The five Research Centers in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences are collaborating to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations among faculty, staff, and students to build intellectual community within and beyond individual research interests and curricula offerings. Each year the Center Directors will select a theme as the focus for a year-long colloquium series. The topic for AY 2022-2023 is resilience.

Resilience is the ability of an entity – a person, an institution, a technology, a community, a natural environment – to anticipate, respond to, and recover from adverse conditions. The concept of resilience generally has a positive connotation, but it has also been criticized for placing on individuals and communities the burden to adapt to adverse and potentially unjust contexts. Adapting to adverse conditions may not necessarily improve them, so what is the relationship between resilience, resistance and social change?

The Center Directors will organize an interdisciplinary panel discussion to mark the opening of the colloquium. We invite departments, programs, and faculty to host additional events about resilience in AY 2022-2023, such as guest lectures, research seminars, workshops, or field trips. Events might explore several questions, including the analytical value of the concept of resilience to specific fields of study, different conceptualizations of resilience, critiques to conventional thinking on resilience, and the pedagogy of resilience. Faculty should also consider exploring the theme of resilience in their fall classes and encourage students to participate in colloquium events.

We recommend that events be intentionally interdisciplinary. Departments and programs are encouraged to co-organize events with opportunities for scholars from different disciplines to compare their perspectives and envision potential collaboration. To discuss or submit an idea for the colloquium program, please use this form. The Centers will provide funds for the partial support of a limited number of proposals.

The Women's Center lounge and office will be closed during Spring Break. Those dates are Monday, March 21st through Friday, March 25th. 

We will resume our normal hours starting Monday, March 28th.

 For any parents who need the lactation room during this time, please contact the Women's Center at womenscenter@umbc.edu or call us at 410-455-2714 to make arrangements prior to spring break beginning.

Have a great Spring Break, UMBC!

Students who present at the conference (or any research conference) should include this on their academic resumes. When graduate or professional schools consider applicants, they often look for this kind of credit on a CV. Having presented your research as an undergraduate powerfully indicates that you are already doing graduate level work and gives you a competitive advantage over other applicants.
 

Students get the opportunity to present their own ideas, arguments, and evidence to their peers and faculty. This gives a work in progress a preliminary test-run. Students receive comments, advice, and recommendations for further development in the process without having to receive a grade. Often these presentations help students to submit better papers, and occasionally these presentations help turn existing papers into theses or even articles for publication.
 
You are engaging your discipline or research agenda of choice at a high level. This is an intellectually fulfilling opportunity with no chance of risk. Our conference panel chairs are there to help foster discussion and enhance your presentation.

 

 Unlike some professional conferences, this event is not designed to competitively challenge your research findings as much as it is to help you further develop your research interests.

 

Your participation in this conference will likely place you in panels with students from any number of different universities and fields of study. In recent years, we have had participants from a number of international partner universities, dozens of universities from our region, and hundreds of VCU students, making our conference one that is local, state, regional, and international. In 2019, the conference featured students from 20 regional universities and 2 countries. This is a great opportunity for students to engage their ideas with those from all over the field.

The conference is targeted at undergraduate students although we will consider graduate level papers as they fit the panels. We DO NOT REQUIRE completed paper. We will consider works in progress, new ideas you want to develop, old papers you want to present, and most other research possibilities as long as they fit into the following criteria:
 
Papers or ideas should fit into the very broad categories of: Government, Public Policy, and International Affairs. Papers can range from the formal and theoretical to pragmatic policy and issue analysis.

Strong consideration will be given to papers that deal with issues of:
American politics and policy, public administration, sociology and social structures ,international relations and world affairs, human rights, civil rights, criminal justice and public safety, national security, human security, geography and demography health policy, environmental policy, economic policy and political economy, race, class, and gender politics, social justice

However, consideration of many collateral fields can fit our conference including philosophy, education, women's and gender studies, religion, psychology, business, and the life sciences.
 
We hope to hear from those of you are inspired to participate. Please consult the attached call for all submission details. No travel necessary, all you need is a good idea, good research, and internet connection!

WILL+ is working with the organization Comfort Cases on a book drive to donate new books to kids in the foster system. Please donate new books at our collection boxes in the AOK Library or Harbor Hall lobby. You can also shop our Wish List at Amazon and have books delivered directly to the GWST department. 

The Drive runs from Monday, March 7-Sunday, March 20.

Or, buy from your favorite local bookstore and have books sent to: Kate Drabinski, 1000 Hilltop Circle, 417 Fine Arts, Baltimore, MD 21250.

Help us help kids get their hands on new books!

Cross-promotion from this original event link. Please mark as going in person on this event to RSVP.

Dr. Brian Carlson is the head of the Global Security Team of the Think Tank at the Center for Security Studies (CSS), and a noted expert in Russia-China relations. 

Dr. Brian Grodsky is a Professor and the Chair in UMBC's Political Science department. 

Dr. Devin Hagerty is a Professor in UMBC's Political Science department, where he teaches courses on international relations, national security policy, and South Asian politics and international affairs. 

Dr. Meredith Oyen, the director of UMBC's Asian Studies Program and an Associate Professor in the History department, is a specialist in the history of Sino-American relations. Dr. Oyen will moderate the discussion. 

This session is co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Program and the departments of History and Political Science. 

Click here below to join the event 

https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/asianstudiesprogram/events/104128