The five-part “Bromo Speaks” radio series, examining the development and transformation of a downtown Baltimore landmark, airs on WEAA’s Marc Steiner Show. Continue Reading UMBC humanities students produce radio series exploring history and culture of Baltimore’s Bromo Arts District
For 125 years, Baltimore’s Sparrows Point Steel Mill employed tens of thousands of steel workers and was a center of community life in the region. At one point the mill was the world’s largest steel producer, but after peaking in the 1960s it began a gradual decline, permanently closing its doors in 2012. Since then, UMBC students and faculty have worked to safeguard the heritage of the mill community and to amplify the voices and stories of Sparrows Point. This work has served as the springboard for a larger, ongoing project to preserve Baltimore history in neighborhoods across the city.… Continue Reading Starting at Sparrows Point, humanities research amplifies voices and histories of Baltimore communities
A National Journal article published November 23 examines why, even with the recent boom in podcasts, people of color are underrepresented among podcasters. Radio expert Jason Loviglio, associate professor and chair of media and communication studies, attended the 2015 Podcast Movement in Texas earlier this year and commented on a lack of diversity among podcasters at the conference. “It felt very mainstream white,” said Loviglio in the National Journal article. “What I saw at the conference did seem like the obstacles, or requirements, or trends, or culture of podcasting at that moment had the potential to marginalize minorities and people who lack capital for some of these things.” Because… Continue Reading Jason Loviglio comments on boosting diversity in podcasting in National Journal
Bryce Peake, a new assistant professor of media and communication studies, recently published an ethnographic study he conducted with a colleague at Central Washington University on the September pro-Confederate flag rally in Washington, D.C. The article “Viral Landscapes in the Public Square: the Confederate Flag visits the U.S. Capitol,” was published on the Centre for Imaginative Ethnography’s website. As part of the study, Peake and his colleague Mark Auslander spent time interviewing participants on both sides of the protests and edited the audio interviews down to a five minute sequence of overlapping voices: “Reviewing the audio, we noted that it… Continue Reading Bryce Peake examines aural dimensions of debate over Confederate flag
In a recent article posted on Antenna‘s website, Rebecca Adelman, an associate professor of media and communication studies, examined public reaction to the images of Aylan Kurdi. “I am not suggesting that the story the photographs tell isn’t wrenching (it is); but the difficulty of the image is the very thing that makes spectatorship of it easy. Certainly, spectators far removed from the Kurdi family’s suffering might genuinely experience the photos as painful. But the experience of feeling bad about the photos is accompanied by a range of sentimental rewards that ameliorate this discomfort. In part, the hyper-visibility of Aylan Kurdi is… Continue Reading Rebecca Adelman analyzes the public consumption of images related to Syrian refugee crisis
Last month, more than 1,000 podcasters gathered in Texas for the second annual “Podcast Movement” to discuss the latest in the industry. Jason Loviglio, associate professor and chair of media and communication studies, published a first-hand account of his experience at the conference in Antenna, a popular media and cultural studies blog. Loviglio, who is an expert in media history and radio studies, wrote in great detail about the various conference sessions which ranged from an awards session presented by the “Academy of Podcasting” to the keynote address by Sarah Koenig of the overwhelmingly popular podcast Serial. “Koenig’s talk was exquisitely… Continue Reading Jason Loviglio, Media and Communication Studies, Analyzes Podcast Movement 2015 in Antenna
Humanities Forum Eduardo López, television producer, journalist and documentarian Thursday, September 17 | 5:30 pm New location: Performing Arts and Humanities Building Room 132 The rapid growth of the nation’s Latino community has sparked heated national debate over immigration, yet the reality is that many of us know little about the Latin American roots of migration. In this talk, based on his award-winning documentary, Harvest of Empire, Eduardo López examines the direct connection between the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America and the immigration crisis we face today, unveiling a moving human story that is largely unknown to the great majority of… Continue Reading Humanities Forum: Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America (9/17)
As part of its latest major grant cycle, the Maryland Humanities Council awarded UMBC a $10,000 grant for “Mapping Dialogues,” a project that focuses on the history and culture of the Baybrook and Sparrows Point communities. Working with industrial neighborhoods in Baltimore, the project uses maps as starting points for discussions on the past, present, and future of industrial space. The project centers on two historically interrelated yet geographically separate areas: Baybrook in the southern tip of Baltimore and the Sparrows Point Steel Mill communities situated just across the southwestern city border in Baltimore County. Dialogues will be held with… Continue Reading UMBC Awarded Maryland Humanities Council Grant for “Mapping Dialogues” Project
Rebecca Adelman, an assistant professor of media and communication studies, was recently interviewed for a story in Discovery about the narratives and sensational news headlines surrounding shark attacks. In the article, Adelman said that common language describing such attacks can often minimize the role of humans.“It neatly erases any kind of human culpability for the shark bite while underscoring the notion that humans […] ought to be able to roam freely and safely anywhere on the planet, regardless of what other creatures might have preceded them there by millions of years,” she explained.“Yet it also makes a kind of sense out… Continue Reading Rebecca Adelman, Media and Communication Studies, Questions Assumptions Surrounding Shark Attacks in Discovery
At 5:30 a.m. every morning, Shanae Cole ‘13, Media and Communication Studies, sits down in the control room as she assists with managing cameras, news anchors, and viewers of the popular celebrity news show, TMZ. She carefully searches through all of her leads and quickly reviews the website for any last minute breaking news before going live. Growing up, Cole was glued to her television screen watching the latest and greatest cartoons and entertainment television. She laughed along with Bart on “The Simpsons” and Stewie on “Family Guy,” immersing herself in the cartoons and taking on the role of audience… Continue Reading Behind the Scenes with Shanae Cole ’13
In an article published May 18 in The Conversation, Rebecca Adelman, an assistant professor of media and communication studies, wrote about Adam Gadahn’s complicated relationship with the U.S. government in the wake of the announcement of his death on April 23. Gadahn, an American propagandist for al-Qaida, was killed by an accidental drone strike in Pakistan on January 19. He had previously been charged with treason in 2006.“The federal government’s decision to indict him for the capital offense of treason reveals its need to confront and contain visual threats. Like a latter-day Toyko Rose, Gadahn’s skillful use of propaganda made him… Continue Reading Rebecca Adelman, Media and Communication Studies, Writes About the Adam Gadahn Case in The Conversation
Join the Baltimore Traces project team for an event focusing on two Baltimore communities and their shared legacies of industrial development: Brooklyn-Curtis Bay and Sparrows Point. The event will feature Mapping Baybrook, a media-based documentation of projects in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay and a film screening of Mill Stories: Remembering Sparrows Point Steel Mill. Members of the Sparrows Point and Brooklyn-Curtis Bay communities will also discuss the challenges they face and possible futures. (Note: this event is rescheduled from April 28.) Tuesday, June 2, 2015 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Chesapeake Arts Center 194 Hammonds Lane Brooklyn Park, MD This is a free event.… Continue Reading Baltimore Traces: Communities in Transition (6/2)
