URA Scholar Jolee Cohen is a Linehan Artists Scholar pursuing a BFA in Acting and will graduate in Spring 2018. Her research involved participating in a Summer Shakespearean Study in London, England.

Describe your project: Over the summer, I studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London, UK, where I was introduced to classical acting and research techniques for working with and performing Shakespeare. Now, I take what I learned and hone the craft, implementing it into my own work and using it to help others.

Who is your mentor(s) for your project? My mentor is Professor Eve Muson of the Theatre Department and Head of the BFA Acting program. She is my adviser and also a professor I had worked with many times before in classes and in theatrical productions. After working with her so many times, and having her mentorship in finding the program, working with her seemed so obvious to me.

How did you become interested in this project? I had worked extensively with Shakespeare once before while here in the U.S., but I felt like I wanted more. The department here is lovely but the classical acting training is minimal, and I knew I'd be able to get that in London. With the nudging of my parents, friends, and advisers, I applied for the Shakespeare Short Course program.

How has being a URA scholar helped you to carry out this project? Mostly, I was able to afford to go do the program, along with the assistance of the Linehan Artist Scholars Summer Award. Without any of that help, I never would have been able to study with some of the best teachers in London and experience Shakespeare the way it was always meant to be experienced.

What has been the hardest part about your research/what was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher? I've so often thought of research as something strictly for STEM, and for a larger community instead of for an individual. Part of the challenge was understanding and articulating how my research has been impactful in a personal way, and physically recording what I was learning as it was happening, since theatrical/performance research is so focused on the physical and emotional experience.

What has been the most rewarding part? The most rewarding part was seeing how the classes and performances were impacting my peers in the program with me, because I knew it was also a reflection of how I was growing. Getting to use this as personal research but to also experience it with others was very exciting and fulfilling.

How will you disseminate your research? I will be doing a performance at URCAD on April 25, to reflect my experiences during the time I was in London, and afterwards. Also, I was able to incorporate some of the techniques I learned this summer at LAMDA in the UMBC Theatre Department's recent production of Twelfth Night.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? Don't be afraid to ask questions. Do what seems the scariest. Write things down. Have an open heart and an open mind. And have fun.

What are your career goals? Simply, I want to be happy doing what I love. I want to make art that questions, confuses, and excites. And I hope to get work, no matter how long it takes for it to be something worthwhile.

Photo: Jolee performing in the UMBC theatre department's production of Twelfth Night.

Be like Jolee! Apply for a URA and get up to $1500 to support your research. For info and to apply, go to: ur.umbc.edu/ura. Attend the workshop this Wednesday at noon!

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.

As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. His hopes to raise awareness of African American’s contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The response was overwhelming: Black history clubs sprang up; teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils; and progressive whites, not simply white scholars and philanthropists, stepped forward to endorse the effort.

By the time of Woodson’s death in 1950, Negro History Week had become a central part of African American life and substantial progress had been made in bringing more Americans to appreciate the celebration. At mid–century, mayors of cities nationwide issued proclamations noting Negro History Week. The Black Awakening of the 1960s dramatically expanded the consciousness of African Americans about the importance of black history, and the Civil Rights movement focused Americans of all color on the subject of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture.

The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” That year, fifty years after the first celebration, the association held the first African American History Month. By this time, the entire nation had come to recognize the importance of Black history in the drama of the American story. Since then each American president has issued African American History Month proclamations. And the association—now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)—continues to promote the study of Black history all year.

(Excerpt from an essay by Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University, for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History)

For more information on The Mosaic's Black Africana centered events, please check out our upcoming newsletter, attached Black History Month calendar or email us at mosaic@umbc.edu.

In the last few iterations of our roundtable series, we’ve noticed that the classroom is, in many ways, replicated in the Women’s Center. Yes, we have beanbags and we gather together in a big friendly circle to discuss topics one might not cover in class, but structurally, we were learning in the same exact way. Experts are invited to talk, and we listen. Don’t get me wrong. All of our roundtables brought forth amazing conversations and beautiful insights. As much as the Women’s Center likes to be a space where classroom discussions can continue to grow, we also want to offer a new structure for having those conversations. We want to try something that incorporates social justice and brave spaces into how we learn. So this year we’re trying out knowledge exchanges.

Inspired by the tenets of radical pedagogy that are outlined by scholars such as Paulo Freire and bell hooks, we at the Women’s Center want to create space for learning that blurs the power dynamics of a typical teacher-student relationship and posits, instead, a team of “co-investigators.” For example, we envision an opportunity for professors, students, staff, community members, etc. to all come together to learn from each other and work out problems using their unique knowledge bases. This as opposed to a teacher leading a class to the solution of a problem. We hope that knowledge exchanges can be a sort of respite from the classroom for both students and teachers, as well as staff and all the other folks on our campus.

Missy introduced me to the concepts of pedagogy and andragogy, which strongly inform our Knowledge Exchanges.

In our knowledge exchanges we aim to do several things:

• Create a network of lifelong learners and curious co-investigators among all aspects of the UMBC community.
• Collaborate on dynamic solutions to complex, multi-faceted problems
• Have fun! No, really. A big goal with these knowledge exchanges is to build relationships across campus and make friends with the folks that are gathered together.

Led by Brave Space guidelines, we hope to have conversations that are led by the following values:

• We will respect each other as both learners and knowers; experts of our own lives and experiences.
• We will challenge ourselves as active listeners, community members, and co-investigators to collaborate with those gathered.
• We will build community by nurturing our relationships, holding each other accountable, and collaborating together in an equitable structure.

Knowledge exchanges will be a little messy at first. We’re all still sorting out what it means to work towards a learning space that’s more equitable to all involved. That’s what’s fun, though. We’re able to get messy, learn from each other, and hopefully use our combined knowledge to find the right questions and perhaps move towards some really good solutions.

Over the spring semester, we have three Knowledge Exchange events planned. Topics are broad and (hopefully) worthy of deep discussion creative problem-solving, and imagination:

• Thursday, February 22^nd 3:30 pm to 5 pm: Super Representation
  • Black Panther is out, and we want to know what you think about all of this superhero kerfuffle. We’re thinking about diversity in superhero movies, comics, toys, video games, etc. and we’re thinking about it more broadly than the tokenized sexy lady assassin or the wheelchair bound sidekick. Let’s talk about the possibilities of superhero diversity!
  • Partners: Dr. Elizabeth Patton, faculty in Media and Communication Studies

• Wednesday, March 14^th, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm: Consciousness Raising: Past, Present, and Future
  • Consciousness raising is an integral of feminist movements. Simply, consciousness raising is a gathering focused on learning more about experiences different from your own. In this Knowledge Exchange, we want to look back at the history of consciousness raising, how (and if) it happens now, and what it could look like in an ideal future.
  • Partners: Dr. Jodi Kelber-Kaye, Assistant Director of the Honors College

• Tuesday, April 24^th, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm: Mediating Media Intake
  • Do you ever read or watch or listen to the news and just want to cry? Or flip a table? Or hide? Us too. Let’s discuss strategies for keeping up to date and also keeping our mental and emotional health. In this Knowledge Exchange, we’re going to talk media literacy and conscious consumption.
  • Partners: Dr. Rebecca Adelman, faculty in Media and Communication Studies