As recently announced, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) strongly recommends that all students check they have the necessary technology setup to be successful as online learners. To help, DoIT is hosting 12 Sprint sessions for 10-minute, virtual walk-in consults or pop-up support groups on key topics including the following:
Getting Online (required of all UMBC students)*
Getting A Computer (required of all UMBC students)*
Checking Your Blackboard Collaborate Audio Connection (essential)
Using UMBC’s Virtual Computing Lab (recommended)
Using myUMBC Groups & Webex Teams for Student Clubs & Organizations (8/26, 8/30, 9/2 and 9/9 only).
The sprints will occur across four weeks starting Tues., 8/8 and ending Wed., 9/9 (click here for specific dates & times).
About Today's Sprint
The sprint will take place in a Blackboard Collaborate virtual conference room. Use the following link up to 15 minutes before the start time:
tinyurl.com/umbcdoit-studenthelp
Due to the short format, these virtual support sessions are designed for quick consults, not deep dives or customized training sessions. Also, you will likely be in a virtual room with several people who also are interested in the same topic, and being helped by a DoIT support staff member. Often, you can learn by listening to this Q&A, but if you want a personalized consult, please use my.umbc.edu/help to open a Request Tracker (RT) ticket.
While you can just “show up,” advance registration -- by indicating you are “Going” to this myUMBC event -- is appreciated and can help DoIT gauge how many support staff are needed in each breakout room.
Prior to the session
If this is your first time joining one of our live sessions, please review the Getting Started Guide. You will also find additional helpful information for using Blackboard Collaborate at our extensive FAQs.
For the best experience, we recommend using Google Chrome or a recent browser update. Closing any unnecessary browser tabs will help conserve your bandwidth. After joining the session, please configure your audio.
* Note: As announced to all incoming students on 7/23/20, since UMBC requires all students to have a computer and Internet access, these are now officially factored into UMBC’s “Cost of Attendance" and thus, can be funded through financial aid. To learn more, visit doit.umbc.edu/students
]]>Dr. Tania Lizarazo and her community based digital storytelling work are featured in June's Ideas on Fire, Imagine Otherwise podcast. Dr. Lizarazo's digital storytelling projects include Mujeres Pacíficas, a collaboration with Afro-Colombian women activists; Sexualidades Campesinas, a collaboration with LGBTQ members of farm working communities in California’s Central Valley, and three collaborations with immigrants in Baltimore: Moving Stories: Latinas in Baltimore; Intercultural Tales: Learning with Baltimore’s Immigrant Communities (with Thania Muñoz Davaslioglu); and Honest Conversations: Faith Community Dialogues on Immigration and Race (with Felipe Filomeno).
'What does it mean to value storytelling as a form of knowledge production? How can we develop collaborative research projects with the communities to which we are accountable? What transformative avenues emerge when we ask what people need rather than making assumptions?
In episode 91 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with professor Tania Lizarazo about how digital storytelling lets her build transnational community and accountability in deeply local spaces, the very different process of doing collaborative research that actively enriches the lives of everyone involved (not just the lives of scholars in the academy), and why being willing to listen and learn together in public is how Tania imagines otherwise.'
Click here to read the full article and listen to her interview on Imagine Otherwise! If you are interested in learning more about digital storytelling and Dr. Lizarazo's methods of project-based learning and collaborative research projects in examining the ways in which cultural identity is constructed through global media and the role of technology indefining humanness in an increasingly digital world, her class GLBL 409(01)/MLLI 490: I'm a Cyborg but that's OK is running this Fall semester Wednesdays 4.30-7pm- spaces still available, register today!
]]>Still have space in your schedule and looking for a course that will move you closer to graduation? Why not take GLBL 409: I'm a Cyborg but That's OK? This course takes on important current issues of identity and technology in an increasingly digitised world.
GLBL 409 is combined with MLL 490 This class titled "I'm a Cyborg but That's OK" after Park Chan-Wook's film, will explore the figure of the cyborg to interrogate the ways in which cultural identity is constructed through global media and the role of technology indefining humanness in an increasingly digital world. We will look at the processes of globalization, and the connections between local and global contexts of struggle that inform lived experiences of identity, including race, gender, sexuality, class and ability. Included texts will open up discussions about the role of technology in shaping capitalism, imperialism and violence as well as individual and collective practices of self-representation, resistance, self-determination and solidarity within a global context. This course will be organized in three simultaneous tracks: reading, viewing and production.
From Dr. Lizarazo on her teaching approach for this course:
My teaching is a collaborative and interactive experience, rooted in feminist pedagogy and enhanced by technology; it exemplifies a commitment to intellectual debate and an openness to exploring different forms of knowledge production both inside and outside the classroom. As we have entered a historical collective experience that has transformed education, and will change higher education in profound ways, we need to use the tools we have to ensure that UMBC’s commitment to civic engagement is maintained through our classes and teaching pedagogy. In particular, I am committed to replicate the community-building experience of in-person classes with tools that I have previously used in my classes. We’ll continue creating E-Portfolios using Google Sites with assignments that mix collaboration, creativity, and technology. Assignments will be shared with the class to practice public writing and imagine knowledge production as a holistic process beyond the university. We will also think beyond writing as the center of knowledge production and use VoiceThread, Adobe Spark Video, among other apps of software, to explore audiovisual genres as ways to communicate and explore theoretical concepts from class discussions and readings.
