For centuries, media has portrayed Arab culture as misogynistic and homophobic, leaving little room for the possibility that queer Arab communities exist and thrive. Adding to this sense of erasure is the belief some Arab communities have in thinking that homosexuality is not inherently Arab but something the Western world brought to the Arab world. However, the reality queer Arabs and those in the diaspora live is much more positive and complex. 

Mejdulene Bernard Shomali, a queer Palestinian poet and associate professor in the department of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies,wrote the first study of desire that addresses the contemporary cultures and lives of queer Arab women in her book, Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives (Duke University Press, 2023). 

“My research looks at how Arab people experience and narrate their queerness in unexpected ways. For example, Arabs may be in same-sex relationships but might not claim gay or lesbian identities,” Shomali explains to Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities and host of The Academic Minute, a daily show featuring faculty from colleges and universities worldwide speaking about their cutting-edge research. “Many queer Arabs might not check off Western benchmarks of LGBT identity, like being ‘out.’ Some of the existing Arabic terms for queer people have negative connotations and are also not popular.” 

UMBC’s Academic Minute series

Shomali joined seven other UMBC scholars this fall in UMBC’s first Academic Minute series, featuring the latest research in media and communication studies; modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication; language, literacy, and culture; philosophy; gender, women’s, and sexuality studies; sociology, anthropology, and public health; and history. This series is republished on NPR podcasts and Inside Higher Ed.

Learn more about Mejdulene Bernard Shomali’s research:

• She is currently a 2023-24 Society for the Humanities fellow at Cornell University, where she is working on a project called Palestine Matters: Aesthetics, Embodiment, and Pleasure in Palestine and also teaching a seminar called “Feeling Free: Radical Aesthetics and Political Affects.”
• Her essays on gender and sexuality in transnational Arab culture include:
  • “Scheherazade and the limits of inclusive politics in Arab American literature”
  • “Political social movements: Homosexuality and queer movements” 
  • “Dancing queens: Queer desire in Golden Era Egyptian Cinema”

Learn more about UMBC’s gender, women’s, and sexuality studies.

Meet Brian Frazee, the president and CEO of the Delaware Hospital Association. Brian is a double alum—earning his political science degree in 2011 and his M.P.P. in health policy in 2012—a former resident assistant (RA), and the current president of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors. But most importantly, he would say, Brian is married to Angela Frazee ‘11, psychology, whom he met during his time at UMBC, and the couple have three daughters. Take it away, Brian!

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: I am an alumnus who met his wife, who was a fellow RA in another residence hall, at UMBC. (On the right here, we’re posing for Valentine’s Day in 2009 in the Erickson Hall lobby.) We are now the proud parents of three girls and recently moved to Delaware. Our family loves UMBC and we plan to be lifelong engaged alumni! 

Q: How have you stayed connected with the UMBC community?

A: I have had the privilege of serving as president of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2020. Leading this board through the pandemic and historic leadership transition has been the honor of a lifetime and has allowed me to give back to UMBC in more ways than I ever could have imagined. Through this experience, I’ve seen firsthand the dedication, commitment, and contributions that make UMBC the special community it is.

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone who hasn’t joined the UMBC community to know about the support you find here?

A: The culture of UMBC is very special. Everyone has a place at UMBC. The commitment to inclusive excellence is real, whether you are a student or an alum. There are countless opportunities to get involved and no contribution or commitment is too small!

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired you, and how they did it.

A: People who volunteer their time in an effort to better their community inspire me most. With all of the challenges we face in this post-pandemic period, it is inspiring when people step up to do the hard work of making their community better for everyone without expecting anything in return. These unsung heroes give me hope and confidence that our best days are ahead of us.

Q: Tell us about your current job. What do you like most about it?

A: I am the president and CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association. The privilege and opportunity to advance healthcare policy with the goal of enabling Delawareans to reach optimal health is what I enjoy most about the work. The hospital, health system, and healthcare-related organizations that make up the membership of my organization inspire me with the innovative and dedicated work they do every day to make progress toward this goal.

Q: What is your WHY? What brought you to UMBC?

A: I was attracted to UMBC because of its unique culture of inclusive community that has only gotten stronger since my time as a student. UMBC is not a place; it’s a community. That special and unique culture became evident quickly when I arrived on campus and it’s why I have remained engaged as an alumnus.

The Frazee family with Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman at her inaugural celebration. “We took our girls to Annapolis for the ceremony and celebration because it was important to us that they witnessed the historic swearing-in of the first woman independently elected to state-wide office in Maryland,” says Frazee.

Q: Where have you found support in the UMBC community?

A: There are so many people who have supported me along my UMBC journey. The individualized attention that is engrained in our culture certainly helped me get to where I am today. Service learning volunteering opportunities through the Shriver Center, internships, campus involvement and leadership, and dedicated professors are specific examples of ways the UMBC community supported me.

