Spring 2016 Events of Interest

Mon, 01 Feb 2016 11:32:42 -0500

Encounters Among Faiths: Offit Symposium on Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Medieval Mediterranean

February 5, 2016 9 AM- 5 PM

Johns Hopkins, Homewood Campus, Gilman Hall Room 50

Friday, February 5th marks the first Offit Symposium on "Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Medieval Mediterranean". We have many distinguished guest speakers scheduled. There will be two sessions -- one on exchanges in art and architecture, and the other on religious exchanges and conversions, particularly in Medieval Liberia. In the afternoon, a keynote address will be delivered by Prof. Dmitri Gutas (Yale) on the reception and evolution of Aristotelian science in the Islamic world.

Sounding Botany Bay: How Humans Have Changed a Unique Australian Environment

February 16, 2016 4 PM- 5:30 PM

Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery

Timothy Nohe will introduce audiences to the deeply woven human narrative of Botany Bay, Australia in this American debut exhibition. The artist worked in Australia from 2006-2007 while on an Australian-American Fulbright Commission Senior Scholar fellowship, and returned for intensive research residencies for the next nine years. During that time, change inexorably swept the Bay.

By walking through bush and dunes, suburban streets and industrial estates, Nohe was able to directly observe the Bay with contemplative discipline. The artist was ready to document discoveries with digital audio recorders and cameras, and comprehensive database searches in state and national libraries, and the online market eBay. Over time he became aware of seasonal and long-term rhythms accented by notes of discordant change. A world of inaudible sound was sampled via a radio frequency scanner, allowing Nohe to intercept air traffic at Sydney Airport; hydrophones captured otherwise inaudible underwater sounds in mangroves, docks and tidepools.

These resources reveal truths about a complex place, told with mural prints, video, sound, interviews, archival documents, and material culture. In many ways this story mirrors our American experience related to human stewardship, the colonization and the decimation of indigenous peoples, industrialization, national narratives, globalization and climate change.

Timothy Nohe is an artist and educator engaging traditional and electronic media in daily life and public places. His artwork has been focused on sustainability and place, intermedia works, and sound scores for dance and video. He was the recipient of a 2006 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award from the Australian – American Fulbright Commission and an Australian – American Fulbright Commission Fulbright Alumni Initiative Grant in 2011. Nohe has forged strong ties to Australia, serving the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Unlikely, as an Adjunct Professor at La Trobe University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and as an Artist-in-Residence at the Centre for Creative Arts at La Trobe University.

Timothy’s Nohe’s exhibition runs February 8 through March 31 in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.

Sponsored by the Dresher Center for the Humanities; the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery; the Visual Arts Department; and the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts.

Black Ethnic Identity and Immigration: Pursuit of the American Dream

February 23, 2016 4:30 PM- 6:30 PM

University Center Room 310

There has been significant voluntary immigration of black populations from Africa and the Caribbean over the past few decades, which has changed the racial, ethnic, and political landscape in the U.S. An important question for social scientists is how these “new” blacks will behave politically in the U.S. How will they distinguish themselves or align themselves with native-born black Americans? What are their policy preferences? Dr. Greer’s talk explores the significance of black ethnic immigrants by investigating the political attitudes and behavior of these new populations and their effects on black politics at the individual, aggregate, and elite levels. She argues that the differing historical paths of incorporation directly affect present day negotiations with race and ethnicity for differing groups of blacks in the U.S.

Sponsored by: Center for Africana Research and Department of Africana Studies.

Co-Sponsored by: Department of Political Science, Language, Literacy, and Culture Program, Department of American Studies, and Student Life’s Mosaic Center for Culture and Diversity.

Friends of the Library & Gallery Book Notes: Dr. Meredith Oyen on her New Book

February 23, 2016 4 PM- 5 PM

Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery

Dr. Meredith Oyen from the History Department will discuss her new book: The Diplomacy of Migration: Transnational Lives and the Making of US-China Relations in the Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2015).

A reception, sponsored by the Libby Kuhn Endowment Fund, will follow the program.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library & Gallery through its "Book Notes" series.

Global Trekking: Observations from Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Beyond

March 3, 2016 4:30 PM- 6:00 PM

Fine Arts Building, Room 011

Guest Speakers: Coco Tang (BA UMBC Political Science, History 2014) and Justin Van Buren (BA UMBC Economics 2013)

Two recent UMBC alumni, Coco Tang and Justin Van Buren, will be speaking to students about some of the incredible experiences they have had while traveling, working, and researching abroad.

Coco Tang has recently returned from a trip to Iran, and in the past year she has been to refugee camps in Jordan, to the Israeli-Gaza border, and to Sierra Leone. She also traveled to North Korea in 2013. Justin Van Buren recently traveled to Cuba and is in an MA program at George Mason University in International Commerce and Policy.

