Policy & Society

Roy Meyers, Political Science, on PolitiFact

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Last week, PoliFact’s “Truth-O-Meter” assessed President Obamas assertion that the sequester “won’t consider whether we’re cutting some bloated program that has outlived its usefulness, or a vital service that Americans depend on every single day. It doesn’t make those distinctions.” Citing analysis by UMBC political science professor Roy T. Meyers and others, PolitiFact concludes that Obama’s statement is an oversimplication, but it is mostly true that sequestration cuts will be indiscriminate. The site notes, “even the fact that some programs are exempted from the sequester supports Obama’s point.” How? Meyers explains that the list of exempted programs (e.g., Social Security,… Continue Reading Roy Meyers, Political Science, on PolitiFact

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, in The New Republic

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Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, discussed Maurice Sendak’s posthumously-published “My Brothers Book” in a column for The New Republic.  Spitz writes that while the book is “unintelligible as a story, mostly unoriginal as art, [and] emotionally distant,” it “may send us back to Sendak’s other work with new critical insights.” Spitz notes that one aspect of Sendak’s life that has not been analyzed is his sexuality; Sendak was gay. “’My Brother’s Book’ offers us a chance to return to Sendak’s prodigious body of complex, fascinating, sometimes troubling work and reexamine it through lenses that have not yet… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, in The New Republic

George La Noue, Political Science and Public Policy, in The Plain Dealer

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As criticism emerges surrounding a $758,000, no-bid contract the city of Cleveland awarded to a Texas company for a racial disparity study, The Plain Dealer asked UMBC professor George La Noue, political science and public policy, for his take on the situation. La Noue is director of the Project on Civil Rights and Public Contracting. The newspaper says La Noue believes Cleveland’s study is the most expensive study to-date of a city’s race- and gender-based contracting programs and legitimate studies can be done for as little as $250,000. “Typically these studies overwhelm the cities’ capacity to understand them,” La Noue… Continue Reading George La Noue, Political Science and Public Policy, in The Plain Dealer

Lynn Cazabon, Visual Arts, Project on Display at NSF Headquarters

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Photographs from associate professor of visual arts, Lynn Cazabon’s project Uncultivated will be on display in the exhibition, Ecological Reflections: Artistic Collaborations with the Long Term Ecological Research Network, at the National Science Foundation (NSF) headquarters in Arlington, VA. The exhibition features the work of artists who have produced art work in collaboration with NSF’s Long Term Ecological Network sites. Cazabon was the 2012 Artist-in-Residence for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study. Ecological Reflections will be on display February 28 through June 15. Find out more about the exhibition at the NSF’s website.

Rick Forno, Cybersecurity, on The World

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Earlier this week, a security research company released a report providing technical documentation and near-certain proof that China is engaging in cyber-espionage activities against the US.  While that’s not exactly a new discovery, it provided a much deeper degree of public information used in presenting its findings. On Public Radio International’s program, The World UMBC’s Rick Forno discussed the report’s implications. Forno says he was on the program to discuss American cybersecurity readiness in light of the heightened media interest in cybersecurity following the report’s release. The fact that the networks and our critical infrastructure systems are still vulnerable after… Continue Reading Rick Forno, Cybersecurity, on The World

Robert Provine, Psychology, In New Book

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Robert Provine, psychology, has an essay in a newly published book entitled “This Explains Everything,” a collection of answers to Edge.org’s annual question for 2012. This year’s question was “What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?” In Provine’s response, “Observers Observing,” he writes that “observation is the link between all empirical sciences, and the reason why physicists were among the founders of experimental psychology. The difference between psychology and physics is one of emphasis; both involve the process of observers observing. Physics stresses the observed, psychology the observer.” Provine has also answered the annual question for 2013, “What… Continue Reading Robert Provine, Psychology, In New Book

Book by Robert Provine, Psychology, Wins PROSE Award

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Robert Provine, professor of psychology, has won an Association of American Publishers’ 2012 PROSE Award for “Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond.”  The book received the award in the category of Biomedicine and Neuroscience. The PROSE Awards – the American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence –honors the best in professional and scholarly publishing, as judged by peer publishers, librarians and academics. This year’s competition attracted 518 entries of books, reference works, journals and electronic products in more than 40 categories. “The winners and honorable mentions announced this year are high caliber works and genuinely represent the best… Continue Reading Book by Robert Provine, Psychology, Wins PROSE Award

Lynn Cazabon, Visual Arts, IMDA Alumni Semi-finalists for 2013 Sondheim Prize

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The Baltimore Office for Promotion and Arts announced the semi-finalists for the 2013 Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize this week. Congratulations to Lynn Cazabon, visual arts, and Imaging Media and Digital Arts alumni Mina Cheon, Marian Glebes and Agnes Moon for their selection. The Sondheim prize awards a $25,000 fellowship to a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Baltimore region. The prize is in conjunction with the annual Artscape juried exhibition and is produced with our partners, The Walters Art Museum (WAM) and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Approximately six finalists will be selected for the final review for the… Continue Reading Lynn Cazabon, Visual Arts, IMDA Alumni Semi-finalists for 2013 Sondheim Prize

Dennis Coates, Economics, in the Baltimore Sun

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Following the Ravens’ Super Bowl win, the team will increase ticket prices at M&T Bank Stadium, reports the Baltimore Sun. Season ticket holders will see an average price increase of 10%, plus a $5 parking rate increase. UMBC sports economist Dennis Coates notes, “In the grand scheme of ticket price changes, I’m not sure that a 10 percent is particularly a big one. But it doesn’t make it any easier for the average fan to pay an extra 10 percent. We’re still in a relatively sluggish economy and there are a lot of people whose income hasn’t changed a whole… Continue Reading Dennis Coates, Economics, in the Baltimore Sun

Thomas Schaller, Political Science, in the Baltimore Sun

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Responding to recent cheating scandals — from Lance Armstrong using banned substances to reports of inflated performance data in higher ed — Thomas F. Schaller’s latest Baltimore Sun column argues, “there’s ample evidence that cheating is rampant in almost every sphere of American life.” The political science professor delves into the economic impacts of cheating, particularly in the realm of tax evasion. Schaller writes, “In a July 2012 report, the Tax Justice Network estimated that, conservatively, between $21 trillion and $32 trillion of global income is hidden in offshore tax havens…that means probably a minimum of $5 trillion in U.S… Continue Reading Thomas Schaller, Political Science, in the Baltimore Sun

Kevin Omland, Biological Sciences, Featured in the Baltimore Sun

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“As the Baltimore Ravens’ march to victory in Super Bowl XLVII defied the common wisdom of the sports world, so, too, has an examination of the genetics of their winged namesakes in the western United States led one local biologist to evidence he says defies the common wisdom of his field,” writes reporter Arthur Hirsch in the February 17th edition of the Baltimore Sun. Hirsch’s story follows the work of Kevin Omland, Professor of Biological Sciences here at UMBC. Omland who has been working for the past 15 years on reverse speciation of ravens. Vist the Baltimore Sun to learn… Continue Reading Kevin Omland, Biological Sciences, Featured in the Baltimore Sun

Denise Meringolo, History, Wins NCPH Book Award

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Denise Meringolo, associate professor of history, has won this year’s National Council on Public History Book Award for her book Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History. The National Council on Public History is an organization dedicated to making the past useful in the present and to encouraging collaboration between historians and their public. In Museums, Monuments, and National Parks, Meringolo traces the roots of the public history field, showing that the roots of public history reach back to the nineteenth century, when the federal government entered into the work of collecting and preserving the… Continue Reading Denise Meringolo, History, Wins NCPH Book Award

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