A wonderful piece about Dr. Taj was just published on UMBC Stories. Read the interview here: Zareen Taj earns her Ph.D., publishing the first autoethnography by a Hazara Afghan woman about the ongoing genocide of Hazara women under Taliban rule

\\

Join us today at 1:30pm for a screening of and discussion of Dr. Taj's film.

Join us on Wed, May 6 for a film screening of Dr. Zareen Taj's براي قوما | For my people: A Hazara Woman's Journey. Dr. Zareen Taj is an Adjunct Faculty in American Studies and Asian Studies and a graduate of the Language, Literacy and Cultural doctoral program (2026.

We'll kick off the event with some delicious Afghan appetizers. We'll then engage in a participatory dialogue about hope & culture building rooted in UMBC's 2025-2026 Culture Builders Program and the themes of the film. We'll screen the film and have a conversation with Dr. Taj moderated by Dr. Sally Scott, Director of the Community Leadership Graduate Programs at UMBC, Professor of Practice, and affiliate faculty in the Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Public Health.

About the Film

"This film brings together my life story, my academic work, and my years of activism into a single narrative that moves between memory and analysis. Beginning in a rural village in Afghanistan and shaped by war, displacement, and life as a refugee, the film traces how I came to question the expectations placed on girls and, over time, found my voice in resisting them. It also documents my return to Afghanistan to record the stories of Hazara communities living through violence and loss, and the difficult process of making sense of those experiences through both filmmaking and scholarship. At its core, the film reflects on what it means to live at the intersection of gender and ethnic oppression, while also showing how storytelling can create connection, visibility, and a sense of belonging—for myself and for the communities whose stories I carry.

The film’s title, “براي قوما | For my people,” speaks to my work advocating for my people and the message I share to Hazaras across the world: to tell their stories." - Dr. Zareen Taj '26, LLC; Adjunct Faculty, AMST & ASIA

About Culture Builders at UMBC

This event is co-organized by Priya Bhayana, Global Asias Project Manager, who is a 2025-2026 UMBC Culture Builder. Culture Builders is a cohort-based initiative launched by the Division of Institutional Equity. Culture building is the intentional practice of developing shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how we live, learn, and lead together. In a time marked by polarization and a loss of shared humanity, creating an inclusive culture requires all of us. Each of us has a role to play. Read more here.

This event is supported by Culture Builders, the Global Studies Program and the Global Asias Initiative.

**Curl P.W.R Raffle Entry Form is now open!!!**

Remember your Curl PWR Punch Card? If you’ve come to our events throughout the semester and have gotten your punchcard filled, enter into our raffle for a prize!

YOU CAN CONTACT US TO RESERVE YOUR ITEM, AND YOU CAN PICK IT UP EARLIER IF NEEDED. ITEMS CAN BE DISASSEMBLED.

Are you a freshman who is curious about the final senior project for the Anthropology major? What about a junior or senior on their final steps to completing their Anthropology major?

Join Anthropology Club for its last meeting of the semester where we will be learning about the Anthropology major’s senior capstone project course—ANTH 480: Anthropological Research Capstone!

We will go over the basic elements of the capstone course and have Anthropology students who are currently taking the capstone course talk about their projects and experiences. We will also have Anthropology professors at the meeting to give insight into the capstone and the major as well. Any questions you may have about the course or the Anthropology major can be answered!

This meeting is open to all Anthropology majors and minors of any year. There will be free food and drinks. Hope to see you there!

Join us Wednesday afternoon to celebrate four English faculty and other CAHSS colleagues for their recently published books! The Dresher Center is hosting a CAHSS Book Celebration May 6 from 4:30-6:00 PM in PAHB 216. Light refreshments will be served. 

Congratulations to all for this monumental achievement!

English faculty:

Poetry in General: How a Literary Form Became Public (Columbia University Press)
By Keegan Cook Finberg
Assistant Professor, English

Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Life Writing, and the Victorian Nomad (Routledge Press)
By Jean Fernandez
Professor, English

Romanticism Bewitched: Witchcraft, Revolution and the Female Demonic
(Cambridge University Press)
By Orianne Smith
Professor, English

Asian Girlhood in the Shadows of U.S. Empire (University of Minnesota Press)
By Sharon Tran
Assistant Professor, English

Dresher Center/CAHSS Book Celebration

Celebrating Humanities Books from 2025-2026

Wednesday, May 6, 2026 · 4:30 - 6 PM

In-Person · Performing Arts & Humanities Building : 216

List of Faculty books:

Let Us Alone: The Origins of Baltimore's Police State (University of Illinois Press)
By Michael Casiano
Assistant Professor, American Studies

Poetry in General: How a Literary Form Became Public (Columbia University Press)
By Keegan Cook Finberg
Assistant Professor, English

Double Feature (Saint Lucy Books)
By Mark Alice Durant
Professor, Visual Arts

Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Life Writing, and the Victorian Nomad (Routledge Press)
By Jean Fernandez
Professor, English

Rebuilding New Orleans: Immigrant Laborers and Street Food Vendors in the Post-Katrina Era (University of North Carolina Press)
By Sarah Fouts
Associate Professor, American Studies

Empathy Machines: This American Life, Podcasting and the Public Radio Structure of Feeling (Bloomsbury Publishing)
By Jason Loviglio
Professor, Media and Communication Studies

Across Canons: Language, Latin American Immigrant Literature, and the Making of Latinx Narratives (University of Arizona Press)
By Thania Muñoz
Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication

Auteur-Publishers: Small Press Practices as Avant-Garde Writing (Edinburgh University Press)
By Craig Saper
Professor, Language, Literacy, and Culture

Amos Badertscher Images and Stories (Phaidon)
Edited by Beth Saunders
Associate Director and Curator of Special Collections, Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery

Romanticism Bewitched: Witchcraft, Revolution and the Female Demonic
(Cambridge University Press)
By Orianne Smith
Professor, English

Asian Girlhood in the Shadows of U.S. Empire (University of Minnesota Press)
By Sharon Tran
Assistant Professor, English

Light refreshments will be served

The UMBC Institute of Politics invites you to the event honoring Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi American Heritage Month. This event is part of their Politics Everywhere series.

Location: Skylight Room, The Commons
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Time: 6:45 pm to 8:30 pm

Click here to RSVP. 

Asian Americans are a rapidly growing population with significantly higher voter turnout and political participation than a decade ago. Their diverse experiences, identities, and policy priorities make them a dynamic voting bloc whose electoral influence will only continue to grow in Maryland and beyond.

Join the UMBC Institute of Politics (IoP) for an event examining the growing influence of Asian American voters and what drives their political engagement. The event will feature a reception with food and drinks from across Asian cultures, followed by a keynote address and moderated panel discussion with Asian American leaders in Maryland.

Keynote
Lt. Governor Aruna Miller, State of Maryland
Lt. Governor Miller is the first Asian American and immigrant elected to statewide office in Maryland.

Moderators
Del. Mark Chang (’99), District 32
Trisha Sirsat (’27), IoP Research Assistant

Panelists
Del. David Moon, District 20
Del. Kris Valderrama, District 26
Del. Harry Bhandari (‘21), District 8
Sushant Sidh, Principal, Capitol Strategies

IoP sponsored events are 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

This spring on Thursday evenings, students filled room 424 in the Fine Arts building for their Asian Diaspora in Motion: Media, Culture, Identity, and Activism class. At the head of the classroom was Zareen Taj, who designed the new 300-level class based on her experiences as a documentary filmmaker and activist defending the rights of her community—the Hazara women of Afghanistan, a community that has for over a century experienced extreme ethnic, religious, and gender oppression, including multiple massacres and starvation, under Taliban rule. 

It’s a reality Taj grew up with as part of the Hazara people, a religious and ethnic minority. In the 1990s, when the Taliban increased their killings of the Hazara people, Taj and her family fled to a refugee settlement in Pakistan. There, Taj started speaking out against the systemic oppression of Hazara women. Her activism made her a Taliban target. With a scholarship from the Feminist Majority Foundation, Taj fled once more, this time to Towson University, where she earned a bachelor’s in political science and women’s studies and a master’s in women’s studies. 

After graduation, Taj worked for Voice of America as an international broadcaster and producer. At UMBC, she worked for Chartwells in the HR department first and then as an accounting associate at The Shriver Center.  A year later, Taj was accepted into the language, literacy, and culture (LLC) doctoral program. During her studies, she raised two children and created four short documentaries about Hazara women while teaching in the global studies, Asian studies, and American studies departments. 

This semester, Taj successfully defended her dissertation, “Journey of a Scholar-Activist: An Autoethnographic and Multimodal Inquiry,” which includes written narratives and her fourth documentary short film titled “For My People.” The project marks the first time she took the time and space to reflect on her life. 

