Each of these collaborative scholarly learning communities is currently accepting new members, open to faculty and advanced graduate students.

New! “Ethnography at a Distance”

Ethnography typically relies on face-to-face interaction. However, during this time of social distancing, the participant-observation and interview methods that ethnographers employ cannot be carried out as usual. This working group will draw faculty from across campus to discuss ways to continue our own ethnographic research and to coach our students in theirs.

This Faculty Working Group will meet virtually throughout the year to share resources, develop strategies, and support each other’s ethnographic research and teaching in this challenging time. As a group, we will determine if there are any outside resources we want to draw in and whether there may be products from our work that we want to share with the larger campus or scholarly communities, or perhaps with the general public.  The establishment of this working group will help support ongoing faculty research and the university’s long term commitment to community engaged research, complementing emerging efforts to support teaching from a distance at this critical period. Contact facilitator Bambi Chapin (Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health) for more information.

New! “Women’s Research Writing Group”

In light of the expected downturn of women’s research productivity during the Covid-19 crisis, this Faculty Working Group aims to provide dedicated research time to women-identified faculty and staff who engage in qualitative research and who are looking for support and space to work. Members will work remotely, meeting for larger sessions where we ask questions of each other and check in, while also setting up accountability partners and goal setting documents.

Contact co-facilitators Jodi Kelber-Kaye (Honors College) and Ana Oskoz (Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication) for more information.

“Housing and Inequality in Mobtown”

This continuing Faculty Working Group connects scholars who are working on inequality and housing. The group will provide a space in which members can share ideas and learn from each other while also discussing strategies to ensure that research is wanted by, and relevant to, those most negatively affected by housing inequalities.  The group will discuss research and writing, host working meetings with housing activists in Baltimore, and collaborate on an article for Radical Housing Journal, a new journal jointly produced by academics and activists.  Contact co-facilitators Dena Aufseeser (Geography and Environmental Systems) and Dillon Mahmoudi (Geography and Environmental Systems) for more information.

“Educational Research and Writing Group”

This continuing Faculty Working Group meets regularly to support members’ educational research and writing endeavors in addition to fostering intellectual and academic conversations related to education research across campus. Contact facilitator Jiyoon Lee (Education) for more information.

“Violence Prevention and Community Engagement”

This continuing Faculty Working Group meets regularly to support and advance new and existing research-based initiatives and community partnerships to address the critical issue of violence prevention, particularly in relation to Baltimore and throughout Maryland. Contact facilitator Christine Mallinson (Center for Social Science Scholarship) for more information.

For more information about the Faculty Working Groups and how to join, please visit our website.

This Fall the nation will continue to confront the implications of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) which leads to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).  This speaker series will feature experts in politics and policy who will describe the implications of COVID-19 on

• Why do states and localities differ in their responses to COVID-19?
• What role does intergovernmental relations play in the politics of this issue?
• How does media and information impact these political decisions?
• How should we evaluate the responses by governments and on what outcomes (public health, economics, etc.)?
• What impact will this have on economic growth, higher education, state and local finances?

This speaker series will be facilitated by Eric Stokan, Ph.D. (UMBC, Political Science) and will take place virtually on Mondays from 12-1 p.m.  Webex links for each session will be posted here as the dates approach.

Schedule of Speakers

• September 14th: Dr. Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor at UMBC and Dr. Zoe McLaren, Associate Professor at UMBC:  Laying the foundations for the series and describing what is known and unknown on COVID-19 at this point. 

Politics

• September 21st: Hon. Steven M. Bieda, Former State Rep and Senator from MI:  Describing the politics of state legislative decisionmaking regarding COVID-19 in an intergovernmental structure.
• September 28th: Dr. Christopher Goodman, Assistant Professor, Northern Illinois University:  Describing the intergovernmental dimensions of COVID-19 policies and particularly state pre-emption of local decisions.
• November 16th: Dr. Susan Serett, Professor & Director, UMBC & Dr. William Blake, Assistant Professor, UMBC:  Understanding the constitutional dimensions and ramifications of COVID-19.

Data and Decision-making

• October 5th: Dr. Aaron Deslatte, Assistant Professor, Indiana University (Virtual ahead of time and then will call in for Q&A): Understanding citizen and bureaucratic perspectives through experimental studies.
• October 19th: Dr. Nick Hart, President of the Data Foundation: Using survey data to better understand citizen perspectives and implications for citizens.

Policy Implications

• October 12th: Gregory Simmons, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, UMBC: Implications of COVID-19 on higher education: Industry, Athletics, and Entrepreneurship
• October 26th: Jeff Finkle, President and CEO of International Economic Development Council:  Understanding the economic implications and role of economic developers in stabilizing communities due to the public health crisis.
• November 9th:  Alison Ciborowski, President of Leading Age Maryland: Understanding the public health impacts on our aged population and what actions are being taken to help this vulnerable population.
• November 23rd:  Bill Wells, Senior VP Baltimore Housing: Understanding the implications that COVID-19 might have on housing within Baltimore City.
• December 7th:  Meredith Cohn, Reporter, Baltimore Sun: Understanding COVID-19 disparities and the role of journalism in informing our policy-making process around this issue.