Volunteer for UMBC Homecoming 5K! 

Looking for a fun way to get involved with Homecoming? Volunteer at the Homecoming 5K on the morning of Saturday, October 11!

•  Free admission to the Homecoming Carnival
•  10 free game tickets
•  A chance to cheer on runners & rep your our org!

• Critical Religious Pluralism (series keynote): Join Dr. Jenny Small in a dialogue about critical religious pluralism, which challenges surface-level notions of tolerance and instead calls for a deeper engagement with the systemic inequities embedded in religious life on college campuses. Event details: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/doie/events

• Responding to Antisemitism with Courage and Care (brown bag): Join Dr. Jenny Small for a brown-bag conversation on how college campuses can respond to antisemitism with empathy, action, and institutional integrity, creating environments where Jewish community members feel supported and empowered. Event details: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/doie/events

• Confronting Bias, Building Belonging Across Eastern Religions and Faith Traditions (brown bag): Join Dr. Simran Kaur-Colbert for a brown-bag discussion where campus community members explore how to dismantle misconceptions about Dharmic religious traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, and cultivate a sense of belonging through cultural understanding and interfaith engagement. Event details: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/doie/events

• Fostering Safety and Inclusion for Muslim and Arab Communities (brown bag): Join Dr. Joshua Salaam for a brown-bag discussion, inviting college community members to reflect on how we can foster inclusivity and empathy by understanding the experiences of Muslim and Arab college students, while taking action toward safety and belonging on campus. Event details: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/doie/events

Applications are now open for "Make Your Research Come Alive" (myRCA), a new faculty collaboratory designed for faculty who are committed to advancing and amplifying the visibility, reach, impact, and funding potential of their research, scholarship, and creative activity.

This 7-month program will bring together a cross-disciplinary cohort of UMBC faculty to:

• Develop skills in research impact storytelling, visualization, and advocacy to reach stakeholders and the public 
• Create compelling pitches and broader impact narratives tailored to foundations, corporations, and donors
• Share best practices and learn from each other in a supportive, cross-disciplinary cohort model

Participants must be PI eligible at UMBC. Up to $500 in research funds will be awarded per participant.

Applications are due October 20, 2025.

For more information including how to apply, please download the attached flyer or visit https://research.umbc.edu/internal-funding-opportunities/. 

Language as personal and communal expression: an interactive zine-making workshop 

Dr. Joyhanna Jung Yoo and Shengxiao "Sole" Yu will lead participants through an exploration of their personal relationship to their heritage language(s). The workshop will ask participants to reflect on the relationship of language in their lives as it pertains to identity, family, thought, and more. The workshop aims to bring together students and broader community members to think about the connections between issues of language to broader community and social concerns.

Thursday, October 23, 2025
2-4pm
Location: CADVC Gallery, Fine Arts 105

Attendance is capped at 25 participants. Priority will be given to students.

About the speakers:

Joyhanna "Joy" Yoo (she/they) is a linguistic anthropologist whose work examines the circulation of Korean popular cultural genres with fieldwork based in Seoul, Mexico City, and Los Angeles. Their research examines the meanings generated by language as it pertains to race and gender when cultural genres circulate. Joy has also published on Asian American racialization and linguistic appropriation in mediatized contexts. Her newer work examines the relationship between language loss, grief, and Korean diasporic belonging. They are especially passionate about student-centered teaching, mentorship, and student advocacy.

Shengxiao Yu, known by her nickname Sole, is a speaker, facilitator, writer, and social justice educator. She is the creator of Nectar, a space where she provides political education for the community through giving keynote speeches, facilitating workshops, and providing thought leadership. In 2024, Sole served as the activist-in-residence at the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. In this capacity, Sole conducted research to more deeply understand the AAPI electoral landscape and the role of mis- and disinformation. Sole is a writer for the Xin Sheng Project, a platform combating misinformation in the Chinese diaspora community by publishing in-language, progressive articles that shift perspectives and build intergenerational power. As a generation 1.5 Asian American, Sole is also working to build community among her fellow Asian Americans in order to build socio-political power and to lift up her lineage. Sole is inspired by BIPOC activists, grassroots community leaders, and all the intersectional movement ancestors who have paved the way.

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This event is part of the Reframing Global Asias Conversation Series. For the conversation series this fall, the Global Asias Initiative is hosting guest speakers Shengxiao "Sole" Yu and Dr. Joyhanna Jung Yoo for a series of workshops & lectures.

Want to learn more about the upcoming Global Asias Conversation Series? Check out our website for more!