On October 9, Talking Points Memo (TPM) published a story analyzing the recent controversial College Board decision to release a revised framework on the way AP U.S. history is taught. Since the decision was released two years ago, it has drawn backlash from many who call the new framework unpatriotic and revisionist.

Scott Casper, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of History, was quoted extensively in the story and commented on recent shifts in American history education. Casper, who edits the “Textbooks and Teaching” section of the Journal of American History, said the debate isn’t exactly new. He said the new framework reflects a shift in teaching history in that more colleges and high schools are emphasizing “historical thinking skills.” He also noted there’s been a shift in topics covered, including incorporating the stories of women, African-Americans and immigrants to a greater extent.

Commenting on the concept of revisionist history, Casper said: “Those who criticize the teaching of what they call revisionist history are certainly part of a long tradition because every time we learn more about the past, we are revising our understanding of the past,” he said. “So in a sense, history is always revisionist.”

To read the full article, click here.

On Friday, September 26, WAMU, the NPR affiliate in Washington, D.C., aired a discussion on the history of gentrification and political representation in the nation’s capital. The segment ran on Metro Connection, a weekly news magazine program.

George Derek Musgrove ’97, history, associate professor of history, was interviewed for the story and provided historical context and analysis of gentrification in Washington. Musgrove discussed “The Plan,” a concept that newspaper columnist Lillian Wiggins wrote about in the 1970s and believed would transform the city.

“She believed that whites in D.C. had a plan to come back and take over the city — both its real estate, its physical space, and its politics,” Musgrove said during the segment. He added that it’s important to look more deeply at what Wiggins was describing given the demographics of the city at the time: “I think there were a number of things that caused people to look at The Plan as a viable explanation for what was happening around them,” he said. A major factor, he explained, was “our lack of statehood, and Congress’s ability to meddle in the city’s affairs.”

In a separate segment, Musgrove noted that, “D.C. has had a post-industrial economy for its entire history.” He identified four waves of gentrification in D.C., each lining up with expansion of the federal government. In the 1970s and 80s, there was a burst of development in what had become very poor inner city neighborhoods.

“The rate of displacement in places like Adams Morgan, Logan Circle, Columbia Heights, was astonishing. I mean absolutely astonishing. Developers would buy up in certain cases whole streets, and send out notices: ‘Please get out in the next month, we’re going to be fixing these places up.’ And renters, by the year 1978 just revolted.”

To listen to the full segments, click below:
Is Gentrification in D.C. Going According to “The Plan?”
Why Did African Americans Leave Georgetown?

Ahead of Tuesday’s Maryland gubernatorial debate, Public Policy Professor and Chair Donald Norris analyzed what was at stake in the debate and what each candidate needed to accomplish.

In an interview on WJZ Channel 13, Norris said, “what each candidate needs to accomplish at the debates is first to look personable so that they don’t turn people off with their demeanor. And secondly, they have to not make any mistakes.” He added, “different people are going to have different perspectives on who wins or who loses — again — unless somebody makes a really big mistake,” Norris added.

On WYPR, Norris commented on the potential impact of the debates. “Debates don’t matter much, especially gubernatorial debates, because nobody watches them,” Norris said. He noted that because debates don’t generally draw a large audience, it would take a major mistake by one of the candidates for voters to notice.

“If somebody makes a big blunder it’ll be all over the television, all over the radio, in the newspaper —  you know: ‘Brown stumbles badly, Hogan doesn’t remember where Annapolis is’ whatever it may be,” Norris said.

Norris was also quoted in a Washington Post article published on October 11 about Gov. Martin O’Malley’s approval ratings.

To read, watch and listen to the full stories, click below:
The Stage is Set for the First Gubernatorial Debate on Oct. 7 (WJZ)
What’s at Stake at First Governor’s Race Debate? (WYPR)
As O’Malley’s approval rating falls, Md. voters not confident in his presidential bid (Washington Post)

An article published October 9 in the Washington Post examined several gubernatorial races in the Northeast where voter unrest has put a number of contests in play in states where Democrats ordinarily win. The article focused on Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maryland as states where this phenomenon is taking place. A recent Washington Post poll showed Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown leading opponent Larry Hogan by a 47 percent to 38 percent margin among likely voters in Maryland.

