Inclusion Imperative 2018-2019 Visiting Faculty Fellows

Thu, 10 May 2018 09:34:36 -0400
diversityandinclusion, news

Dr. Katherine Bankole-Medina, Professor of History, Coppin State University, and Dr. Theresa Runstedtler, Associate Professor of History, American University, have been awarded full academic year fellowships to advance their research while in residence at the Dresher Center. Dr. Bankole-Medina’s project, “African Americans as Specimens, Objects, and Agents: Race and Clinical Care in the Maryland Medical Journal, 1877-1918,” is a 40-year account of the lives of African Americans, drawn from the Maryland Medical Journal. Dr. Runstedtler’s project, “Black Ball: Rethinking the “Dark Ages” of Professional Basketball,” explores the intersection of blackness, masculinity, labor, and criminalization through the lens of 1970s professional basketball.

The Visiting Fellows join the Dresher Center, a robust humanities center environment that holds public events and symposia, grants workshops, and works-in-progress talks, and hosts UMBC residential faculty fellows and graduate fellows. Each Visiting Fellow will partner with a UMBC faculty member with shared research or teaching interests to broaden and deepen the exchange between fellows and the campus community. Fellows receive generous stipends and research support, as well as access to the Dresher Center’s administrative and research development services and campus resources.

The Inclusion Imperative is a major five-year initiative promoting diversity and inclusive excellence in the humanities. Through the Inclusion Imperative, UMBC, in partnership with Bowie State University, Coppin State University, and Howard University, is cultivating a regional network of scholars, who are committed to diversity and inclusion in the humanities. These fundamental partnerships guide the Inclusion Imperative’s three programs: the Visiting Faculty Fellowship Program, the Diversity Teaching Network in the Humanities, and the Humanities Teaching Labs. The Inclusion Imperative programs support and expand community-engaged humanities research, teaching, and learning focused on issues of equity, inclusion, and justice. The Inclusion Imperative is funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.