Roundtable: Sustaining Research Growth in Today’s Funding Environment 

Thursday, June 25th | 12-12:45 PM ET / 9-9:45 AM PT

REGISTER NOW

Amid rapid changes in the federal funding landscape, institutions of higher education are confronting a host of new challenges as they strive to sustain and grow their grant portfolios.

In this roundtable discussion, we will hear from grants and research leaders about the strategies they are deploying to keep their organizations on course.

Topics will include efforts to diversify funding sources, respond to shifting priorities, strengthen institutional research capacity, and explore emerging opportunities in uncharted areas.​​

Panelists:

• Kirsten Wisneski – Founding Director, Research Development Office, University of North Carolina Wilmington (NC)
• Tamara Gabrus – Senior Director, Research Advancement and Strategy, University of Central Florida (FL)
• Dr. P. Karen Murphy – Associate Dean for Research and Outreach, The Pennsylvania State University College of Education (PA)
• Dr. Randy Heflin – Senior Associate Vice President Research and Innovation, Virginia Tech (VA)

Moderators:

• Mallory Waters – Grants Advisor, Hanover Research
• Tom Kuhn – Senior Grants Consultant, Hanover Research

Unable to attend? Register and Hanover will send a copy of the recording and slides after the webinar.

About Hanover Research: Hanover provides research development, grant writing, and strategic advising support to a wide range of organizations. Our professionals deliver customized proposal review, revision, and production support, while also helping to align strategic priorities to funding trends and opportunities at all levels.  To learn more about Hanover Research, visit www.hanoverresearch.com.

The Maryland Primary Election is June 23, 2026, and if you're not registered to vote, you have until midnight tonight to register online or by mail. While general elections get most of the attention, primary elections are often where key decisions are made. In many Maryland races, primaries effectively decide who will hold office, making these elections an important opportunity to shape who represents our communities. This year's primary includes races for federal, state, and county offices. Funding for higher education, housing policy, transporation, health care access, public safety, climate policy, and how our tax dollars are spent in Maryland are all influenced by who wins these races. Voting is one of the most direct ways we can have a say in the policies and priorities that shape our community, both on campus and beyond.

You can register using: 

• Maryland's Voter Registration System. It only takes five minutes. 
• Maryland Voter Registration Form. You must download and mail this form today. 

Maryland has a closed primary, which means you must be registered with a political party to vote in that party's primary. If you're currently unaffiliated, the deadline to change your party affiliation is also today. You can always change it back after the election. If you'd rather stay unaffiliated, you can still vote in some local races and on ballot measures. Learn more and register on the Maryland State Board of Elections website. 

Missed the Deadline? You Still Have Options. 

Same-day registration is available during: 

• Early Voting, June 11–18, 2026 from 7 AM–8 PM. Find an early voting location. 
• On Election Day, June 23, 2026 from 7 AM–8 PM. Find your polling location.  

You must bring proof of your Maryland address to register. Examples include: 

• MVA-issued license, permit, ID card
• Change of address card
• Your paycheck
• Bank statement
• Utility bill
• Official student housing documentation showing your Maryland address
• Any other government document with your name and Maryland address

Can I Register?

You can register in Maryland if you are:

• A U.S. citizen
• A Maryland resident
• At least 16 years old

You must be 18 to vote in the general election. If you're 17 now but will turn 18 before the General Election on November 3, 2026, you can still vote in the primary.

Already Registered?

Take a minute to check that your registration information is up to date, especially if you've moved, changed your name, or switched addresses since the last election. You can check your registration status using Maryland's Voter Search Portal.

Voting at UMBC?

UMBC does not have a polling location. However, if you are voting in the Maryland Primary Election via mail-in ballot, you can drop your ballot in the drop box located on the 1st floor of the Commons. The box is secure. The Board of Elections retrieves ballots from this box at the end of each day. If your ballot belongs to another Maryland county, it will be forwarded to the correct election office. Please note this drop box is for Maryland voters only.

Out-of-State Student? 