Q: What’s your favorite part of Retriever Nation?

A: The special pride we share as members of Retriever Nation is my favorite part of our community. That instant connection and understanding I feel when I meet a fellow member never gets old!

Q: What drives you to support UMBC?

A: We support the UMBC Alumni Endowed Scholarship Fund which is led by the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors. While we see the value in giving to all parts of the UMBC community, my wife and I believe that this fund most directly supports future generations of Retrievers. My wife benefited from this fund as an undergraduate and supporting it as alumni is our way of paying it forward!

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

It’s the first day of class. You’re looking around, bright-eyed and a little nervous, and then your instructor smiles at the class and says, “One day you are all going to die.” Are you offended? Shocked? Titillated? Horrified? Collectively, the class titters. Already social bonds are forming as Christine Armstrong Mair, associate professor of sociology who specializes in gerontology, continues her spiel. “And if we’re all lucky, that won’t be for a long time.”

As sociologists, says Mair, or more broadly as leaders in an educational setting, “it’s not our task to make somebody think a certain way. Our task is to show them what exists in society and help them feel empathy for the human experience.”

At its most pedestrian roots, empathy is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. How can someone else’s emotional experience inform your own personal perspective?

In the best-case scenario, a college campus is a microcosm of its society: a crosshatch of races, ages, and socio-economic backgrounds. And UMBC holds true to those measures. But something different happens when you step into the Loop—you sit next to someone who didn’t go to your high school. You eat at the same table with someone outside of your cultural background. You take a test side by side with someone who voted differently than you. And even more than sharing space, you start sharing notes and books and stories—even your own story—with these strangers and then suddenly they’re no longer strangers.

When empathy is on the table, students and colleagues expand their capacity for hard work. You might change your thesis to address human trafficking or leave your home island to work toward healthy aging for all populations. So pull up a chair, step into someone else’s shoes, and partake in this grand educational potluck.

She contacted Vandana Janeja, then chair of information systems, and explained the project she wanted to complete for her Ph.D. During her master’s, Karabatis had tried to conduct a research project on human trafficking for a class with Janeja but couldn’t find a robust data set to use for her project and ended up having to leave the work incomplete. This time, she pitched using the stories of trafficked people. “Instead of dealing with numbers, numbers as data, I am now dealing with stories as data—the stories of people being trafficked,” says Karabatis.

It’s not been easy going. Many trafficked people are not open about their stories, for fear of retribution or simply because of how horrific the experience was. Additionally, it’s hard for Karabatis to take in their trauma. “I’m reading about all these abuses,” says Karabatis. “I’m reading about sex trafficking, labor trafficking, organ trafficking, human smuggling. I can’t imagine—how can a human being do something like that to another human?”

Eventually though, with the end goal of combating the network of smuggling routes, Karabatis says, you need to reach a level where you can try to put your emotions aside: “You need to detach yourself from these emotions if you want to do something to help these people. If your emotions are the only thing driving you, you wouldn’t be able to produce the research. Use these emotions as a spark and then put them on the side.”

Snyder has made the most of the FDC’s offerings, including inviting Hodges’ team to observe his teaching and offer feedback. He starts many of his classes with some tools for students to learn about self-regulation, basically how to use available resources to make the most of education. He introduces them to Bloom’s Taxonomy, which places rote memorization at the bottom of the pyramid and evaluating and creating a unique argument at top. “I want the students to know, I’m not asking to memorize anything,” says Snyder, “but we need to learn to be critical when we’re thinking about media and communication texts and how these things operate.”

Giving students tools to succeed in college—go to office hours, block out time for studying, get enough sleep—may seem basic and far afield from teaching and practicing empathy, but in the taxonomy of educational success, says Snyder, this foundation leads to the heavy-lifting tools at the top of the pyramid.

Snyder helps them harness existing interests, in tech or media, and then run with it, academically. He wants them to ask, “‘How can I turn that switch? What is the thing that I can grab onto? What do I really want to know about?’”

He also listens to them, and attempts to model vulnerability in the classroom. “Yes, these are students and they need to understand content, but they’re also humans who are struggling and we’re all struggling and there’s a human condition aspect we can’t ignore as instructors.”

Cleopatra Borel had no athletic aspirations when she arrived in Baltimore from Trinidad and Tobago in 1997. She enrolled at what was then Coppin State College on the advice of her high school math teacher, a Coppin alum. Powerfully built and an eager learner, Borel quickly developed in the throwing events and broke Coppin’s shot put record early in her tenure there.

After the Eagles’ coach left the program, UMBC offered Borel an athletic scholarship and she made the move to Hilltop Circle.

Borel ’02, interdisciplinary studies, flourished both academically and athletically at UMBC. She earned All-America honors (top eight) in the shot put both indoors and outdoors in the 2000 – 01 season. However, she would have only one more crack at the NCAAs, with one year of indoor track and field eligibility remaining. 

