On October 8, WEAA's The Marc Steiner Show  hosted a segment discussing the challenges, complexities and joys of raising and educating boys. Kimberly Moffitt, an associate professor of American studies, was a guest on the program and discussed her experience as a founding parent and trustee of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys - a charter school opening in Baltimore City next year to serve boys in grades 4 through 12.

In a discussion about improving high school graduation rates among boys, Moffitt said: "This is a movement that is happening from the ground up." Adding, "it's about folks in the community who recognize something that's happening with our children and want to do something about it instead of waiting for someone else within the federal government, or higher ups, or individuals who have their philanthropic ability to contribute. This is now very much about folks who are part of the community who see something real that needs to change because this is an epidemic for our boys and we want to see a shift in change."

Moffitt appeared on the program with Jack Pannell, founder of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, and David Banks, President and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation and founding principal of the Eagle Academy for Young Men in the Bronx. To listen to the full segment, click  here.

Moffitt also recently returned from Vienna, Austria where she gave two presentations based on her research. The University of Vienna and the American Embassy hosted "Transgressive Television: Politics, Crime, and Citizenship in 21st Century American TV Series," where Moffitt gave a presentation on "Black Motherhood as Victimhood in The Wire." Also, at the University of Graz (Austria), Department of American Studies "When I Talk about American Studies, I Talk about... Lecture," Moffitt presented a talk entitled, "(In)visibility in Black and White: The Case of Disney's The Princess and the Frog."

This is an annual event. We have been hosting the Fall Harvest Dinner since 2003. This event is free for all graduate students and postdocs who attend an institution within the University System of Maryland (USM), and who support the mission of PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP. The mission of PROMISE is to increase the numbers and diversity of STEM faculty by supporting and training underrepresented minority graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in STEM disciplines.

We will sponsor a bus for this activity. The bus will leave from UMBC, and can make a stop at BWI airport if that is convenient. To take the bus, send email to PROMISEstaff@gmail.com with the subject “Bus to Fall Harvest 2014.” Indicate BWI or UMBC for pick-up and droffoff. Provide your name, email, and a cell number.  Details for the pick-up and drop-off times will be posted in the comments section.

Additional information for this event will be posted in the comment section below. If you have questions, please post them below.

This is an annual event. We have been hosting the Fall Harvest Dinner since 2003. This event is free for all graduate students and postdocs who attend an institution within the University System of Maryland (USM), and who support the mission of PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP. The mission of PROMISE is to increase the numbers and diversity of STEM faculty by supporting and training underrepresented minority graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in STEM disciplines.

We will sponsor a bus for this activity. The bus will leave from UMBC, and can make a stop at BWI airport if that is convenient. To take the bus, send email to PROMISEstaff@gmail.com with the subject “Bus to Fall Harvest 2014.” Indicate BWI or UMBC for pick-up and droffoff. Provide your name, email, and a cell number.  Details for the pick-up and drop-off times will be posted in the comments section.

Additional information for this event will be posted in the comment section below. If you have questions, please post them below.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I had my first mammogram today. I am still in the waiting room as I write these thoughts into the notepad of my iPhone. Despite the very hopeful notion I have that everything will be okay, I also have the overwhelming feeling of wanting to cry. All the Octobers of pink and more pink have created a sense within me that the question of breast cancer for me as a woman is not an if but when. Somewhat like the rape schedule most women live with on a daily basis I’ve realized through this process of doctor’s visits and tests that I operate in a sort of breast cancer schedule as well. The inevitability feels all too real.

Watching shows like L Word and Parenthood with main characters who were diagnosed with breast cancer always sends me into overwhelming sadness as I delve into their plot lines. I cry. I cry for the fictional characters but I also cry in fear. That could be me. My partner. My best friend. It has already been my aunt. My cousin. Co-workers. Friends of friends. I have created a chosen family for myself completely centered in women and womanhood. As I grow older, I know this list will only grow.

