Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American Studies, and Michelle Scott, associate professor of history, were guests on the “Marc Steiner Show” on Monday to discuss the case of Trayvon Martin, a young African American man who was killed by a neighborhood watchman in February.

The conversation turned to the role and perception of black men in society, and Moffitt related the incident to her worries for her own son.

 “There has been a study done that shows that, really interestingly, for young, African-descended boys in this country, around the age of 8 or 9 there’s a shift that happens where we no longer see them as these cute little boys, running around, having fun and enjoying life, but that they then become a threat and seen as a danger to society. So when I think of my 7 year old who is about to turn 8, that becomes a concern as to how people will relate to him,” she said.

Scott related the way black men are seen to the legacy of slavery in America. “You still have the victimized black body, and still that legacy and history, just in the twenty-first century.” She said.

The full interview can be heard here.

Lindsey Loeper ’04, American studies, acknowledges the futility of trying to keep pace with the hands of the watch and the rapidly turning pages of the calendar. No matter how quickly she and other members of the Special Collections team archive the stacks of UMBC documents they receive every day, there are always more coming. History never stops happening at a university that’s still building its story.

“We’re often asked when we’ll have everything digitized and we never will,” smiles Loeper, who earned her master’s of library sciences at College Park. “Instead, we try to create an online record that can lead you back [to the library], into the stacks.”

Already, the cool, darkened aisles contain 250 shelves stacked with nearly 750 linear feet of physical records, all neatly arranged in gray boxes. Add to that the online digital archives – launched in 2008 to make UMBC’s earliest documents, including many issues of The Retriever Weekly, easily available to the public – and you’re talking years and years of history waiting to be explored…

Read the full story, including features on other “Cool Jobs You Didn’t Know Existed at UMBC” in the Winter 2012 of UMBC Magazine.

Web Extra: Lindsey Loeper

Photo courtesy of Beyond Hollywood

• The Hunger Games made a killing at the box office, taking in $152.5 million, making it the third best opening weekend of all time, as well as the best for a non-sequel. This indicates that this will be a huge franchise for years to come and that audiences are into a strong heroine who isn’t sexualized.

• UPDATE: We blogged at the beginning of the month about the MPAA’s refusal to rate the documentary Bully lower than an R for using the F-word. Well, studio head Harvey Weinstein and director Lee Hirsch have decided to release the doc unrated. This refusal to operate within the MPAA system might mean that more will see it without being turned off by the R, or that no one will see it because unrated films can be treated more harshly than NC-17 rated films. Hopefully for Hirsch and Weinstein, the intended audience will be able to see the documentary.

• And for fun, a random, very recently released trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, not to be confused with the Spielberg-directed Lincoln also due out this year.  AL: VH is a very self-explanatory, very history revisionist movie based on a New York Times bestselling novel and will be released June 22.

Did you like The Hunger Games? What do you think about the MPAA’s rating of Bully? Do you think Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter looks ridiculously awesome or ridiculously stupid?

Hunger Games making you hungry for more Potter? Here are all our flyers for our A Very Potter Musical Party! Come hang out, watch the musical, eat Ron’s favorite foods, and play some trivia for prizes!

April 3rd at 8pm in The Skylight Room!

Rising sophomore, junior, and senior undergraduate students interested in cognitive radios and wireless networking might want to take a look at Virginia Tech’s Cognitive Communications Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU).

This summer, the program will enlist ten undergraduate students for a nine-week research program that explores problems related to software defined radios, cognitive radios, wireless networks, wireless communication circuits, and human factors engineering in communications. Students will be mentored by Virginia Tech faculty members, and will participate in weekly research meetings and informal brown-bag lunches to discuss research progress.

Each student will be awarded a $4,500 stipend, a housing and food allowance up to $2,000, and travel assistance up to $600. Eligible undergraduates must be majoring in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or computer science, and hold an overall G.P.A. of 3.0. All applicants must be U.S. citizens, and minorities, women, handicapped students, and students from schools without undergraduate research opportunities are especially encouraged to apply.

Application Deadline: Friday, April 13, 2012

To apply for the program, click here.

For more information, click here.

Tickets for The Hunger Games Private Screening on April 12th go on sale Tomorrow/Wednesday/March 28th!

We’ll be shuttling people to the theater starting at 9pm, and shuttling people back after the movie ends!