Artwork by Lisa Moren, associate professor of visual arts, is on display at the President’s Gallery of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY (City University of New York), 899 Tenth Avenue in New York. The exhibition, Truth of the Matter: paint, concept, memory, on display from February 1 through 28, presents three artists whose work focuses on memory. Professor Moren’s work, Marbleized Paper from the Gulf of Mexico, is made with pigments drawn from the polluted waters created from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The exhibition Where Do We Migrate To?, organized by the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) is now on display at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parons The New School for Design in New York. Originally on view at UMBC in March and April 2011, the exhibition is curated by Niels Van Tomme, director of arts and media at Provisions Learning Center in Washington, D.C., and features work by nineteen internationally recognized artists and collectives. The show will be on display at Parsons through April 15, 2012.

Artwork by Vin Grabill, chair and associate professor of visual arts, is on display at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) through March 11 in an exhibition entitled Under Cover. Grabill’s 2010 video Frontier is among the approximately 50 works of sculpture, photography and video featured in the show, which is a project of MICA’s Exhibition Development Seminar.

Professor Grabill was interviewed by WYPR’s Tom Hall for a segment on Maryland Morning that aired on January 31. An audio file of the interview is here.

Eric Dyer, associate professor of visual arts, has been awarded a 2012 grant from Creative Capital for his project “Short Ride in a Phat Machine.” Professor Dyer was one of only 56 artists selected out of an applicant pool of 3,247 artists in all 50 states. Creative Capital grants provide up to $50,000 in direct project funds, plus advisory services.

Creative Capital is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing integrated financial and advisory support to artists pursuing adventurous projects in five disciplines: Emerging Fields, Film/Video, Literature, Performing Arts and Visual Arts.

…just listen to UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski for a minute or two. We dare you to not be inspired to give back! (Click on image for video.)

Dave Marcotte, UMBC public policy professor and graduate program director, will present the inaugural lecture in this semester’s Research Seminar Seminar Series in Public Policy and Economics this Friday, February 10, at noon in PUP 438.

Marcotte’s talk is titled “Public Higher Education Tuition and Enrollment.” His writing on higher education, school closings and test scores has appeared in both academic journals and popular press, such as  the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun, Education Week and Inside Higher Education.

Additional series speakers this semester include Tara Watson, Williams College (3/9), Tom Vicino, Northeastern University (3/30); Jim Bessen, Boston University (4/6); and Randall Reback, Barnard College (4/27). For details, see the social sciences event calendar on myUMBC.

Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, recently visited India, where her activities included reading books to children at the SAI International School.  Her visit was covered in the Telegraph newspaper.

“Imagination is a conscious activity that requires a great amount of focus and concentration. Storytelling can create a number of scenarios and possibilities. It can make the impossible possible. For example, our storybooks have animals talking, people talking, things vanishing and so on. But my aim was not to teach children to live in a fantasyland. I told them about humanitarian values, something that can help them become better individuals,” Spitz told the newspaper.

The story, “Of Math and Games,” appeared in the newspaper on January 13.

Spitz’s visit was also described in a release by the school, which said that “her wonderful presentation and storytelling was very impressive.”  The full release can be read here.

English Chair Jessica Berman’s newest book, Modernist Commitments: Ethics, Politics, and Transnational Modernism, is now available from Columbia University Press.

In this book, Berman demonstrates how modernist narrative connects ethical attitudes and responsibilities to the active creation of political relationships and the way we imagine justice. She challenges divisions between “modernist” and “committed” writing, arguing that a continuum of political engagement undergirds modernisms worldwide and that it is strengthened rather than hindered by formal experimentation.

“Are pet owners, activists and business owners increasingly at odds over how we acquire our pets?” asks a recent article on the website Patch.com

Philosophy instructor Greg Ealick wondered if “the increasing hostility we see in pet rearing is an echo of the increasing hostility in child rearing.”

The column, “Have ‘Mommy Wars’ Given Way to ‘Pet Wars?’” appeared on the website on February 3.  It is part of a series of posts examining the morality behind how we get our pets.

UMBC junior fullback Liam Paddock has been named the 2011 America East Fall Scholar-Athlete for the sport of men’s soccer.

Paddock was amongst six recipients in the league’s fall sports of men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, field hockey and men’s and women’s cross country. He is the first Retriever soccer player to receive the honor.The award capped a windfall of accolades for Paddock. He earned first team all-conference honors and was the only first team league honoree to be named to the All-Academic team for men’s soccer in 2011.

Last month, Paddock was amongst three Retrievers selected to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America 2011 University Division Men’s Scholar All-East Region team, where he landed on the second team.

Paddock earned a place on the Fall 2011 America East Commissioner’s Honor Roll. He has a 3.91 GPA with a psychology/sociology major and has recorded four consecutive semesters with a 4.00 GPA.

On the pitch, the rugged defender has started all 55 games at fullback that he has dressed for in his tenure at UMBC.

A committee of athletic administrators and NCAA Faculty Athletics Representatives chose an honoree in each of the six fall championship sports. Each America East Scholar-Athlete was a starter or prominent reserve and carries a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.30. Each honoree will automatically be eligible for the America East Female or Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award to be announced this summer.