As part of Earth Week at UMBC, Dr. Robert K. Musil will present a talk on his book Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America’s Environment  (Rutgers University Press, 2014). Dr. Musil is president of the Rachel Carson Council, senior fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, American University, and former CEO of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

In the book, Dr. Musil tells the story of Rachel Carson, who is credited with advancing the global environment movement. The following description of the book is posted on its website: “In Rachel Carson and Her Sisters, Robert K. Musil redefines the achievements and legacy of environmental pioneer and scientist Rachel Carson, linking her work to a wide network of American women activists and writers and introducing her to a new, contemporary audience. Rachel Carson was the first American to combine two longstanding, but separate strands of American environmentalism—the love of nature and a concern for human health. Widely known for her 1962 best-seller, Silent Spring, Carson is today often perceived as a solitary ‘great woman,’ whose work single-handedly launched a modern environmental movement.”

The event is sponsored by several groups on campus, including The College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, The College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Biological Sciences Department, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, Education Department, Gender and Women’s Studies Department, Geography and Environmental Systems Department, History Department, Honors College, Interdisciplinary Studies Program, Sustainability Matters, and Women in Science and Engineering Group.

On April 16, Anna Shields, associate professor of Chinese, will present a talk on her new book One Who Knows Me: Friendship and Literary Culture in Mid-Tang China  (Harvard University Press, 2015). In the book, Shields shares her research on the friendship among writers in the mid-Tang era (780s-820s). According to the book’s website, Shields found that “their texts reveal the ways that friendship intersected the public and private realms of experience and, in the process, reshaped both.”

Professor Shields is the author of another book on medieval Chinese literature: Crafting a Collection: The Cultural Contexts and Poetic Practice of the Collection from among the Flowers (Huajian ji) (Harvard University Asia Center, 2006). She has also written several articles on Tang and Five Dynasties literary writing. She is currently working on a new book project on Five Dynasties and Northern Song representations of Tang dynasty literary culture.

The talk is scheduled for Thursday, April 16 from 12 -1 p.m. in the LC Asian Division Reading Room Foyer – LJ 150. For more information on the book, click here.

Posted Saturday, April 11th, 2015
Dr. Rick Forno, CSEE’s Cybersecurity Graduate Program Director, was a presenter at the inaugural BSides Charm City technical security conference held at Howard County Community College in Columbia, MD over the weekend of 11-12 April 2015. His talk described what is needed to develop and operate viable high school and college student cyber-competition teams and framed around what he called the ‘POTS process’ — People, Organization, Technology, and Sustainability. 

Several lessons learned from his four years overseeing the Maryland Cyber Challenge (MDC3) served as the basis for his presentation remarks, including the need to foster greater diversity and acceptance within cyber-competition teams — and by extension, the cybersecurity industry itself.

Handel Choir of Baltimore seeks a production technician and helper the week of April 20 for daytime and evening moving and production work for a choral-orchestral concert Saturday April 25.

Pay is hourly and all truck rental and truck-related expenses are paid up front by HCB or are reimbursed.

Handel Choir needs volunteers to help us set up for our Saturday, April 25 concert, Distant Bells http://www.handelchoir.org/.

Volunteers receive a FREE standard ticket ($37 value) for the performance and may take a seat at approximately 7:30 p.m. for the 8 p.m. performance.