The Language, Literacy, and Culture Program is pleased to announce that Xixellonje Nebihu of LLC Cohort 26 successfully and skillfully presented her dissertation research proposal on May 19, 2026.

Xixa's project is titled, Teaching for Peace Through Language: Educators’ Understandings, Practices, and Institutional Contexts.  After her presentation, Xixa 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 Xixa consider some key issues as she moves forward into the research and writing.

Many thanks to Xixa's committee members:

Co-Chairs:   

            Francis Hult, Education

            Thania Munoz, Modern Languages, Linguistics and Intercultural Communication

 Members:   

            Ramon Goings, Language, Literacy, and Culture

            Joby Taylor, Shriver Center

            Nancy Tarawhiti, Brigham Young University

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

The Bookstore's Summer Hours have begun! 

Monday–Friday: 8 AM to 4 PM

Saturday/Sunday: CLOSED

Visit: bookstore.umbc.edu for information on special weekend events and Team Store hours!

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The terminal leave rate for FY2027 is 0.876%. This is effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027.

See the Leave Payout Rate Guidance webpage for explanations, relevant dates, details, and FAQs.

Good morning,

We are aware that some employees are experiencing intermittent issues when trying to access or submit the new Alternative Work Arrangement (AWA) form in PeopleSoft HR.

Our technical team is actively working on a fix. We appreciate your patience and will send a follow-up announcement as soon as the system is fully restored.

The Language, Literacy, and Culture Program is pleased to announce that Gina Lewis of LLC Cohort 25 successfully and skillfully presented her dissertation research proposal on May 12, 2026.

Gina's project is titled, Liberation Aesthetics and the Infrastructure of Memory: Resistance, Resilience, and Persistence in a Descendant-Led Public History of Kenner, Louisiana.  The presentation was followed by an in-depth discussion between Gina and the committee regarding the project's evolution.  The committee agreed that the project is worthy of doctoral research and provided constructive feedback as Gina moves forward into the research and writing.

Many thanks to Gina's committee members:

Chair:   

            Denise Meringolo, History

Members:

            Craig Saper, Language, Literacy, and Culture

            Melissa Blair, History

            Cheryl J. LaRoche, University of Maryland, College Park

            Diane Kuthy, Towson University

 Please join us in congratulatingGina on reaching this significant milestone!

By Ashwathi Menon, Bioinformatics & Public Health Major, Student Staff Member

The first thing that comes into play is performance.

The jewelry. The eyeliner so sharp that it can be seen from the last row. The well-rehearsed smile remains unshaken under the lights of the stage. My South Asian heritage comes into our lives through performance—through the vibrancy and color of the thematic films, through dance, and through the celebrated aesthetics.

However, for us, in the South Asian diaspora, culture goes beyond performance.

It is memory. It is an inheritance. It is a translation. It is survival.

During APIDA Heritage Month, there is one question that loops me more than others: how often does culture become something to consume before it is even understood as something normative to society? How can people be impressed by the beauty of South Asian culture without understanding much of the life, struggle, and history that lies beneath it?

Sometimes, being a South Asian woman raised in a Western society means negotiating these two things every day.

Bharatanatyam is a classical dance from Southern India, characterized by storytelling using the language of dance, rhythm, and expression. The hand gestures, called mudras, form an entire language on their own. A single movement can symbolize a flower, rain, heartbreak, prayer, or power. The eyes shift deliberately. The posture remains grounded and strong through aramandi, the half-seated position that forms the foundation of the dance. The face carries emotion just as much as the body does.

In Bharatanatyam, you do not simply dance. You communicate.

The drishti bhedas, the controlled eye movements, require directness. The mudras ask your hands to speak confidently before your voice ever does. The entire form teaches you to take up space physically and emotionally without apologizing for it.

I think that mattered to me long before I had the words to explain why.

The nature of diasporic communities is inherently complex. You were raised with a profound understanding of your homeland, knowing that it exists and yet feeling distant from it. Your traditions have been taught to you secondhand, filtered through generations of parents, language, culture, and customs.

Some days, I feel deeply rooted in my culture. Other days, I feel like I am constantly trying to prove my authenticity, not only to others but also to myself.

Too American in some spaces. Too Indian in others.

I imagine many APIDA students understand this feeling all too well: the struggle of protecting your culture while constantly adapting- the exhaustion of translating yourself so others can comprehend better. It’s a feeling that’s familiar in your day-to-day environments, from classes to leadership positions to informal social gatherings.

