A Global Action Plan for Women in IT

 

For the first time, technology leaders from 22 countries and six continents will gather to explore concrete ways in which access by girls and women to technology can be increased in order to effect economic, social and political change. The First International Symposium on Women and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will convene June 12-14 in downtown Baltimore. Participants from developing and developed countries will include leaders from business, government and non-government agencies and educational institutions.

The symposium was organized and is co-hosted by UMBC’s Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT), the World Trade Center Institute, the World Bank and Women in Global Science and Technology; it is held in cooperation with the ACM (Association of Computer Machinery)

Through the exchange of ideas and experiences, the symposium’s organizers expect to create an action agenda to significantly increase the international participation of girls and women in ICT–including leadership of women in technology business–in the next five years.

“This is an important time for women and technology,” said Claudia Morrell, CWIT’s executive director. “ICTs for girls and women will either become a new tool for increased access to education, economics, and social equity or it will create a new form of discrimination. In either case, the ramifications for all of us are vast. The symposium will address topics that we know need exploring, and we have sought out the world’s leading authorities to discuss current hurdles and possible solutions.”

Among the speakers will be authorities on ICT and the global economy, including widely published authors Jo Sanders, Sue Rosser and Sophia Huyer, as well as corporate leaders from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Maryland’s lieutenant governor, Michael Steele, will address participants at an opening reception. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission for Women, Ellen Sauerbrey, honorary chair, and UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski will be keynote speakers.

More information about the symposium is available online.

(6/6/05)

 

Celebrating the Class of 2005

 

This year, UMBC will award degrees to 1200 undergraduates and more than 200 graduate students in the arts and sciences, engineering and social work.

UMBC’s Class of 2005 includes students headed to prestigious graduate programs at Brown University, Cornell University, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, the London School of Economics, Stanford University, University of Arizona, University of Cambridge and the University of Westminster (England).

Other students have secured jobs with a wide spectrum of corporations, nonprofits, government agencies and universities, including AmeriCorps, the Department of Defense, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Microsoft, MIT, the PeaceCorps, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Proctor & Gamble and T. Rowe Price. Many will teach at public schools across Maryland.

Click here to read stories from the Class of 2005.

(5/25/05)

 

Creating Interactive Memories

 

Associate Professor of Visual Arts Lisa Moren was recently recognized for her new media art—including installations, videos, books and interactive multi-media forms—with a 2005-06 Fulbright Scholar award. Moren will lecture at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, one of the oldest film schools in Europe.

At FAMU, Moren will teach two classes based on DIMINUENTS, which is one project in her three-part series examining memory, place and narrative in former Soviet republics. One class of film students will use new technologies to make their own interactive films, while another will focus on metaphor to create a collaborative film based on their own memories and memories of families and friends.

Moren was previously an artist-in-residence in several former Soviet countries. She presents lectures and exhibits her works nationally and internationally, including an anticipated two-person exhibition at the Frants Gallery in SoHo, New York City. A multiple-year recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council award, Moren has published her work in Performance Research and a forthcoming issue of Visible Language.

In 2003, Moren curated and wrote the exhibition catalog for “Intermedia: the Dick Higgins Collection” at UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery. She received a National Endowment for the Arts award for her research on Higgins and the fluxus art movement. Moren also founded concretestream.umbc.edu, an international netcast of artists’ works, discussions and experimental live exchanges on the Internet. The site has featured live and curated events in collaboration with artists and organizations from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia.

(5/17/05)

 

 

Shared Values Set in Stone

 

UMBC honors Walter Sondheim, Jr., a pivotal leader of school desegregation and economic revitalization in Baltimore, for his achievements in community service, social justice and diversity on May 11 with the dedication of the University’s first named academic building, Janet and Walter Sondheim Hall, and an accompanying sculpture.

The event caps off a successful $6 million campaign to endow the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program at UMBC and rename the former Social Sciences building in honor of Sondheim and his late wife, Janet.

