UMBC: Resources for Prospective Students

Toward a Composition Made Whole, by Jody Shipka, Associate Professor of English, was released by University of Pittsburgh Press in April.

Christopher DiPompeo '04, Economics ('09 Penn Law) was appointed clerk to the U.S. Supreme Court. http://www.law.upenn.edu/blogs/news/archives/2011/05/christopher_dipompeo_supreme_court_clerk.html

Tim Nohe, Associate Professor of Visual Arts, received a 2011 Fulbright Alumni Initiative Grant from the Australian-American Fulbright Commission to establish an art research network with Dr. Norie Neumark, Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

Vinson Bankoski, M.A. student in the Erickson School, was appointed Associate Executive Director at Charlestown, a senior living community in Catonsville, MD.

Harry S. Johnson '76, Political Science, was named the Chair of the Board of Directors of GBMC Healthcare Inc. Johnson is a former president of the Maryland State Bar Association and the first elected African American to hold the position.

The exhibition "For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights," curated by Maurice Berger, Research Professor at the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC), received major accolades. Among them: The National Endowment for the Humanities selected the show as its next "NEH on the Road" exhibition, for which a smaller version of the show will travel to some 35 locations through 2017; the Association of Art Museum Curators voted the show "Outstanding Exhibition in a University Museum 2010"; the exhibition's companion book was named a finalist for the National Book Award of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change; and WNET aired a 6-min interview with curator Maurice Berger, earning him an Emmy Award nomination from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, New York chapter.

George La Noue, Professor of Political Science and Pubic Policy, has been elected vice chair of the Maryland State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

PlayStation®Network (PSN) announced the Spring 2012 release of "Closure," an award-winning video game designed by Jon Schubbe, a Visual Arts undergraduate student, and two collaborators. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMLC-jUF3ic

Shawn Bediako and Danielle Beatty, Assistant Professors of Psychology, and Adia Garrett Butler, Lecturer of Psychology, received a grant ($3,000) from the American Psychological Association to launch an intensive mentor program called ASPIRE (Applied Social Psychology Intensive Research Experience), aimed at introducing Baltimore City Public School juniors to research methods, statistics, scientific writing, and dissemination.

Hadieh Shafie '04 M.F.A. Imaging and Digital Arts (IMDA) was shortlisted for the Jameel Prize, an international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. Her work was exhibited with the other nine shortlisted artists at the Victoria &Albert Museum, London, July 21 - September 25, 2011.

The exhibition "Project Mah Jongg," with sound design by Tim Nohe, Associate Professor of Visual Arts, received Honorable Mention in the American Association of Museums competition. The exhibition originated at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York City, and is traveling to museums nationally through 2013.

The Association for Gerontology in Higher Education awarded Leslie Morgan, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, the Distinguished Teacher Honor, which recognizes teaching that is "exemplary, innovative, and of impact."

Pranayama 3, a collaborative video produced by Vin Grabill, Chair of Visual Arts, and his son, composer Elliott Grabill, was screened at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Hudddersfield, England, in August.

Life and Loss in the Shadow of the Holocaust: A Jewish Family's Untold Story, co-authored by Rebecca Boehling, Professor of History & Director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities, and Uta Larkey of Goucher College, was released by Cambridge University Press in July. The titular family is that of Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, UMBC Professor of Biological Sciences & Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Chair of Biochemistry.

Calla Thompson, Associate Professor of Visual Arts, was selected for a one-month residency at the Artist-in-Residence Program at Light Work Photography and Digital Media Center in Syracuse, New York, where she worked on Asylum, a project dealing with global warming and issues of civility, permanence, instability, and loss.

Tyson King-Meadows, Associate Professor of Political Science, was named President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists for 2011-2013.

Leslie Morgan, Professor of Sociology & Co-director of the Gerontology Doctoral Program, was named Lipitz Professor of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences for 2011-2012.

Gary Kachadourian, graduate student in UMBC's Imaging and Digital Arts (IMDA) M.F.A. program, received a 2011 Baker Artist Award ($25,000). His work was featured with other Baker awardees at the Baltimore Museum of Art, September 7-October 2, 2011. The Baltimore Sun published a feature article titled "Artist Gary Kachadourian Has a Room with a Point of View" on September 23, 2011. http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-kachadourian-profile-20110923,0,7264297.story

Michael Lane, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Ancient Studies, received a grant ($26,000) from the Institute for Aegean Prehistory to support a geophysical survey in Boeotia, Greece. Wes Bittner '08, Ancient Studies, will participate in the project.

Jaimes Mayhew '11, M.F.A., Imaging and Digital Arts (IMDA), received a 2011-12 Fulbright Program award to carry out Autonomous Energy Research Lab, a social practice art project, in Iceland.

Constantine Vaporis, Professor of History & Director of the Asian Studies Program, has been asked to serve as a consultant on a National Geographic Museum exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Japanese donation of cherry trees to the U.S.

