In its January 19th issue, The New Yorker published a poem by English Writer in Residence Lia Purpura. The text of Purpura’s poem “Probability” is below. An audio recording of Purpura reading her poem can be found here. A link to previous poems by Purpura published in The New Yorker can be found here.

Probability

Most coincidents are not
miraculous, but way more
common than we think—
it’s the shiver
of noticing being
central in a sequence
of events
that makes so much
seem wild and rare—
because what if it wasn’t?
Astonishment’s nothing
without your consent.

As the discussion continues surrounding a potential new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, an article published January 24 in The Buffalo News examines the possible economic impact of a major sports and entertainment district in the city’s downtown.

Economics Professor Dennis Coates was interviewed for the article and shared that new stadiums don’t necessarily generate job growth and economic development: “If the argument is being put forward that there’s going to be ancillary benefits and job growth discount all of that completely. There’s no evidence that they ever happen,” said Coates. “What I and many others have found is that using stadiums with the intent of them being economic-development tools is not effective.”

Coates added that new stadiums tend not to spur economic growth, but rather shift it from one end of town to another with patrons simply doing business elsewhere: “They’re not actually doing more economic activity than they used to,” said Coates, a Western New York native. “They’re just doing it elsewhere.”

To read the full article “Spinoff of downtown stadium depends on ‘destination’ appeal,” click here.

Joan Shin, Education Professor of Practice, has received additional recognition for her book series Our World with National Geographic Learning. The series is designed to give learners the skills and knowledge they need to learn English and understand the world around them.

Our World: Level 4, has been chosen as the Best Entry for Learners in the HRH Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Awards, part of the English-Speaking Union (ESU). The award series was founded in the 1970s to acknowledge innovation and achievement in the field of English language teaching. Winners are selected for originality and substance by a panel of widely respected judges.

Our World uses images, text, and video and provides National Geographic content to young learners of English. The series also provides support and professional development resources for English language teachers. For more information, click here.

Last year, Shin’s book Teaching Young Learners English (National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning, 2013) received the 2013 Ben Warren International House Trust Prize, which is a prestigious award given annually to the author or authors of the most outstanding work in the field of language teacher education. Shin coauthored the book with JoAnn Crandall, Professor Emerita and former Director of the Language, Literacy and Culture Ph.D. program.

For the official ESU award announcement, click here. To read more about Shin’s work inUMBC Magazine, click here.

In a recent article published in Eurasia Review, Sunil Dasgupta provided analysis on al-Qaeda’s announcement that it is launching a branch in the Indian Subcontinent. Dasgupta, director of UMBC’s political science program at the Universities of Shady Grove, examined why a terrorist group with a substantial presence in the region would need to make a formal announcement about activities in that part of the world.

“The answer may be an alarming one,” Dasgupta wrote. “The move may be part of a broader strategy to enlist elements of India’s disenchanted Muslim underclass in the service of the group’s global agenda.”

In his column, Dasgupta discussed how Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has shifted its focus to a larger, global scale: “What makes the emergence of AQIS significant, however, is that it is the first time a global jihadi organization has explicitly targeted the governments and the people in the region. The entire Indian subcontinent has seen an extraordinary amount of terrorism in the last 35 years, but most of it was home-grown.”

To read Dasgupta’s full analysis in his column “Al Qaeda in India: Why We Should Pay Attention,” click here. The original article appeared in ISN Security Watch blog.

History Professor Kate Brown has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Collaborative Research Fellowship to study the long-term effects of low doses of radiation on human health in the context of the Chernobyl disaster nearly three decades ago. Brown will be working with Timothy Mousseau, an evolutionary biologist at the University of South Carolina.

The two scholars, with Brown providing the humanist perspective and Mousseau the scientist perspective, will collaborate to explore how knowledge and ignorance of the impact of the disaster has been produced over the last thirty years. The project will aim to historically analyze three decades of scientific research on Chernobyl and Fukushima to highlight the known and debated impact on humans, animals, and plants from long term, low dose exposure to radiation. The research comes at a time when nuclear power is being discussed as a solution to climate change and energy independence.

The project, titled Chernobyl Revisited: An Historical Inquiry into the Practice of Knowing, will run for two years. For more information on the ACLS Collaborative Research Fellowship program, click here.

In related news, Brown published an op-ed on January 21 in Time that discussed nuclear waste cleanup at the Hanford plutonium plant in eastern Washington State. In her article, she analyzed why the cleanup has been such a prolonged, difficult problem to deal with: “…the former Hanford plutonium plant became the largest nuclear clean-up site in the western hemisphere. It costs taxpayers a billion dollars a year,” she wrote.

To read the full column titled “How the Atomic Age Left Us a Half-Century of Radioactive Waste,” click here.

Kimberly Moffitt, an Associate Professor of American Studies, appeared on twice on WEAA’s The Marc Steiner Show earlier this month to discuss race and representation in film and advertising.

On January 8, Moffitt participated in an engaging discussion about the recent films Annie, Exodus, and Top Five, and her personal experience viewing the film Annie with her daughter: “This is a film that really resonates with her, and I think it has a lot to do with us listening to our children that they want to see themselves reflected in society and here is a perfect opportunity for that to happen.”

Moffitt participated in the discussion along with Ray Winbush, Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University. To listen to the full segment, click here.

On January 16, Moffitt participated in a discussion on race and representation in Selma, the Golden Globes, and other topics with Kalima Young, Director of the Baltimore Art + Justice Project.

The segment began with a discussion on Ava DuVernay, the director of Selma: “I appreciate her voice and I’m happy that she’s at the table making a stance and telling stories through her lens because it’s not a lens or a set of eyes that we often get to see films through,” Moffitt said. To listen to the full segment, click here.

Christopher Corbett, English, recently penned an essay reflecting on the harsh winter months in Baltimore Style.

In the piece, Corbett decries January as the most unloved month, calling it the season of remorse. He writes, “January is really about winter, the bleak midwinter spoken of in the poem and hymn… I do not believe anyone enjoys January. We endure it.”

Click here to read “In the Bleak Midwinter.”