Growing up, I’ve repeatedly seen people perceive South Asian women as their projections until they actually get to know us, the studious model minority. The accomplishments are noticed before we are. But life, and especially identity, is far more complicated than this.

Dancing was one of the few things where I ceased to feel pressure. Not because it solved all the conflicts inside me, but because it let me exist amidst them. Bharatanatyam made me realize that strength and grace did not negate each other, that rigor and emotion could coexist, that being visible could be both vulnerable and invigorating.

And perhaps that is why dancing holds such personal significance for me.

Not because of the act of performance itself, but for everything else it represents: continuation, preservation, the refusal to silently vanish.

Especially now, in APIDA Heritage Month, I consider how many children of immigrants go through life translating themselves for everyone else. Softening names. Bringing light to cultural practices. Adapting oneself to be easy to comprehend, bringing centuries’ worth of history into spaces never designed to accommodate it.

But with dance, there is no need for translation. My body just gets it.

Under vivid stage lights, my hands move instinctively through mudras, reflections of the younger version of myself who practiced relentlessly for years. My eyes meet the audience with confidence.

I am finally whole.

The Language, Literacy, and Culture Program is pleased to announce that Carole Njoroge of LLC Cohort 26 successfully and skillfully presented her dissertation research proposal on May 13, 2026.

Carole's project is titled, Beyond the Broadcast: Reimagining Media’s Role in Kenya’s Maternity Health Policy.  After her presentation, Carole 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 Carole consider some key issues as she moves forward into the research and writing.

Many thanks to Carole's committee members:

Co-Chairs:

           Nicole Morse, Language, Literacy, and Culture

           Jason Loviglio, Media and Communication Studies

 Members:   

           Tanya Saunders, Language, Literacy, and Culture

           Tracy Tinga, Media and Communication Studies

           Jun Chu, Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health

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

The following students were honored at the Psychology Undergraduate Recognition Ceremony on May 13th. Congratulations on your accomplishments!

Achievement Award Winners

• Vunnathi Ankem 
• Naomi Aruna
• Raegan Carmona
• Aum Chordia
• Charlotte Lane
• Jay Leveton
• Magaly Lizama Hernandez
• Aidan MacGloan
• Aastha Patel
• Ipsa Sindhwani
• Anelsy Valencia
• Julia Williman

Graduating Writing Fellows

• Maimuna Barrie
• Bebe Obinwa
• Samantha Fu
• Thelma Osuchukwu
• Danielle Rizzo*
• Amal Imtiaz
• O’Dalis Escobar-Durante
• Graduating Peer Mentors
• Ipsa Sindhwani
• Jay Leveton
• Aum Chordia
• Adam Levin
• Kaitlyn Saavedra

Honors Thesis completion

• Ipsa Sindhwani, mentor: Mirela Cengher
• Aum Chordia, mentor: Raimi Quiton
• Marie Abongwa, mentor: Raimi Quiton
• Jay Leveton (Fall 2025), mentor: Christopher Murphy
• Danielle Rizzon (Fall 2025), mentor: Christopher Murphy

It was around five o’clock on a Wednesday in May, and Michelle Jabès Corpora ’03, English and theatre, was on her sofa watching her favorite British murder mystery on TV. It had been a long shot to think her newest book, His Face Is the Sun, would hit the New York Times (NYT) bestsellers list, and since she hadn’t heard anything and it was getting late, she figured it wasn’t meant to be. 

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Suddenly, she looked down at her phone to see a FaceTime call from five different numbers—most of which she didn’t recognize. She quickly answered and saw her agent, editor, assistant editor, and publicists in the group of smiling faces before hearing the four words every author dreams of hearing: “You’re on the list!”

“I just started crying,” recalls Corpora. “I couldn’t believe it.” 

His Face Is the Sun stayed on the NYT Bestsellers Young Adult Hardcover list for five weeks, which the author says was “absolutely unbelievable.”

Where it all began

Corpora’s journey to becoming a NYTbestselling author was not a straight line—far from it. Corpora initially came to UMBC as a Linehan Artist Scholar to study theatre. Because she’d always been passionate about writing and literature, however, she added English as a second major to supplement her studies.

“Learning about drama helped significantly with my approach to character, plot, and pacing,” says Corpora. After UMBC, Corpora earned a master’s degree in Children’s Literature from Hollins University. Then, a few more twists and turns. Among other jobs, Corpora worked as a wedding singer, as a technician in a veterinarian’s office, and volunteered at a wildlife rehabilitation center before taking a big career leap and moving to New York City to try and get a job in children’s publishing.