On March 9, 2002, Cleo, as she was known at UMBC, took to the shot put circle at the University of Arkansas. On her next-to-last throw, she uncorked a personal best of 17.50 meters (57’5”), putting her in first place. When the last shot had landed, the black-and-gold clad Retriever had outdistanced the field and captured UMBC’s first Division I national title. 

In her first year of eligibility (2006 – 07), the UMBC Athletic Hall of Fame Committee tabbed Borel for induction. However, some events on her calendar kept getting in the way of her returning to campus—namely the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics. At 37 years old, she produced her best finish, placing seventh at the 2016 Rio Games. Her final Olympic moment occurred as she served as Trinidad and Tobago’s flag bearer at the closing ceremonies.

Borel returned to the United States in January 2022 to coach the throwers at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. And, in October 2023, she finally made the journey back to Hilltop Circle to be inducted into the UMBC Athletics Hall of Fame. 

We asked Borel to reflect on her incredible journey.

Q: You arrived at UMBC under unusual circumstances and remain the only Retriever to win an individual NCAA Championship. Reflecting on your time here, what did it mean for you to be a Retriever and how did your UMBC experience assist you in all of your endeavors?

Borel: I walked away from a very good situation at Coppin State College, not knowing how things would evolve at UMBC. However, I have to say, taking a chance on UMBC is still among the top three best decisions I have made thus far. My UMBC student-athlete experience prepared me for life as an Olympic athlete, essentially taking on the world. 

I believe I was prepared to navigate life on the professional track and field circuit because of [UMBC Athletics Director] Dr. Charles Brown’s sports management class and because my event Coach Brian King and track and field Head Coach David Bobb ’97 taught me to work hard, be confident, and play to my strengths. 

UMBC’s academic accomplishments, artistic expressions, community outreach initiatives, and of course athletic triumphs reflect the unwavering commitment we all share in making our school a truly exceptional place—a special place where a young person can take a chance and, through hard work and dedication, rise to the top of their field.

Q: What did it mean for you to represent Trinidad and Tobago in international competitions, including four Olympic Games?

Borel: Trinidad and Tobago is a small, developing nation in the Caribbean with a population of less than 1.4 million individuals on two islands. As a result, I felt like one of a few sporting ambassadors representing my country. I am proud to have been responsible for the playing of my national anthem at stadiums across the globe.

Q: What prompted you to develop the Cleopatra Borel Foundation and what is its mission?

Borel: The mission of the Cleopatra Borel Foundation is to facilitate the development of youth through sport and education. We believe this can be accomplished at the grassroots level in Trinidad and Tobago by assisting with coaches’ education, gear, and equipment distribution.

Q: Anything else you would like to share with the UMBC community?

Borel: It was indeed an honor to represent you at the NCAAs and on a global level. I am a proud Retriever, excited to see how UMBC will continue to positively influence Maryland and the world.

By Steve Levy ’85

A new study using data from the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET)instrument on the International Space Station has found evidence for nearby, young sources of cosmic ray electrons, contributing to a greater understanding of how the galaxy functions as a whole. 

The study included more than seven million data points representing particles arriving at CALET’s detector since 2015, and CALET’s ability to detect electrons at the highest energies is unique. As a result, the data includes more electrons at high energies than any previous work. That makes the statistical analysis of the data more robust and lends support to the conclusion that there are one or more local sources of cosmic ray electrons. 

“This is one of the primary things that CALET is made to look for,” says Nicholas Cannady, an assistant research scientist with UMBC’s Center for Space Sciences and Technology, a partnership with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and a leader on the study. With this paper, he adds, “We were really able to push into the realm where we have few events and start to look for things at the highest energies, which is exciting.”

A better understanding of the galaxy

Current theory posits that the aftermath of supernovae (exploding stars), called supernova remnants, produce these high energy electrons, which are a specific type of cosmic ray. Electrons lose energy very quickly after leaving their source, so the rare electrons arriving at CALET with high energy are believed to originate in supernova remnants that are relatively nearby (on a cosmic scale), Cannady explains. 

The study’s results are “a strong indicator that the paradigm that we have for understanding these high-energy electrons—that they come from supernova remnants and that they are accelerated the way that we think they are—is correct,” Cannady says. The findings “give insight into what’s going on in these supernova remnants, and offer a way to understand the galaxy and these sources in the galaxy better.”

CALET is a collaborative project built and operated by groups in Japan, Italy, and the United States, led by Shoji Torii. The lead contributors to this work in Japan are Torii, Yosui Akaike, and Holger Motz at Waseda University in Tokyo, and Louisiana State University is the lead institution in the U.S. The findings were published in Physical Review Letters.

