News and Updates about UMBC’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Beyond a meet and greet, and far beyond posters and tchotchke giveaways, Involvement Fest is a key moment for students looking to meet new people and try something new. An estimated 2,000 students attended this year’s event. Continue Reading Need a fun activity? UMBC iFest delivers with 200+ student organizations and tons to explore
The feel of a pen as it clicks open and closed, pointed for note taking (or probably more likely the feel of an electronic stylus). The sound of pages rustling in a notebook during the first class of the day (or more likely the sound of keys clacking on a laptop). The smell of a new textbook as it opens for the first time (or probably more likely still the laptop thing). No matter what it looks like, the start of a new school year is officially here! This year, UMBC welcomes a pack of new Retrievers as they embark on the black and gold journey of a lifetime. Continue Reading School’s in Session
There are some people who you meet, and it’s obvious: They’re natural leaders—seemingly born to the role. Derek Anderson ’03, interdisciplinary studies, is one of those people. He went right from UMBC to the front of the classroom as a teacher in the highly regarded Howard County Public School System, earning a master’s degree in school administration and supervision from Johns Hopkins University at the same time. But in talking with Anderson, it becomes apparent that he wasn’t born a leader—he became one. And he says UMBC was a big reason why he did. After nearly a decade of classroom… Continue Reading Putting the principles of education to work
Artillery booms in the distance as men hurriedly button up their scratchy wool uniforms and grab their muskets. The smell of campfires and horses intertwine with shouts, neighs, and gunfire.
“It was a sensory overload,” remembers Jim Bailey ’03, M.A. ’07, history, of the recreated battles and camps he saw during 125th anniversary Civil War events. “At the age of eight, it wasn’t that I was reading books and studying history. It was something I could see. Smell. Hear. Feel.”
Exactly what Bailey would do with his early love for immersive history, however, wasn’t clear until a class during his first year at UMBC, when a park ranger from nearby Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine in Baltimore City gave a guest talk on volunteering for the National Park Service. By December of 1998, 18-year-old Bailey was signed up as a Volunteer-in-Parks, the first step in a long career that has led him to his current position as superintendent of both Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and Booker T. Washington National Monument. Continue Reading Preserving history’s mark—one tree, one brick, one story at a time
Meet Anna Jones, a first-generation psychology major on the pre-med track at UMBC. What started as a “nudge” by one of her professors wound up leading Anna to becoming a peer tutor with UMBC’s SI (supplemental instruction) PASS (peer-assisted study sessions) program—an experience that has changed her life and defined her experience as a Retriever. We can’t wait to hear all about it! Q: What brought you to UMBC in the first place? A: Hello! I am a psychology B.S. major with a minor in biological sciences on the pre-med track. I transferred to UMBC after my first year of college… Continue Reading Meet a Retriever—Anna Jones, peer tutor
Across the UMBC community are engaged scholars who tackle a breadth of topics spanning a wide range of disciplines and writing mediums. From books, to more than 260 The Conversation articles, to several hundred peer-reviewed journal publications, the UMBC community creates an extensive collection of reading materials for bibliophiles of all interests. Continue Reading Need a summer read? UMBC’s got you covered
“This book is my love letter to my unnamed queer Palestinian ancestors. It is the knowing glance, playful wink, and double entendre between us,” Mejdulene Bernard Shomali, assistant professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, says about her new book Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives. “It is the ways we call one another, not only for recognition and community but to action and movement toward a joyful and pleasurable queer Arab future.” Continue Reading Creating Queer Arab Joy
Bentley Corbett-Wilson ’17, music education, M.A. ’20, teaching, is UMBC’s director of athletic bands, leading the school pep ensemble, the Down and Dirty Dawg Band. He is a musician (trumpet is his main instrument), band director at Lake Elkhorn Middle School, and faculty member at the International School of Music. But he introduces himself as UMBC’s pep band director first. Q: How long have you been involved in music and performance? A: I think I officially became a “musician” in middle school band in sixth grade. I joined the Las Vegas Youth Orchestra Philharmonic and traveled to China, then I… Continue Reading Alum Bentley Corbett-Wilson trumpets the pep band and school spirit
Safiyah Cheatam, M.F.A. ’21, intermedia and digital arts, always has her hands in something. In just the past few years, the multidisciplinary conceptual artist has exhibited work at The Peale and VisArts. She co-produced OBSIDIAN, a Rubys Grant-funded Afrofuturist podcast, with alum Adetola Abdulkadir ’17, and served as curatorial research assistant at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for the special exhibition Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures. This summer, Cheatam is also serving as a juror for the Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship. Cheatam devotes her days to providing programming for teen artists as the assistant manager… Continue Reading From nurture to apocalypse (and back again) —The Mundane Afrofuturism of multimedia artist Safiyah Cheatam
Study author Adam Dixon, Ph.D. ’21, understands that protected areas alone are not enough to solve the biodiversity, food, and health challenges the world is facing—so his work seeks to help “integrate conservation solutions into our most intensive places.” Continue Reading UMBC alum leads successful pilot of method for monitoring biodiversity on farms
The U.S. Fulbright Student Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program, has awarded nine UMBC students and alumni top research and teaching placements in countries such as Japan, Taiwan, North Macedonia, and Turkey. Continue Reading UMBC’s 2023-2024 Fulbright Student Program recipients announced
Throughout the 2022 – 2023 academic year, Isabel Dastvan completed on-the-ground surveys, created maps of invasive species on campus, identified the most urgent invasive threats, and determined the best ways to combat their spread. The end result is a 187-page, comprehensive Invasive Species Management Plan for UMBC. Continue Reading Sustainability Fellow Isabel Dastvan ’22 grows her career and invasive species management at UMBC
