Faculty & Staff

Director
Anna M. Shields, Ph.D. (CV (pdf))

Before becoming the Director of the Honors College at UMBC, Anna Shields taught at the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Michigan, the University of Arizona, and Princeton University. At the University of Arizona, she taught Honors courses and worked extensively with Honors College students. She is a scholar of Chinese literature, specializing in Tang and Five Dynasties poetry and prose, and in addition to her service as director, she is associate professor of Chinese in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at UMBC. Her first book, Crafting a Collection: The Cultural Contexts and Poetic Practice of the Huajian ji (Collection from among the Flowers) was published in the East Asian Monograph series of Harvard University Press in 2006. She is currently working on a second book entitled "One Who Knows Me": The Literature of Friendship in Late Medieval China.

Associate Director
Simon Stacey, Ph.D. (CV (pdf))

Simon Stacey is a political scientist with training specifically in political theory. He is interested in the issues of transitional justice (how to deal with dictators when their regimes fail), democracy, and social and political violence, and teaches courses on these topics as well as on the history of political theory, ethics and public policy, and American political thought. He is currently working on a book about the contributions that canonical political theorists can make to our thinking about transitional justice and a project on the efficacy of political violence.

Honors College Professor of Visual Arts
Ellen Handler Spitz, Ph.D.

Program Coordinator
Maureen McCormick

Maureen McCormick has been with UMBC since 1989 and in the Honors College since 2000. She is a UMBC alum and a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Tai Delta, the English Honors Society. Her master's degree is in Legal and Ethical Studies. Her role in the Honors College includes academic advising, recruitment and admissions, and coordination of the Living-Learning floor and co-curricular events. McCormick is the Honors College Council advisor.

Program Management Specialist
Peggy Major

Administrative Assistant
Lisa Whittle