These factors can result in heinous acts… Continue Reading Manil Suri, Mathematics, in Newsweek

Rachel Robinson ’12, applied linguistics, and Germán Westphal, professor of modern language and linguistics, will present a paper they co-authored at the International Congress of the Chilean Linguistics Society, which will be held in Valparaíso, Chile, November 9-11, 2010 The paper is titled “Introducción a un Modelo Teórico de Adquisición de Segundas Lenguas” (Introduction to a Theoretical Model of Second Language Acquisition), and it develops a theoretical approach to second language acquisition. Westphal has been working with this topic in the context of current linguistic research, and the paper includes a discussion of the neurological correlates that Robinson has identified… Continue Reading Rachel Robinson ’12 to Present at International Conference

In a new guest column on Sabato’s Crystal ball, Thomas Schaller, professor of political science, discusses President Obama’s campaign message a year from now at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in a new guest column on Sabato’s Crystal Ball. “However good the field of potential Republican challengers may or may not be… winning reelection will not be easy,” argues Schaller. He suggests, “in order to win President Obama is going to have to go negative.” As for his campaign message, Schaller predicts, “Obama is most likely to frame his election as an appeal for four more years because the… Continue Reading Thomas Schaller, Political Science, in Sabato’s Crystal Ball

Ka-che Yip, professor of history, has been awarded a grant by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. Beginning January 2012, Yip will be the co-investigator of the project, “A History of Diseases and Epidemics in Hong Kong, 1841-2003.” The grant will last for three years and is for HK $480,048 or about U.S. $62,000. The grant builds upon another completed project, “A History of Public Health in Hong Kong,” which was funded by the same agency several years ago. Yip was also a co-investigator of that project.

Constantine Vaporis, professor of history and director of Asian studies, has been asked to serve as a consultant on an exhibition on Japan at the National Geographic Museum in DC. The exhibit will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Japanese donation of cherry trees to the U.S., which will take place in 2012.

UMBC congratulates sociology professor Leslie Morgan on being named the Lipitz Professor of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for academic year 2011-12. In endowing this professorship, Roger C. Lipitz and the Lipitz Family Foundation sought “to recognize and support innovative and distinguished teaching and research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences” at UMBC. Dean John Jeffries writes, “Professor Morgan has achieved an extraordinary record as a scholar, teacher and citizen of the university since joining the UMBC faculty in 1979.” One of the nation’s foremost scholars of aging, Morgan is author, co-author or editor of six books, 33… Continue Reading Leslie Morgan Named Lipitz Professor of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences