The Dresher Center for the Humanities invites applications for two Residential Faculty Research Fellowships for spring 2016. Funding is intended to support and promote significant humanities research at UMBC. The Dresher Center welcomes proposals from all full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty members pursuing humanities research in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.  Applications are especially encouraged from, but not limited to, full-time faculty with appointments in departments and programs with a humanities focus. Two fellowships are available. Proposals will be reviewed by the Dresher Center Advisory Board, with decisions by mid-July 2014.

Dresher Center Residential Research Fellows will receive release from teaching (up to two course releases) in order to work on a significant humanities research project or the training necessary to embark on such a project. Faculty wishing to develop expertise in a new field or discipline towards a future project are also encouraged to apply. Each fellow will have the use of a private office in the Dresher Center and will be awarded $500 to hire an undergraduate research assistant (junior or senior) for the semester. 

During spring 2016, fellows will reside at least one day per week in the Center, conduct two works-in-progress talks (CURRENTS and Fellows and Others), and participate actively in Dresher Center programs. Upon completion of their fellowship, fellows will serve a two-year term on the Dresher Center advisory board.

For information and an application: http://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/scholarly-resources/internal-residential-fellowship-program/ 

Contact Jessica Berman, Director, with any questions: jberman@umbc.edu 

With this playlist, I just wanted comfort and to work through the tangles of relationships. I wanted to explore the complexities of love in individual relationships and in networks of relationships. All of the depth–or maybe the lack thereof–in the joy, the frustration, the passion, the calm, the tears. This playlist rests on the simultaneity of our love and our connection.

Go have a lil’ listen.

On Tuesday, November 11th through Friday, November 14th the Women's Center will be closing at 5pm. Please plan accordingly!

Hours will resume as normal beginning the week of November 17th.

Halloween was this Friday (as if you didn’t already know that– I know, I’m still recovering from my candy coma, too) and I’ve been doing a lot of self reflection on the past year. Most people do their reflecting in January at the start of the new year, but Halloween is my “new year.” I started my medical transition on October 31, 2013, so as Friday rolled around I began thinking about all the things that have happened and who I’ve become since last Halloween.

guhhh…This Halloween definitely paid for my dentist’s vacation.

I am so much happier than I was 18 months ago. I have a group of very dear friends who care about me. I have made my own family and my own home here in Baltimore, and my family’s house back in Frostburg feels much more welcoming. I feel joy again. I’m doing well in school. I feel validated in my work and I feel like I have the ability to make change not just at UMBC, but in the larger community.

If you had told me all of this before I went on testosterone, I would have said, “Wow! It’s amazing all the things testosterone can do for me!” Now, I’ve realized that the testosterone had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t some magical elixir like a Felix Felicis potion. It didn’t fix something that was broken. It didn’t give me friends or make people like me more. All of that was me. I did that.

“Bottled good fortune. Brewed correctly the drinker of this potion will be lucky in all their endeavors…” –J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

It’s amazing the things you can discover about who you are and what you’re capable of once you stop putting all your energy into hating yourself. Being on testosterone didn’t make me hate myself less– just like losing 20 pounds isn’t going to make your body image issues go away. It removed the thing I was using as an excuse for hating myself. It’s easy to say, “I’ll love myself once I’m on testosterone,” but I realized that self love doesn’t come in a 10mL vial. You can’t diet your way to self love, either. You have to work towards it and it’s hard, but it’s totally worth it.

What I’ve learned in the past twelve months is that I am worthy of my love unconditionally and let me tell you, that Halloween candy tastes so much sweeter now.