A blog post written by student staff member, Sydney.

It’s official! The Women’s Center has a new ongoing event starting this spring semester. What is it you ask?

Pop Culture Pop Ups!

You’re probably wondering, “What the heck is a Pop Culture Pop Up?” Well, that’s what I’m here to explain.

If you frequent the Women’s Center you know that it is often a space for spontaneous discussion with others regarding shared interests (about life, events,  and school to include the awesome, the good, the bad, and the frustrating – and more!). The energy and critical dialogue that comes from these conversations are what make the Women’s Center the Women’s Center and we wanted to nourish more of these moments by carving out time for more intentional dialogue surrounding both fun and serious topics that come up in our daily lives. Hence, the pop up of these Pop Culture Pop Ups.

We envision these pop ups will create a space for anyone who is on campus and wants to discuss an event, movement, hashtag (and more!) that has gotten huge attention or gone viral to come to the Women’s Center and have a brave space to discuss their feelings, reactions, and ideas linked to the topic. Of course, we’ll make sure to talk about how these pop culture moments intersect with gender and women’s issues, feminism, and social justice. Yet, unlike many of the other events that we hold in the Women’s Center, there won’t be a planned agenda, prepared questions, or a panel of experts and practitioners to guide the conversation.

Essentially, our plan is to take the conversations we notice people are often having on social media and make them into IRL conversations! We may do a bit of background research or read an article that shows up on our Facebook, but this is really a space for raw, immediate reactions to what it happening in a fun and thoughtful way with other people on want to engage in a conversation around the same topic.  That’s why our Pop Ups won’t come with a “save the date.” While they will be held on Wednesdays at free hour, they will be spur of the moment decisions (get it, Pop Ups?) in reaction to an event. This means we we could decide to have one the Sunday before or Tuesday night so check our social media for updates!

Some of you may still be confused about what it is we’d talk about or what is considered pop culture, and the ambiguity is kind of the beauty of it (it can really be anything), but it may help to have an example.

A Pop Up we would have loved to have, but unfortunately weren’t able to because of winter break was all things Golden Globes. From the second I heard about #TimesUp and the #whywewearblack Black Out/ Protest, I was hooked and invested. This is something I wanted to discuss and dissect with others. Who was involved in the decision? Did everyone wear black? What is the point? These would all be questions that would definitely come up in a Pop Up.

Hollywood showed up in black this year at the Golden Globes.       Photo Credits: Getty/WireImage

If you watched the show, or saw any of the coverage after the fact, you’d know that almost everyone did indeed wear black, but you also would have seen the backlash about why this form of protest just wasn’t good enough. Wearing black isn’t that hard-especially for men, said some while others said that a better idea would be to protest the event all together. Not only did the dress-code come under fire, but so did the men (and some women) who showed up wearing black and the Times Up pin. What about the actors and actresses that are wearing black but work with Woody Allen or other stars that are being held accountable? What does wearing black do when you’re still silent about sexual violence and believing survivors in your daily life as well as career? I know these questions flew around my head and basically everyone’s on the internet. I wish we could have had a Pop-Up to really reflect on how we were feeling post black-out. I still don’t know how I feel about the whole thing. I love the men and women who came out to support, I love that a lot of them made donations and brought activists as their dates, and I love that we’re finally TALKING ABOUT IT…. but I also ask, is it enough? This is why Pop Ups are important. They’ll come together fast, bring us together about current issues, and let us digest these potentially confusing emotions and reactions.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

While the Blackout is something that could take up a whole Pop Up on its own there was another highlight of the night that we would have LOVED to talk about. You guessed it folks — OPRAH!

Me listening to Oprah’s speech!

Oprah Winfrey accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement (the first Black woman to do so) and delivered a speech that BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN. She discussed growing up and representation in the media, people who took a chance on her and how that led to success in her career, her value of the press and the pursuit of the truth, the sexual violence in the entertainment industry and beyond, and the women who are speaking up.

