Theodore Gonzalves, American Studies, Awarded Smithsonian Fellowship

Theodore Gonzalves, associate professor and chair of American Studies, has been named a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution for 2013, where he will work with the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Gonzalves’ project, “Singing Truth to Power: The Story of Paredon Records,” traces the cultural history of a record label whose output of recorded music and speeches documented revolutionary movements throughout the globe. According to the collection’s finding aid, the label’s 50 record albums constitute a unique historical documentation of the political protest and revolutionary currents in the world over the course of three decades. Thirty-one of the fifty albums come from national liberation movements represented in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

The Smithsonian has been supporting study and research in a variety of ways, including fellowships from predoctoral to postdoctoral scholars, since its founding in 1846. The number of senior postdoctoral fellows selected each year ranges from four to 10, making this one of the institution’s most competitive awards. The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is a research and educational unit of the Smithsonian Institution promoting the understanding and continuity of diverse, contemporary grassroots cultures in the United States and around the world.

Gonzalves’ research and creative work has received previous support with a Fulbright Senior Scholar award, a Moeson fellowship at the Library of Congress, a Meet the Composer grant, and other awards from humanities councils in Maryland and Hawai‘i.

Announcing the John Jeffries International Fellowship

Dean John Jeffries is retiring at the end of June after forty years of service to UMBC. In recognition of his profound impact on UMBC, we are delighted to announce the establishment of the John Jeffries International Fellowship.

The Fellowship fund honors John’s commitment to building a strong and distinctive undergraduate curriculum and to educating students to become informed and engaged global citizens.  The Fellowship will provide faculty with resources to create, or redesign, and teach a course in their fields in order to add or enhance an explicit international or transnational focus. Our expectation is that the resulting courses will be taught regularly and will broaden the intellectual scope of the curriculum in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

In a matter of weeks, current and former Department Chairs, Program Directors, and Associate Deans in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences have contributed more than $25,000 to endow the John Jeffries Fellowship.  Since then, others have contributed towards the goal of $200,000, which will enable the campus to support two Jeffries Fellows each year.

If you are interested in making a gift to the John Jeffries International Fellowship Program or have any questions, please contact Marjoleine Kars, Jason Loviglio, or Carole McCann.

Kate Brown, History, Gives Lectures

On Wednesday, May 8, at 4 p.m. Kate Brown, associate professor of history, will speak about her recent book “Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters” at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.  Plutopia is the first history of Richland, Washington and Ozersk, Russia, two communities developed in parallel by opposing nations at the height of the Cold War.  More information about the event can be found here.

Brown also spoke about the book at Fordham University on April 24, and at Northwestern University on May 6.

John Jeffries, Dean of CAHSS, Gives Low Lecture

On Wednesday, May 1, John Jeffries, dean of the college of arts, humanities, and social sciences, gave the annual history department Low Lecture in celebration of his retirement.  The lecture can be seen below.

The lecture was followed by a celebratory reception in the Black Box Theatre.

Julie Rosenthal, Asian Studies, Receives Volunteer of the Year Award

Congratulations to Julie Rosenthal, Program Management Specialist for the Asian Studies Program, who has been named the Association of Community Services Volunteer of the Year for her role in creating and directing the not-for-profit Food on the 15th Program. Hers is one of the 38th Annual Audrey Robbins Humanitarian Award given by the association. The award ceremony will be held on Friday, May 3, in Clarksville, MD.  Food on the 15th delivers groceries and toiletries to disadvantaged senior citizens in Jessup and Ellicott City.

The Association of Community Services (ACS) is a network of organizations and individuals serving Howard County residents across the spectrum of health, human services, the arts and the environment.  For more information, please go to: http://www.acshoco.org/.

News on the award was also reported in the Columbia Patch.

Starting this year, Food on the 15th also has a presence at UMBC, in cooperation with the Asian Studies Program.

Robert Deluty, Graduate School, Publishes his 41st Book

Robert Deluty, associate dean of the Graduate School, has published a new book, titled “Entering Through the Window.”

