Policy & Society

Kathy O’Dell, the associate dean of the college of arts, humanities and social sciences, has been appointed to the Maryland State Arts Council. The Council is an appointed body of 17 citizens. Thirteen are named by the Governor to three-year terms, which are renewable once. Two private citizens and two legislators are appointed by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House. “The newly appointed councilors represent broad arts expertise across a diversity of Maryland communities and professional backgrounds,” said Theresa Colvin, executive director of the MSAC. “Under the leadership of our new chair, Barbara Bershon, they will… Continue Reading Kathy O’Dell, CAHSS, Appointed to Maryland State Arts Council

Kevin A. Wisniewski, first year Ph.D. candidate in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program, was named a 2012-2013 HASTAC Scholar.  Dr. Craig Saper, Director of the LLC program, was selected to serve as Wisniewski’s HASTAC Mentor.  HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, pronounced “haystack”) is a virtual organization of over 7000 individuals and institutions inspired by the possibilities that new technologies offer for shaping how society learns, teaches, communicates, creates, and organizes at the local and global levels. It was founded by Cathy N. Davidson, former Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies and co-founder of the John Hope Franklin… Continue Reading Kevin Wisniewski, LLC student, Selected as 2012-2013 HASTAC Scholar & Mentor

Ellen Handler Spitz recently reviewed the Museum of Modern Art exhibit “The Century of the Child:: Growing by Design 1900-2000” for the online magazine artcritical. Spitz says that the exhibit “bypasses emotion.”  “Much of the intense passion, however—the felt crises, anxieties, puzzlements, riotous humor, and delirious joys— that characterize living children both mentally and behaviorally has gone missing,” she writes. Spitz says that through the exhibit, you come to see how children are used to advance adult ideas, and that today’s “child is as much a projection of adult fantasy and social ideology as the pale coy innocents of the… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, on artcritical

Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American Studies, responded to the new film “Won’t Back Down” in a September 28 Baltimore Sun op-ed entitled “Education blame game leaves kids behind.” The film, inspired by true events, tells the story of America’s public school system through the story of two women from disparate socioeconomic backgrounds who find common ground when both are faced with the task of finding better public school alternatives for their  children with learning differences. Moffitt relates the tone of the movie, with it’s heroes and villans, to the discussion around Baltimore’s public schools. “Where we go wrong is in focusing… Continue Reading Kimberly Moffitt, American Studies, in the Baltimore Sun

Lee Boot, associate director of the Imaging Research Center, is featured in Convergence, a new book from theNational Academy of Sciences that highlights the academy’s exceptional and growing art collection. Boots contribution includes a commission he created for the collection last year is included in the book and an essay by him pointing to new directions in the collaboration between artists and scientists. Boot’s essay is one of only fourteen in the book.  The book alsi includes essays from art and science thought-leaders as E. O. Wilson, Roald Hoffmann, Anne Collins Goodyear, Andrew Solomon, and Lucy Lippard, and artwork from… Continue Reading Lee Boot, IRC, Featured in New Book