It was moving, brought tears to my eyes, had me fist-pumping, and cheering her on (I encourage you to watch it here). I wish I would have had the chance to see how others felt in person rather than on Facebook and tumblr, especially with so many mixed feelings surrounding the activism at the Golden Globes. Not only could we have discussed this epic speech, but we could also unpack the public’s call for a presidential run and what that really means. Should Oprah run? Some say HELL YEAH, others think she’s just another billionaire and we should support other Black women who are already in politics, while others are saying no more to celebrity presidents. There’s a lot more to unpack here in terms of politics, who we support, and how the institution (both Hollywood and politics) may be changing.

Discussions about how we feel in the present as well as how we move forward in the future about this moments in time are important to have and that’s why the Women’s Center will be bringing you these Pop Culture Pop Up moments.

To stay informed about when Pop-Ups will happen make sure to follow us on myUMBC, Facebook and Twitter. Also follow us on Snapchat (@womencenterumbc) where we will be posting more about daily happenings in the Women’s Center.

If there’s something that comes up over the next semester you want to talk about, be sure to let the Women’s Center staff know (you can also use the hashtag #WCPopUp). It just may become the next Pop Culture Pop-Up! 

For more on the Blackout:

On why it’s about more than a dress

On what it means for designers

For more on Times Up:

On the Time’s Up Movement

On how #METOO and Time’s Up relate

For more on Oprah’s Speech:

On Black women being the “clean up” crew for America- and why that’s a problem

On the “missed point” of the speech

“SEEQ Instructor Profiles by Mean” or Median report, provides the SEEQ survey results by Class and Instructor for a given term. Data can be queried by Organization, Subject, Course, Section and Instructor. This REX report mirrors the data in the Blue Instructor Report, but data are presented in a more compact format that prints more efficiently.  PDFs of the Means reports are publicly available on the IRADS website at https://oir.umbc.edu/university-data/sceq-profiles/.

The “SEEQ Instructor Data Over Time” report displays the results of the ‘Overall’ section of the SEEQ survey for an Instructor, which includes questions 30, 31 and 32.  Data can be queried by Begin Term and Instructor to Review.  Data are reported for each course section taught by the instructor from the Begin Term to the most recent term available and compare the instructor mean on the three items with the Org, UMBC and Course Level means.  This report may be useful for P&T review.

All three reports can be accessed by going to rex.umbc.edu, clicking on ‘Guided Reports’, and then navigating to the Census Data > Student Course Evaluations > SEEQ  folder.

Sarah Miller

INDS Capstone
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Fine Arts 002
10:00 – 11:15 a.m.

For Sarah's capstone she spent several months abroad researching this question: "How can I use collaborative photography as a fieldwork research method to investigate the social roles fulfilled by women participating in low income housing movements and projects in Rio de Janeiro?"

The Ninth International Conference on the Applications of Digital Information and Web Technologies (ICADIWT 2018)

Through a University System of Maryland partnership, DoIT has offered online training to UMBC full-time and part-time faculty via the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) over several years. UMBC remains a member of the Online Learning Consortium, but the partnership providing access to a large number of workshop seats is ending.

The OLC workshop format utilizes proven teaching strategies and learning activities while modeling best practices for online and hybrid learning. Participants engage with experienced instructors and collaborate with peers via synchronous (live) and asynchronous environments. Workshops are delivered online over 3-7 days. Faculty can take workshops through the end of the year, but registration must be completed by February 23, 2018. We have 100 seats remaining.

The following list identifies workshops and when they will be offered each semester. The workshop descriptions are linked in titles with the dates. If more than one date is available, it will be listed at the bottom of the description page.

Additionally, OLC offers three self-paced workshops with 365-days of access.

• Strategies for Increasing Interaction & Engagement 
• Giving Effective Feedback 
• ADA & Web Accessibility 

Finally, faculty who complete all four of OLC workshops on the topic of Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning in 2018 may receive a digital credential from OLC. The specific workshops are: 

• Fundamentals: ADA & Web Accessibility 
• Designing with Accessibility in Mind 
• Strategic Planning for Web Accessibility
• Applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Principles to Online Courses to Increase Accessibility and Engagement 

To register for a workshop, please open an RT ticket. Be sure to include the name of the workshop you would like to attend and the date(s). Instructional technology staff will assist with your registration, answer any questions you may have about the experience, etc. Please request your registration by Friday, February 23, 2018.