New data lead to new cosmic ray sources

Previous work found that the number of electrons arriving at CALET decreased steadily as energy increased up to about 1 teravolt (TeV), or 1 trillion electron volts. The number of electrons arriving with even greater energy was extremely low. But in this study, CALET did not see the expected dropoff. Instead, the results suggest that the number of particles plateau, and then even increase, at the highest energies—all the way up to 10 TeV in a few cases. 

Previous experiments could only measure particles up to about 4 TeV, so the highest energy event candidates above that in this study are a crucial new source of information about potential nearby sources of cosmic ray electrons. Cannady led the effort to individually analyze each of those events to confirm they represent a real signal, and a deeper dive into those events is forthcoming. 

Addressing challenges

It’s difficult to distinguish between electrons and protons at high energies, and there are many more protons arriving than electrons, which poses challenges to an accurate analysis. To tell the particles apart, a program developed by the researchers analyzes how the particles break down when they hit the detector. Protons and electrons break down differently, so comparing the cascade of particles they create in that process can filter out the protons. However, at the highest energies, the differences between protons and electrons decrease, making it harder to accurately remove only the protons from the data. 

To address this, Cannady led the CALET team’s effort to simulate the breakdown patterns of both protons and electrons coming from the exact direction each of the high-energy events arrived from. That increased the team’s ability to determine whether the events are electrons or protons as accurately as possible. 

Based on that work, “We believe we are evaluating the likelihood of events being protons in a realistic fashion,” Cannady says. Enough presumed electrons remain in the dataset after that careful analysis to conclude there is a real signal. 

Pushing boundaries

T. Gregory Guzik, professor of physics at LSU and the U.S. CALET collaboration lead, is excited that further analysis of the data suggested that electrons coming from the three best candidates for nearby supernova remnants can explain the high-energy arrivals.

“These CALET observations open the tantalizing possibility that matter from a particular nearby supernova remnant can be measured at Earth,” Guzik shares. “Continued CALET measurement through the life of the International Space Station will help shed new light on the origin and transport of relativistic matter in our galaxy.”

For Cannady, “The most exciting part is seeing things at the highest energies. We have some candidates above 10 TeV—and if it is borne out that these are real electron events, it’s really a smoking gun for clear evidence of a nearby source,” he says. “This is essentially what CALET was put up to do, so it’s exciting to be working on this and to finally be getting results that are pushing the bounds of what we’ve seen before.”

Written by Adi Foord, assistant professor of physics, UMBC

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

Will it ever be possible for time travel to occur? – Alana C., age 12, Queens, New York

Have you ever dreamed of traveling through time, like characters do in science fiction movies? For centuries, the concept of time travel has captivated people’s imaginations. Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time, just like you move between different places. In movies, you might have seen characters using special machines, magical devices or even hopping into a futuristic car to travel backward or forward in time.

But is this just a fun idea for movies, or could it really happen?

The question of whether time is reversible remains one of the biggest unresolved questions in science. If the universe follows the laws of thermodynamics, it may not be possible. The second law of thermodynamics states that things in the universe can either remain the same or become more disordered over time.

It’s a bit like saying you can’t unscramble eggs once they’ve been cooked. According to this law, the universe can never go back exactly to how it was before. Time can only go forward, like a one-way street.

Time is relative

However, physicist Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity suggests that time passes at different rates for different people. Someone speeding along on a spaceship moving close to the speed of light – 671 million miles per hour! – will experience time slower than a person on Earth.

People have yet to build spaceships that can move at speeds anywhere near as fast as light, but astronauts who visit the International Space Station orbit around the Earth at speeds close to 17,500 mph. Astronaut Scott Kelly has spent 520 days at the International Space Station, and as a result has aged a little more slowly than his twin brother – and fellow astronaut – Mark Kelly. Scott used to be 6 minutes younger than his twin brother. Now, because Scott was traveling so much faster than Mark and for so many days, he is 6 minutes and 5 milliseconds younger.

Some scientists are exploring other ideas that could theoretically allow time travel. One concept involves wormholes, or hypothetical tunnels in space that could create shortcuts for journeys across the universe. If someone could build a wormhole and then figure out a way to move one end at close to the speed of light – like the hypothetical spaceship mentioned above – the moving end would age more slowly than the stationary end. Someone who entered the moving end and exited the wormhole through the stationary end would come out in their past.

However, wormholes remain theoretical: Scientists have yet to spot one. It also looks like it would be incredibly challenging to send humans through a wormhole space tunnel.

Paradoxes and failed dinner parties

There are also paradoxes associated with time travel. The famous “grandfather paradox” is a hypothetical problem that could arise if someone traveled back in time and accidentally prevented their grandparents from meeting. This would create a paradox where you were never born, which raises the question: How could you have traveled back in time in the first place? It’s a mind-boggling puzzle that adds to the mystery of time travel.

