Rebecca Boehling, History, in the Associated Press

News of Rebecca Boehling’s appointment as director of the International Tracing Service (ITS) was been picked up on The Associated Press‘ wire service. The ITS serves victims of Nazi persecutions and their families by documenting their fate through the archives it manages.

Here’s a sampling of outlets that ran the piece:

The Washington Post – “US university professor to head Holocaust-era archive in Germany”

CBS Local – “UMBC Professor to Head Holocaust Archive”

WJTV Jackson – “US university professor to head Holocaust archive”

Arizona Daily Star – “Around the world: US professor to head Holocaust-era archive”

The Missoulian – “US university professor to head Holocaust archive”

UMBC’s announcement of Boehling’s appointment can be read here.

Kevin Kallaugher, Artist-in-Residence, in Financiarul

Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher, UMBC artist-in-residence and cartoonist for The Economist and The Baltimore Sun, is exhibiting his work at the National Museum of Contemporary Arts in Bucharest, and was co-organized with the U.S. Embassy in Romania. The exhibit opened May 15.

The exhibit was covered by Financiarul on May 17, with the newspaper writing that it portrays “a wide range of themes, including American symbols, the fight against terror, the American economy and big corporations, the US in a world context as well as American political leaders.”

The English-language version of the article can be found here.

William LaCourse, College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, in the Baltimore Business Journal

William LaCourse, Interim Dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, was in last Friday’s Baltimore Business Journal. The section of the story, titled STEM programs try to build the workforce of the future, on LaCourse and UMBC focused on the creation of the Chemistry Discovery Center.

“LaCourse and his colleagues developed the Chemistry Discovery Center, an adjunct to the traditional introductory chemistry lecture course. At weekly, two-hour sessions students are randomly paired into teams to solve problems. Each student rotates through roles of supervisor, recordkeeper, data collector and result disseminator. Instructors answer questions but they don’t lecture. The rotating roles have promoted a sense of accountability, which LaCourse thinks has been key to the program’s success. The failure rate in his Chemistry 101 class has been halved, from 30 to 15 percent; the number of chemistry majors at UMBC has doubled, to 160.”

To read the article (subscription required) go to: Higher Learning: STEM programs try to build the workforce of the future.

Ryan Bloom, English, in the New Yorker

English lecturer Ryan Bloom was recently published on the New Yorker’s “Page-Turner” blog. His post, “Lost in Translation: What the First Line of ‘The Stranger’ Should Be” discusses the first sentence of Albert Camus’s book.

“Within the novel’s first sentence, two subtle and seemingly minor translation decisions have the power to change the way we read everything that follows. What makes these particular choices prickly is that they poke at a long-standing debate among the literary community: whether it is necessary for a translator to have some sort of special affinity with a work’s author in order to produce the best possible text,” he writes, ultimately concluding that he right choice is one that hasn’t been published in a translation yet.

The full post, including Bloom’s suggested translation, can be found here.

Kimberly Moffitt, American Studies, on the Marc Steiner Show

On Monday, May 21, Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American Studies, was a guest on the Marc Steiner show to respond to comments by Maryland State Delegate Pat McDonough on “mobs of roving black youth” in downtown Baltimore.  McDonough was also a guest on the show.

“My attitude is that either Baltimore is going to overcome crime, or crime is going to overcome Baltimore,” said McDonough, arguing that his use of “black” in the context was referring to the specific individuals engaged in the crime and not Baltimore’s African American population as a whole.

“We could have easily said there’s concern about youth mobs, or concerns about young people in the Inner Harbor, but that’s not what we heard.  What we heard is a very specific group of people, and by doing that we target that group of people to suggest that they are the only problem,” Moffitt responded.

“When we characterize black youth mobs, the reality is that it ends up not indicting not particular individuals but indicting an entire race of people,” she said. “There’s a goal that we all have to want to reduce crime… but what I hear when I hear some of the solutions [suggested by McDonough] is more about surveillance of black bodies and controlling them and containing them because they are seen in our society as villains, as criminals… I don’t hear that these are young people who might be misguided and need some other outlets.”

The full segment can be heard here.

Tom Schaller, Political Science, in the Baltimore Sun

Why don’t private-sector inefficiencies, which drive up costs, drive us crazy the way public-sector waste does? asks Tom Schaller, professor of political science, in his latest column for the Baltimore Sun.

“Hidden costs, inefficiencies, paperwork hurdles, scams and other frustrations are common to everyday business transactions. And these are just the minor irritants. Beyond that are the retail costs — for everything from tuition and clothing to cable and cellphones — that seem to be rising faster than wages,” he writes. “But I get the distinct sense that Americans are too quick to glorify markets and vilify governments… We just tend not to think about the lazy, overpaid person who knocks off early to play golf in the private sector as raising the costs we pay for things.”

The full column, “Government is flawed, but markets are too,” appeared in the Sun on May 15.

Tom Schaller, Political Science, on Salon

“The political dynamics for winning a second presidential term often differ markedly from winning the first. So don’t be surprised by many eerie parallels between Obama’s 2012 reelection bid and Bush’s 2004 campaign,” writes Tom Schaller, professor of political science, in his latest commentary for Salon.

Shaller argues that many of the strategies Obama will need to use to win the election – including emphasizing things that could have gone wrong, but didn’t and portraying his opponent as an out-of-touch elitist – are the ones that George W. Bush used against John Kerry in 2004.

“The president may be asking Americans to look ‘forward’ in 2012, but the best preview of his reelection campaign can be found by looking backward eight years,” he concludes.

The full piece, “Using Bush’s playbook,” appeared on the Salon website on Friday, May 11.

Christopher Corbett, English, in Style Magazine

Christopher Corbett, professor of the practice of English, reflected on his local farmer’s market in his latest essay for Style magazine.

“Rain or shine, every Saturday morning, if I am in Baltimore, I swing by the 32nd Street Farmers Market, a habit of city life for me since I moved to Baltimore 32 years ago… I like ritual. And I love the farmers market,” he writes.

He says that one of his favorite things about the market is the variety in both people and what you can find there.

“People talk a good line about diversity hereabouts. But you rarely see a scene as eclectic as the farmers market in Waverly (or its Sunday cousin downtown under the JFX…But the farmers market even accommodates my eccentricities.”

The essay, “To Market,” was published in the May 2012 issue of the magazine.

Kimberly Moffitt, American Studies, on Midday with Dan Rodricks

On Tuesday, May 15, Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American studies, appeared on Midday with Dan Rodricks to discuss President Obama’s recently-announced support of same sex marriage.

“It strengthens our nation in many ways, because now we have a clear sense of basic human rights across the board for everyone,” she said.

Rodricks pointed out that many people believe that Obama’s announcement was a calculated political move rather than a reflection of his true beliefs.  Moffitt said that she isn’t sure. “I think this might lure some of these swing voters,” she said. “But I also have some concerns that this might prevent some folks from coming out and supporting him.”

Moffitt is the co-editor of The Obama Effect. The full segment can be heard here.

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, on ‘The Madeleine Brand Show”

Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, appeared on Southern California Public Radio’s “The Madeleine Brand Show” on May 8 to discuss the death of Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak. Spitz is a renowned expert on children’s literature.

“It’s hard to think of any other American who did more for children’s literature,” Spitz said. “Maurice Sendak had an uncanny way of seeing into a child’s private world, a child’s world of fantasy. But I think what is most important about his legacy is that he was able to create books and characters that captured the way every child, at some point, feels alone.”

The full interview can be heard here.