Sondheim is perhaps best known for leading the desegregation of Baltimore City Public Schools as chair of the City School Board and for guiding the “Baltimore Renaissance” of downtown and the Inner Harbor in the 1970s and 1980s as chairman of Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management, Inc. (View an online documentary on Sondheim’s career.)

“Walter Sondheim embodies the values that the UMBC community treasures most,” said UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III. “He is a visionary leader who cares deeply about children, families and education in Baltimore. The statue and building we dedicate in his honor will stand for a long time. But a more fitting and lasting tribute will be the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars who bear his name as they serve the public and make a difference to generations to come.”

Founded in 1999, UMBC’s Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program, directed by Roy Meyers, professor of political science, supports talented undergraduate students who want to become effective leaders in government, non-profits , corporations and the community. Through an interdisciplinary approach combining service learning, internships and intensive advising/mentoring, over 40 Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars have graduated from the program or are currently receiving training for careers in law, social work, public administration, business, education, environmental policy, politics and other fields.

While Sondheim has received many honors over his career, the UMBC hall is the first entire structure named in his honor and the statue, sculpted from cast bronze by Maryland artist Antonio Tobias Mendez, is the first life-size rendition. Three granite benches for public seating anchoring the bluestone plaza outside the renamed building are inscribed with quotes from Sondheim reflecting his insights and values. Once unveiled, a life-sized likeness of Sondheim stands and invites the viewer to sit on a bench and take part in the community, symbolizing his civic spirit and humble generosity.

More information on the May 11 Sondheim Hall and statue dedication is available online.

(5/9/05)

 

Writing a Biography of “No Place”

 

Assistant Professor of History Kate Brown recently received two significant awards for A Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland (Harvard University Press, 2004). The book received the American Historical Association’s prestigious George Louis Beer Prize, given for outstanding historical writing on any phase of European international history since 1895. She previously received the Heldt Prize awarded by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies.

“Kate Brown is already an extraordinarily accomplished scholar, one of the rare historians to win one of the profession’s major prizes so early in a career,” said John Jeffries, professor and chair of the history department. “She also deserves recognition as an innovative teacher who is committed to enhancing student engagement and learning in her classes.”

A Biography of No Place is a travelogue, an unusual genre for a study of archival history. “I wrote this history as a travelogue because it is about marginalized people who did not leave a mark in archives, and so the historian must go in search of the traces they left behind,” said Brown.

In her book Brown describes her travels throughout the borderland between Russia and Poland, where people later identified as Poles, Germans, Jews, Ukrainians and Russians lived side by side in 1925. Over the next three decades, these cultures were homogenized out of existence, the result of Soviet and Nazi rule. By the 1950’s, this “no place” emerged as an ethnically pure Ukrainian heartland, because the diversity that defined the region was destroyed. Combined with ethnography and research in recently opened archives, her experiences and oral interviews provide a poignant story of the annihilation of a rich, culturally complex borderland.

“If we widen the scope of history to include people at the margins of society, we can see the destruction that lies in the wake of progress,” said Brown. “The deportees are some of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met in my life. They are amazed that someone cared about their stories, but they’re not bitter; despite deportation and a life in exile, they carry on.”

(5/2/05)

 

Supporting Undergraduate Research

 

UMBC’s emphasis on undergraduate research is one of its most distinctive strengths. Opportunities to conduct independent research—both on and off campus—are supported with grant awards and faculty support, so that research can be a part of any undergraduate’s learning experience. Each year, the UMBC community celebrates the scholarly and creative accomplishments of its undergraduates at Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD). On Wednesday, April 27, approximately 60 students will present their work to the campus community and the general public. (Events will be held on the 7th Floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library.)