Famously, physicist Stephen Hawking tested the possibility of time travel by throwing a dinner party where invitations noting the date, time and coordinates were not sent out until after it had happened. His hope was that his invitation would be read by someone living in the future, who had capabilities to travel back in time. But no one showed up.

As he pointed out: “The best evidence we have that time travel is not possible, and never will be, is that we have not been invaded by hordes of tourists from the future.”

Telescopes are time machines

Interestingly, astrophysicists armed with powerful telescopes possess a unique form of time travel. As they peer into the vast expanse of the cosmos, they gaze into the past universe. Light from all galaxies and stars takes time to travel, and these beams of light carry information from the distant past. When astrophysicists observe a star or a galaxy through a telescope, they are not seeing it as it is in the present, but as it existed when the light began its journey to Earth millions to billions of years ago. https://www.youtube.com/embed/QeRtcJi3V38?wmode=transparent&start=0 Telescopes are a kind of time machine – they let you peer into the past.

NASA’s newest space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, is peering at galaxies that were formed at the very beginning of the Big Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago.

While we aren’t likely to have time machines like the ones in movies anytime soon, scientists are actively researching and exploring new ideas. But for now, we’ll have to enjoy the idea of time travel in our favorite books, movies and dreams.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 250 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.

Currently, Brian Souders is the associate director for global learning in the Center for Global Engagement at UMBC. But Brian, who came to UMBC in 2000 to be the university’s inaugural study abroad coordinator, has worn a number of hats in his 20+ years as a Retriever. He’s a two time alum (Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy, and culture, M.A. ’19, TESOL), and after years of helping faculty and students achieve their overseas learning and research goals, Brian recently took part in his own Fulbright exchange program. Take it away, Brian!

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: I have been a global soul since my first international experience as a high-school exchange student in Finland several decades ago. That initial experience led me to a career in international exchange that has lasted more than two decades at UMBC. My UMBC path also led to doctoral work in the language, literacy, and culture program, as well as a master’s degree in our TESOL program.

Q: Tell us about what you love about where you work.

A: I work in UMBC’s Center for Global Engagement (CGE), and our mission is to support international opportunities for both our incoming degree-seeking students, our English-language learners, and our outbound study abroad students. Having been at the CGE for what I call a non-insignificant amount of time has allowed me to see just how much we have grown and changed to support the global learning aspirations of our UMBC community. 

Q: What brought you to UMBC in the first place? Tell us about your primary WHY, and how it led you to UMBC.

A: I came to UMBC because I was offered the opportunity to build a structure for UMBC students to study abroad. I had worked as a study abroad advisor at a Big 10 university for several years, but I wanted to take those skills and apply them elsewhere. In 2000, I saw a job advertisement to serve as the inaugural study abroad coordinator at UMBC in what was then called the International Education Services Office. I interviewed for and got the job. I moved to Maryland, and I have not looked back since!

Q: Tell us about the people who are helping you grow at UMBC, and why their HOW made such a difference to you.

A: There are too many people to name! It was an honor to work with Arlene Wergin, the director of the International Education Services Office until her retirement in 2016. She was a constant source of professional and personal support during the initial years of my time at UMBC.

David Di Maria, our associate vice provost for international education, led me to dream big, when I transitioned away from education abroad administration to a role focused solely on my current work of fellowships advising with a focus on the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Katie Heird, UMBC’s inaugural director of study abroad and global learning, has been a partner in global collaboration for 15 years—and it was with her encouragement that I applied for my own Fulbright, which I received this year.

Q: What did you learn from your own Fulbright experience, and what did you bring back from that to offer to UMBC students and faculty?

A: Probably the biggest lesson I took from the seminar is that the German-American educational relation is a strong one—in spite of the differences in our educational systems. There are aspects of the higher education landscape that make for some challenges in semester-length exchanges, but there is an incredible enthusiasm among our German university colleagues and partners to host American students and scholars. I can happily tell our faculty and staff that Germany’s institutions of higher education are beyond enthusiastic and welcoming to American faculty and students to come learn more about what their country has to offer. 

Q: What do you love most about your job?

A: I get to fulfill dreams. I work with both talented students and our amazing faculty and staff to find funding opportunities to go global. In my job, I work with the UMBC community to put their dreams into words. Working with the Fulbright Program—the largest educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State—allows me the chance to help build future leaders in global affairs. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Before you let your imagination run wild, we’re going to go ahead and temper whatever expectations you may have upon hearing the phrase “biology band.” Nobody is banging on a centrifuge in lieu of drums. Test tubes aren’t lined up as a makeshift xylophone. The final rock flourish is not a shattering of beakers. In fact, when the band members of Fever Dream get together, they leave biology in the lab and concentrate on what matters—the music. 

“We are incredibly lucky to be able to do important research on the topics that we are interested in while at the same time being able to share our knowledge through teaching and mentoring students,” says Jeff Leips, professor of biological sciences.