“I learned from this journey that I am different. I look different. I work differently. I see things differently, but my difference is not a problem,” says Taj about her experience at UMBC, where she hopes to become a professor. “My experience is an asset. It’s my wealth. The UMBC community, particularly the LLC and my professors, were very supportive of what I’m doing. So they supported me at each stage of my life.”

Q: What was your journey to UMBC?

A: I studied in a refugee displacement settlement in Pakistan, so it was very hard. But I got the Feminist Majority Scholarship and moved to Maryland in 2000 to attend Towson University. I could not speak English well. I saw a computer for the first time in my life. It was very hard because I came from a very war-torn country. We don’t have that advanced education system, and it’s often interrupted by war. Every minute, I reminded myself about the other Afghan girls who didn’t have this opportunity, so I couldn’t give up.  

I always wanted to get a Ph.D. That was my dream. I put all of my experiences into my academic world. In 2018, I applied to the LLC doctoral program. I talked with Carole McCann, professor of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies, about what I wanted to do. She said yes to being my advisor right away. Joby Taylor, Ph.D. ’05, assistant vice provost and co-leader of The Shriver Center for Public Service and Community Engagement, and Tania Lizarazo, associate professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, and global studies, also lent their support as co-chairs. 

Q: How did you decide on the topic for your dissertation?

A: My master’s thesis, titled “Dual Identity, Dual Oppression of Hazara Women,” didn’t follow the same research path as a traditional thesis because there were no official documents that I could use for my research. I felt frustrated. My thesis was informed by my firsthand research trips to Afghanistan. This work represents the first contribution of its kind in the academic field. My personal experiences and frustrations motivated me to return to my country, which ultimately shaped and grounded the development of my thesis.

For my dissertation, my committee wanted me to talk about myself, to write a book. I appreciated them encouraging me, but I continued to focus on Hazara women until Dr. Tanya Saunders, associate professor of sociology, pointed out all the different types of ethnography I was doing and encouraged me to focus on myself to do an autoethnography. I was surprised that I could do that, and that’s how I started. 

 That gave me a kind of confidence in my writing. I’m always reflecting on all of these things I’m doing, but not reflecting on myself. I never had the chance, or I never thought of doing it. I never thought I would be allowed to talk about myself, so I didn’t. I come from a culture where we never talk about ourselves because this is taboo. Women would be told, “Why are you talking about yourself? We have bigger issues, bigger things to talk about.” That’s the culture, especially for Hazara women. We never talk about ourselves, our pain, our joy. Everything is internalized. 

I am reaching a stage of very clear realizations about how this academic process is a very healing process for me. I’m making my people visible and bringing awareness to the cause. We’ll get to know people, my people, my ethnicity, their suffering, and also the resilience of these women. 

Q: Why was this dissertation process a healing process?

A: My short documentary, “For My People,” which I produced for my dissertation, helped me process the anger and isolation I have carried after years of fighting for survival and against oppression. This process led to exploration and, for the first time, I explored healing and the shift to joy, community, and belonging I have found with the Hazara women who resettled in Washington, D.C., my global network of activists, and my UMBC community. 

The more work I’m doing in the form of writing an article, creating films, or public speaking, the more visibility I have to those dimensions, those identities. It’s helping me feel that I do justice for them. That’s the process of healing. The more I work to bring community sustainability and collectiveness, the stronger my sense of belonging, satisfaction, and deep attachment to my community.

Q: What inspired the topics for your other films?

A: I was doing my master’s thesis about Hazara women, but there wasn’t much data. I decided to go back to Afghanistan for the first time since fleeing Pakistan to document the living conditions and experiences of Hazara women living under the fear of genocide. When I returned, I had 40 hours of videotapes, 700 photographs, and 20 hours of cassette recordings that helped me make my first film, “The Oppression of Hazara in Afghanistan.” 

But I didn’t just want to show the oppression of Hazara women as victims. I wanted to show the resistance and leadership of Hazara women. After the fall of the last Afghan government in 2021, some Hazara refugees came to the Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia area. We have a lot of activists and advocates like Azra Jafari, the first woman in Afghanistan to hold the office of mayor. They were willing to be interviewed for “Our Face Tells: Seeing the Genocide of Hazaras in Afghanistan.” 