Both alumni have a wide breadth of experience, so it is highly encouraged that all Global Studies students attend this very unique event.

From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives

March 3, 2016 5:30 PM- 8 PM

1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036

Transformational trends including globalization and the rise of new powers; climate change and humanitarian disaster; technological breakthrough; and economic booms and income inequality all appear both revolutionary and daunting. What impact can a single person hope to make in the face of such forces? The answer is: a lot.

In his new book, From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives, Jeffrey E. Garten chronicles ten individuals over the last one thousand years—since the era of Genghis Khan—from all walks of life and every corner of the globe whose feats forever changed the world and continue to shape debate today. How they achieved their goals and the outcomes they ushered in, for better and for worse, provide critical insights into harnessing change in modern times.

Please join Carnegie for a conversation between Jeffrey E. Garten and Thomas L. Friedman to celebrate the launch of Garten's book. Carnegie President William J. Burns will introduce.

Registration will begin at 5:30 p.m., and the program will begin at 6:00 p.m. A reception will follow at 7:15 p.m. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Registration is required to attend this event. To register, please click here.

Mill Stories: Remembering Sparrows Point Steel Mill

March 6, 2016 2 PM- 4 PM

Baltimore Museum of Industry

Join filmmakers Michelle Stefano (Maryland Traditions) and Bill Shewbridge (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) for a screening and discussion of their eye-opening documentary Mill Stories: Remembering Sparrows Point Steel Mill, which features firsthand recollections of workers from the now-shuttered factory.

FREE with museum admission.

Chilean Film Series: "Machuca"

March 31, 2016 7 PM

Performing Arts & Humanities Building Room 132

FILM TITLE: Machuca (Machuca, Andrés Wood Chile 2004)

SCREENWRITERS: Roberto Brodsky & Mamoun Hassan

CAST: Matías Quer, Ariel Mateluna, Manuela Martelli, Aline Küppenheim, Ernesto Malbran

Chile, 1973. Gonzalo Infante and Pedro Machuca are two eleven-year old boys who live in Santiago. The first lives in a wealthy neighborhood and the second in a poor illegal settlement a few blocks away. Their paths cross when a Catholic school implements a social integration program. Two worlds separated by a large invisible wall that some people hope to tear down in their desire to make dreams come true in an era full of hope. (Wood Producciones)

In Spanish with English subtitles.

Sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication.

MLLI Film Festival: "Blind Shaft"

April 5, 2016 7 PM

Information Technology/ Engineering Room 102

FILM TITLE: Blind Shaft (Li Yang, China, 2003)

SCREENWRITER: Li Yang

CAST: Wang Baoqiang, Qiang Li, & Shuangbao Wang

Blind Shaft is the story of two Chinese men who work in the mines of rural China. The two men seek extra money, so they devise a plan to murder a fellow worker, claim that his death was a mining accident, pass him off as their family member, and run away with the settlement. Their plan works, however, as their ambitions increase, their plan becomes jeopardized.

Sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication.

Chilean Film Series: "My Life with Carlos"

April 7, 2016 7 PM

Performing Arts & Humanities Building Room 132

FILM TITLE: My Life with Carlos (Mi vida con Carlos, Germán Berger-Hertz, 2010, Chile)

SCREENWRITERS: German Berger, Roberto Brodsky, & Joaquim Jordà

CAST: Carlos Berger, Germán Berger, Carmen Hertz

My Life with Carlos is the journey of a son in search of the memory of his assassinated father. More than 30 years of silence are broken when Chilean-born Germán Berger-Hertz starts to piece together the puzzle of his father's life. In 1973, when Berger-Hertz was only a year old, his father was brutally killed under the newly installed Pinochet regime. Berger revisits the legacy of the man he never knew and the regime that devastated the country. (Palm Springs International Film Festival)

In Spanish with English subtitles.

Sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication.

MLLI Film Festival: "The Happy Life"

April 8, 2016 2:30 PM- 5:30 PM

Physics Building Room 101

FILM TITLE: The Happy Life (Joon-ik Lee, Korea, 2007)

SCREENWRITER: Seok-Hwan Choi

CAST: Jang Keun Suk, Jung Jin-young, Kim Yoon-seok, Kim Sang-ho

Sang-woo, the leader of college rock band Volcano, dies and sets up a reunion for Gi-yeong and the other members of the group. Former bass player Seong-wook lives a hand-to-mouth existence working two jobs. Drummer Hyeok-su is a single father struggling to make a living as a car salesman. Unemployed lead guitarist Gi-yeong dreams of taking over Volcano as the new frontman. At the funeral Gi-yeong suggests they reform the band, but his former band mates all reject the idea. But Gi-yeong persists and gets each to relent, setting the stage for a rock and roll reunion. (CJ Entertainment)

Sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication.