“But our department also definitely embodies the motto of ‘work hard, play hard.’” 

“I’ve been involved with music my whole life and was actively looking for opportunities just like this, so it came at a perfect time,” said Michelle Moyer, M.S. ’22, a current biological sciences doctoral candidate. “I’m blown away by how much the idea has developed into a true passion project for all of us.”

The concept of a departmental band started simply enough. In his capacity as chair of the biology department “Fun Committee,” Leips asked around at his lab to see if anyone played an instrument and would be willing to play during their end-of-year departmental party. Leips joined the UMBC community in 2001 and this annual event has become one of his favorite traditions. The same year that Leips came to UMBC, he bought his first guitar.

Meet the band

Over the years, Leips has continued to gather a new musical cohort every few semesters with minimal practices and a one-time-only performance. While the revolving door of students each year allowed for new and exciting instruments to add to their sound, retention and growth were issues.

Last spring, Leips put out a call to see who would be interested in standing up a more permanent band, and soon his guitar and ukulele were joined by vocals, percussion, keys, and more.

Fever Dream is currently made up of biological sciences faculty member, Steve Caruso ’94, Ph.D. ’02, biology, on drums; Michelle Moyer, M.S. ’22 and a current biology doctoral candidate, on vocals and percussion; Ph.D. student Anthony Rosenthal ’20, biochemistry and molecular biology, on bass and harmonica; biochemistry doctoral candidate Winny Sun on keyboards and contributing vocals; Ryan Bacon ’23, biology doctoral candidate, on lead guitar; and Jeff Leips on guitar and vocals.

“I know Dr. Leips has previously labeled me as lead guitar, but I feel that might overpromise on my skill set! But it’s been a lot of fun,” says Ryan Bacon ’23, biology doctoral candidate, of his involvement.

While the group may have come together as a hodgepodge, their dedication was clear from the outset. “Anthony said he was just learning guitar, so I suggested that he learn bass. He borrowed the bass from our drummer and started playing and actually got pretty good, pretty fast,” said Leips.

In addition to jumping in feet first to learn how to actually play the instruments, the members of Fever Dream have also put in the time—upping their practice schedule to two nights a week, three hours per session—to make their ultimate goal of playing a show a reality. 

The group works together to choose songs they think will speak to their skillset, with classics like “Piano Man” (with the added bonus of highlighting Rosenthal’s harmonica skills) and hits from Tom Petty and The Doors. But the students also become the teachers, introducing Leips to music he’s never heard of from bands like alt-J. The band is looking forward to showcasing their sound at a few biology department gatherings this semester and they’re kicking around the idea of potentially branching out to local venues.

It was all a (fever) dream

And to answer your burning question—why the name Fever Dream? It’s both a bittersweet tribute to a dedicated fan and an explanation of their musical selections, which are “all over the place,” says Leips. When Leips first got his PA system, his dog Chiku would stand listening at the door. “If I made a mistake, she would look at me like she knew,” muses Leips.

After sharing a photo of Chiku visibly dreaming in front of the PA system, Leips’ pup became the band’s unofficial mascot. And when she sadly died, the group decided to make it permanent, inking her on their band shirts and settling into their official name. 

Ultimately, the group is just glad to have found each other and have an outlet for their passion.

“When Jeff invited me to join a low-stakes, fun-oriented band, it seemed like a great idea,” said Caruso, who studies phage biology. “I’ve learned that while I really like playing the drums, I love playing with other people. Making music with people is just a wonderful kind of thing that people need to do to understand.”

Meet Tim Besse, M.A. ’17, management of aging services, a veteran of the United States Army who now works as an advocate for veterans with neurological injuries or diseases. As a student in the Erickson School, Tim made connections with a fellow student that sticks with him to this day. Thanks for sharing your story, Tim!

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: As far back as I can remember, I aspired to go to college and pursue a career that was dependent upon my college education. I enlisted in the U.S. Army (USA) at age 18 to take advantage of the GI Bill for education. During my 1973 – 1980 USA years, I completed the first three years of a University of Maryland Global Campus baccalaureate degree. In 1981, I completed my degree that was focused on social sciences, and I started a Department of Defense civilian career that ended in my 2016 retirement.

I was active in my community during my career, working with older adults, people with disabilities, and refugee families. In September 2016, two weeks into retirement, I entered the Erickson School at UMBC to earn my M.A. in the management of aging services. Today I am an affiliate of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, wherein I advocate for veterans who are neurologically injured or who suffer from neurologic diseases.

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone who hasn’t joined the UMBC community to know about the support you found here?

A: That support will be a gift to themselves for a lifetime.

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired you or supported you, and how they did it.