Registering in Maryland allows you to vote on issues and offices that affect where you live during the school year, while remaining registered in your home state allows you to vote on issues and offices that affect your permanent home community. Both options are valid. However, you can only vote in one election. Find your home state's voter registration. 

How to Get Involved Beyond Voting? 

Are you interested in supporting the election process? The Baltimore County Board of Elections is still recruiting election judges to work at polling stations during the 2026 primary election. These are paid positions. To qualify as an election judge, you must be 16 years old or older, a registered voter in the State of Maryland, and able to speak, read, and write English.

Not Eligible to Vote? 

There are still many ways to make an impact.

• Staying informed
• Talking about the issues you care about
• Sharing information with your family and friends
• Organizing in your communities
• Creating art, writing, and media 
• Helping others directly
• Encouraging others to vote  

You can visit the Center for Democracy and Civic Life’s website for more opportunities to learn, engage, and participate in building democracy. You can also contact us at civiclife@umbc.edu or Trentqual Rhone, Coordinator for Political Engagement, at trhone1@umbc.edu, for more information about registration, deadlines, or if you have other questions about participating in the 2026 election.

By Ashwathi Menon, Bioinformatics & Public Health Major, Student Staff Member

The first thing that comes into play is performance.

The jewelry. The eyeliner so sharp that it can be seen from the last row. The well-rehearsed smile remains unshaken under the lights of the stage. My South Asian heritage comes into our lives through performance—through the vibrancy and color of the thematic films, through dance, and through the celebrated aesthetics.

However, for us, in the South Asian diaspora, culture goes beyond performance.

It is memory. It is an inheritance. It is a translation. It is survival.

During APIDA Heritage Month, there is one question that loops me more than others: how often does culture become something to consume before it is even understood as something normative to society? How can people be impressed by the beauty of South Asian culture without understanding much of the life, struggle, and history that lies beneath it?

Sometimes, being a South Asian woman raised in a Western society means negotiating these two things every day.

Bharatanatyam is a classical dance from Southern India, characterized by storytelling using the language of dance, rhythm, and expression. The hand gestures, called mudras, form an entire language on their own. A single movement can symbolize a flower, rain, heartbreak, prayer, or power. The eyes shift deliberately. The posture remains grounded and strong through aramandi, the half-seated position that forms the foundation of the dance. The face carries emotion just as much as the body does.

In Bharatanatyam, you do not simply dance. You communicate.

The drishti bhedas, the controlled eye movements, require directness. The mudras ask your hands to speak confidently before your voice ever does. The entire form teaches you to take up space physically and emotionally without apologizing for it.

I think that mattered to me long before I had the words to explain why.

The nature of diasporic communities is inherently complex. You were raised with a profound understanding of your homeland, knowing that it exists and yet feeling distant from it. Your traditions have been taught to you secondhand, filtered through generations of parents, language, culture, and customs.

Some days, I feel deeply rooted in my culture. Other days, I feel like I am constantly trying to prove my authenticity, not only to others but also to myself.

Too American in some spaces. Too Indian in others.

I imagine many APIDA students understand this feeling all too well: the struggle of protecting your culture while constantly adapting- the exhaustion of translating yourself so others can comprehend better. It’s a feeling that’s familiar in your day-to-day environments, from classes to leadership positions to informal social gatherings.

Growing up, I’ve repeatedly seen people perceive South Asian women as their projections until they actually get to know us, the studious model minority. The accomplishments are noticed before we are. But life, and especially identity, is far more complicated than this.

Dancing was one of the few things where I ceased to feel pressure. Not because it solved all the conflicts inside me, but because it let me exist amidst them. Bharatanatyam made me realize that strength and grace did not negate each other, that rigor and emotion could coexist, that being visible could be both vulnerable and invigorating.

And perhaps that is why dancing holds such personal significance for me.

Not because of the act of performance itself, but for everything else it represents: continuation, preservation, the refusal to silently vanish.

Especially now, in APIDA Heritage Month, I consider how many children of immigrants go through life translating themselves for everyone else. Softening names. Bringing light to cultural practices. Adapting oneself to be easy to comprehend, bringing centuries’ worth of history into spaces never designed to accommodate it.

