Piotr Gwiazda
Assistant Professor, English

Piotr Gwiazda's teaching and research interests include modern and contemporary poetry, as well as translation theory and utopian studies. His current project, a monograph on James Merrill's verse trilogy "The Changing Light at Sandover," considers the problems of literary history, intertextuality, and influence, focusing on the poetic relationship between Merrill and W.H. Auden as portrayed in the epic.

Gwiazda, who left his native Poland 11 years ago, says Merrill is one of the first poets he read in English. He appreciates Merrill's "sense of craft, irony, comic spirit, and sophistication as a poet and as a human being."

In addition to publishing scholarly articles in such journals as Postmodern Review, Translation Review and Texas Studies in Literature & Language, Gwiazda has published his own poetry in Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, Connecticut Review, The Southern Review and Rattle. His poetry manuscript, Gagarin Street, is under consideration with publishers. He has translated several writers into Polish, including work by Paul Auster and Charles Simic.

Gwiazda received his M.A. and Ph.D. from NYU.

At UMBC, Gwiazda is teaching Analysis of Literary Forms, American Literature 1865-1930, and Contemporary American and British Poetry.

Matthew McCabe
Visiting Assistant Professor, Philosophy

Matthew McCabe recently received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park. A California native, he has a M.A. in Philosophy from California State Long Beach, and a B.A. in History and Philosophy from University of California Santa Barbara.

McCabe's dissertation deals with bioethics and ethical theory. He is bridging the two areas by taking a new theory, the virtue ethic of care, and applying it to the context of medical ethics. The theory blends two traditions -- one an old tradition of virtue ethics that goes back to the ancient Greeks and looks at such issues as what it means to be a good person -- mixed with the contemporary ethics of care, where caring for others becomes the centerpiece for determining right and wrong.

He says the challenge is that many believe the physician's job is to cure, not to care. McCabe addresses this argument and looks at ways to talk meaningfully about care in the context of medical practice. He hopes to expand his examination of ethical care to other professions.

This semester, McCabe is teaching Bioethics and Introduction to Philosophy. He will teach a seminar in Applied Ethics this spring and another introductory philosophy course.