A: I have many who supported me on my journey through the Erickson School. The person who stands out is my classmate Cynthia Garner [’16, M.A. ’17, management of aging studies]. The classmate closest to my age was 10 years younger than me. The classmate furthest from my age, Cynthia, was 40 years younger than I am. We were kindred souls, out to prove something to ourselves as well as to others! We were committed to each other not to let the other one fail. Cynthia once said to me: “Because I am young, people don’t think I know anything!” I responded to her, “Because I am old, people don’t think I know anything either!”

Regardless of the difficulty of the assignment, and regardless of the tight timeline, working with Cynthia, I knew we would pull through it! Cynthia was not only very bright, but she was ethical, unafraid to work hard to be successful, always gracious, and shared her talents to help others succeed too! On the day we graduated, I said to myself, “If there are just a few more like Cynthia, the world will be okay!”

Q: What did you love most about your program of study at UMBC?

A: The Erickson curriculum strives to enable its students to understand the needs of older adults and to be able to bring resources to meet those needs. For many of my classmates, the course content was abstract; it pertained to others and not yet to themselves. The course content was personal to me because I am an older adult. Many scenarios are used as examples, such as aging parents, changes in physical stamina, and cognitive changes. Also, traits that may improve with age include resilience and crystallized intelligence (wisdom) are current life events.

The curriculum enabled students to grasp the difficulties encountered by older adults and potential solutions for those difficulties. For those students who are older adults, the course content was as much about them as it was about an entire aging cohort. Every day, I work with older adult veterans and their families. My insight into myself allows me to understand the constraints age has placed on these veterans. My insight enables me to recognize their right and their need for self-determination and explain to well-meaning family members why it is vital for their veterans to guide their lives.

Q: What brought you to UMBC?

A: I came to UMBC because it offered the education I needed to work with older adults at my desired level of expertise. I stay engaged with UMBC and the Erickson School for the aid it provides me to improve my job skills.

Q: Where are you working now, and what do you like about it most?

A: I am a national service officer in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Our veteran population is aging. The average age for a veteran is 68. The average age for a Vietnam-era veteran is 72. Besides being older adults, these men and women have an extra layer on top of being an older adult. Veterans are more likely to contract Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Multiple Sclerosis.

PTSD is more prevalent amongst veterans, especially combatant veterans. Veterans are more likely to fall than non-veterans. And then there is loneliness. It is gratifying to work with these older adults with their special needs. At my age my credo is if it’s not fun, I’m doing it! I anticipate I am not going anywhere.

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Spiders, robots, climate change, Vaudevillian history, and more—this year’s GRIT-X event had something for inquiring minds of all kinds, with explorations into elements of the past, our collective present, and possibilities for the future. 

Back for its seventh year, GRIT-X returned to the Fine Arts Recital Hall during Homecoming 2023 with presentations from faculty and accomplished alumni addressing some of the most pressing issues facing society now and throughout history, and how UMBC scholars are working to build a better tomorrow. 

“The goal of GRIT-X is to provide a sneak peek behind the scenes of some of the exciting and impactful research and creative achievement initiatives across our campus community,” says Karl V. Steiner, UMBC’s vice president of research and creative achievement. “[GRIT-X] takes you around the whole campus and beyond.”

“Disruptive” and intercultural thinking in the workforce 

GRIT-X 2023 showcased how UMBC alumni are working to fuel innovation within the workforce and how faculty are strengthening the employability of future graduates. Melanie Harrison Okokoro, Ph.D. ’11, environmental science, opened this year’s GRIT-X with her discussion on how “bold and disruptive thinking” can help executives to lead, innovate, and transform their companies in the 21st century. Okokoro is the co-founder and CEO of Eco-Alpha, a firm that provides environmental compliance services and engineering workforce development training. Her talk outlined how leaders can create “disruptive strategies” in order to stay at the forefront of changes happening in their industries. 

“Disruptive thinking is in my DNA,” said Okokoro during her presentation. “It defines how [Eco-Alpha] outcompetes our competitors in the marketplace and allows us to target a segment of the population that’s been traditionally overlooked.”

Similarly to Okokoro, Zhensen Huang, M.S. ’00, Ph.D. ’04, information systems, used bold thinking to propel himself forward in his current career as CEO and founder of Precise Software Solutions, a firm that helps government and private sector clients modernize their IT systems. Huang spoke of his student experience at UMBC after emigrating to the U.S. from a small rural village in China—a future he says he didn’t think was possible when growing up. He shared how UMBC helped even when “It’s hard for us to make a connection between what we’re doing now to the great possibilities down the road,” says Huang. 

“Embrace the present and envision the future,” Huang shared during his talk. “Sometimes you don’t know what your future possibilities are, and that’s okay. What’s important is to embrace what’s in front of you, especially the challenges.”

Irina Golubeva, professor and director of UMBC’s intercultural communication graduate program, is working to address some of those challenges students face, such as navigating culturally-diverse environments. Her GRIT-X presentation focused on her research on intercultural learning, which includes the InterEqual training program she created based on student feedback. Golubeva shared how she’s helping UMBC students develop their intercultural competence as they prepare for their professional careers. 

