The Political Science Department is accepting applications to the the 68th Annual Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA) at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. This is an excellent opportunity to get involved in international and security debates with a large number of students and experts from around the country.

Every year, the Department sends two students to represent UMBC at this conference. Past participants have found the conference to be extremely rewarding. The Department covers registration fees and transportation to West Point, while the conference organizers provide room and board while there. If you are interested, please send a brief (one paragraph) letter of interest, including why you would like to go, what makes you qualified to represent the Department and your GPA to: Dr. Brian Grodsky,bgrodsky@umbc.edu. All applications must be received by September 19. 

For more information, see below. 

On behalf of Colonel Suzanne Nielsen, the head of the Department of Social Sciences, I would like to extend an invitation to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, to send two student delegates to participate in the 68th Annual Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA), hosted by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. The conference meets from November 9th through November 12th, 2016.  West Point hosts SCUSA every fall, and it is the oldest and largest undergraduate conference of its type in the world. Approximately 200 undergraduate students from over 100 colleges and universities around the world attend SCUSA. Throughout the conference, the student delegates and cadets debate and formulate policy recommendations that realistically model American strategic responses to significant national and global challenges. The highlights of the four-day conference include the opening senior panel discussion on the evening of November 9th, an evening keynote banquet address, four roundtable sessions, and a closing-report session on November 12th. Recent keynote speakers have included Secretary Madeleine Albright, Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Brent Scowcroft, and Admiral James Stavridis.   Our organizing theme this year is "Democracy & Democratization: Challenges & Opportunities." Beginning the day after the U.S. presidential election, the conference invites participants to consider the challenges and opportunities facing the United States as it responds to key questions concerning the health and future of democracy. Among the questions to be explored are: what are the political, normative, and material limits to promoting democracy in the world? Does democracy confront greater challenges in some countries and regions? How does political radicalism in its many forms challenge democracy? What does the survival of authoritarian and hybrid regimes indicate about the long-term prospects for democracy internationally? Can democracy successfully navigate ethno-religious conflict?  

UMBC isn’t the only one with a big anniversary milestone this year (#UMBC50 #UMBCproud)!  The Women’s Center is also in the spirit of celebration because this year we turn 25 years old! That’s right – the Women’s Center is half as young as UMBC itself! 

The Women’s Center opened in 1991. The same year Anita Hill’s testimony allowed so many other women to be brave in sharing their stories of sexual harassment. Thelma and Louise took to the big screen. The internet was also opened up to commercial use for the first time ever (which of course would become a hugely important space for feminist activism in years to come). Great social change for women, LGBTQ folks, and other underrepresented populations has happened over the past 25 years across the globe, in our nation, and on our very own campus. The Women’s Center is proud to be a part of the social change in advancing gender equity and social justice. We still have a long way to go and the work is never done, but in this special year, we’ll take a pause to look back on our achievements.

Over the next year, we’ll be celebrating both UMBC and the Women’s Center’s special milestones. As a lead up to UMBC’s 50th Anniversary Weekend events, the Women’s Center will be hosting a 25th Birthday Party on September 13th from 4-6pm. Please join us!

We’ll  be active on social media to help tell the story and importance of the Women’s Center over the past 25 years. We’ll also be working on two special blog feature to include a Then vs. Now series and Where Are They Now? series following former Women’s Center staff. Be sure to follow us on all of our social media platforms and join in on the fun by using #UMBCWC25 to share your own memories, stories, and photos of your time being a part of the Women’s Center at UMBC community.

What pictures do you have of your time in the Women’s Center? Post them on social media using #UMBCWC25 #UMBC50

 A short reflection by Shira Devorah, Women’s Center student staff.

I bought my own copy of Dirty River (even though the Women’s Center has a copy you can loan now thanks to the UMBC’s LGBTQ Faculty & Staff Association recent donation), and I’m really glad that I did. I got to underline the poetry and the words that really resonated with me. I carefully applied sticky notes to the parts I loved, the difficult areas I wanted to come back to, the short mix of music I have to check out.

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home

Dirty River, A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home, by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, is a memoir, but it is also so much more. It is a story of escape, of survival, of scraping by and fighting to exist. This book is more poetry than prose. It is incredibly difficult, dealing with (trigger warning!) incest, abuse and intimate partner violence. It is also difficult because there is so so much. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha feels everything so much. She discovers herself and pulls you in through all the twists and turns. 

This book explores her complicated and celebrated  identity as a queer disabled femme Sri Lankan woman of color. Each facet of herself is carefully explored, every insecurity, every  moment of triumph bursts onto the page. She will not apologize for existing, for running away, for her commitment to activism and celebrating the voices and authorship of queer people of color. She introduces us to the many complex people who hurt her, abused her, raped her and to the people who cared for her and called her family, who stuck in her life. She withers away on one page and blossoms on the next.

Her narrative is fluid, skipping from one point in time to the next. Each chapter is something a little different, a new window to peek through. You have to work through this book – you have to earn Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s story. This book is daunting and incredibly rewarding. I ask you to stick with it, because reading this book makes you feel full inside. It took me longer to read Dirty River than I had anticipated. Though there are only 232 pages, they are filled to the brim with poetry and difficulties and survival.  It is overwhelming, and it is beautiful.