Pictured left: Corpora as ‘Cleo’ AKA Fraulein Kost in a 2001 UMBC Theatre production of Cabaret.

New York state of mind

One catch: Corpora didn’t have a full-time job lined up. All she had were two unpaid summer internships at children’s publishing houses. 

“It was a real gamble,” says Corpora, “but I feel like my entire career has been a series of gambles, and they always seem to work out well.”

Corpora landed an editorial assistant position at Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she had the opportunity to work on books by legendary authors like Kevin Henkes and Sid Fleischman, among many others. Then came her own children and another career pivot. With the birth of her daughter, Corpora moved into book packaging services.

“Book packaging is an interesting, mostly unknown side of the publishing industry where groups of writers work as a team to create concepts for series fiction,” says Corpora. “The transition was challenging because you really have to let go of ownership over your ideas, and you have to be creative in a collaborative way, which doesn’t come naturally to most people at first.”

Despite the learning curve, Corpora admits that her work as a concept creator really helped her grow as a writer, as she was coming up with ideas, developing them, and also editing manuscripts. “It made me into a jack of all trades,” she says.  

From ghostwriting to ghosts

In 2015, Corpora got her first publishing opportunity after winning an audition to be a ghostwriter for a long-running middle-grade mystery series, eventually writing five books in the series. It wasn’t until 2021, however, that Corpora would see her name on one of her creations. Her next four books, all bearing the name Michelle Jabes Corpora on the cover, were what are known as work-for-hire projects.

“These are usually projects that you audition for,” explains Corpora. “It’s not ghostwriting because your name goes on the books, but usually the publisher has a concept for a book or series they want on their list, and they hire a writer to develop and write that project for them.”

This was the process for her two middle-grade historical fiction novels, The Fog of Warand The Dust Bowl, as well as her young adult horror duology, Holly Horror, which was created in partnership with the owners of the classic character, Holly Hobbie.

Each step in Corpora’s journey built her foundation as a writer. But at that point, her agent knew she was ready for more.

“She’d seen me grow through all of this, was basically like, ‘It’s time for you to stop auditioning and ghostwriting and start writing your story—something that’s meaningful to you and that’s yours,’” recalls Corpora.

Finding her story 

In 2023, Corpora took her next big gamble: creating not only her own original series, but writing something she’d never tried her hand at before. Epic fantasy. 

“It felt like a big leap of faith at the time. I still had two young daughters, a part-time job, and a very busy life,” says Corpora, “and I was planning to put a lot of hours into a project that might never sell. But once the idea was born, I knew there was no going back.”

The Throne of Khetara series, born from that fateful conversation with her editor, is an Ancient Egyptian-inspired trilogy about a kingdom in turmoil, a forgotten oracle, and four unlikely heroes: a princess, a priestess, a rebel, and a thief.

“My parents and three of my grandparents were immigrants born in Egypt,” says Corpora. “So I grew up hearing stories about Egypt, and became fascinated by Ancient Egyptian history from a very young age.” 

Corpora describes the series as “Ancient Egyptian Game of Thrones for young adults,” and is told from the perspectives of the four main characters.

“That seemed to really resonate strongly with people,” says Corpora, who wanted to showcase the different perspectives in ancient Egypt, including the non-royal population who were most affected by war and conquest.

The trilogy was picked up by Sourcebooks Fire and is currently being published in nine territories so far, including the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Hungary, and Greece. It has also won numerous distinctions, including being on the list of YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults in 2026. 

“It’s been a long and winding road to get here,” says Corpora. “But I’ll always remember UMBC as a place that allows people to find their way in the world, even if your journey might take you off the beaten path.”

Pictured right: Corpora, a New York Times bestseller, at a book signing event at The Strand Book Store in New York City.

Greetings, WFNers! It is that time of year again, when those of us going up for promotion and/or tenure are getting our materials together and drafting our statements. We'd love to help!

Please email Kate at drabinsk@umbc.edu if you would like to have access to our database of self assessments written by faculty at every stage of promotion and tenure, whether on the tenure or lecturer track.

Also, if you have recently gone up for promotion or tenure and are willing to share your statement with others, please email it to Kate to add to our database.

Finally, let us know if you would like to be paired up with a reader for direct feedback. We pair up folks who are at the level you are aiming for, and it can be really helpful to have a pair of eyes that doesn't know a lot about your field, as committees are often diverse. Let us let you know what makes sense to a smart but general reader! We'll circle back near the end of the summer to make sure everyone gets the readers they need.

Happy summer from the Women's Faculty Network!