The Reginald F. Lewis Museum, in partnership with UMBC’s Department of Africana Studies, will host postdoctoral fellow and instructor Iyelli Ichile during the upcoming year. As part of the fellowship, Ichile will be in an instructor in the Africana studies department, and she will conduct research on Maryland African American history and culture to support the Reginald F. Lewis Museum’s permanent collection.

Ichile holds a Ph.D. in African diaspora history from Howard University and a master’s degree in African American studies from Columbia University. Her research and teaching revolves around the themes of spirituality, liberation movements, music, folklore and gender among African people globally.

The fellowship is made possible by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. For more information, visit the Reginald F. Museum website.

Image: Iyelli Ichile. Photo courtesy Reginald F. Lewis Museum. 

Baltimore Magazine recently released its “Best of 2016” edition, which highlighted leaders in arts and culture from across the city over the past year. Lia Purpura, writer in residence in UMBC’s Department of English, was named Baltimore’s top poet.

The magazine states: “In It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful, her latest collection published this year, Purpura impressively delivers poignant insight into our existence without pomp and circumstance. Her verses are little gems with short stanzas and an absence of flowery language, but that doesn’t make them any less profound. Instead, Purpura…proves how meaningful simplicity can be.”

Purpura has also been awarded a Pushcart Prize for her essay “Scream, or, Never Minding,” which was originally published in The Georgia Review. Also receiving recognition last month was Purpura’s poem “Resolution” which was featured on The Academy of American Poets website as the national “Poem-a-Day” on August 8.

Lia Purpura’s work frequently appears in The New Yorker, Orion, The Paris Review, Best American Essays, The Iowa Review, and other national journals. Among her numerous honors are a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts and Fulbright Fellowships, and four Pushcart prizes. Her collection of essays, “On Looking” was a finalist for the National Books Critics Award.

Read more about Purpura’s work on the English department website.

The School of Public Policy is pleased to welcome two new members of our faculty.

Pamela R. Bennett is an associate professor in the Education Policy track. She investigates racial, ethnic, and nativity differences in post-secondary educational outcomes, the consequences of higher education policy on college outcomes, and the consequences of racial residential segregation. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the American Sociological Association, and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. Prior to joining the School of Public Policy, Dr. Bennett was an associate professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She spent 2012-2013 as a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, where she worked on an upcoming book about parenting and schooling in diverse families. This fall, she is teaching PUBL 610, Special Topics—Issues in Higher Education Policy.

Dr. Bennett received a B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan (pbennett@umbc.edu).

Jane Arnold Lincove joins the faculty in the UMBC School of Public Policy as an associate professor in the Education Policy track. Her research focuses on the implementation and effects of market-based policy in public education, including teacher compensation, and the equity effects on low-income families, minorities, and girls. She has received funding for her research from the Spencer Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Texas Education Agency. Prior to joining the School of Public Policy, Dr. Lincove was a research assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Tulane University, and associate director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans. Dr. Lincove is teaching PUBL 604, Statistical Analysis, in fall 2016. 

Dr. Lincove received a B.S. from Northwestern University, a Master of Public Policy from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Southern California (jlincove@umbc.edu).

The Political Science Department is accepting applications to the the 68th Annual Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA) at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. This is an excellent opportunity to get involved in international and security debates with a large number of students and experts from around the country.

Every year, the Department sends two students to represent UMBC at this conference. Past participants have found the conference to be extremely rewarding. The Department covers registration fees and transportation to West Point, while the conference organizers provide room and board while there. If you are interested, please send a brief (one paragraph) letter of interest, including why you would like to go, what makes you qualified to represent the Department and your GPA to: Dr. Brian Grodsky,bgrodsky@umbc.edu. All applications must be received by September 19. 

For more information, see below. 

On behalf of Colonel Suzanne Nielsen, the head of the Department of Social Sciences, I would like to extend an invitation to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, to send two student delegates to participate in the 68th Annual Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA), hosted by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. The conference meets from November 9th through November 12th, 2016.  West Point hosts SCUSA every fall, and it is the oldest and largest undergraduate conference of its type in the world. Approximately 200 undergraduate students from over 100 colleges and universities around the world attend SCUSA. Throughout the conference, the student delegates and cadets debate and formulate policy recommendations that realistically model American strategic responses to significant national and global challenges. The highlights of the four-day conference include the opening senior panel discussion on the evening of November 9th, an evening keynote banquet address, four roundtable sessions, and a closing-report session on November 12th. Recent keynote speakers have included Secretary Madeleine Albright, Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Brent Scowcroft, and Admiral James Stavridis.   Our organizing theme this year is "Democracy & Democratization: Challenges & Opportunities." Beginning the day after the U.S. presidential election, the conference invites participants to consider the challenges and opportunities facing the United States as it responds to key questions concerning the health and future of democracy. Among the questions to be explored are: what are the political, normative, and material limits to promoting democracy in the world? Does democracy confront greater challenges in some countries and regions? How does political radicalism in its many forms challenge democracy? What does the survival of authoritarian and hybrid regimes indicate about the long-term prospects for democracy internationally? Can democracy successfully navigate ethno-religious conflict?