Featured Students

Interdisciplinary Studies Concentration: Global Peace Building and Conflict Management

Asif is a member of the Honors College as well as a Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar. He serves on the INDS Council of Majors and recently volunteered for the UMBC "Just For Juniors" event at the RAC. He participates each year in the Model United Nations at the Johns Hopkins University, is a percussionist in the UMBC orchestra, and performs with the drum circle "Straight Up Tribal" every Friday at noon.

Asif will be pursuing research on migration and transnational identity in Morocco in the Fall of 2011 and Spring of 2012. He will be working with Moroccan nationals to understand issues in the diaspora and possible implications for peacebuilding in concert with his INDS major.

Asif writes,
"Upon deciding to attend UMBC, I was an undecided major. I enrolled in a class about Building a Culture of Peace, and quickly became interested in what causes conflict. This did not just spawn spontaneously, but was a consideration even before college and was further encouraged by the class. As a result, I began to piece together different elements that can contribute to conflict around the world, and began developing my four-year plan, using the International/Global Studies course list as a loose outline. Ultimately, I began to talk to my INDS Advisor about how to not just use the resources at UMBC, but to also integrate experiences during summers and winters into a holistic plan of seeing the difficulties from multiple angles. My INDS major, Causes of International Conflict, is a combination of Political Science, Sociology, and Anthropology. It aims to examine political, social, and cultural factors of conflict, which will set the basis for pursuing a PhD after graduating. While this may seem quite predetermined for a freshman, the biggest advantages of INDS is that it easily integrates multiple disciplines in a way that others can't, and matches your individual interests more closely than any other major. It is the single most adaptable major at UMBC, the students in the department are all self-driven and passionate about what they do, and the staff in the INDS department are frankly the best on campus. I am blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family within the broader UMBC community."

Interdisciplinary Studies Concentration: Biophysics

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects at least 170 million people worldwide, about 3.2 million of those cases residing in the U.S.  There is not vaccine available, and the standard therapy is only effective for specific viral genotypes. Understanding how this virus functions requires the knowledge of several disciplines being integrated together; specifically the viewpoints of biology, chemistry, and physics.  Using the interdisciplinary research process, these perspectives can be integrated together to form a new understanding of HCV. From biology, we learn about the virus structure and how it takes advantage of a cell for replication. From chemistry, the properties and interactions of the viral molecule can be studied. Using the techniques and foundational knowledge from physics, these molecules can be studied using computer models. Initial symptoms may include: fatigue, muscle aches, jaundice, fever, and loss of appetite; most people do not exhibit ANY symptoms until long term damage (cirrhosis, liver cancer) has been done.

One of the methods used to study the molecules necessary for viral replication is temperature-accelerated molecular dynamics (TAMD), which uses and elevated simulation temperature to explore changes in protein shape (conformation).  TAMD was used in this to study NS5B, the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase vital for HCV replication. A new understanding of conformational chances important for the function of the enzyme may lead to new possibilities for inhibiting the protein and finding new avenues of treatment.

Interdisciplinary Studies Concentration: Intercultural Communication and East Asian Studies

Alyson traveled to Japan two weeks after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in the north.  She will be studying coverage of the disaster in both American and Japanese media and the resulting reactions among the public of both countries.  The personal experiences she had in both countries will fuel her study.