If you are a Graduate Student at UMBC, and if you are working on your  graduate school courses, proposal, or dissertation, then this event is for you!

The on-campus setting provides Dissertation House participants with productive and rewarding scholastic engagement. Students who participate in this program will spend each day thinking, writing, and sharing ideas about their doctoral dissertations. Students will learn effective time-management skills; learn how to set small manageable goals, and will meet with a dissertation coach in one-on-one consultations to discuss and address obstacles that might prevent them completing their degrees.

This is a weekday (9 a.m. – 5 p.m., non-residential) commitment set for the week of Tuesday, January 17 – Friday, January 20, 2012.

This information and other details about the Dissertation House can be found on: http://www.thedissertationhouse.com

Seats are limited. Students who are closest to finishing their doctoral dissertations (graduating with PhDs in 2012) will receive priority.  Priority will be assigned in this order: earliest defense dates (January – April 2012 dates), May 2012 graduation, Summer 2012 graduation, December 2012 graduation.  After we fill seats with our 2012 prospective graduates, we will review applications for additional slots. You must officially apply:  http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/.  This information is mirrored: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/9573

The English Alumni Association of Ravenshaw University in Cuttack, India, has invited Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, to give the first annual alumni lecture on January 8, 2012.  Spitz will also give the keynote address at the International Seminar on Children’s Literature and Politics, which will be held at the university January 9-10, 2012.

The Alumni Lecture and the seminar are expected to attract many distinguished alumni, including lawmakers from the Indian Parliament, writers, judges in the Supreme Court of India, the Chief Information Commissioner of India, civil servants, and academics.

In addition to these lectures, Spitz will also meet with Indian school children.

artweek:

Today was our polaroid promo for (mini) Art Week and it was awesome! Thanks to everyone tho came out and got their photo taken. You can view the photos individually at the facebook album, and tag yourself and your friends!!

Today, Texas Governor Rick Perry released a new campaign ad aimed at courting a particularly elusive segment of the voting population: the Religious Right.

In his typical ham-handed fashion, Governor Carhartt von Everyman establishes in just 30 seconds that:

• He’s a Christian.
• He’s not afraid to admit that he’s a Christian.
• Gay people can serve in the military.
• Children can’t openly celebrate Christmas.
• Children can’t pray in school.
• President Obama is waging war on religion.
• Liberals are attacking our religious heritage.
• We have a religious heritage.

Wait, what? Is this just a series of random thoughts? Rick riffs on religion? Let’s unpack this a little.

Obviously any serious candidate for the Republican nomination is going to be a Christian (except for Romney, depending on whom you ask), so it makes sense that he says it up front. Let the values voters know they’re dealing with a serious god-fearing man.

But then he decided while he was in the neighborhood, to cover some hot topics like Gays “endangering” the integrity of the military, the “War”on Christmas, and the heathen liberal assault on Christianity.

All this is red meat for the religious right.

But cold turkey for most everyone else.

President Obama’s waging a war on religion? Is this because he admitted–out loud–that there are secular people in this country and that they’re Americans, too?

The ad makes clear where Perry stands on the debatable assertion that America is a “Christian” nation (good luck with those Jewish voters).

But it is worth pointing out that children can, in fact, pray in school. Teachers cannot lead prayer and public schools cannot sponsor religious events but individual students are perfectly within their rights to bow their heads before eating or invoke whatever god they choose before a big exam.

For more info, check out Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963). Also, the “Lemon Test.”

With Perry’s new religious relaunch of his campaign it would be tempting to offer the Governor a “Happy Winter Holidays!” but his poll numbers suggest that he may not have much to be happy about in the weeks ahead.