Founded in 1997 by the Office of the Provost, URCAD features oral presentations and poster sessions, as well as artistic exhibits and performances. Students can also apply for Undergraduate Research Awards (URA) to fund their research; 28 such scholars received 2004-05 URA awards and are among this year’s URCAD participants. Four students will go on to present their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

“The importance of undergraduate research is re-enforced each year at this time,” said Provost Arthur Johnson, “as I hear about URCAD participants and Provost Undergraduate Research Award winners receiving their acceptances into graduate school or winning their first job, due in large part to their experiences and success with undergraduate research. This is another UMBC opportunity that offers students a learning experience with intrinsic as well as practical value.”

For most UMBC undergraduates, research experience—and support from both the Provost’s Office and their academic departments—is a central part of their education, and begins long before they apply to present at URCAD. What’s more, the depth of the experience prepares them for graduate school and professional careers.

Senior Aaron Ralby, English/modern languages and linguistics, whose research on a poem by W.B. Yeats initially began as a project for the English Honors Program, said, “My undergraduate thesis has not only taught me how to write a longer scholarly work, but has also prepared me to go into graduate school with confidence. Next year, when I work toward a master’s in philosophy at Cambridge University, I will have to submit a thesis of approximately the same length as the one I am writing now. I know that my research has given me the training to succeed in graduate school.”

URA recipient and visual arts major Cindy Claros, who will also present her research on contemporary Mexican art at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, said that receiving financial support from the Provost’s Office provided important travel resources. “The URA gave me the opportunity to visit Mexico last summer. Part of my research included interviews with Mexican artists, and during the ten days I was there, I was able to meet with six of them residing in Mexico City. The award helped me a great deal by taking away the major concern of finances and allowing me to focus on my research,” said Claros.

Undergraduates also appreciate the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom, and work with professors who are experts in their fields. History major Patrick Arnold, who will present his comparison of political cultures and elections in New Hampshire and Vermont at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, said, “My research experience has allowed me the opportunity to apply many of the skills and values taught in the classroom. It helped me to hone analytical and interpretive skills. In addition, my mentor, Professor and Chair of History John Jeffries, provided constructive criticism and endless encouragement.”

Kenneth Gibbs, biochemistry major, agrees. “My research experience has allowed me to apply what I learn in the classroom and develop my critical thinking skills. Professor of Biological Sciences Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg has been a great mentor during my project; she advised me about graduate schools and allowed me to travel to scientific conferences.” Gibbs, who will attend the Ph.D. in immunology program at Stanford in the fall, said his research helped him decide what area to focus on after graduating from UMBC.

Like Gibbs, Elena Spieker, a psychology major, and Stefanie Watson, a music major, said their experiences confirmed their research interests. “I had positive experiences with my research at UMBC, thanks in large part to my advisor, Professor of Psychology Zoe Warwick. Her knowledge in the areas of taste and satiety reinforces my desire to try to discover new connections between food and the effects on satiety.”

Watson, who is studying collaborative piano, said, “Being encouraged to conduct research as an undergraduate has been a very important part of my education, largely because this is an area I intend to pursue in the future. Discovering more about it now has helped me to be sure that I do want to continue.”

For many UMBC undergraduates, their research experiences lead to opportunities to present at professional conferences. On May 1, interdisciplinary studies major Laura Jones will travel to Prague to present her research on Czech and Slovak republics at an international conference on “Redefining Europe.” Jones said UMBC’s study abroad program played an important role in her research success. “My research made use of both Czech and Russian language skills I learned at UMBC and during study abroad—I would not have been able to do this project without them.”

URCAD will be held on Wednesday, April 27 on the 7th Floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library. The complete schedule is available online.

On Thursday, April 28, the Graduate Student Associations at UMBC and the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) will host the 2005 Graduate Research Conference at the UMB campus.

(4/21/05)

Conducting Research for the Iraqi Special Tribunal

 

In his last semester of law school, Ian Ralby, modern languages and linguistics/M.A. intercultural communication ’02, is taking an unexpected course and, in fact, helping to shape the course of history. Along with 20 other William & Mary law students, he is working for the Department of Justice (DOJ), providing legal support for the judges who will try Sadaam Hussein and his top lieutenants.

