Book Manuscript Workshops offer faculty the opportunity to share a nearly complete manuscript with a small audience of experts and receive constructive feedback. The aim of the Workshop is to transform an already excellent scholarly project into an even better publishable book. Faculty will invite three expert readers from outside UMBC to read the full book manuscript (or significant sections) and offer their feedback in both written form and in a 2-3 hour workshop (usually held remotely). Some faculty authors may also wish to include a scholarly press editor in the workshop. Formal guidelines for workshop structure and suggestions for budgeting are available from the Dresher Center. Up to $5000 will be available to each applicant to support the workshop.

Faculty members who wish to workshop an in-progress book manuscript should submit:

1. A one-page summary of the book project, including a schedule for completion. Applicants should also include a statement indicating whether the work is under contract with a press or provide a list of potential publishers.
2. A one-page narrative explaining why and how this opportunity will be important to the process of completing the book. If appropriate, applicants should include a brief statement about their plans for tenure and/or promotion, including timelines
3. A list of potential outside experts.
4. A current curriculum vitae.
5. A firm date for completion of the book manuscript. Manuscripts must be substantially complete before submission to outside readers.

All full-time faculty writing humanities-related books are eligible to apply. Junior faculty or those preparing for promotion are especially encouraged. In order to allow sufficient time for expert review, faculty should submit Book Manuscript Workshop applications 4-6 months in advance of the planned workshop.

Join us in welcoming three new fellows to the Dresher Center for the Fall 2023 semester.

• Sonya Squires-Caesar, PhD Candidate, Language, Literacy, and Culture Program
  Fall 2023 Graduate Student Research Fellow
  
  Project: "Finding Face and Building Financially Resilient Spaces: Becoming Communal Agents of Economic Change Workshop -
  An Interactive Storytelling Exhibit"
  
  
• Earl Brooks, Assistant Professor, English
  Fall 2023 Residential Faculty Fellow
  
  Project: "Black Sound Studies: Resisting the Sonics of White Supremacy"
  
  
• Christy Chapin, Associate Professor, History
  Fall 2023 Residential Faculty Fellow
  
  Project: "The Financialized States of America: How Banking and Finance Shaped Capitalism, Governance, and Life in the United States"
  
  

Congratulations to our Dresher Center Summer Fellows

• Irina Golubeva, Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication
  Summer 2023 Summer Faculty Fellow
  
  Project: "Digital Humanities Pedagogy in Action: Insights from a telecollaboration exploring inclusiveness of university campuses through art"
  
  
• Tanya Saunders, Associate Professor, Language, Literacy, and Culture
  Summer 2023 Summer Faculty Fellow
  
  Project: "Esteticas do Bapho: Queering Black Brazilian Artivism and the Politics of Black Liberation"
  
  
  
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• Jessica Floyd, Instructor, Gender, Women's, + Sexuality Studies
  Summer 2023 Lecturer Fellow
  
  Project: "Cabin Boys, Milkmaids, and Rough Seas: The Kaleidoscope of Identity in the Unexpurgated Repertoire of Stan Hugill"
  
  
• Lindsay Johnson, Senior Lecturer, Music
  Summer 2023 Lecturer Fellow
  
  Project: "'The Most Beautiful Sound': The Queer Nexus of Listening and Voice in Early Modern Convent Life"
  
  
  
  

The Dresher Center seeks an Associate Director to work closely with the Director and the Dresher Center team to shape and implement Dresher Center programs, grant proposals, and budget. The Associate Director will assist the Director in strategic decision making and shaping Dresher Center initiatives and goals. The Associate Director will also be responsible for serving in the Director’s place should the Director be unable to attend various Dresher Center activities or programs, or at university events or meetings.

The Dresher Center seeks an Associate Director to work closely with the Director and the Dresher Center team to shape and implement Dresher Center programs, grant proposals, and budget. The Associate Director will assist the Director in strategic decision making and shaping Dresher Center initiatives and goals. The Associate Director will also be responsible for serving in the Director’s place should the Director be unable to attend various Dresher Center activities or programs, or at university events or meetings.

