The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) seeks a Museum Store Assistant Manager, responsible for the overall operations, merchandising, and inventory of the MCHC Museum Store, as well as assistance in performing functions of the Visitor Experience Department. The Museum Store Assistant Manager offers a high level of customer service to the MCHC’s members, visitors, volunteers, and staff by providing a positive shopping experience both in person and online, maintaining a well-curated store presence. This position has key responsibilities for security functions, including opening and closing of the buildings, and monitoring the safety and security of the facilities and reports to the Visitor Experience Manager.

The BMA’s Advancement Department is seeking a Fall Intern to assist with all aspects of grant writing. The position will work across departments to learn about priority projects, create draft fundraising proposals, research potential funding opportunities, and report on past gifts and other related topics. The intern will gain experience in how corporate and foundation giving works in a nonprofit organization, as well as learn about the many projects, programs, and goals of the Museum. The position may also work on other department projects, as assigned.

The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Advancement Department is seeking a Fall Intern to assist with all aspects of Membership fulfillment. The intern will work with current and new member groups. They will assist with filing, data tracking, and event preparation to support staff as we prepare for our BMA Ball. The Intern will gain experience in multiple databases and organizational systems. They will be given insight into the day-to-day operations of museum fundraising and building member relationships. The position may also work on other department projects, as assigned.

The high holidays may be later this year (Rosh Hashanah: October 2-4, Yom Kippur: October 11-12), but they are already on our minds as we head into the school year! Our offerings will be based on demand—please let us know whether or not you be around and what you are looking for, either on campus or locally!

The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Registration Department is seeking a Fall Intern to assist with day-to-day aspects of art registration. This work includes cataloguing artwork, records, etc. into our collections database, The Museum System (TMS), and researching extensive object and exhibition files. The Intern will gain experience in TMS, an industry standard collections management system, and be given insight into the day-to-day operations of the Museum; including working closely with other teams throughout the institution such as installation, curatorial, and conservation. The position may also work on other department projects, as assigned.

A two-year award from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) provides grant funding to train 14 clinical psychology doctoral candidates and 10 social work master’s students and their faculty supervisors in delivering integrated, culturally and linguistically competent behavioral health services to children, youth, and young adults in underserved and rural English- and Spanish-speaking communities in Maryland. 

More about Sandra’s work on this project, as well as her other research at UMBC can be found in the Jul 11, 2024 UMBC Stories (https://umbc.edu/stories/barrueco-receives-990k-to-train-graduate-psychology-students-in-behavioral-health-md/). 

The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Education and Interpretation Department is seeking a Fall Intern to assist with all aspects of museum and gallery interpretation. This work includes supporting the department with interpretive resources, maintaining interpretive spaces, and evaluating strategy implementation to ensure visitors are engaging with our galleries and having enriching experiences.

The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Education Department is seeking a Fall Intern to assist with our public programming at the Museum's outpost in Lexington Market. The intern will facilitate artmaking and conversation through drop-in engagement with visitors to our stall. They will encourage dialogue exchanges between adults, children, and intergenerational groups. This role will work closely with staff to support program set-up, attendance, and troubleshooting.

The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Education Department is seeking a Fall Intern to assist with all aspects of tours and special programs. The position will assist with creating and preparing materials for tours and special programs, as well as observing and participating in these events. The Intern will work with various early learning, memory care and Arc programming, prepare materials for a JHU undergraduate course, and create tags for the Art-to-Go teacher resource database.

Christopher K. Tong, an associate professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, has taught Asian studies for years. This fall, Tong brings a fresh perspective to his classes after spending two weeks in Mongolia as part of an award from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) to participate in the Overseas Faculty Development Seminar: Climate Change and Public Health—What Does Climate Change Mean for the People of Mongolia? Tong used this opportunity to advance research for his forthcoming book on the emergence of modern science and ecological consciousness in Asian and Western societies. 

“Despite the grandeur of this country’s history, Mongolia as a modern nation is often understudied in Asian studies. Within China, Mongolians are an ethnic minority struggling to preserve their language and culture,” explains Tong. “Historically, the Mongolian empire stretched from Asia to Europe, so there is intrinsic value to studying Mongolia from a humanistic perspective. It was also interesting to see how present-day Mongolians understand and represent this history, for example, the life and legacy of Genghis Khan.”

CAORC is a private, nonprofit federation of independent overseas research centers that promotes advanced research with an emphasis on the humanities and social sciences, the conservation and recording of cultural heritage, and the understanding and interpretation of modern societies. Tong was one of 44 faculty members from community colleges and minority-serving institutions, like UMBC, placed in one of three seminars that aimed to help faculty and administrators gain first-hand experience needed to develop and improve international courses, curricula, and teaching materials.

Learning from Mongolians

The seminar took place at the American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia. The 14 faculty assigned to the seminar in Mongolia visited Ulaanbaatar; the rural communities at Kharkhorin, the historic capital of the Mongol Empire; Erdene Zuu Monastery—the oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia; and Hustai National Park, home to the rare and endangered Przewalski’s horses. They also gained first-hand knowledge of the impact of hotter days, increasing wildfires, storms, colder winters, and drought on Mongolia’s communities and environment.

“It was an eye-opening experience visiting Mongolia—meeting its people and experiencing the landscape. I have read novels and research about Mongolia,” shares Tong, “but visiting in person enriched my understanding and challenged my preconceptions.” He notes that Mongolia’s unusually cold winter this year wiped out entire herds of livestock, the primary source of income for nomadic families. Meanwhile, the use of low-grade coal for heating in Ulaanbaatar has increased air pollution and negatively impacted public health. “The effects of climate change are particularly noticeable to the people of Mongolia.”

The faculty met local officials, health specialists, climate scientists, and nomadic pastoralists to learn about their country and way of life from them. The scholars also assisted a nomadic family in constructing their ger, a traditional Mongolian yurt. These interactions and collaborations helped Tong better understand the Mongolian people’s perspectives on development and its relationship with China and the U.S. “My experience in Mongolia will inform my research in Asian studies and help me connect with Mongolian Americans back in the U.S.,” says Tong. “I’m very grateful that CAORC and ACMS allowed me to visit Mongolia.”

Bringing Mongolia to the classroom

This transformative experience will also benefit UMBC students. Tong has been teaching a course on China’s ethnic minorities, MLLI 335: Modern China: Culture, Society, and Environment, for many years. “A part of the traditional Mongolian homeland is in present-day China, an autonomous region known as Inner Mongolia,” says Tong. He teaches the novel Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong, which tells the story of a student from Beijing who travels to Inner Mongolia to live among the Mongols in the 1960s. 

“Of course, the country of Mongolia is different from the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia. The field trip made these differences clear,” says Tong, who will develop new course materials on Mongolia as a modern nation and contextualize it within the broader field of Asian studies.

In addition to the CAORC award, Tong received a 2023 – 2024 short-term residential research fellowship from the American Philosophical Society to conduct research at the society’s library and museum in Philadelphia. During this time, Tong researched the history of evolutionary science in the U.S., including the contributions of Asian and African American scientists. He also helped launch UMBC’s new Mellon-funded Global Asias Initiative. The initiative supports rethinking Asian American issues on campus in a global, diasporic, and collaborative framework through community-engaged, public-facing scholarship, and teaching.

These work and research awards, along with a 2021 Early Career Fellowship in China Studies from the American Council of Learned Societies and a 2018 – 2019 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program grant to China, have given Tong the time and resources to contribute new research to the field and new approaches to the teaching and learning of Asian studies.

Learn more about UMBC’s Asian Studies program and the Global Asias Initiative.