Last year, I collaborated with several organizations and led efforts to train Hazara women to create and share their own stories. The Hazara Women of Afghanistan Share Digital Stories event trained and supported Hazara women to tell their own stories. That inspired “Voices of Resistance.”

Q: How have you passed on your documentary film skills to your students?

A: UMBC has given me so much and helped me to contribute to it. I taught three years in the global studies program as a visiting lecturer, and I designed, established, and taught Global Studies 409: Documentary Film as Global Activism. Students had to make a documentary about their families from any part of the world. They had to document where their identity and sense of belonging came from. Their films reflected their family backgrounds as well as their personal passions and engagement with social issues.

I still remember a student whose grandparents came from Ethiopia. His film was about them, and afterwards told me that when he was given the assignment, he said to himself, “If this lady, this lady from Afghanistan, can do these films, I can do that too.” It made me smile

Q: Looking back on everything that you have experienced and accomplished, has your purpose changed?

A: In 2021, when the Taliban returned, it was like the loss of a 20-year-old child. It was hard not to despair. But in all the chaos, some Hazara were able to get out and needed help arriving to live in the United States. That service rescued me from that vulnerable situation. Community work changed me again. It lifted me up. 

After the Hazara Women of Afghanistan Share Digital Stories event, I realized I do not need to feel the responsibility to speak for Hazara women, as they are now able to articulate and share their own stories with the world. This is my message for Hazara around the world, especially Hazara women who feel like their stories do not matter. You need to tell your story because your story is our history. And your story is our future. Sharing our stories will hold us together and make us known to the world.

Good Afternoon UMBC Capstone Community, Clients, Faculty, Students, Family, Friends, Staff & More! 

Dr. Paris von Lockette, Dr. Chuck Laberge, and Prof. Adam Bridenolph (Shady Grove), Senior Design instructors for the Mechanical Engineering Capstone and the Interdisciplinary Capstone, extend a warm invitation for you to join us for our . . .                                                                       

Spring 2026 Senior Mechanical & Multidisciplinary Engineering Capstone Design, Showcase, Friday May 8th       

• Presentations begin at 9AM in the Fine Arts Theater 
• Demonstrations begin at 10AM in the Engineering Atrium
• Come vote for your favorite project in our “People Choice” Award

Credit and thank you to Sarah Swatski from the Faculty Development Center for this idea, and to Billy Schneider for building it out for us!

Are you trying to wade through the murky depths of your Site’s Media files and finding yourself lost, dazed, and confused? A new tool is here to help!

The Media Inventory

This button is now available in your Media Library, which you can find on the left-hand navigation if you are logged into Sites.

This Media Inventory will download a CSV that contains the following information* for every piece of media in the library:

• File name

• File type

• Uploaded on date

• Uploaded by person

• Uploaded to URL (please note this is the original URL the media was uploaded to, it does not update if the media is moved to a different page or removed from that page!)

• File title

• Alt text

• Caption

• Description

*If the information is available for the file, if not, it will just show up as blank for that section.

What can you do with this? Our starter suggestions:

1. Sort by “alt text” for a quick way to see what files are missing alt text, or to review the current alt text for accuracy

2. Sort by “file type” to understand how many PDFs are present on your Site

3. Sort by “uploaded on date” to review your oldest media and find your most likely candidates for deletion

Calling all current graduate students! Looking to level up your data storytelling skills this summer? The Division of Student Affairs is hiring a Graduate Student Intern – Data Visualization & Reporting Analyst for summer 2026! In this paid, highly flexible hybrid role ($21.39/hr, 10–12 hours/week), you’ll design interactive dashboards, translate complex datasets into meaningful insights, and have an opportunity to collaborate with student affairs leaders on data analysis projects. This internship is open to all current UMBC graduate students that have prior Tableau experience. Recent graduates cannot be considered for this role. This internship will provide a great opportunity to build portfolio-worthy solutions. Application review begins May 20.

How to Apply:
All interested candidates must apply on Handshake, visit our job posting here.

Candidates should submit two documents: a resume and a cover letter that includes a statement of interest and an outline of your relevant experience and skills. Your cover letter should also include a link to a Tableau dashboard project you have personally developed. As a reminder, the UMBC Career Center website has some helpful materials about crafting a cover letter.

Questions? Reach out to Dr. Mary Ellen Wade, Director of Assessment and Planning at mewade@umbc.edu