The students are working in small groups; each is researching one of ten legal questions submitted by the DOJ that will be presented at the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Ralby and his partner recently filed a 60-page answer to their assigned question. That answer will be reviewed by the DOJ, translated into Arabic, and given to the Iraqi judges to help them decide the cases against the individuals who bear the greatest responsibility in the crimes committed by the Baath regime.

“This is the most significant and important thing I’ve done,” Ralby told the Virginian Pilot during one of many press interviews about the project. “I’m not sure where it will lead, but it’s definitely an honor and a privilege to be part of something so historic.”

Ralby, UMBC’s Class of 2002 valedictorian, graduated at 19 with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. A Humanities Scholar and Rhodes Scholar semi-finalist, he was also one of the first recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship, considered one of the most generous awards of its kind in the U.S.

After his first year of law school, Ralby worked as a summer intern for the U.S. Army JAG Corps at Fort Meade, Maryland, where he was given a significant amount of responsibility in the prosecution of a rape and child molestation case. The defendant is now serving a 12-year sentence in military prison. In addition, Ralby has worked for two years on the William & Mary Law Review, first as a staff member, and this year as a note editor.

Ralby says UMBC prepared him for the challenges of law school and his work for the tribunal. “UMBC gave me a fantastic liberal arts foundation that has allowed me to easily branch off into many different areas. Studying modern languages and linguistics and intercultural communication instilled in me not only a deep interest in international affairs, but a sensitivity to and understanding of the people and politics foreign to how many of us in the U.S. function. Some of the theoretical models I studied have helped me to clearly articulate and recognize the social, cultural, economic and political dynamics at play in many regions of the world, including Iraq.

“Most importantly, however, UMBC nourished my intellectual curiosity, making me open to academic adventures which have provided me with unbelievable opportunities such as working in criminal prosecution for the U.S. Army JAG Corps, or as a clerk for the Iraqi Special Tribunal,” said Ralby.

Ian’s younger brother, Aaron (English, modern languages and linguistics) also led a distinguished undergraduate career at UMBC. He will graduate in May and head to Cambridge University this fall.

(4/11/05)

A “Research Laboratory” for Contemporary Chamber Music

 

Video: Ruckus Performance

Founded in 2000 to promote the performance of contemporary chamber music, Ruckus, UMBC’s resident professional contemporary music ensemble, plays important roles both on and off campus.

“With all of UMBC’s music faculty sharing a research interest in contemporary music, the Ruckus ensemble provides an important public face for UMBC’s reputation for cutting-edge research,” said Linda Dusman, professor and chair of the Department of Music. “The ensemble also serves as an important outreach tool and contributes to the cultural life of UMBC and the Baltimore-Washington region.”

Ruckus bookends its UMBC performance on April 12 with concerts at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston on April 3 and at Stanford University on April 17 and 22 (as part of a week-long residency). Ruckus has also performed at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and at universities along the East Coast. The UMBC performance includes the premiere of Dusman’s Magnificat 3: Lament, with interactive animation by UMBC visual arts professor Alan Price.

For these performances, Ruckus features flutist Lisa Cella, cellist Franklin Cox, percussionist Tom Goldstein, clarinetist E. Michael Richards, violinist Airi Yoshioka, pianist Thomas Moore and conductor Brian Stone.

To watch members of Ruckus perform Milton Babbitt’s Composition for Four Instruments, click on QuickTime links below. (Produced by UMBC’s New Media Studio)

View video in QuickTime:  

For optimal viewing experience, viewers should
download Quicktime 6

Visit the streaming media@UMBC Web site.