Chilean Film Series: Talk with Screenwriter Roberto Brodsky

April 14, 2016 7 PM

Performing Arts & Humanities Building Room 132

Mr. Brodsky will speak on the uses and abuses of memory in recent Chilean cinema, focusing on a recent documentary that he co-wrote, My Life with Carlos (Berger 2010). The film is autobiographical in its dealing with a son’s experience, Germán Berger’s, of the disappearance of his activist father Carlos Berger during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Mr. Brodsky will also take into account the documentary’s contemporaries that engage with the memory of Pinochet’s coup and dictatorship: his co-written screenplay for the award-winning Machuca (Wood 2004) and Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light (2010).

Light refreshments will follow.

Sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication, the Dresher Center for the Humanities, and the Program in Global Studies.

A Comic Book Superhero and Rape Survivor: Can She Change Attitudes Toward Sexual Violence?

April 13, 2016 7 PM- 8:30 PM

Performing Arts & Humanities Building Room 132

Ram Devineni is the co-creator of the innovative and hugely popular comic book, “Priya’s Shakti,”which helps illuminate attitudes towards gender-based violence. Priya’s Shaktiarose in the aftermath of a highly-publicized gang rape on a bus in New Delhi in December 2012 that outraged India and the world. The comic book centers on the Goddess Parvati and Priya, a mortal woman devotee and survivor of rape, and is rooted in ancient matriarchal traditions that have been displaced in modern representations of Hindu culture. Priya is the first Indian superhero who is a rape survivor and a powerful symbol supporting movements fighting against gender-based violence. Released only a year-ago, the comic book went viral with over 400 news stories and was honored as a “gender equality champion” by UN Women. Devineni will discuss the creation of the comic book, how comic books and their superheroes have become mythological icons, and how to re-imagine them to fight against real-life problems while still appealing to a popular audience. Since “Priya’s Shakti” was one of the first effective uses of augmented reality in a book format, Devineni will also discuss the design of that technology to bring a book to life. The comic book is a beautiful fusion of storytelling, technology, and social activism.

Sponsored by the Dresher Center for the Humanities, the Visual Arts Department, the Asian Studies Program, and the Gender and Women’s Studies Department.

MLLI Film Festival: "Two Lives"

April 14, 2016 7PM- 10PM

Sherman Hall Room 150

FILM TITLE: Two Lives (Zwei Leben, Georg Maas, Germany, 2012)

SCREENWRITERS: Georg Maas, Christoph Tolle, Stale Steinberg, Judith Kaufman

CAST: Juliane Köhler, Liv Ullmann, Sven Nordin

As the Berlin Wall crumbles, Katrine, the daughter of a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier, finds her idyllic life disrupted as she refuses to testify a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of her fellow "war children." (International Movie Database)

Sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication.

A Russian Weekend

April 15- 16, 2016 8 PM- 10 PM

Performing Arts & Humanities Building, Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall

Cellist Gita Ladd and pianist Asiya Korepanova present “A Russian Weekend,” a pair of concerts featuring masterpieces by Russian composers. On Friday, April 15, there will be a recital of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff performed by Asiya Korepanova, who is acclaimed for taking audiences “…to a new level of ecstasy (Richard Storm, Sarasota Herald Tribune.)”Among the highlights will be the rarely played Sonata No.1 in D minor, inspired by Goethe’s legend of Faust. In the second half, Asiya will present her solo piano transcription of the complete Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata in G minor – a piece that also will be performed in its original instrumentation the following night.

On Saturday, April 16 Asiya will join Gita Ladd, one of Baltimore’s “most popular musicians (Stephen Wigler, Baltimore Sun,)” to perform three substantial Sonatas for Cello and Piano by Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. These 20th Century jewels of the cello repertoire are not to be missed.

The concert on April 15 will feature:

Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata no.1 in D minor, Op.28

Sergei Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata in G minor, Op.19 (transcription for piano solo by Asiya Korepanova)

The concert on April 16 will feature:

Sergei Prokofiev. Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 119

Dmitri Schostakovich. Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40

Sergei Rachmaninoff. Cello Sonata in G minor, Op.19

Tickets: $15 general admission, $10 seniors, $5 students, FREE for UMBC Music majors and Music faculty/staff.

Reading Series: Ocean Vuong

April 18, 2016 5 PM- 6:30 PM

Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery

The UMBC English Department invites you to the next installment of the 2015-2016 Reading Series, featuring poet Ocean Vuong.