But with dance, there is no need for translation. My body just gets it.

Under vivid stage lights, my hands move instinctively through mudras, reflections of the younger version of myself who practiced relentlessly for years. My eyes meet the audience with confidence.

I am finally whole.

By Claudia Gerry Social Work & Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies Major, Student Staff Member

Forward

This literature review was my final paper for Dr. Maria Celleri’s Methodologies in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies (GWST 300) course. I feel that this topic heavily applies to the work the Women’s, Gender, and Equity Center does. As a student staff member, I see how Title IX fails survivors, I see how it hurts survivors, and I see how it makes survivors’ lives just that much harder. I plan to continue this research and present it at URCAD 2027 in order to advocate for change not only on our UMBC campus but across the United States. So… here is a sneak peek!

Introduction

Sexual misconduct is a major problem everywhere, but specifically on college campuses. Sexual assault is defined as any form of unconsensual and unwanted sexual contact, which can include physical contact or sexual coercion (Holland & Cipriano, 2021). Sexual harassment within education is defined as behaviors sexual in nature that are “sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive to limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the education program, or to create a hostile or abusive educational environment” (Holland & Howard Valdivia, 2026). Women and LGBTQ+ undergraduate students face the greatest risk of enduring sexual misconduct (Holland & Cipriano, 2021). Those who experience sexual assault often endure many mental health challenges and harms to their education (Holland & Cipriano, 2021), especially if they do not utilize support resources. The campus climate can foster barriers for survivors using these resources. Many survivors feel a minimization of sexual assault, fear of negative treatment, and have social-emotional concerns (Holland & Cipriano, 2021). Awareness of sexual violence is rooted in the second-wave feminist movement. But, this awareness mostly focused on the voices of white, well-educated women. There is a persistent struggle to understand the intersectionality of sexual assault (Jessup-Anger et al., 2018), even though this issue can affect every identity. This Literature review addresses how the implementation of Title IX policies affects survivors of sexual violence within higher education systems in the United States. To begin to understand this, we must know what Title IX is and how it has been implemented through time.

What is Title IX?

Title IX was passed in 1973 as part of the education amendments and is a civil rights law (Kaufman & Nelson, 2025). The main focus of this law is to prohibit sex-based discrimination in educational settings funded by the federal government (Kaufman & Nelson, 2025). Originally, the focus was set on inequality in admissions and educational opportunities, but the scope has widened since then (Kaufman & Nelson, 2025). Title IX has been used to increase access to women’s sports and require educational institutions to address sexual harassment and violence (Kaufman & Nelson, 2025). At the surface level, this law seems to help survivors of sexual assault, but in reality, it often harms the survivor more than it helps. 

Every institution’s Title IX policies vary due to different levels of staffing, budget, and number of support and advocacy services. One uniform requirement across all institutions is the requirement of at least one Title IX coordinator, no matter the institution’s size (Kaufman & Nelson, 2025). The Title IX coordinator is located within the Title IX office, which at most universities is housed under the institution’s Equity and Civil Rights department. 

The applications of Title IX have changed numerous times through new legislation, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) guidance, and presidential letters called Dear Colleague Letters (DCL). In 1980, Alexander v. Yale argued that sexual harassment in educational institutions constitutes sex-based discrimination under Title IX (Holland & Howard Valdivia, 2026) and is still the precedent today. The main acts passed that affect Title IX are: 1990 Clery Act, 1992 Campus Sexual Assault Victim’s Bill of Rights, 1994 Violence Against Women Act, and 2013 Campus SaVE Act. These acts mainly attempt to address funding for survivor services, requirements for prevention training, and public disclosure of crime rates. 

