Applications are now being accepted for the Center for Social Science Scholarship Summer Fellowship.  The purpose of this fellowship is to support significant social science research by tenure-track or tenured faculty in the UMBC College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences, resulting in a submittable product by December 2026.  Up to two fellows will receive a $6,000 award during the summer of 2026. 

Congratulations to Megan Jackson and Christina Cuglovici Abrao for being awarded a BreakingGround grant! Their project – "Maryland Public Service Scholars Training Program" – will contribute to UMBC's continued commitment to fostering collective thriving and civic agency.

The Maryland Public Service Scholars Training Program will provide a cohort of UMBC students early exposure to public service careers through a spring semester pilot combining weekly service site placements, professional development seminars, and industry mentorship. The program offers stipends to ensure equitable access while students serve at partner sites and attend weekly seminars featuring guest speakers from government and nonprofit sectors. Students will develop foundational professional skills, learn asset-based service approaches, and build networks through formal mentorship to prepare them for competitive opportunities in public service careers.

Megan Jackson said about this project:

Offering this training program is a pivotal moment for MPSS, opening up our 39-year-old program to freshmen and sophomores for the first time and providing crucial early-career public service opportunities. We are delighted to begin this work with these UMBC students, and we are incredibly grateful to Breaking Ground for their support of this pilot!

The BreakingGround initiative provides grants of up to $2,500 to UMBC faculty, staff, and students who want to launch or strengthen educational and community-building projects. These projects should, as a part of their work, foster civic agency: the ability to initiate and make meaningful contributions to social change. For more information, visit the BreakingGround website at civiclife.umbc.edu/breakingground.

Critical Social Justice (CSJ) Week is a campus-wide initiative dedicated to deepening our collective understanding of equity, inclusion, and community care. Through panels, workshops, and creative programming, CSJ Week invites students, staff, and faculty to engage in meaningful conversations about justice and belonging within and beyond the university.

Critical social justice has a history in the Women's, Gender, & Equity Center, and we are excited to bring back this work now within the Community & Culture unit in the Division of Institutional Equity.

All events are open for participation from students (grad and undergrad), staff, and faculty!

The events apart of Critical Social Justice Week are as follows: 

Cup-Filling Activism: Supporting Student Organizers Through Community, Care, and Capacity Building

McNair x Critical Social Justice Week

Saturday, February 7, 2026 · 1 - 2:30 PM

Sondheim Hall: 101

Racial Healing Discussion Panel

Wednesday, February 11, 2026 · 3 - 5 PM

Library and Gallery, Albin O. Kuhn

On Caring for Community

The Pursuit of Equity and Justice at UMBC with University Leadership

Tuesday, February 24, 2026 · 4:30-6 PM

SKYLIGHT in the Commons

Chat and Chew: All About Love

Read with us and engage in discussion

Wednesday, February 25, 2026 · 12 - 1 PM

Library and Gallery, Albin O. Kuhn

More details about each event can be found on the WGEC or CSJD myUMBC Page. 

These event 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.

"STRiVE gave me a community unlike any I've experienced before, and I am incredibly grateful to be a part of it. Learning in STRiVE was incredibly empowering with what I've learned about myself, my place in my community, and what I can do as a leader." — Lexi Malenfant '29, computer science

• Ben Bazarsuren '27, mechanical engineering (vice president for external programming, Student Events Board (seb))
• Carly Shearer '26, computer science (evaluation intern, Center for Democracy and Civic Life)
• Francheska Burrola '28, biological sciences (senator, Student Government Association (SGA))
• Keven Guruswamy '27, biological sciences (interfaith fellow, The Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being)
• Maryada Bhattarai '28, information systems (treasurer, Student Government Association (SGA); special projects intern, Center for Democracy and Civic Life)
• Nate Cullen '26, psychology (captain and president, UMBC Men's Rugby Team)
• Vannessa Morant '27, mechanical engineering (digital fabrication researcher, Designing pArticipatory futuREs (DARE) Lab)

• Dr. Ciara Christian, M.A. '18, applied sociology, Ph.D. '22, language, literacy and culture (co-director, Center for Social Justice Dialogue)
• Dr. James DeVita (assistant vice president for academic partnerships & high impact experiences, Division of Student Affairs)
• Dr. Jasmine Lee (associate vice president for community and culture, Division of Institutional Equity; co-director, Center for Social Justice Dialogue)

"STRiVE created a space for me to reflect on what kind of person I am and what kind of person I want to become in terms of leadership. It also created a space for me to acknowledge my strengths and weaknesses, and continue to work on ways to improve myself." — Nneamaka Ibe '26, biological sciences

• Angelina Jenkins (assistant director, The Mosaic: Center for Cultural Diversity, Student Engagement and Belonging)
• Matt Hoffman (director, Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Pluralism, Student Engagement and Belonging)
• Michael Canale (assistant director and Deaf & hard of hearing coordinator, Office of Student Disability Services)
• Dr. Ricky Blissett '11, bioinformatics and computational biology (associate director, Center for Democracy and Civic Life)
• Tiffani McGronan (health educator, Office of Health Promotion)
• Tori Ciorra (assistant director for student organizations, Student Engagement and Belonging)
• Trentqual Rhone (coordinator for political engagement, Center for Democracy and Civic Life)
• Wendy Low (coordinator, Center for Social Justice Dialogue)

"[By the end of STRiVE] I became a version of myself I had never seen: Uplifted, encouraged, and instilled with confidence and curiosity." — Olivia Robinson '29, biological sciences

