Hey  everyone,

Just a couple of reminders. As always, there is a mission this Thursday, at 7pm in Lecture Hall 2. Also, next Monday, April 9th at 7pm in Lecture Hall 2 we will be having a special Mission that will be Hunger Games themed in collaboration with Phi Beta Sigma. If you plan on attending this, be sure to bring equipment that you don't mind others handling (we would help make sure that the equipment is well-marked, if you want it back). For this mission, you will be asked to forfeit your weapons at the beginning. We will be running the rough version of this game this Thursday, so prepare accordingly. 

Any players who we have not heard from regarding Penn State have been emailed. If you have not been assigned a vehicle, or if you have not been contacted about driving others up, an email has been sent to your UMBC email, so be sure to check that.

Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, recently returned from Belgrade, Serbia, where she spoke on her book “Art and Psyche.”  The book was recently translated to Serbian.

While in Belgrade, Spitz lectured at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade; the Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad; the Institute for Mental Health, Belgrade; and Kolarac Hall.  The themes of her discussion were art and psychoanalysis, and children, space, and imagination.

Stories about Spitz’s visit appeared in the Serbian press both before and after her visit.  An example of a story can be seen here.

gch:

Tonight’s the night we’re takin’ over NBC! We’re hitting the stage on The Voice first to perform “Ass Back Home” with Neon Hitch at at 9/8c. Then we’re heading over to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to perform “The Fighter” with Ryan Tedder at 11:35/10:35c. Think they’ll do us a solid and rename the network GCH for the night? Kidding!

Madeline Hall ’12, geography and environmental systems, is featured in the documentary Circus Dreams, which will air on Maryland Public Television on April 9 at 10 p.m.

Circus Dreams documents a year in the life of Circus Smirkus, one of the best traveling youth circuses in the world. The film immerses viewers into the lives of the 12 to 18 year old performers, capturing their intense work ethic, passion for performance, deep friendships and budding loves.

Hall performed in the circus for two summers, after having spent the previous seven summers at the circus’s summer camp. Since 2005, she has also performed at the Maryland Reniassance Festival. A video of Hall discussing her time with the circus can be seen here.

The March issue of Birding features the work of Kevin Omland, an associate professor of biology.

The author, Paul Hess writes that, Omland and his colleagues, “take an opposite view from several papers that recommend splitting the Common Raven into two species.”

The new study demonstrates a need for multiple criteria — not only genetic, but also morphological, behavioral and ecological to judge whether a population deserves full-species status.

The Baltimore Sun and the Washington Times covered the UMBC chess team this week as they competed in the 2012 President’s Cup.

The team tied with the University of Texas at Dallas for second place, behind Texas Tech and ahead of New York University. The competition, known informally as the Final Four, was held March 30 to April 1 in Herndon, Va., at the Westin Dulles Hotel.

Teams qualified for the match back in December, during the 2011 Pan-Am Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. In that match UMBC came in second, ahead of Texas Tech and New York University and behind the University of Texas at Dallas. All four teams advanced to the Final Four. In that event, UMBC and UTD both earned 7.5 points, with Texas Tech scoring 8 and NYU 1.

Constantine Vaporis, professor of history and director of the Asian studies program, will participate in a panel disccusion at the Freer Gallery on Saturday, May 5 as part of the “articulations” series.  The purpose of the series is to “broaden… perspectives on art and culture through conversations from multiple viewpoints.”

The topic of conversation will be “Visual Culture and Social Upheaval: Imaging Change in Late Edo Period Japan.”  The panelists will explore the intersection of pop culture and spiritual concerns in late Edo society with leading scholars. Attendees will discover the reasons behind the acclaim for Kano Kazunobu’s phantasmagoric paintings of Buddha’s legendary disciples and Katsushika Hokusai’s famous print series of Mount Fuji, and learn how the popularity of these iconic images endures in contemporary Japan.

In addition to Vaporis, the panel includes:

• James C. Dobbins, Fairchild Professor of Religion at Oberlin College
• Patricia Graham, independent art historian
• Freer|Sackler curators James Ulak and Ann Yonemura

The event will take place on May 5 at 2 p.m. in the gallery’s Meyer auditorium.