What really affects Title IX implementation the most are DCLs. In 2011, the Obama-era DCL was released. The Obama DCL called attention to the issue of sexual violence on college campuses, reminded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Title IX guidelines, and added additional recommendations. This letter classified sexual violence under the umbrella of sex discrimination under Title IX, lowered investigatory standards of proof,  and made it legal to withhold funds from HEIs for not complying (Kaufman & Nelson, 2025). In 2017, the  Donald Trump era DCL was released and focused heavily on concerns for the (rights of the) accused (Holland & Howard Valdivia, 2026). The Trump DCL withdrew the Obama DCL and announced new regulations. The main changes were changes in definitions of sexual violence, limited the scope of what HEIs are required to address, added more requirements for formal adjudication, and emphasized the rights of respondents over the well-being of survivors (Webermann et al., 2023). In 2024, the Title IX regulations were changed once again by Joe Biden’s administration. These regulations expanded the scope of conduct covered under the policy and for the most part were similar to 2020 but gave HEIs more discretion (Holland & Howard Valdivia, 2026). Today, we are under the 2025 DCL. This DCL edits the 2024 regulations to include that HEIs “must continue to comply with the 2020 Title IX regulations and operate under the presumption of (inaccurate) binary, biological sex” (Holland & Howard Valdivia, 2026). Overall, Title IX policies have been said to be a political football being passed around and changed with every administration. This makes Title IX regulations hard to understand for the average person. So, not everyone understands their rights and what is expected of their institutions.

Title IX in Action

A theoretical framework to understand the importance of survivors’ interactions with the Title IX Office is the theory of institutional betrayal. Both Webermann et al. (2023) and Holland and Cipriano (2021) use this framework to understand the effects of Title IX on survivors. Institutional betrayal shows the unique ways institutions can harm marginalized groups and “conceptualizes wrongdoings perpetrated by an institution when people are dependent upon the institution and can expect that it will protect its members from harm and will respond appropriately if harm is endured” (Holland & Cipriano, 2021). Students expect their institutions to take steps to restore their access to education, but when the institution fails to do so, there can be negative consequences that can include erosion of trust and belonging at the institution (Holland & Cipriano, 2021). Failures of the institution can be: failure to prevent abuse, normalizing of abusive contexts, difficult reporting procedures, inadequate responses to reports, cover-ups, misinformation, and punishing survivors (Webermann et al., 2023). Survivors who experience institutional betrayal report increased levels of psychological harm (Holland & Cipriano, 2021).Title IX overall affects survivors negatively. 

First, Title IX cases are supposed to take up to 60 days to be resolved, but the average length of cases in Webermann’s study is 175.36 days (Webermann et al., 2023).  Many institutions elect to have the minimum number of coordinators- one. Staffing levels in the Title IX office affect how long cases may take (Kaufman & Nelson, 2025), so many institutions’ Title IX offices are not staffed enough for every case to be resolved within the 60-day timeframe. Many survivors see major variability in the transparency of their case. Some survivors receive multiple updates and reassurances about their case, while others get little to none (Holland & Cipriano, 2021). According to Holland and Cipriano (2021), “Recent research has found that the majority of sexual assault reports to Title IX Offices do not result in formal investigations and, of those that are investigated, there is rarely a finding of ‘responsibility’”.  Many survivors believe that the length of their case affected the outcomes. For example, witnesses may forget parts of their story over time or the respondent might leave the institution before disciplinary action is taken (Webermann et al., 2023). 

Second, many survivors report negative treatment from the Title IX office. This negative treatment can include victim-blaming, name-calling, stalling of cases, and being told the institution can do nothing about the case. Holland and Cortina (2017a) found that of the three main support systems they examined (Title IX office, sexual assault center, and housing staff), the Title IX office was not utilized by survivors because of  “negative emotions, consequences, contextual characteristics, minimization of behaviors, and alternative coping strategies”. According to Holland and Cipriano (2021), negative reactions to sexual assault disclosures can cause significant psychological harm for survivors.

Third, many survivors experience barriers in receiving support. Kaufman and Nelson (2025) found that “Too often, survivors of sexual assault do not know where to turn and do not receive the support they need despite the seemingly ‘robust’ federal legislation that seeks to address campus sexual violence”. Many survivors deliberately avoid the Title IX office due to fears of poor treatment (Holland & Cipriano, 2021). Within Webermann et al.’s (2023) study, many participants felt unclear about the Title IX reporting process and their options. 