(4/4/05)

 

Recognizing Outstanding Faculty Research

 

Two UMBC faculty recently received one of the highest honors in the humanities and related social sciences. Professor of English Christoph Irmscher and Associate Professor of History Marjoleine Kars were awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for University Teachers. This year, only 14 percent of applicants received this prestigious one-year fellowship, which recognizes faculty research that contributes to scholarship or to the general public’s understanding of the humanities.

Irmscher will use his award to complete a cultural biography of biologist/geologist Louis Agassiz (under contract with the University Press of Virginia). Regarded as the most famous scientist in 19 th century America, Agassiz was a prolific writer known for his opposition to evolutionism and his theories on the Ice Age. “He was a cultural force whose work provides valuable insight into mid-19 th century American society and culture,” said Irmscher.

Irmscher’s previous books have received numerous awards, including the dissertation prize of the German Association of English Studies, the American Studies Network Prize, the Literature and Language Award of the Association of American Publishers and The Bloomsbury Review ’s “Editor’s Favorite.”

Kars, an historian of early North America, will use her award to complete research on a longtime interest in Latin American and African history that also allows her to use her Dutch language skills. She is writing a book on one of the largest 18 th century slave rebellions, which took place in Berbice, a Dutch colony in the Caribbean, now part of Guyana. “The only two books on the rebellion were written in Dutch in 1770 and 1888, so it is important to bring this rebellion to the attention of an English-speaking public,” said Kars.

In 2004, Kars received a Mellon Research Fellowship by the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, where she is currently studying the role American Indians played in the Berbice rebellion.

Thomas Field, Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics and Director of the Center for the Humanities, received a NEH Fellowship in 2003, but chose to delay his award until June 2005. Field will build a Web-based database on the earliest texts in Gascon, an endangered Romance language spoken in parts of France and Spain. His work will also be incorporated into a larger database on medieval texts at the University of Birmingham.

A former Maryland Teacher of the Year (Awarded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching) and Presidential Teaching Professor at UMBC, Field frequently gives lectures and workshops in linguistics, culture and the uses of computing in language teaching.

Read a Q&A with Irmscher, Kars and Field on how faculty research connects with the undergraduate experience at UMBC.

(3/25/05)

 

Making a Mark on Research

 

Ishita Shah has, in her own words, a passion for science. Just ask her about molecular biology, and as she talks about her research, her experience, and her time at UMBC, it becomes clear.

“My research is about bacterial transcription activation,” Shah said. “Mainly we study the bacterium E. coli. We look at oxidative stress responses and how certain transcription activators work and respond to stresses, and then regulate genes that combat superoxide and other oxidative stresses.”

A Ph.D. student in the molecular and cell biology program, Shah is co-author of several papers, most recently a 19-page entry published last October in the Journal of Molecular Biology. The paper, which she co-authored with her faculty mentor, Richard E. Wolf Jr., provides evidence for “pre-recruitment,” a new mechanism for regulating gene expression recently proposed by Wolf and his research group in the Department of Biological Sciences. “This work might change the way future textbooks write about regulation of bacterial transcription,” Shah said.

Born in India, Shah earned a B.S. in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from Saint Xavier’s college in Ahmedabad and an M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Baroda before making the move to UMBC. In 2000 she was accepted into the molecular and cell biology program with a full stipend, allowing her to concentrate on research.

While the diversity of academic and research programs convinced her to come, she credits hard work and great faculty support for her success. “Faculty support has been a key ingredient in my graduate studies because a perfect blend of guidance and independence forces the generation of new ideas which can result in developing new research designs,” Shah said.

Wolf says that Shah’s contributions to his research have been invaluable. “As a graduate student and a colleague, Ishita represents the best of the best. She’s bright, hard-working and creative. More importantly, she has an engaging personality and freely gives her time and energy to others in the lab who have questions or would like to take advantage of her vast research experience. She’s irreplaceable, but her mark on our lab and her field will remain for many years.”

Shah plans to finish her Ph.D. in the spring of 2005 and will begin a post-doctoral fellowship at the Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburg Cancer Institute.

(3/1/05)