Need more Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha in your life? Good news, she has a bunch of poetry books and  spoken word on Youtube! Even better news? She’s slated to be the keynote speaker for the 4th annual Critical Social Justice: Home coming to UMBC this October!

Her performance of Sins Invalid from 2009. Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 

This is an amazing interview she did last year on the Laura Flanders Show

Leah also has books of poetry available! Love Cake, Consensual Genocide, and Bodymap

Pick up our new copy of Dirty River, A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home at the Women’s Center’s lending library. And, save the date for October 25th to see her in person at UMBC at Critical Social Justice 2016! 

This short blurb is part of our Summer Reading Challenge. Check it out and happy reading!

“i have the word home tattooed on my breastbone, and friends remind me why I got it. the truth of it, that home is there. but this is also about land and gentrification, colonialism that has blown and continues to blow me and my family all over the planet and puts me on someone else’s land where they did not ask me to be, race and class, banks and profit, the desire to stay in a magic queer brown city and the reality of push-out when our narrow slices of survival.  it is about all the ways as disabled and chronically ill folks, as black and brown and broke folks, we find to try and find some stable sweet place to live where we can just live.” – Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (homeplace)

There’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. You can never go home again.

Home can be a place, a feeling, a concept. It can be comfortable or contentious, nurturing or toxic, constant or nonexistent. It can be somewhere we belong or somewhere we don’t.

As a global community, we see the connection between social justice and home during this critical time when issues of migration, nationalism, and xenophobia dominate the news cycle.  In Baltimore city, the legacy of redlining and racial inequity has created divergent realities for its citizens depending upon whether one makes their home in the “White L” or the “Black Butterfly.” As we consider what it means to be at home in our communities, our identities, and even our own bodies, we reflect on the familiar feminist slogan “the personal is political” and we’re reminded that social justice calls for us to look beyond solely what’s happening “out there.”

In honor of UMBC’s 50th Anniversary, this year’s CSJ theme of Home recognizes UMBC as a home to many of us.  As we celebrate and contemplate UMBC as a home for learning, activism, and social change, we embrace the opportunity to invest ourselves in creating meaningful change here on campus in addition to taking our newly gained insights and knowledge with us back home, wherever that may be.

It is in this spirit that the fourth annual Critical Social Justice aims to create space and learning opportunities to consider the ways we can challenge, explore, and redefine the concept of home based upon our individual and collective histories as well as our intersecting identities.

CSJ: Home keynote speaker Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.

We’re excited to announce that our keynote speaker will be Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, a queer disabled femme of color writer and performance artist whose work on disability, survivorhood, and transformative justice speaks to the many complexities inherent in navigating our way home. The keynote lecture and reception will be held on Tuesday, October 25^th at 6pm in the UC Ballroom.

Critical Social Justice: Home will be held on October 24th through 28th, 2016. Follow the CSJ blog, Facebook, and Twitter for updates on scheduled events and other news. For more information about the Critical Social Justice initiative, or if you’re organizing a related event that week that might be included on the CSJ calendar, please email womens.center@umbc.edu.

A final reflection written by Women’s Center student staff member and UMBC Class of 2016 alum,  Meagé Clements

Just weeks after graduation, I attended the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL), a conference I had been anticipating for months! I arrived promptly on June 1st, just in time for the Welcome Reception, led by various American Association of University Women (AAUW) National Student Advisory Council members. There, I met just a few of the hard working, inspirational women from across the nation who were attending the conference. There were other Women’s Center staff members, members of university and college SGAs, non-traditional women students, executive board members of student-led organizations, and more.Throughout the evening full of ice-breakers, I learned what many of the women were passionate about changing and accomplishing in the world.

Throughout the various conference sessions, workshops, and even during the informal ice-breaker and night-out activities, I found myself learning several things about myself and how to be a successful woman in a male-dominated society.

1. I have a voice that deserves to be heard. 

This is something I began to learn throughout my college experience and it is something that I am continuing to work on post-graduation as well. As I attended the opening sessions of the conference: Finding Your Voice and Sharing Your Voice, I learned that it was counterproductive to stifle my voice, especially in situations where I was surrounded by people who could learn from what I had to say. I reflect on the numerous classes I had where I was the only Black woman or woman of color and how I should have spoken up more. Although I have learned to channel my voice through my blog posts and other forums, it is also necessary to use my voice to advocate for myself and other women of color.

2. It’s never too early to network.

Until recently, networking has always been a concept that has been very distant to me. I assumed that it would happen when it happened and that I didn’t need to make a conscious effort to network. Little did I know, this was something that I had been doing subconsciously throughout college. Whether I was exchanging numbers with someone in my academic program, meeting with other students, staff, and faculty in the Women’s Center, or simply discussing my future endeavors with a friend, I was networking. I learned that many people gain necessary networks that helped them advance in their careers. Through the networking workshops at NCCWSL, I met several ambitious women with similar and different aspirations.

Some new NCCWSL friends!