Survivors are expected to retell the worst moments of their lives numerous times, reliving it every. single. time. According to Webermann et al. (2023), the survivors in their study had to tell their stories to 2.88 different offices/individuals, not including formal grievance procedures or court procedures. If a survivor wants to make a report and seek justice, they are put in more harm. To help themselves, they have to harm themselves. “It was not just the outcome of their case that caused harm but also the process itself”(Webermann et al., 2023).

Future Steps

Due to all these reasons listed above, survivors are discouraged from standing up for themselves. Working at the Women’s, Gender, and Equity Center (WGEC) has shown me how Title IX  actually operates in real life. In my personal experience, the system has failed survivors. Many survivors seek support from the WGEC, as we are a confidential space, and they do not want to bother with reporting to the UMBC Title IX office. The reasons I have heard are: knowing how the office treats other survivors, knowing how many times they will have to relive what they have gone through, concerns over social circumstances, minimization of what happened to them, and many more. With the perpetual changing of guidelines, many survivors do not understand what their institution can do for them anymore, making them give up and move on. At many institutions, there are requirements for mandatory reporting, where staff and faculty are required to report sexual misconduct disclosures to the Title IX office. Many staff and faculty are in the same boat of confusion about what the guidelines are, leading individual reporters to either report too much or too little. In my experience, professors are not trained on what is to be reported and what happens to the student after a report is filed. This leaves students cautious about talking about their experiences in fear of being non-consensually reported.

Many changes need to be made in order to ensure the success of survivors. First, there needs to be an implementation of an oversight committee to ensure the Title IX office acts swiftly, equitably and with accountability (Holland & Cipriano, 2021). This committee could also oversee trauma-informed training for Title IX Office staff and mandated reporters. “Using formal supports that are trauma-informed and survivor-centered can promote psychological well-being for survivors” (Holland & Cipriano, 2021). Second, there needs to be an effort to address the root cause of sexual violence instead of focusing on the aftereffects. “Although most universities comply with Title IX, many side-step confronting the root causes of normalized sexual violence and avoid teaching the realities of campus sexual violence, leaving students confused, isolated, and unsure of how to address the trauma that they or their friends experience”(Kaufman & Nelson, 2025). Third, to address institutional betrayal, we must flip it to institutional support. This can include “supportive responses from individuals within institutions to survivors, such as believing them, apologizing for their experiences, connecting them with resources, and providing autonomy in what happens after reporting”(Webermann et al., 2023). Lastly, frontline workers within the survivor support services need more say in the implementation of Title IX. “Oftentimes, frontline workers, such as victim advocates, are absent from the policy table, yet this article underscores the importance of their positionality and experiences for addressing vulnerabilities in the campus sexual violence intervention system”(Wies, 2015). 

 Conclusion

Ultimately, under the system we have set in place, Title IX is failing survivors of sexual violence in HEIs in the United States. Survivors are expected to advocate for themselves when their words have been ignored in the past. The Title IX office worries too much about getting sued by the respondent to bring justice for the survivor. Survivors experience major mental health and educational challenges even though Title IX is supposed to ensure equal access to education. If a survivor reports their institution for violation of Title IX policy, the report can take years to process, so Title IX offices are not held accountable. This is why we need to change the policy ONE last time. Modifying Title IX every few years only causes more confusion. We need to support survivors. Survivors need to feel supported, seen, and heard by their institutions.

References

Brubaker, S. J., Keegan, B., Guadalupe-Diaz, X. L., & Beasley, B. (2017). Measuring and reporting campus sexual assault: Privilege and exclusion in what we know and what we do. Sociology Compass, 11(12), e12543. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12543

Holland, K. J., & Cipriano, A. E. (2021). Does a report = support? A qualitative analysis of college sexual assault survivors’ Title IX Office knowledge, perceptions, and experiences. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 21(1), 1054–1081. https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.12271

Holland, K. J., & Cortina, L. M. (2017a). “It Happens to Girls All the Time”: Examining Sexual Assault Survivors’ Reasons for Not Using Campus Supports. American Journal of Community Psychology, 59(1-2), 50–64. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12126