Erle Ellis, Associate Professor of Geography & Environmental Systems, was awarded an NSF grant (over $1,800,000) as PI on a project investigating interactions among human and natural systems in the emerging field of Land Change Science (LCS).

Irene Chan, Associate Professor of Visual Arts, was selected for a two-month residency at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts and Tapiei National University of the Arts, Taiwan. The residency culminates in an exhibition at the Kuandu Museum, October 5-12, 2011.

When the Letter Betrays the Spirit: Voting Rights Enforcement and African American Participation from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama, by Tyson King-Meadows, Associate Professor of Political Science, was released by Lexington Books in September.

The Gerontology Doctoral Program, co-directed by Leslie Morgan, Professor of Sociology, was featured in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education titled "Gerontology Programs Get Creative to Extend Their Own Life Spans," September 4, 2011. http://chronicle.com/article/Gerontology-Programs-Get/128869/?key=TmlycwBma3IbN38wZTlBN25VPXdrYRh7ZCRNYigvblpRGA%3D%3D

Ka-che Yip, Professor of History, received a three-year grant ($62,000) from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council as Co-PI on a project titled "A History of Diseases and Epidemics in Hong Kong, 1841-2003."

BroadwayWorld.com Theatre named Theatre alumni Erica McLaughlin and Alli Houseworth to its list of "100 Theatre Tweeters You Must Follow." http://broadwayworld.com/twitter1002011.cfm

Seth Messinger, Associate Professor of Sociology, received an award from the U.S. Department of Defense/U.S. Army Medical Command ($346,552) for a project titled "Developing a Meaningful Life: Social Reintegration of Service Members and Veterans with Spinal Cord Injury."

Christopher Corbett, Professor of the Practice, Department of English, was featured in a Baltimore Sun article, September 23, titled "UMBC Professor, Author, Heeds Call of the West," about a stretch of U.S. 50 in Nevada that Life Magazine once called "The Loneliest Road in America," but that he feels is the quintessence of the American West, the site of two of his books: Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of The Pony Express (2003) and The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West (2010). http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-09-23/travel/bs-tr-celeb-corbett-20110922_1_orphans-preferred-poker-bride-american-west

Maurice Berger, Research Professor at the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC), was one of the local "art aficionados" whom arts editor John Lewis asked to name three "must-see" artworks in Baltimore for the October issue of Baltimore Magazine. Included in Berger's three choices: UMBC's Joseph Beuys Sculpture Park, which was pictured in the print version of the article. http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/arts/2011/10/art-all-around

Jeremy Johnson '12, Sociology, was interviewed on PRI's "The World" and featured in the Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, Stars and Stripes, American Public Media's "The Marketplace," and other media outlets about his discharge from the Armed Forces under Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) and his plans to return to service following the policy's official repeal on September 20, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK7QEJGwvJM

Lynn Cazabon, Associate Professor of Visual Arts, completed the Arbutus Historical Mural Project, a year-long effort conducted with undergraduate photography students Christina Danaher, Marylayna Demond, and Sam Ganger. The photo-based mural, the theme of which is the history of the railroad in the towns served by the library, was dedicated on September 9, 2011, and featured in a Baltimore Sun article on September 29. http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/baltimorecounty/news/community/ph-at-arbutus-murals-0928-20110928,0,3469382.story

The October issue of Smithsonian magazine highlighted "For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights," the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture's (CADVC's) exhibition currently on view at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and curated by Maurice Berger, Research Professor at the CADVC, who is interviewed in the article.

John Nelson, Assistant Clinical Professor of Education & Co-director of the M.A. TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Program, received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Maryland TESOL Annual Conference on October 3, 2011, in recognition of his "substantial and exemplary contributions to the field of ESL in the State of Maryland."

The Department of Education and the Department of Biological Sciences were awarded a grant ($158,081) from the Maryland Higher Education Commission to run a Teacher Quality in Biology program in 2012.

The 2004 film Saved! directed by Brian Dannelly '97, Visual and Performing Arts, was named to the Top Ten Teen Comedies list:
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-teen-comedies-you-probably-haven%E2%80%99t-seen.php

The NEH has selected the website for the exhibition "For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights," curated by Maurice Berger, Research Professor at the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, for its EDSITEment! educational initiative. The NEH approves EDSITEment! websites for use in the classroom and designates them the "best of the humanities on the web." http://edsitement.neh.gov/websites/all?page=65

Other news regarding "For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights," curated by Maurice Berger, Research Professor at Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC): The exhibition will travel from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where it is currently on view through November 27, 2011, to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, where it will be on view from mid-January 2012 through mid-September 2012, prior to opening at the CADVC in November 2012. For the exhibition's full traveling schedule, see: http://www.umbc.edu/cadvc/exhibitions/.