The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture celebrates its Fall 2011 K-12 school and community partnerships with an exhibition in the Hall Gallery on the first floor of the Fine Arts Building through February 9. The multi-media display features original artwork by more than two hundred students from four area schools—Lansdowne High School (Academy of Arts & Communication), Benjamin Franklin High School at Masonville Cove, Highlandtown Elementary/Middle School and Hampstead Hill Academy—alongside work by their UMBC student and faculty collaborators. Their artwork responds to the CADVC’s main gallery exhibition Image Transfer: Pictures in a Remix Culture, which was on display in Fall 2011.

Work by students from two of these schools, Highlandtown Elementary/Middle School and Hampstead Hill Academy, are also on display at the Pop-Up Gallery at 401 South Conkling Street in Baltimore City through January 14. This exhibition, Highlandtown Transfer Remix, is the result of a partnership between the CADVC and the Highlandtown Arts & Entertainment District, also known as “ha!”.

More information is available at the CADVC’s Image Transfer exhibition page.

Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher, editorial cartoonist for The Economist and UMBC artist-in-residence, discussed his current work in an insightful interview on “The Signal” that aired December 9 and 10 on WYPR. KAL is known internationally for his lectures on freedom of the press and the power of caricature. At UMBC he advises student bloggers in their coverage of current events and politics on USDemocrazy, a particularly exciting project moving into the new electoral season. Listen to “The Signal” to learn more about KAL’s work at UMBC and the value he places on seeing current events — particularly the economic crisis — through the eyes of college students.

The Department of Theatre’s production of The Laramie Project, directed by Nyalls Hartman (associate professor), received a review in The Baltimore Sun and Howard County Times by critic Mike Giuliano on December 7, and received a review in Maryland Theatre Guide by UMBC alumna Amanda Gunther on December 9. The production concludes its run at the UMBC Theatre on Sunday, December 11.

By Ashley Miller ’12, UMBC Athletic Communications Intern

UMBC student-athletes are devoted to giving back to both the campus and neighboring community. These young men and women make significant contributions to society as often as they can. Teams as well as individual student-athletes are involved in numerous charity and community organizations.

“UMBC Athletics is proud of the work our student-athletes do in the community,” said Kelly Fahey ’07, coordinator of student-athlete affairs at UMBC. “We are excited to further develop our relationships with the surrounding community and our partnerships with local organizations.”

This fall has been a busy semester for the Retrievers, as they raised money for various fundraisers, collected shoes for the less fortunate, and even met with younger children to discuss the importance of education and physical fitness.

Read the full story about work done with Soles for Souls, Race for the Cure, Young Life Capernaum, Meadowood Education Center, League of Dreams, and the Casey Cares Foundation here.

The front page of today‘s Baltimore Sun highlights Operation Oliver, a local partnership that seeks to revitalize Baltimore’s Oliver neighborhood through community art, garbage removal, crime watch and landscaping, involving several UMBC students. The article follows Jeremy Johnson ’12, sociology, and two fellow volunteers as they walk through the neighborhood, noting both concerning conditions and exciting rehab projects.

Johnson is a board member of The 6th Branch, a nonprofit that applies the leadership and organizational skills of military veterans to local community service initiatives — one of two lead organizations for Operation Oliver. Incoming project coordinator Dave Landymore ’13, GES, is featured in a photo series accompanying the Sun article (images 1, 7 and 11), along with project volunteer Heather Hryczshyn ’13, GES (images 12 and 13).

The initiative’s next service day will be Saturday, 12/10, 9:00 am-1:00 pm. Several UMBC students have already signed up to help. To learn how to volunteer, visit Operation Oliver on Facebook.

Several students have received Huayu Enrichment Scholarships (HES) from the Taiwan Ministry of Education to study Mandarin in Taiwan from June-August, 2012. The students are Niesha Watts ’14, applied linguistics; Amy Fowler ’12, Asian studies and interdisciplinary studies; Vadim Rubin ’10, history, and ’12 Asian studies; and Jillian Long ’13, Chinese.

Initial contact with the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representatives Office (TECRO) in Washington, D.C., was made by Eugene Schaffer, chair of education. The Asian studies program, including director Constantine Vaporis, organized an information session to inform students about the scholarships and to assist with the application process. Anna Shields, director of the honors college,William Brown, lecturer in Chinese, and Vaporis formed the selection committee.

The scholarships are being supplemented with funding from the offices of the Vice Provost, Academic Affairs, the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Antonio Moreira and the Asian Studies Program.

Robert Deluty, associate dean of the graduate school, is published in the Fall 2011 issue of The Faculty Voice.

The paper, which is an independent newspaper published by and for all the faculty of the University System of Maryland, included 20 of Deluty’s poems along with commentary by editor William Hanna.

The English Alumni Association of Ravenshaw University in Cuttack, India, has invited Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, to give the first annual alumni lecture on January 8, 2012.  Spitz will also give the keynote address at the International Seminar on Children’s Literature and Politics, which will be held at the university January 9-10, 2012.

The Alumni Lecture and the seminar are expected to attract many distinguished alumni, including lawmakers from the Indian Parliament, writers, judges in the Supreme Court of India, the Chief Information Commissioner of India, civil servants, and academics.

In addition to these lectures, Spitz will also meet with Indian school children.

A transgender anti-discrimination bill went before the Maryland General Assembly in the 2011 session, passing in the House of Delegates, but ultimately did not pass. In the 2012 session, which starts in January, advocates are hoping to take legislation through the last hurdle it needs for passage.

Jodi Kelber-Kaye, interim associate director of the Honors College, said transgender anti-discrimination legislation has come up at the state level for many years.

“The problem has consistently been how we define transgender for the purposes of providing protections,” she said. “The concern for me as a gender researcher, on top of someone who’s politically supportive of this stuff, is the need for a space safe for women.”

The story, “Laurel delegate’s fight for transgender anti-discrimination legislation to continue in 2012 session” was published on ExploreHowardCounty.com and appeared on the Baltimore Sun website on December 7.

UMBC Political Science Professor Roy Meyers joined Yale’s David Mayhew and other scholars this week in providing PolitiFact with insight into Newt Gingrich, as the site explored David Axelrod’s claim that Gingrich is the “the godfather of gridlock.” The site offers evidence for Gingrich’s reputation as both a bare-knuckled fighter and a deal-maker, suggesting “Gingrich has been more of a prince of partisanship than a godfather of gridlock.”

Meyers also disputed the godfather characterization in his comments to PolitiFact, arguing that Gingrich is far from consistently quiet and disciplined, as the persona suggests. Meyers alternatively argued that Gingrich is the father of a different practice, using a technique Paul Krugman has called “doublethink” — believing in what he’s saying “even when he knows what he’s saying isn’t true” — to gain and retain party control through persuasive rhetoric.