Holland, K. J., & Cortina, L. M. (2017b). The evolving landscape of Title IX: Predicting mandatory reporters’ responses to sexual assault disclosures. Law and Human Behavior, 41(5), 429–439. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000253

Holland, K. J., & Howard Valdivia, R. L. (2026). Title IX and Sexual Violence in Higher Education: A Mapping Review and Assessment of Policy Implementation and Effectiveness. The Journal of Sex Research, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2026.2623649

Jessup-Anger, J., Lopez, E., & Koss, M. P. (2018). History of Sexual Violence in Higher Education. New Directions for Student Services, 2018(161), 9–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.20249

Kaufman, S. B.-S., & Nelson, L. (2025). Interpreting title IX: A feminist legal geography of sexual assault prevention on U.S. college campuses. Political Geography, 116(5), 103252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103252

Webermann, A. R., Holland, K. J., & Murphy, C. M. (2023). Student Experiences Reporting Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct to the Title IX Office at a Public State University. Violence against Women, 30(6-7), 107780122211502. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012221150274

Wies, J. R. (2015). Title IX and the State of Campus Sexual Violence in the United States: Power, Policy, and Local Bodies. Human Organization, 74(3), 276–286. https://doi.org/10.17730/0018-7259-74.3.276

Join us throughout the summer months for a faculty writing group. Faculty from all disciplines are welcome! Our theme this summer is collaboration and innovation, emphasizing our shared commitment to fostering a community of friendship, the pursuit of new research agendas, and ways to move forward our important work. 

At the start of each writing session we will share our session goals, provide updates on work in progress, and then write in silence for the remainder of our time. Upon completion of the session we will share our successes, challenges, and detours from the session, and then set our agenda for the upcoming week.

Please respond to let us know if you are interested in an in-person or virtual writing group.  

Questions?  Please contact Kerri Evans, Associate Professor, Department of Social Work (kerrieva@umbc.edu)

The Maryland State Board of Elections recently sent out a notice regarding the upcoming Maryland primary election on June 23, 2026.

If you are a Maryland voter who requested a mail-in ballot, there may have been an error. Some voters were sent a ballot for the wrong party's primary due to a vendor coding error. Here's what you need to know in order to get your correct ballot and cast your vote.

The Maryland State Board of Elections is sending replacement ballots to all affected voters on a rolling basis starting. If you have been affected, you will be notified via postcard, email, or text.

Here's what to do:

• Be on the look out for a notice from the Maryland State Board of Elections 

• If notified, throw away your original ballot and its return envelope. 

• You should receive a replacement ballot by May 29, 2026 in an envelope marked "REPLACEMENT BALLOT INSIDE.” Use only the replacement ballot.

• Return your mail-in ballot no later than 8 p.m. on June 23, 2026. If you are voting in the Maryland Primary Election, you can drop your ballot in the mail-in ballot drop box located on the 1st floor of the Commons. The box is secure. The Board of Elections retrieves ballots from this box at the end of each day. And if you are registered to vote outside of Baltimore County, your ballot will be mailed to the correct location. Please note this drop box is for Maryland voters only.

If you did not receive a notice, your original ballot is valid and you can use it as normal.

If you have any questions, visit the Maryland Board of Elections website or contact them directly at elections@maryland.gov.

For more information about registration, deadlines, or if you have other questions about participating in the 2026 Elections, please contact the Center for Democracy and Civic Life at civiclife@umbc.edu or Trentqual Rhone, Coordinator for Political Engagement, at trhone1@umbc.edu.

Support the Women's, Gender, & Equity Center and the George and Betsy Sherman Center to collect needed items for the people we serve! We are looking for products to support young low-income families in South Baltimore City and students on the UMBC campus.

We welcome donations of 

• diapers and pull-ups of various sizes, 
• pregnancy tests,
• emergency contraception,
• period products (particularly pads with wings),
• laundry detergent, and
• other hygiene items!

Here is a link to our Amazon Wishlist. Donations can also be dropped off or sent to the Women's, Gender, & Equity Center on campus. 