3. It’s okay to have A LOT of aspirations.

During the conference, I met so many women who, believe it or not, started in career fields far from where they’ve ended up. I used to cringe at the thought of someone asking what I wanted to do in life because it always consisted of a long list of aspirations. While I learned that it isn’t always possible to accomplish several at once, each goal can serve as a step towards another.

4. The importance of mentorship.

Several times during the conference, the concept of mentorship came up. Aside from my mother, I had never really considered myself having a mentor, nonetheless mentoring someone else. I assumed that because I was still in school and because I wasn’t settled in my career, I couldn’t be a mentor. I later learned that many of our mentors are our peers. As I reflect on the numerous conversations I’ve had with my sorority sisters, I can recall instances where I’ve received mentorship from them, as well as many of my other women peers. I learned that many women found connections and rewarding opportunities through their mentors. In addition, the conference helped me appreciate solidarity amongst women even more.

5. Take risks

I seldom think of myself as someone who takes risks. During the last workshop session: The Art of Living Boldly: A Toolkit for Taking Risks, Handling Fear, and Building a Meaningful Life, a woman named Catie Whelan shared her story about leaving her secure job and taking a risk at another career choice. Despite not meeting the minimum requirements, she decided to take a risk and apply. Not only was she offered the job, but she was given the opportunity to learn another language so she was better qualified. Throughout the session, many women shared stories about aspirations they have but were too afraid to tackle. I reflected on a few risks I wanted to take and was capable of creating a plan to work towards these goals.

UMBC’s NCCWSL contingent meets keynote speaker, Franchesca Ramsey!

Although the conference has been over for some time now, I continue to reflect on all of the things I’ve learned and I will continue to work towards being an effective woman leader. I highly recommend that other women attend the conference and learn more about the efforts of AAUW and NCCWSL.

If you are a UMBC student interested in attending NCCWSL 2017, contact UMBC’s Women’s Center for more information. Also stay tuned for the Women + Leadership Class of 2016-17 experience – details coming soon (here’s information about the Class of 2015-16 experience)! 

A short book reflection by Shira Devorah 

Just a few moments ago I finished Janet Mock’s memoir, Redefining Realness, My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More. I’m still stunned. I’m not much of a memoir reader, but I’m pretty sure this book has changed that.

here’s a link to buy the book on Amazon!

Thanks to a generous donation from UMBC’s LGBTQ Faculty & Staff Association, I was able to snatch up this book from the Women’s Center’s very own lending library! Over the past couple of days, I have been relishing every moment of Janet Mock and her story. Mock, a trans woman of color, takes her readers through her life from early childhood until now. In a whirlwind of wit and poignancy, she shares herself with us.

I am not ashamed to admit that I cried a whole bunch throughout this book. Mock fought tooth and nail to become the woman she is today, and though she has been through a lot of pain and oppression, she never falters in her stance as an activist. Every personal recollection comes with a lesson Mock has for her readers. She challenges us to be better people, to see others more complexly, to  be critical of systems of inequality and injustice that exist all around us. Mock allows her readers to peak into incredibly sensitive parts of her, and trusts us to learn from the barriers she faced in her girlhood and adolescence.

I think this memoir is a wonderful introduction to intersectional identities and social justice. Any person who picks up this book will be gently introduced to many concepts that they might not have been privy to beforehand.  While I feel like I know a bit about many issues touched upon in this book, I have been changed  by her discussions. Mock pushes readers to confront poverty, trans issues, multiculturalism, drug use, sexual abuse and sex work. White, middle-class people like me  are made to confront our privilege and come out of this book with a better understanding of other’s lives. I am so lucky to get a chance to grow with Janet through the pages of her self discovery.

I highly suggest this book to anyone and everyone. As a trigger warning, Mock discusses her personal experiences of sexual abuse and sex work, so please practice self care if you plan to borrow this book from the Women’s Center after I return it.

If you’ve already read Redefining Realness and need more Janet Mock in your life, check out her awesome blog!

If you want more  info about the book itself, here’s a quick interview she did with Slate back in 2014.

I first learned about Janet Mock through Her Story, an awesome web-series  written by and starring trans women, so you should totally check that out.  Here’s an Interview with Janet and Jen Richards, co-creator of HerStory.

So go out there and read, friends! I’ll be updating periodically on the rest of my summer reading books from my summer reading challenge. Happy Reading!

The UMBC Office of the Vice President for Research has issued a Call for Applications for the NEH 2017 Summer Stipends program as a Limited Submission Opportunity. UMBC may select two nominations to advance to full proposals to be submitted to the NEH by September 29, 2016. The deadline for internal nominations is July 15, 2016.

NEH Summer Stipends support individuals in advancing research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Recipients usually produce articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources. Though this is an NEH program, many faculty members in the arts and social sciences work on projects that the NEH might fund. 

Summer Stipends support projects at any stage of development. Outright awards of $6,000 will be given for two consecutive months of full-time research during summer 2017. 

Click here for more information on the NEH program.

Contact Rachel Brubaker, Assistant Director for Grants and Program Development, Dresher Center for assistance (lead time is essential).