“We cannot ignore and disregard these tendencies of job markets, and we must prepare our students to work and live in multicultural societies by equipping them with essential intercultural and language skills,” says Golubeva. 

Investigating earthly phenomena with math and science

Justin Webster, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, explored the “relationship between mathematical models and the phenomena in the world” during his presentation. He highlighted specific examples of how mathematical modeling can deepen our understanding of infrastructure disasters like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse of 1940, and how his mathematical process helped researchers find a possible hypothesis for detecting the onset of glaucoma.

“Mathematical modeling is a scientific empowerment tool. Anyone, anywhere, can do math modeling and study anything that they’re interested in,” says Webster. “That’s why it is so important that our students at UMBC, and students more broadly, are mathematically competent and excited so that they can go on to be students of the world.”

Charles Ichoku, director of the UMBC-led Goddard Earth Science Technology and Research (GESTAR) Center II, also explored a phenomena that’s causing global concern—how rapidly the Earth is changing. Ichoku explained in his GRIT-X talk how climate change, people, and wildfire emissions are contributing to those changes to the Earth and the work he’s done with NASA’s Fire Energetics and Emissions Research project to understand causes of climate change. 

“The world is warming dangerously, and human activities are driving the warming trend through the emission of heat-trapping long-lived greenhouse gasses (GHGs), particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), which has continued its upward trend over the last several decades. Wildfires are [also] contributing significantly to that,” shared Ichoku. 

Similarly, Carlos Romero-Talamás, associate professor of mechanical engineering, explained in his presentation how most sources of energy produce carbon and GHGs, and the work that’s being done to bring the global energy-related CO2 emission levels down to net zero. He discussed the benefits of using fusion energy to achieve that goal, which includes the work he’s doing as the principal investigator of the Centrifugal Mirror Fusion Experiment, a research effort between UMBC and the University of Maryland, College Park that explores a promising alternative to traditional fusion power approaches. 

“Fusion energy is considered the ultimate source of energy—the fuel is abundant and is non radioactive,” says Romero-Talamás. “It is urgent to decarbonize our economy and our energy infrastructure because we are harming the planet [and] are running towards a climate disaster.”

Past histories and future possibilities 

Michelle R. Scott, associate professor of history, brought the GRIT-X audience back to a moment in time in which Black Vaudeville performers used economic empowerment as a form of resistance in the 1920s. Scott explained her research into the institutional history of the Theater Owners’ Booking Association’s (T.O.B.A.) origins, which she wrote about in her book T.O.B.A. Time: Black Vaudeville and the Theater Owners’ Booking Association in Jazz Age America(University of Illinois Press, 2023). 

“The [Vaudeville] circuit itself—its success—was a testament to Black excellence in terms of business, Black artistic skill, and a momentary period of interracial cooperation. It was truly an example of Jazz-age resistance,” Scott said during her presentation. 

Mercedes Burns, assistant professor of biological sciences, explained a different kind of history—the history of arachnids. Burns, who received an NSF CAREER Award earlier this year, enlightened the audience with her research on spiders, opiliones (commonly known as daddy longlegs), and other kinds of arachnids. She outlined reasons why we should appreciate these “unloveable” creatures. 

“Spiders have been living their lives for much longer than any vertebrate has —they’ve persisted over a millennia,” Burns explained in her GRIT-X talk. “Arachnids…thoughtfully consume unloveable things in our habitats. Arachnids are [also] quite attentive to their environment. They are master architects and material scientists. If you’re curious about the organisms that surround you and you’re interested in learning more or appreciating what those organisms do for the environment and their ecosystem, that leaves no room for fear.”

As a result of her being the first known female African American arachnologist, Burns had a species of trapdoor spiders named after her in 2021, called Ummidia mercedesburnsae. She reflected on the accomplishment, saying “Having experienced that honor of being the matranim of a described species really underscores the legacy that I want to leave.”

Fellow UMBC NSF CAREER Award recipient Cynthia Matuszek, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, brought the GRIT-X audience into the future with her presentation on the possibilities of human-robot interaction. Matuszek explained how humans and robots can interact and exist in the same space and how robots can be more useful. 

Her work in UMBC’s Interactive Robotics and Language Lab focuses on using grounded language—which refers to language that has meaning in and pertains to the physical world—as a tool to build robots that can perform tasks in real-world environments, instead of being programmed to handle a fixed set of predetermined tasks. 

“In order to have robots that are useful in human spaces, we need robots that are flexible and capable of interacting in a variety of contexts,” Matuszek explained in her presentation. “When people use language, we don’t just use words. We use gestures, we point to things, we look at things, and we use body language. Useful language learning for robots needs to take all of these factors into account.” 

Learn more about GRIT-X 2023, past speakers, and their research.