Potential duties for the Associate Director include:

1. Work with the Center Coordinator to schedule and coordinate Dresher Center workshops such as the "Currents: Works in Progress" series, and the Fellows and Others workshops (scheduling, recruiting/communicating with presenters, drafting/revising descriptions). Attend and facilitate workshops as needed.
2. With the Dresher Center team, continue to offer HTLabs and other potential programs focused on public and community-engaged research/teaching.
3. Participate in selecting speakers for the Humanities Forum. Attend, introduce speakers, and host meals as needed.
4. Help establish and expand Dresher Center programming for undergraduates, in conjunction with both the Dresher Center Director and the Director of the Humanities Scholars Program.
5. Assist in evaluating Dresher Center activities and writing the Dresher Center annual report.
6. Attend bi-weekly staff meetings and quarterly Board meetings, participate in strategic planning and budgeting. Attend monthly CAHSS chairs and directors’ meetings.
7. Assist in administering other center programs as needed.

Open to: Tenure track faculty in humanities fields (minimum: advanced assistant or already tenured). Preference to those who have been formally involved in Dresher Center programs (fellowships, advisory board, Inclusion Imperative programs, etc.)

Please send short (1 page) letter of interest and current C.V by April 17 to dreshercenter@umbc.edu.

Questions? Jessica Berman: jberman@umbc.edu

Welcome to our Spring 2023 Dresher Center Fellows

• Haniyeh  Barahouie, Assistant Professor, Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication
  Spring 2023 Residential Faculty Research Fellow
  
  Project:“ Au delà de toutes limites: Francophone Graphic Novels in the Middle East and North Africa by Women”
  
  
• Noor Zaidi, Assistant Professor, History
  Spring 2023 Residential Faculty Research Fellow
  
  Project: “Translations of Zaynab: Gender, Sectarianism, and Citizenship in Shi’a Islam”
  
  
• Eun-Jeong Han, Associate Professor, Communications, Salisbury University
  Spring 2023 Inclusion Imperative Visiting Faculty Fellow
  
  Project: “Female Korean-American small business owners or employees’ interracial/interethnic experiences at workplace”
  
  
• Forrest Caskey Associate Director, Shriver Center; and Ph.D. Candidate, Language, Literacy, and Culture Program
  Spring 2023 Graduate Student Research Fellow
  
  Project: “‘Who Is Dorothy?’ Baltimore Drag Queens Establishing Space and Place for Queer Culture”
  
  

“I thrilled to be back as Director of the Dresher Center and looking forward to another exciting year of programming. I’m also looking forward to working with our incoming Dresher and Inclusion Imperative fellows. I could not be more grateful to Denise Meringolo for the terrific job she did as Acting Director over a particularly challenging year. And of course am very thankful to the wonderful Dresher Center team and happy to be working with them again.”

As the Fall 2022 semester is set to begin, we want to welcome our new fellows to the Dresher Center:

• Keegan Cook Finberg, Assistant Professor, English
  Fall 2022 Residential Faculty Research Fellow
  
  Project: "Poetry in General, or, Literary Experimentalism after 1960"
  
  
• Renée Lambert-Brétière, Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication
  Fall 2022 Residential Faculty Research Fellow
  
  Project: “Bridging the digital divide in the documentation of the Innu language”
  
  
• Sabah Uddin, Assistant Professor, Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies, Bowie State University
  Fall 2022 Inclusion Imperative Visiting Faculty Fellow
  
  Project: “Exploring the Art of Digital Protest: The Unbecoming of British Muslims”
  
  
• Charlotte Keniston, Associate Director, Shriver Center; and Ph.D. Candidate, Language, Literacy, and Culture Program
  Fall 2022 Graduate Student Research Fellow
  
  Project: Digital Storytelling Workshop with Black Yield Institute
  
  

Meet with editors from three presses (Amherst College Press, Palgrave Macmillan, and Saint Lucy Books), a  literary agent, and a writing consultant to learn about options for book publishing and to hear their suggestions for faculty authors interested in pitching new projects.

Friday, April 29, 10am - 11:30am.