In his review, physician, poet, and writer Ronald Pies writes, “Robert Deluty’s poems truly do ‘enter through the window,’ surprising and sometimes startling us into new awareness. At times, we experience these short poems with the intensity of a Zen koan; at times, with the power of a perfectly timed joke, as in ‘Yom Kippur/ the quarter-Jewish man/ skipping dessert’ or ‘offered horseradish/ their teen declines, stating/ she’s a vegan.’ As we have come to expect with this prolific poet of the microcosm, Deluty manages to reveal an entire world through a very small window”

Entering Through the Window,” as well as Deluty’s other books, may be purchased at the UMBC Bookstore.

Asian Studies Program and Longwood Apartments Begin Partnership

The Asian Studies Program and Longwood Apartments, located in Columbia, MD, have begun a partnership this spring. Asian Studies students will serve internships at this HUD Section 8 housing complex to facilitate communication between the largely Asian population and the non-Asian staff. They will also interact with the Chinese and Korean-speaking residents in a variety of ways, particularly through the Longwood Senior Center, which is located in Longwood Apartments and operated by Howard County

On April 26, two ASIA majors, Christine Au and Klara Kim, served as translators and facilitators at Longwood’s Spring Community meeting. Other internship duties will include: translating the monthly events calendar into Korean and Chinese; helping the Longwood staff to create bilingual work orders and other types of forms; assisting the Longwood Senior Center’s director with activities for residents (English language classes, recreational activities).

Christine Au speaks with residents

Asian Studies would also like to bring to Longwood Apartments “Food on the 15^th,” a not-for-profit program that provides free groceries to low income senior citizens in Howard County. “Food on the 15^th,” founded and directed by Julie Rosenthal, Program Management Specialist for ASIA, will begin collecting non-perishable food donations on campus in the fall.

To see more images, visit the Asian Studies Program Facebook Page.

Joe Tropea ’06 History B.A. and ’08 Historical Studies M.A, in the Baltimore Brew

A film by Joe Tropea ’06 History B.A. and ’08 Historical Studies premiers locally at the Maryland Film Festival next week.  The Baltimore Brew covered the film in a May 1 story entitled “A fiery act of civil disobedience in Catonsville still resonates, 45 years later.”

“Hit & Stay’ tells the story of nine Catholic activists who protested the Vietnam War by burning draft files in Catonsville on May 17, 1968.  Tropea and fellow filmmaker Skizz Cyzyk tell the story using old footage, recent interviews with surviving members of the group and their supporters, images of war horrors, and the reflections of eminences of the Left such as Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Bill Ayers and Amy Goodman.

Tropea undertook the six-year process of making the documentary after writing on the subject for his masters thesis.  “I had had no idea about the amount of strategy and coordination and about how all these things were connected,” he said.

“Hit & Stay” will have two screenings at The Maryland Film Festival. (Tickets available here.)

• Thursday, May 9, 7:30 p.m. at Charles Theatre, 1711 N Charles St.
• Saturday, May 11, 1:30 p.m. at MICA’s Brown Center, 1300 Mount Royal Ave.

The anniversary of the action will also be commemorated with a May 10 event at UMBC, “Looking Forward from the 45th Anniversary of the Catonsville Nine Actions.”

Lia Purpura, English, in the New Yorker

A poem by Lia Purpura, writer-in-residence in English, recently appeared in the “New Yorker.  “Beginning” was published on April 29 and can be read here.

Lindsay DiCuirci, English, Awarded Fellowship

Lindsay DiCuirci, assistant professor of English, has been selected as the Stephen Botein Fellow in the History of the Book in American Culture at the American Antiquarian Society. She will be conducting research for a book based on her dissertation research, titled “History’s Imprint: The Colonial Book and the Writing of American History, 1790-1855,” this summer.

Botein Fellows are selected for the one-month fellowship on the basis of the applicant’s scholarly qualifications, the scholarly significance or importance of the project and the appropriateness of the proposed study to the Society’s collections.