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.
A program featuring the UMBC Camerata and the Opera Workshop will take place on Friday, May 10 beginning at 8 pm in the Fine Arts Recital Hall.
The UMBC Camerata, under the direction of Stephen Caracciolo, is a select ensemble of singers from a wide range of backgrounds and majors in the university. The group performs a wide range of works including Renaissance motets, folksongs, choral-orchestral works, German part songs, Russian sacred liturgies, American spirituals, and new works.
The Opera Workshop, under the direction of Joseph Regan, is a course designed for 8 – 15 advanced vocalists, and offers students the opportunity to study stage acting, movement and character development within the sphere of musical performance.
Admission is free.
The Department of Geography & Environmental Systems invites you to our final seminar of the 2012-2013 academic year, “Silent Spring in the City: Housing, Environmental Justice, and the History of Urban Pest Management.”
This talk by Dr. Dawn Biehler, Assistant Professor, Geography and Environmental Systems, will take place on Wednesday, May 8 from noon to 1:00 p.m. in Sondheim 001.
For more information, please contact Andrew Miller at miller@umbc.edu.
On May 9, 10 and 11, the Department of Dance presents the Spring Dance Showcase, featuring a variety of performances by Dance majors.
8 pm each evening, Old Theatre. $12 general admission $7 students and seniors. For information and reservations, call the Dance Box Office at 410-455-6240.
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.
“The worst kept secret in Maryland is that Martin O’Malley is running for president,” says Donald F. Norris, professor and chair of public policy at UMBC, in a Washington Jewish Week article on O’Malley’s recent visit to Israel and Jordan. He suggests, “One of the important bases that has to be touched is showing you have foreign policy experience. Another is going to Israel. He’s doing a twofer.”
Formally, the 8-day visit was a trade mission; the O’Malley administration notes that in 2012 Israel was Maryland’s 43rd largest trading partner. Twenty Israeli companies already have offices in Maryland and three additional tech will open offices in the state soon.
Norris also this week commented in a Gazette story on a change to Maryland’s GOP leadership with the election of Dels. Nicholaus Kipke (R-Dist. 31) of Pasadena and Kathy Szeliga (R-Dist. 7) of Perry Hall to the positions of minority leader and minority whip. Norris suggests the selection of Kipke, a member of the House Tea Party Caucus, might indicate the Maryland GOP is moving further to the right. This could make GOP candidates less electable in the Democratic-leaning state and, Norris argues, “guarantees the party’s total irrelevance in Maryland.”
The UMBC Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of Tom Goldstein, performs Thursday, May 9 at 8 p.m. in the Fine Arts Recital Hall.
The Percussion Ensemble is a dedicated group of advanced percussion students. The Ensemble is adventurous in its programming with a repertoire that includes graphic notation pieces, improvisational works, and theatre works by important early percussion composers, such as Alan Hovhanness, John Cage and Carlos Chavez. The Ensemble has established a tradition of performing works by faculty and student composers, who sometimes include members of the ensemble.
Admission to this event is free.
As the initial shock following last week’s indictment of inmates and correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center gives way to more detailed analysis, the Baltimore Sun is asking what ramifications this case could have on Gov. Martin O’Malley’s future political career.
“It’s a major problem that has to be fixed,” Donald F. Norris, professor and chair of public policy at UMBC, told the Sun, suggesting the debacle’s ultimate political impact will depend on how O’Malley handles it going forward. He noted, “It could tarnish O’Malley. It could also rebound in his favor.”
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.
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 15th,” a not-for-profit program that provides free groceries to low income senior citizens in Howard County. “Food on the 15th,” 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.