Find more information about the work of the George and Betsy Sherman Center here and the Women's, Gender, & Equity Center here!

We hope you will join us in spreading the word about this donation drive across campus and among your communities outside of campus as well!

If you have question splease reach out to Zoe Brown (zoebrown@umbc.edu) or Juliana Venegas (juliana6@umbc.edu)

Women's, Gender, & Equity Center and the George and Betsy Sherman Center is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

Please note: The Women's, Gender, & Equity Center and the George and Betsy Sherman Center are committed to creating an accessible and inclusive environment for all students, staff, faculty, and visitors. If you have difficulties accessing any of the materials on our site or any of our events or discussions, please contact us so that we can provide an alternative format and/or remedy any accessibility challenges.

Mike Andrews

Associate Professor, Department of Economics
"The Meritocracy Shock and the Changing Geography of Talent"

Jé St. Sume

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
"Red, White, and Black: What Black Participation Teaches Us about American Democracy"

Visit our website for more information on their research. 

Happy end of the semester, and congratulations to all those who are graduating!!

The Women's, Gender, & Equity Center will be open from 10 am-3 pm Monday through Wednesday (5/18-5/20) next week during finals. 

Our summer hours will begin Tuesday, May 19th. Over the summer, we will be open from 10 am-3 pm Tuesday through Thursday. 

During regular business hours, center staff will be available throughout the summer. If you have any questions or concerns, reach us at womenscenter@umbc.edu. 

H.A.G.S. and tune in to our Book Club and other Summer Programming!

The Women's, Gender, & Equity Center is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

Please note: UMBC is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive environment for all students, staff, faculty, and visitors. If you have difficulties accessing any of the materials on our site or any of our events or discussions, please contact us so that we can provide an alternative format and/or remedy any accessibility challenges.

The Dresher Center for the Humanities Advisory Board has awarded fellowships to the following UMBC faculty for Summer and Fall 2026

Summer 2026 Fellows (Tenure and Non-tenure track)

Haniyeh Barahouie, Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication - Sahelian Sisterhood: Reproductive Tenderness and Women’s Resistance in Moolaadé, Le Pagne, and Lingui

This project examines how three Sahelian films, including the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène’s Moolaadé (2004), the Nigerien Moussa Hamadou Djingarey’s Le Pagne (2015), and the Chadian Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Lingui (2021), portray women supporting one another through reproductive crises such as female genital cutting, rape, and illegal abortion.

Lisa Cassell, Assistant Professor, Philosophy - Logic's Own Epistemology: Two Notions of Rationality

This project provides a foundational account of logic that centers systems of probabilistic reasoning. Cassell will argue that what looks like a foundational problem for systems of probabilistic reasoning is actually the result of conflating two notions of rationality that are both assumed to provide the normative foundations of these systems. The first of these is a scientific notion of rationality, whereas the second is an economic notion of rationality.

Iris Blake, Assistant Teaching Professor, American Studies - Undisciplining the Voice

Undisciplining the Voice proposes that aligning voice with sound and the human has been central to the colonial project of modernity. Focusing on the North American settler context, Blake examines a range of archival and artistic sources – including sound technologies, performances, and installation artworks – to trace not only definitions of voice that have consolidated colonial and heteropatriarchal power structures, but also decolonial genealogies of voicing that I term voicing otherwise.

Fall 2026 Residential Faculty Fellows

Jason Loviglio, Professor, Media and Communication Studies - Smart Speaker as Cassandra

This project draws critical attention to a lively, if overlooked, narrative preoccupation rippling through audio fiction about the role that home-based “smart” appliances play in re-shaping the dynamics of gendered work, domestic power relations, and corporate surveillance.

Brian Van Wyck, Assistant Professor, History - Making Turks, Making Muslims: Islam, Education, and Turkish Migration in the Federal Republic Germany, 1961-2006

The manuscript traces ideas about Turkishness and Islam between Turkey and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from the 1960s to the 1990s. It centers on teachers and imams from Turkey who served the substantial Turkish-origin population in the FRG.

Please join us in congratulating these fellows!