Meeting announcement,

• ITE239 will be the meeting location for all of our meetings going forward unless specified otherwise.,

• /bin/bash day involves meeting up at Sorento's of Arbutus and getting together and having pizza with current members and alumni to celebrate the founding of our club in 1997, more details and info about forming any carpools from campus will be provided later

The Language, Literacy, and Culture Program is pleased to announce that Zareen Taj of LLC Cohort 22 successfully and skillfully presented her dissertation research proposal on September 12, 2025.

Zareen's project is titled, Hazara Women's Resistance and Resilience: An Autoethnographic Study

After her presentation, Zareen had a substantive discussion with her committee about the next stages of her work. The committee agreed that the project is worthy of doctoral research and helped Zareen consider some key issues as she moves forward into the research and writing.

Many thanks to Zareen's committee members:

Co-Chairs:

Tania Lizarazo, MA/Global Studies

Joby Taylor, Shriver Center

Members:

Tanya Saunders, Language, Literacy, and Culture

Sally Scott, Shriver Center

Melissa Skye Kerr Chiovenda, George Mason University 

The Language, Literacy, and Culture Program is pleased to announce that Inaki Zarate of LLC Cohort 24 successfully and skillfully presented his dissertation research proposal on September 8, 2025.

Inaki's project is titled, The Door to Other Worlds: Theorizing Music, Affect and Friendship.

After his presentation, Inaki had a substantive discussion with his committee about the next stages of his work.

Many thanks to Inaki's committee members:

Chair:   

Tanya Saunders, Language, Literacy, and Culture

Members:

Sarah Fouts, American Studies

Maria Celleri, Department of Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies

Fernando Rios, University of Maryland at College Park

Marta Cabrera, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Departamento de Estudios Culturales  

Please join us in congratulating Inaki on reaching this significant milestone!

Welcome!

My name is Tessa Newton and I am the Associate Director of Leadership Annual Giving. I am delighted to welcome you to the Philanthropy At Work (P.A.W.) Circle! This is a brand new community for faculty and staff who make the generous decision to give financial support to UMBC. 

I would like to introduce - although it's likely you already know her - Laila Shishineh, Ed.D. as the Chair for the P.A.W. Circle! Laila provides a wealth of UMBC knowledge, higher education experience, and meaningful relationships across campus with faculty and staff. We are grateful to have Laila joining us to support the P.A.W. Circle and being a champion of employee giving! 

The success of our students relies on our faculty and staff through all facets of the campus. As a piece of that, your generosity is invaluable to our student scholars. We created the P.A.W. Circle as a way to celebrate your generosity! We will be hosting two events during the Fall 2025 semester for all P.A.W. Circle members come together for community and a delicious snack. Mug of the Month will include each member of P.A.W. Circle receives a specialty coffee mug to fill with their tasty snack at each event! Details are below and events will be separately created in this group, as well.

Mug of the Month Details:

• Thursday, October 16 from 11am-1pm in the Commons Room 329 - enjoy candied apples
• Wednesday, November 19 from 11am-1pm in the Commons Room 331 - get cozy with a mug of chili

Faculty and staff that made a donation in Fiscal Year '25 and Fiscal Year '26 (to date) will be added to this group. If you have a colleague that made a gift but has not been added to this group, please have them contact me at TNewton@umbc.edu. 

We are happy to have you here and look forward to seeing you next month!

Sincerely,

Tessa and Laila