And, as I sit in this waiting room for my results I question if my fear is warranted. Or is just the onslaught of October Pink that has conditioned me to believe this is a real reality for me? Am I too hyper-vigilant? Is this real or just another social construction that inhabits within me due to my gender and gender socialization? Did all the Race For The Cures and pink ribbons and Denim Days of my childhood not only create an awareness but a deeply rooted fear?

I debate about posting these very personal thoughts on what for all extensive purposes is my work blog. Part of me feels these are not thoughts appropriate to share around the “water cooler” but thoughts meant to keep private or share only with close confidants. But my “water cooler,” my work – it is my passion. My work is the work rooted in these fears, these social constructions, these lived experiences of women. If I can’t or don’t talk about it as a professional who works in a women’s center, who believes in consciousness raising and “the personal is political,” who else will? Women’s centers and their community members exists to center these conversations, make space for inquiry, and give comfort for the fear. I share my thoughts to create brave spaces for us to critique the “pink industrial complex” while also validating the very real experiences of those living with breast cancer, those surviving breast cancer, those who have died from it, and those who wonder if it will happen to them.

In the waiting room, I got the answer I needed. I am fine and I can breathe a sigh of relieve… at least for now. And, yet I leave feeling I still have more questions than answers.

This post is written by Madison Miller. It was originally featured on the Women’s Center WordPress, which you can find here.

With much discussion in Women’s Center staff meetings about actively applying our work in the Center as student staff members to other areas of our lives, I have recently been thinking a lot about how my experiences and education in social justice and activism coincide with the various roles and responsibilities I hold outside of the Center. Currently in the process of working towards receiving teacher certification in elementary education, one of my most valued roles this academic year is my internship as a student teacher in a fourth grade classroom. Watching my students embrace new concepts and grow as individuals each week has not only brought an immense amount of pleasure and fulfillment into my life, but it has also caused me to think rather critically about how learning in the classroom translates outside to the “real world”. I’m not talking about how that math equation we learned last week can help us to calculate a tip on a restaurant bill, or how that new vocabulary word can be used to impress our relatives, but instead about how simple classroom dynamics can set a pretty important example for those of us who are long removed from our own elementary school classrooms.

Although we live in a society that preaches equality and fairness, perhaps one of the most important concepts I have learned in the classroom thus far is that equality and fairness are far from interchangeable terms. Imagine a classroom where students are instructed to independently read a chapter out of a textbook and take notes on what they are reading. Several students are reading quietly to themselves and taking notes on a sheet of paper, while another student is listening to an audiobook through headphones, and yet another student is talking to a classroom volunteer who is writing notes down for the student. If this were an equal environment, all students would be required to complete the assignment in the exact same way. But is equality in this situation really fair? Without certain accommodations, students with learning disabilities or special needs may be unable to complete the assignment on their own. The truth is, equality is only fair when everyone is the exact same to begin with. This is an extremely unlikely situation not only in the classroom, but in life in general. Instead of promoting fairness amongst individuals within a community, in actuality equality erases differences that exist within a group of individuals and only supports those with the most privilege. Equality is a “colorblind” approach to fairness and it can be especially harmful when it prevents students from lower income families and those who struggle with disabilities from obtaining the resources they need to succeed.

Because not all students (or people, for that matter) are born with the same abilities and some experience challenges that inhibit that their success, some individuals need more resources in order to just catch up to their peers. Therefore instead of talking about equality, we need to focus on another approach: equity. While equality simply seeks to level the playing field for everyone, equity seeks to provide more resources to those who need them. Take for example the large population of English Language Learners (ELLs) attending schools today. These students are often significantly behind their native-English speaking peers- not because they are unintelligent, but because they lack an upbringing that enables them to understand the language in which they are being taught. Therefore, these ELL students need more resources (perhaps in the form of ESOL classes or classroom accommodations) simply just to survive in the school system. Equity forces us to examine various privileges that exist within a community or a society and prompts us to make certain accommodations that will assist those with a lack of privilege. Instead of seeing just one route to success, equity forces us to pave multiple roads for multiple people. It isn’t an easy process by any means, but the extra work we put into through society through creating equitable situations brings us closer to fairness than equality ever will.