If you have been notified by the Office of Financial Aid that you are not meeting SAP standards, you may submit an appeal to be considered for financial aid probation. The deadline for Fall 2020 SAP appeals is this Friday, 7 August 2020.
Your appeal must describe the circumstance(s) that impacted your ability to meet SAP standards as well as outline your plans and ability to succeed in future semesters and bring yourself within standards. Appeal circumstances may include injury or illness, death of a relative, caring for ill relatives, or other special circumstances that impacted your academic success. If you choose to submit an appeal, complete both the Appeal and the Academic Plan. Full details about the appeal process can be found here: https://financialaid.umbc.edu/sap/appeals/
Appeals will be submitted electronically using DocuSign. Please note that the appeal is split into two parts, the SAP Appeal eform and the SAP Academic Plan eform.
It is vital to note you will need an academic advisor to review and sign off on your Academic Plan, if you are submitting a SAP appeal please contact Ms. Castle at castl@umbc.edu with a copy of your statement and academic plan attached to your email for her signature and feedback.From Undergraduate Research's MyUMBC Group:
Katie Poteet is a Global Studies and Political Science major with an Arabic minor, who will graduate in May 2021. She is a Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar, a member of the Honors College, and a URA Scholar.
Title of your research project: Building a Nation: How National Service Requirements Affect Patriotic Sentiment
Describe your project: This project will investigate whether countries with mandatory military or civil service requirements for young adults also have higher levels of patriotism throughout the country. The results will help understand whether these policies are effective in increasing patriotism throughout a country.
Who is your mentor(s) for your project?
My mentor for this project is Dr. Carolyn Forestiere, Chair of the Political Science Department. I chose to research this topic under the supervision of Dr. Forestiere because she has extensive knowledge of Western Europe, which is the region I will be studying, and because I enjoyed working with her as a research assistant as she rewrote her book on research methods in political science over the spring semester. Dr. Forestiere is so encouraging and enthusiastic about research!
How did you become interested in this project? I first thought of this research project during the fall of 2019 while taking POLI 301: Research Methods in Political Science with Dr. Forestiere. The topic was outside the scope of the class because our research projects had to focus on the United States, so I saved the idea until there was an opportunity to pursue it further. I chose to focus on Western European countries (in addition to a select number of Central and Eastern European countries) after talking with Dr. Forestiere because there are a number of countries in the region that have some type of mandatory service policies or have recently done away with them.
What has been the hardest part about your research/what was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher? I expect to encounter many confounding variables that may be hard to identify. Many factors can influence citizens’ levels of patriotism that have nothing to do with mandatory service such as a widespread shared identity or a well-liked leader of the country. It will be difficult to determine whether high levels of patriotism are caused in part because most of the population has engaged in mandatory service, but I plan to do this by comparing many different countries with varying degrees of national service requirements and analyzing the differences in overall levels of patriotism in those countries.
What has been the most rewarding part? The most rewarding part will be contributing to the larger conversation around national service requirements in the public policy sphere. There has not been a lot of research on this topic because researchers have traditionally focused on how one country’s patriotism changes when the country implements or removes a mandatory service requirement, which does not happen very frequently. I am excited to see if my approach will yield new results and help policymakers foster patriotism and high spirits in their countries, or whether such requirements should be phased out of the conversation.
How will you disseminate your research? I plan to present my research at URCAD and submit my final paper to undergraduate research journals like the Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Public and International Affairs. This project will serve as my honors thesis for the political science department.
What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? Sign up for a research methods class in your major or a related one! Even if it is not required to graduate, it can strengthen important analysis and writing skills that will be helpful for your future. It will also walk you through the research process step-by-step so you can understand the basics before starting your own research.
What are your career goals? I want to be a researcher at an international affairs or public policy think tank and conduct research on transitional justice. I am currently interning at the Brookings Institution researching the intersection of climate change and girls’ education and I really enjoy the process of investigating an issue, writing up the findings, and sharing it with an audience. I plan to get my Ph.D. in human rights one day and work at an organization like Brookings, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or even the United States Institute of Peace.
Undergraduate Research Awards for 2020-2021 have been awarded to 95 students from disciplines and departments across campus. This year six Global Studies Majors were URA recipients! Mark your calendars to attend Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 to support your fellow majors as they present their research findings.
URA’s provide up to $1,500 to undergraduate students to support their research or creative work with a UMBC faculty mentor on an original project. UMBC students of all years and disciplines are invited to apply, as long as they will remain enrolled at UMBC long enough to complete the proposed work.
Lois A. Akomeah
“Political Corruption and Poverty in Ghana”
Global Studies
Christopher Brown
Violeta Brito (Entrepreneurship Undergraduate Research Awardee)
“A Culturally-Sensitive College Readiness Mentorship Program for Latino American Youth in Baltimore”
Global Studies
Felipe Filomeno
Katherine Poteet
“Building a Nation: How National Service Requirements Affect Patriotic Sentiment”
Political Science
Carolyn Forestiere
Patrick Reid
“How did Media Coverage Impact the Black Lives Matter Movement?”
Political Science
Fernando Tormos-Aponte
Cira Roxana Tapia
“Latino Students Enrolled at Howard Community College with very Low Participation in the Success Programs Offered by the College”
Global Studies
Christopher Brown
Kateryna Yakusheva
(Center for Social Science Scholarship Undergraduate Research Awardee)
What type of government is the most efficient at dealing with pandemics?”
Global Studies
Brigid Starkey