Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 

9 a.m. – 10 a.m. 

685 W. Baltimore Street, Medical School Teaching Facility (MSTF) Building, Room 316

The Graduate School, The Office of Postdoctoral Scholars (OPS), The Office of Research Career Development and the PROMISE Program at University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) Campus extend an invitation to all the Postdoctoral Fellows and Associates to attend this event.

Postdoctoral Morning Coffee with Dr. Chariz Peñalber-Johnstone

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

10 AM – 12 Noon @ UMBC Campus

Commons Building, Room 329

ALL University System of Maryland Postdocs are invited to attend. Please comment on the comments section with your name, campus affiliation and department to RSVP.

The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs is extending an invitation to attend our Postdoctoral Morning Coffee breakfast session on Wednesday, September 13, 2017, from 10 AM to noon. Please take the opportunity to assist, come and meet the extended community of scholars working at USM campuses. 

Dr. Chariz Peñalber-Johnstone will be the speaker of the session; she will be speaking about her postdoctoral work at the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology at UMBC, her participation in discipline-specific conferences, and her continued engagement in the field. She will mainly share information on applying for travel funding to disseminate research. 

Dr. Chariz Peñalber-Johnstone received a B.S. degree in Chemistry (Cum Laude) from The University of San Carlos in Cebu, Philippines in 2006, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA in 2012. Her graduate work was in the area of physical chemistry with a specific focus on the use of nonlinear optical spectroscopy for molecular-level structural analysis of ionic liquid surfaces. She has conducted studies at various interfaces to explain the physico-chemical properties of imidazolium and phosphonium-based ionic liquids relevant to their applications in catalysis.

With her current appointment as a post-doctoral research associate at the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, she contributes to both system design and protein expression sub-teams. She works cross-functionally in the development of a device that will produce, purify, and quantitatively determine a ready-for-delivery therapeutic protein in a few hours. The project includes the design of innovative mammalian in vitro protein expression and purification technologies combined with advances in microfluidics and microelectronics to produce biologics on-site. 

Hot breakfast will be provided. Please RSVP to attend the session in the comment section below. 

Reading Frankenstein, Reading the 21st Century

Morgan State University - April 12, 2018

2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of one of the most influential works of British literature. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been the subject of interpretation from every critical perspective, from Marxism to Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies to Critical Race Theory. Since its original publication, stage and film adaptations have been legion, from Presumption in 1823 to James Whale’s classic 1931 adaption and on through Abbott and Costello, the Hammer Films productions of the 1950s to ’70s, and more recent versions by Kenneth Branagh, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, and Daniel Radcliffe. Beyond the realm of the creative arts, though, Frankenstein has entered the public psyche as a symbol of humanity’s disruption of the perceived natural order. References to this story can be found in discussions of bioethics and genetics, race relations, politics, religion, and foreign policy.

Upon the occasion of the novel’s bicentennial, papers are solicited for a one-day interdisciplinary symposium to be held on the campus of Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Presenters are encouraged to explore the continuing impact of the novel and its associations in today’s society. Please consider examining this theme through the perspective of any of the following disciplines:

• English or American Literature
• Philosophy
• Business
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Anthropology
• Computer Science
• Women’s and Gender Studies
• Economics
• Fine and Performing Arts
• Health and Physical Education
• History
• Geography
• Medical Technology
• Multimedia Journalism
• Social Work
• Psychology
• Public Health
• Screen Writing and Animation
• World Languages

Please submit 250-word abstracts as MS Word attachments to adam.mekler@morgan.edu by October 1, 2017. Both faculty and students are encouraged to submit and participate.
Please feel free to visit our website: http://l-adam-mekler.com/reading-frankenstein.htm

• approaches to telecollaboration and virtual exchange across disciplines
• learning outcomes of virtual exchange and telecollaboration
• different dimensions of virtual exchange (teachers, teacher trainers, students, administration)
• different modes (blended mobility) and models (e.g. Soliya, Cultura) of virtual exchange
• task design and resources in virtual exchange
• telecollaboration and its role in the development of digital literacies
• technological interfaces and multimodality in telecollaborative exchanges
• virtual exchanges involving learners from non-western contexts and the global South
• telecollaboration and its role in the development of global citizenship
• conflict management in / through telecollaboration
• virtual exchanges as complex learning environments: facing the challenge

• 4 September 2017: call for papers opens
• 15 December 2017: deadline for abstract submission
• 31 January 2018: notification of acceptance; early-bird registration opens
• 28 February 2018: early-bird registration deadline
• 31 March 2018: final registration deadline
• 25-27 April: the conference

Eastern Sociological Society

2018 Annual Meeting

Call for Papers

Class and Culture:

Cultural mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance and disruption of social inequality

A Mini-conference at the Eastern Sociological Society’s Annual Meeting

Baltimore, MD:  February 22-25, 2018

Mini-conference dates:  February 23-24, 2018

Co-organizers: Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania and Elliot Weininger, SUNY Brockport

For this ESS mini-conference, we are inviting the submission of papers which interrogate the ways in which class-based cultural practices, broadly conceived, matter in the transmission of inequality and the facilitation of social mobility. Contributions might, for example, highlight the ways in which social class shapes the level of cultural knowledge and skills individuals have and the ways in which these impact how individuals navigate institutions. Or, participants might focus on the ways that class-based cultural practices impact how individuals negotiate personal relationships, interact with institutional gatekeepers, or manage key turning points in their lives. Other topics related to the theme are also welcome.

The mini-conference will of the Eastern Sociological Society annual meetings in the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD. It will begin, however, at noon on Friday February 23^rd and end on Saturday at 5:00 p.m on February 24^th.  Interested participants should submit a long abstract of the proposed paper to ESS on the normal website submission, detailing research question, data source, and provisional findings (if available). (Use keywords “miniconference: Class and Culture”).In addition to submitting the abstract to ESS, please also send copies directly to Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania (alareau@sas.upenn.edu), and Elliot B. Weininger (eweining@brockport.edu), SUNY College at Brockport. The deadline for abstracts is October 15^, 2017._

The conference organizers are also arranging an informal dinner at a local restaurant on Friday evening, February 23^rd around 7:30 p.m.  Every effort will be made to limit expenses, but, due to funding constraints, participants who wish to attend the dinner will need to cover the cost of their own food and drink.  Participation in the dinner is not a requirement of attending the conference; it is simply an opportunity to continue the conversation. Conference attendees will need to register for the Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting. For additional details see www.essnet.org

Any questions should be directed to Annette Lareau and/or Elliot Weininger.

Please plan to join us for a lively conversation on class and culture in Baltimore.

The Dissertation Fellowship is designed to provide doctoral candidates at UMBC an opportunity to devote the necessary concentration and attention towards finishing the writing of their dissertations.  The Fellowship is specifically designed for students with full-time jobs off-campus, for those without any financial support who are making steady progress with their writing, and for whom having additional time and resources would permit them to complete the process more expeditiously.  

• be in good academic standing;
• provide a letter of support from the Chair of the Dissertation Committee that

• provide, if employed outside the university, written evidence from the student’s employer indicating the employer’s willingness to reduce job time and duties in order for the student to participate in the Fellowship;
• submit a dissertation abstract of no more than two pages in length; and
• submit a 1-2 page management plan signed by the Chair of the Dissertation Committee describing the status of the dissertation work, the steps required to complete the work, and the feasible time line for completion.
• Identify, if a prior recipient of a Dissertation Fellowship, the prior term (e.g., Spring 2017) in which the Fellowship was received.