"I adored this program and it helped me build a stronger sense of self. This is necessary in order to grow as a person, as a leader, and a community member/citizen. I'm so glad I participated in this as a freshman so I could implement it into my 4 years." — Kamarya Buckley '28, biological sciences

"Reflective, emotional, connective, and actionable, this program transformed how I see and move within spaces entirely by making me realize our collective agency. Want to learn how to make a change? Do this program." — Duncan Winger '29, philosophy and psychology

Co-sponsored by the Office of Faculty Affairs and the Graduate School
Supported by the Office of the Provost
In Collaboration with Dresher Center for Humanities, CS3, and CIRCA

What is Write@UMBC?
Write@UMBC is a campus-wide writing initiative designed to help scholars and scholar-practitioners build sustainable writing habits through protected time, light accountability, and community support.

Who can participate?
Faculty, postdocs, graduate students, researchers, and administrators/staff across UMBC.

How it works

• 30 minutes of writing per day for two weeks

• Any scholarly writing or part of the writing process counts

• There will be no need to share your writing content

• Optional community check-ins for light accountability and reflections

When is the challenge?

March 2–15, 2026

How do I participate?

Register for Write@UMBC using this registration form. You must have a NCFDD-account. To activate your free account using your UMBC email here: https://members.ncfdd.org/institutions/umbc 

***Registration Deadline is February 22***

Are you interested in advocacy? If so, come volunteer with us at our annual Take Back the Night!

Take Back the Night was started in October of 1975 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the main goal to protest against gender based harms and reclaim spaces where survivors felt unsafe. At UMBC, the Women’s, Gender, and Equity Center holds its Take Back the Night annually in April.
This year, it will be held on April 16th from 5-8 on Commons Mainstreet.

As a volunteer, you would assist WGEC staff in executing the event and creating a safe space for survivors of gender-based harm and their allies. Volunteers should be invested in cultivating a survivor-supportive space and be aware of the impact they have.

For more information about volunteer roles and to sign up for volunteer training, please click here.

Wednesday, February 4 | 12:00-1:00pm | Sherman Hall 445
"Multimodal and Monomodal Feedback in Second Language Writing: Issues in Research and Practice"
Ana Oskoz, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs & Professor, Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication
Click here for details and to register.

The UMBC Department of Education Research Seminar kicks off the spring semester with a presentation by Dr. Ana Oskoz, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication.  Dr. Oskoz's presentation focuses on the integration of monomodal and multimodal feedback in three important areas of investigation: (1) how to provide monomodal or multimodal feedback to monomodal and/or multimodal texts either during the writing process or to the final products, (2) how to use different tools and their affordances (e.g., screencast software, ChatGPT) to provide feedback, and (3) whether multimodal feedback influences the nature of learners' revisions.
All members of the department, partners/collaborators, and students/faculty from other departments and institutions are invited to attend.  Lunch will be provided by the department.  Please RSVP as soon as possible.
Save the date for future talks:

Wednesday, March 4 | 12:00-1:00pm | Sherman Hall 445"We Ain't New to this, We True to This": Teaching Democracy and Citizenship: Through Black Educator Oral and Life Histories.Brandon Beck, Assitant Professor, Department of Education

Wednesday, April 1 | 12:00-1:00pm | Sherman Hall 445
"Cultivating a Rightful Presence: Inclusive Early Childhood STEM"
Michele Stites, Associate Professor of Early Education, Department of Education
Jonathan Singer, Professor, Department of Education

Wednesday, May 6 | 12:00-1:00pm | Sherman Hall 445
"A Multilingual Perspective on Literacy: Monolingual Bias in Reading Instruction and the Positioning of Emergent Bilinguals"
Laura Ascienzo-Moreno, Ph.D., Professor, Childhood, Bilingual And Special Education, School of Education, Brooklyn College

March 12, 2026 – 2:00 p.m. ET

Taking Ideas Public: A Scholar's Guide to Trade Publishing

Blair LM Kelley, President and Director, National Humanities Center
Tanya McKinnon, Founder and Principal Agent, McKinnon Literary

Join us for a lively conversation on what is lost and gained when academics write for trade publishers. The webinar will feature literary agent and founder of McKinnon Literary, Tanya McKinnon, who for the last 19 years has helped authors bring their ideas to life and find their audience. Tanya will be in dialogue with NHC President and Director Blair LM Kelley to discuss the writing and publication process, and how authors can make the leap from university presses to trade.

Blair LM Kelley is president and director of the National Humanities Center. An award-winning author, historian, and scholar of the African American experience, her scholarship and social commentary have focused on African American social movements, segregation, and the Black working class. Before joining the NHC, she served as the Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and directed the Center for the Study of the American South. Previously, Kelley spent 20 years on the faculty and as an administrator at North Carolina State University, including as associate dean of interdisciplinary affairs and partnerships.

Tanya McKinnon is the founder and principal agent of McKinnon Literary. As a literary agent, she works to amplify progressive voices and help authors sharpen their projects regardless of genre. Having spent time on both sides of the agent-author relationship, she draws on this experience to bring a holistic perspective to the publishing industry and ensures her clients and their projects are handled with utmost care. McKinnon represents serious nonfiction, literary fiction, children's books, and graphic novels. Several of McKinnon's clients include New York Times best-sellers, winners of the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Lambda Literary Award, the LA Times Book Award, the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, and many more.