Political Science Professor and Chair Thomas Schaller was interviewed for the article and said, “people in Maryland, including some Democrats, are bemoaning an uninspired, run-the-clock-out campaign by Brown, who has every structural advantage and needs only to not make any mistakes to win.” He added, “I think voters want to hear more from him than ‘third O’Malley term.’”

To read the full article titled, “Amid voter anger, Democrats struggle to lock down Northeast governorships,” click here.

Schaller was also quoted in an October 11 Washington Post article about Gov. Martin O’Malley’s approval ratings. To read the full article, click here.

Name: Anil Jangam

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: FutureWei Technologies - Santa Clara, CA

Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Science

Expected Graduation Year: Master Student - December 2014

Briefly describe your internship, co-op, research, or service-learning opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

Internet with its current architecture/design, is becoming insufficient to cope up with the ever increasing bandwidth demands. As per the Moor's law, the computing and storage capability is increasing faster than the evolution of the core network. The increasing use of smart phones is also putting additional load onto the network. I could study some of these network related challenges to a greater detail, and the approaches research and engineering communities are devising to meet these demands. As an intern, I got the opportunity to work with a team of researchers at FutureWei, on a project in systems and algorithmic research in content delivery network architectures. The project involves using and extending existing open source tools to specify and prototype storage and distribution of content over a LAN-wide and in particular, how to distribute video streams.

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

Since I knew my requirements, I searched for the people and companies on Linkedin who were working in the area of my interests. After shortlisting, I wrote the email to each individual with my resumes, and followed each one of them for sometime before getting a call for further discussion. Overall it took about two months to get an offer letter.

Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience?

Career Center, LinkedIn

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

Learning the problems through existing work being done in form of research papers, brainstorming and discussions, and eventually developing the systems to demonstrate the problem itself and the solutions. Enjoyed most on developing prototypes using various different opensource tools with corss platform deployments. Enjoyed coding in Java, C++ etc.

What have you gained from your experience that you could not have gained from another opportunity?

Research experience! FutureWei being a US R&D center of Huwwei, focuses mainly on researching the problems and proposing the solutions to them. Currently I am also in the process of documenting and publishing the work being done at a IEEE research conference. We are going to submit our work in form of a research paper.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

Having worked in an industry on live projects before coming for full-time MS studies, I knew what I wanted to do. The same experience also helped me land an internship at FutureWei precisely in the domain area I wanted to be in. I certainly recommend to everyone to know your goals ahead of time and I would say, half the battle is already won! It's a win-win situation for both student, and the employer.

Please provide a short quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / the internship placement process.

Follow your passion, be consistent and you will be all right!

One of the things that makes UMBC great is how wonderful our alumni, students, faculty, and staff are. Because of these amazing people, UMBC often finds itself “in the news,” so each week, we’ll be sharing with you a round-up of the most newsworthy achievements from our community.

• Scott Casper, CAHSS Dean, in Talking Points Memo
• George Derek Musgrove ’97, History, on WAMU’s Metro Connection
• Sunil Dasgupta, Political Science, Discusses Asian Military Modernization in Security Watch
• New York Times Suggests Silicon Valley Recruit Tech Talent From Universities Like UMBC

Read more at UMBC Insights!

Name: Drew Ballantine ‘14, information systems
Employer: Berkshire Associates Inc.

Have a story to share? Tell us about it.

Name: Drew Ballantine ‘14, information systems
Employer: Berkshire Associates Inc.

Q: Where are you from originally?
Glen Burnie, MD

Q: What’s your favorite UMBC memory?
Sledding with other members in the Pep Band in Hartford

Q: Why do you think it’s important to support UMBC?
I think it’s important to support UMBC because it’s a great school. It provides a lot of different opportunities for us, both in majors and extracurricular activities. It pushes us to really define ourselves and discover who we really are. And we should give back so that it can continue to do so to the younger generations.

Q: Do you have a favorite hobby or pastime?
My favorite hobby is to play the drums.

Q: If stuck on a desert island with a CD player and only one CD, which CD would that be?
They’re Only Chasing Safety by Underoath.

Have a story to share? Tell us about it.