This Spring, Dr. Thomas Benson returns to UMBC to give the annual Petrovich Lecture in which he will talk about a remarkable life that includes…

• Renaming UMBC's "Option II" program as "Interdisciplinary Studies," as part of a national debate over the role of interdisciplinarity in undergraduate education

• Founding UMBC’s Honors Program (which went on to become today’s Honors College)

• Serving as the president of the international Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (who come to UMBC for their 37th annual conference in 2017) and leading national debate about the place of interdisciplinary studies in undergraduate education

• Becoming president of a Green Mountain college, VT which he led to win the Sierra Club’s prize for America’s number #1 environmental college in 2010

… and much, much more

When? 6:45 p.m. Skylight Room, March 15

Watch for further details…

Meet Renee,

She is a English major and an URA Scholar. She is also a staff writer for The Retriever Weekly and is involved with UMBC’s creative arts journal, Bartleby. Rene also has some advice for future researchers... "Don’t doubt the merits of your research project. Even if your project is very different than many others, don’t let that discourage you. You’re bringing your own perspectives and ideas to the table, and they deserve to be heard just as much as everyone else’s ideas do."

Rene's research project explores the effects from people who were children at the time of 9/11 in order to look at how those attacks were a common point of awakening among the members of her (Rene's) generation. The research also plans to look at how the attacks continue to affect those individuals today. I plan to take elements of the recollections collected, as well as my own, and combine them into a nonfiction book. The aim of this book is to appeal to a wide range of ages, from middle school-aged children through the Millennial Generation. An effect of the timeline will emphasize the enormous impact that one single day can have on an entire generation.

Read more about her research here…

Meet Sean,

He is a Visual Arts major and an URA Scholar. He is a proponent of research funding... "You have nothing to lose except the potential of how far $1500.00 can push you in your career. You can do almost anything you want with the funds as long as you just prove that it’s worth doing." His future goals is to freelance as a photographer and to continue to visually tell the stories of people who can’t tell their own.

Sean's creative project will document the "invisible citizens" of Baltimore City. Homeless individuals are visible casualties of racial and socio-economic class divisions, yet as individuals they are often invisible to much of society. In an effort to make some of these individuals visible, Sean will interview and make individual photographic portraits of select homeless persons with whom he has become acquainted in the past year. This work will personify the individual. Homeless people who participate will be able to take credit for helping others who share their struggle.

Read more about his research here…

• will be closing at 4:30 pm December 22, 2016 and will reopen Tuesday, January 3, 2017
• will not be able to process and send ILL requests for UMBC patrons from December 22 to January 3 as most of the libraries we borrow from will be closed as well
• If you request a book after December 11 you may not receive it until sometime in January
• plan accordingly (on average it takes about two weeks to get a book through ILL)
• will continue to accept your requests and send them out when we return
• wishes you a happy holiday and new year!