Dr. Vaporis' project is Sword and Brush: Portraits of Samurai Life in Early Modern Japan, 1600-1868.

During the Fellowship, Dr. Vaporis will complete his current book manuscript. Despite the widespread appeal of the samurai as cultural icon, there is a dearth of historical scholarship on the subject in English. Sword and Brush will be the first collection of biographies of samurai, who were the political – military elite of early modern, or Tokugawa, society. This volume, which will be aimed at the general reader and is both a social history of early modern Japan told through the biographies of ten samurai and a study of biography as a historical genre.

For the past five years, For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights, an exhibition organized by UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, has traveled the nation through the National Endowment for the Humanities’ NEH on the Road program. Now, the NEH has extended the exhibition’s tour for an addition five years, marking the first time that the NEH on the Road program has doubled to ten years a tour period for an exhibition. 

Through a host of media— including photographs, television and film, magazines, newspapers, posters, books, and pamphlets — the project explores the historic role of visual culture in shaping, influencing, and transforming the fight for racial equality and justice in the United States from the late-1940s to the mid-1970s. 

The first full-scale version of the exhibition opened at the International Center of Photography in 2010 and traveled to six venues through 2013, including the National Civil Rights Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the DuSable Museum of African American History, and UMBC.

The NEH on the Road version of the show opened in Kansas City in April 2012, and has toured to more than 20 venues since then, including stops in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Wilmington, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Las Cruces, New Mexico; Eu Claire, Wisconsin; San Antonio, Texas; and Wichita, Kansas.

Maurice Berger, research professor and chief curator at the CADVC, noted:

…the role of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as the principal funder of For All the World to See, has been extremely important. But no more so than its support of the NEH on the Road version of the exhibition. By allowing the show to travel across the United States, to more than 50 venues, the NEH will also allow its novel ideas about the civil rights movement to reach many more people.
 
So much research and writing about the modern civil rights movement — and so many exhibitions — have focused on photography or have ignored visual culture completely. The NEH on the Road version of For All the World to See will help thousands of new visitors to understand the powerful role that visual media — including film and television, graphic art and posters, advertising, photography, and even toys — played in altering prevailing ideas about race in America. By 2023, more than a million visitors will have seen both iterations of the show.

Image: Ernest C. Withers, Sanitation Workers Assemble in Front of Clayborn Temple for a Solidarity March, Memphis, TN, March 28, 1968; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Museum Purchase, ©Ernest C. Withers, Courtesy Panopticon Gallery, Boston MA

This story, by Catherine Borg for UMBC News, originally appeared here.

The UMBC Office of the Vice President for Research has issued a Call for Applications for the NEH 2017 Summer Stipends program as a Limited Submission Opportunity. UMBC may select two nominations to advance to full proposals to be submitted to the NEH by September 29, 2016. The deadline for internal nominations is July 15, 2016.

NEH Summer Stipends support individuals in advancing research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Recipients usually produce articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources. Though this is an NEH program, many faculty members in the arts and social sciences work on projects that the NEH might fund. 

Summer Stipends support projects at any stage of development. Outright awards of $6,000 will be given for two consecutive months of full-time research during summer 2017. 

Click here for more information on the NEH program.

Contact Rachel Brubaker, Assistant Director for Grants and Program Development, Dresher Center for assistance (lead time is essential).

Kimberly Moffitt recently joined The Baltimore Sun’s “Roughly Speaking” podcast with Dan Rodricks to discuss the state of the 2016 presidential campaign and Gov. Larry Hogan’s announcement that he will not be endorsing Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

Moffitt appeared on the program with Republican analyst Richard Cross, and they covered a range of topics, including Gov. Hogan’s stance on the presidential election and national political scene.

“Although we are often considered a blue state in national politics, I think Hogan recognized that his success as our governor had a lot to do with Democrats as well as Independents to help catapult him toward the role he is currently serving for us now,” Moffitt explained on the program. “Recognizing that, I think seeing Trump as a polarizing figure, he said that I must take a different stance.”

Discussing voter perceptions of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Moffitt shared that many voters consider her polarizing due to her length of time and extended scrutiny on the national political scene, as well as many voters tying her to the impact of policies that originated under President Bill Clinton’s administration.

Listen to the full podcast “Larry Hogan walks away from Donald Trump” on The Baltimore Sun‘s website.

Moffitt also recently appeared on WEAA’s The Marc Steiner Show to reflect on the remake of the classic miniseries Roots after the entire series had aired. Listen to Moffitt’s complete analysis on The Marc Steiner Show website.

Image: Kimberly Moffitt in her office. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

This story, by Max Cole, originally appeared here. 

The Zika outbreak has brought renewed attention to strategies for controlling pest populations across the country. Dawn Biehler, an associate professor of geography and environmental systems, recently joined WYPR’s “Humanities Connection” program to explain how the humanities can help inform environmental research on pest and rodent control.

“Studying unwanted animals like rats and mosquitoes might seem more a topic for the natural or health sciences than for the humanities,” Biehler said during her segment, which aired June 24 on WYPR. “But humanities disciplines can open up important ways of understanding humans’ relationships with the creatures we call pests.”

Biehler is leading a research team that is working on anextensive study to determine whether a neighborhood having more mosquitoes translates to a greater risk of disease transmission. The researchers are focusing on West and Southwest Baltimore neighborhoods to study how abandoned buildings can sustain mosquito populations.

In her “Humanities Connection” segment, Biehler explained that legacies of discrimination and urban planning have led to current patterns of infestation, and her research team is engaging residents in environmental and political action to make communities healthier and to advocate for better mosquito control. As part of the Baltimore Mosquito Study, residents have been working on producing community photography and oral histories to tell the stories of the environments they live in.

“Perhaps these stories of environmental past and present can help us understand what we need to do today to help make Baltimore healthier,” Biehler said.

Listen to the full segment on the Maryland Humanities website.

Image: Asian Tiger Mosquito. Photo by frankieleon, CC by 2.0. 

This story, by Max Cole, originally appeared here.