Born in Saigon, poet and editor Ocean Vuong was raised in Hartford, Connecticut, and earned a BFA at Brooklyn College (CUNY). Vuong writes of his experiences in Vietnam, in refugee camps, and of coming to the United States. His work is grounded in these experiences as well as his Buddhist practice.

Ocean Vuong is the author of two chapbooks, No and Burnings. His honors include fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Poets House, Kundiman, and the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts as well as an Academy of American Poets Prize, an American Poetry Review Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets, a Pushcart Prize, and a Beloit Poetry Journal Chad Walsh Poetry Prize. In 2014, Vuong was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.

diaCRITICS writes that No “is both a mourning of death and a celebration of life lost too soon. With No, Vuong has shown maturity and bravery in both his subject matter and his experimentation in structure, technique, and imagery. His dreamlike language stuns and haunts the mind. But most importantly, Vuong breaks your heart and puts it back together. In these survival poems, he shows us the human spirit at its most vulnerable as it tries to heal yet never does so completely.”

Vuong’s first full-length work Night Sky With Exit Wounds is forthcoming from Copper Canyon on April 12th. Publishers Weekly included his forthcoming book in the 2016 Poetry Top Ten, saying “In his haunting and fearless debut, Vuong walks a tightrope of vulnerability and reflects upon his family in exile, a reverential queer love, and the personal adoption of a sometimes inexplicable nation.” Buzzfeed listed it as one of the Most Exciting New Books of 2016, arguing “this book is a masterpiece that captures, with elegance, the raw sorrows and joys of human existence.” Even Teen Vogue recently included Vuong as one of six poets “Who Prove The Genre Is Still Cool” and called the debut “a buzzy new collection.”

Light refreshments and a book signing will follow the reading.

Sponsored by the English Department, the Dresher Center for the Humanities, and Asian Studies.

MLLI Film Festival: "The Passion of Augustine"

April 21, 2016 7 PM- 10 PM

Performing Arts & Humanities Building Room 132

FILM TITLE: The Passion of Augustine (La Passion d'Augustine, Lea Pool, Canada, 2015)

SCREENWRITERS: Léa Pool, Marie Vien

CAST: Valérie Blais, Shauna Bonaduce, Céline Bonnier

In a small convent school in rural Quebec, Mother Augustine provides a musical education to young women no matter their socio-economic background. However, with the looming changes brought by Vatican II and Quebec's Quiet Revolution, the school's future is at peril. (International Movie Database)

Sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication.

Natural and Unnatural Disasters: 3/11, Asbestos, and the Unmaking of Japan's Modern World

April 21, 2016 4 PM- 6 PM

Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery

In this lecture, Brett Walker will investigate asbestos in the construction and, more importantly, destruction of Japan’s built environment, with a focus on the impact of the 3/11 disaster and the later clean up. Dr. Walker's research is part of a larger Guggenheim-funded project concerned with the unmaking of the modern built world, and what it means for the future of human health.

Sponsored by the Asian Studies Program, Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, and the History Department.

MLLI Film Festival: "Speaking in Tongues"

April 26, 2016 7 PM- 10 PM

Informational Technology/ Engineering Building Room 102

FILM TITLE: Speaking in Tongues (Marcia Jarmel & Ken Schneider US 2010)

SCREENWRITERS:Marcia Jarmel, Laurie Coyle

CAST:Durrell Laury, Julian Enis, Jason Patiño, Kelly Wong

At a time when 31 states have passed “English Only” laws, four pioneering families put their children in public schools where, from the first day of kindergarten, their teachers speak mostly in a foreign language. Speaking in Tongues follows four diverse kids on a journey to become bilingual. This charming story will challenge you to rethink the skills that Americans need to succeed in the 21st century. (Patchwork Films)

Sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication.

Digital Humanities and African American History and Culture Project

May 16, 2016 1 PM- 5PM

University of Maryland, College of Arts & Humanities, David C. Driskell Center (Cole Field House)

You are invited to join the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland for the project launch of “Synergies: Digital Humanities and African American History and Culture (#AADHum),” sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This convening of African Americanists and Digital Humanities scholars from around the greater Washington D.C. region is designed to generate lively conversations about opportunities to utilize new methods, archives and tools of the Digital Humanities to ask and answer intriguing questions in African American history and cultural studies, as well as ways to broaden the reach of the Digital Humanities in these areas.

During this half-day meeting participants will learn about the range of research materials available to them at Maryland for the study of African American life. They will later break into subgroups and start to identify to generate questions that touch on the thematic focus of the project, including African American labor, migration and artistic expression.

Join featured speaker Mariët Westerman, vice president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and colleagues from across the greater Washington D.C. region to learn how you can play a part in this major new initiative.

The event is free. Please register online by Friday, May 5. Please join the conversation on social media using #AADHum.