When Anne E. Brodsky won a national award in February 2014 for contributions to the field of community psychology, it came as no surprise to her students and colleagues at UMBC. Brodsky is a tireless scholar who has nurtured dozens of graduate and undergraduate researchers – all while working in collaboration with a range of social-service organizations in Baltimore and beyond.

Over the last 20 years, Brodsky has made creative use of narrative and other qualitative methods in her field. She also conducted extraordinary field work in Pakistan and Afghanistan from 2001 through 2007, including the study of an underground feminist organization there at a pivotal moment in the region’s history.

Brodsky, a professor of psychology, joined UMBC’s faculty in 1997. Her research initially focused on resilience and community-building among East Baltimore women affected by welfare reform. In 2000, however, Brodsky’s work took an unexpected turn when she met members of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) – a feminist organization that has resisted the Soviet, Taliban, and post-Taliban regimes since 1977 – at a conference in Baltimore.

“This was an organization that had never been able to come to the West, never been able to share its stories,” Brodsky recalls. “We put together an informal national tour, and for four months, they were in and out of my house.”

One morning not long after the tour, Brodsky says, “I woke up and thought, wait: Risk. Resilience. Women’s communities. I do this for a living.” She sent her RAWA contacts an e-mail message and, to her surprise, they were willing to have an American academic visit their clandestine sites in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Brodsky made her first visit in July and August of 2001, just weeks before the September 11 attacks, and returned for several more months in 2002. The resulting book, With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, was published by Routledge in 2003 and received strong reviews.

One major concept that Brodsky has attempted to formalize throughout her work is resilience – that is, the strengths that allow women to endure in contexts of risk and adversity. In both Afghanistan and East Baltimore, she and her colleagues have found, having children can serve as a protective factor, providing hope and motivation to persist even in extremely challenging climates.

Gitika Talwar, who is completing a doctorate in psychology at UMBC, is one of 13 past and present UMBC graduate students who have co-authored papers with Brodsky. “She has an amazing range of scholarly interests,” Talwar says. “I’m on the West Coast now studying Afghan immigrant communities, but we still make time every two or three weeks to talk about my research. She’s been very supportive the entire way.”

Brodsky is a former director of UMBC’s Gender and Women’s Studies program and is an associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

“Anne’s just top-notch,” says Kenneth Maton, a professor of psychology. “She asks really difficult and appropriate questions, and she brings to bear important theoretical perspectives. When she went to Afghanistan, that was an intellectual stretch and also a personal risk. But she’s always been determined to follow her intellectual passions.”

– David Glenn

In a new column in The Conversation, School of Public Policy Professor John Rennie Short revealed how immigrants can be treated differently based on wealth.

Short wrote about how Canada’s Immigrant Investor Program and the UK’s Tier 1 investor visa are among many programs that provide economic incentives for wealthy immigrants. Short also focused on how such policies play out in the United States: “Since 1990, the US has an employment-based program tailored for the wealthy entitled EB5. Under this program, 10,000 visas each year are reserved for investors to receive permanent residence status if they invest at least US$1 million (only $500,000 in high unemployment and rural areas) in a commercial enterprise that employs at least 10 full-time US workers.

Studies by trade groups estimate that the program contributed $3.39 billion to US GDP and resulted in 42,000 jobs in fiscal year 2012, while a more critical review of the EB5 program came to the conclusion that the visas are too cheap, the program is badly run and the bulk of the money goes to already overheated real estate markets.”

Professor Short wrote about how the programs referenced in his column often do not reflect their intended consequences: “Most official reviews now come to the conclusion that the programs, hastily conceived in the rush to attract the newly wealthy citizens of Russia, China and other countries, are too cheap with few benefits for the host countries.”

Read “The other immigrants: how the super-rich skirt quotas and closed borders.“

Baker Artist Awards 2015 at the Baltimore Museum of Art

September 16 — November 15, 2015

Associate professor Eric Dyer was named a 2015 winner of the prestigious $25,000 Mary Sawyers Baker Prize, and he will present his art works at the Baltimore Museum of Art from September 16, 2015 - November 15, 2015.

IMDA MFA program alumna Dominique Zeltzman will join Dyer in the exhibition, as one of the recipients of a $5,000 b-grant .

The Baker Artist Awards were created to support artists and promote Baltimore as a strong creative community. Through a sophisticated online portfolio of artists’ work and significant monetary prizes to award the winners, the Baker Artist Awards serves artists of all disciplines who live and work in Baltimore City and its five surrounding counties. The website and awards were established by the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund in 2008, and are a program of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. The exhibition is generously funded by The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund.

http://www.bakerartistawards.org

Hi Everyone,

This recently came to my attention. The application for the White House Internship Program will close on Sunday, September 13, 2015 at 11:59 PM EST.

White House Interns dedicate their time, talents, energy, and service to better the White House, the community, and the nation. They are a part of the White House team, and the assignments given to an intern on any given day could include conducting research, managing incoming inquiries, attending meetings, writing memos, and staffing events. They also participate in a speaker series with senior staff members and small group meetings exploring different policy aspects of the Executive Office of the President through speakers, discussions, and service projects.

Please visit www.whitehouse.gov/internships for more information about the program, the application process, a timeline with deadlines, and the departments that participate in the program.  A complete application includes: short answers, two essay questions, a one-page resume, and two letters of recommendation. Again, the deadline to apply for the spring 2016 program is  Sunday, September 13, 2015 at 11:59 PM EST.

The film Dear White People follows the lives of four black students at an Ivy League college. Director and writer Justin Simien says, “My film is about identity. It’s about the difference between how the mass culture responds to a person because of their race and who that person understands themselves to truly be. All explored through the microcosm of a success-oriented Ivy League college.” After the screening, join us for a public conversation with featured speakers, Kimberly Moffitt and Damon Turner.

Sponsored by the Dresher Center for the Humanities; the Africana Studies Department; the American Studies Department; and the Student Life’s Mosaic: Center for Culture and Diversity.