On July 13, alumnus George Derek Musgrove ’97, history, and new addition to UMBC’s history faculty, was a guest on the NPR radio show “Tell Me More,” where he spoke with guest host Maria Hinojosa about the history of government investigations into African-American politicians.

Listen to the interview here.

Musgrove is the author of Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics, and spoke of his investigations into the increasing numbers of legal investigations of black elected officials from the 1960s and 1970s onward, or what he calls “harassment ideology.”

“When I sat down to a study of post-Civil Rights Era black politics when I first entered graduate school, I was interested in figuring out what happened when all the marching stopped, what happened when black folks shifted from protests to politics. And as I was going through a bunch of records, I just kept finding black elected officials claiming that the government and the news media was out to get them, that there was literally a conspiracy to undermine black leadership,” he said.

“And so I wanted to look into it. I wanted to understand if, in fact, this was going on. But more than figure out whether or not there was a conspiracy or there was a pattern, I just wanted to figure out what it meant that black folks believed this, even if it wasn’t true. And so the book is a product of trying to answer those two questions.”

This post originally appeared on UMBC Insights.

Ephesians 5:21-6:9 (NIV)

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Reflection:

This passage details how we are to relate to one another in a variety of relationships within a Christian context, but the underlying heart is that we are to be Christian in all our relationships. Because we have received God’s love and mercy, we have this new identity in Christ. We can now relate to others not getting bound by how they view us or even how they might treat us. We are to be Christian in our workplaces, at home, in school, while running errands, and interacting with strangers – in every relationship.

Response:

Let’s ask the Lord to help us to be Christian in all our interactions. Let’s ask the Lord to help us overcome old patterns of relating and to empower us to relate in the new way He’s given to us, and as we live this way, may others come to know the mercy and love of God.

Full details can be found in this press release: http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/umbcnews/2012/07/umbc_announces_nations_first_p_1.html

On July 13, George Derek Musgrove ’97, history, and new addition to UMBC’s history faculty, was a guest on “Tell Me More,” where he spoke with guest host Maria Hinojosa about the history of government investigations into African-American politicians.

Musgrove is the author of Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics, and spoke of his investigations into the increasing numbers of legal investigations of black elected officials from the 1960s and 1970s onward, or what he calls “harassment ideology.”

“When I sat down to a study of post-Civil Rights Era black politics when I first entered graduate school, I was interested in figuring out what happened when all the marching stopped, what happened when black folks shifted from protests to politics. And as I was going through a bunch of records, I just kept finding black elected officials claiming that the government and the news media was out to get them, that there was literally a conspiracy to undermine black leadership,” he said.

“And so I wanted to look into it. I wanted to understand if, in fact, this was going on. But more than figure out whether or not there was a conspiracy or there was a pattern, I just wanted to figure out what it meant that black folks believed this, even if it wasn’t true. And so the book is a product of trying to answer those two questions.”

The Washington Post Magazine announced a humor-writing contest in the July 15th issue. The research of Robert Provine, professor of psychology and author of the forthcoming book Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond, was cited the print edition invitation.

Provine is also the author of Laughter: A Scientific Investigation.

Prizes include $1000 for a written piece, $140 for a Twitter joke, or $300 for a funny photo. Learn more about the contest – including submission guidelines – here.

Foundations of Leadership Development- 3 credits

PSYC 216 & EDUC 216 (cross-listed); Wednesdays 4-7 pm

Syllabus Attached*

This course is designed to help develop effective, ethical leaders. The principles and practices of leadership will be addressed, incorporating opportunities to implement what is learned. It is a highly interactive course that requires extensive in-class discussion. The main goals are to help students better understand themselves, develop intercultural competence, communicate effectively in group settings, develop an ethical decision-making process, value civic engagement and actively apply leadership skills. 

Foundations of Leadership Development is:

• Highly-interactive

• 100% focused on your development

• Project-based

• FOR EVERYONE. No previous knowledge, skills, or experiences required.

• “I have recommended (class) to several friends”

• “The interactions in class and activities inherently enhanced learning about the subject”

• “This was an immensely helpful and enjoyable class with a very unique style of learning the material”

•  “Should be a required course if possible for all majors”

MS Thesis Defense

Federating Disjoint Wireless Networks
Using a Mix of Stationary and Mobile Nodes

Ahmad Abbas

12:00PM Thursday 26th July 2012, Room ITE 325b

In many applications need arises to connect a set of disjoint nodes or segments. Examples include repairing a partitioned network topology after failure, federating a set of standalone networks to serve an emerging event, and connecting a sparsely located data sources. Contemporary solutions either deploy stationary relay nodes (RN) to form data paths or employ one or multiple mobile data collectors (MDCs) that pick packets from sources and transport them to destinations. In this thesis we investigate the interconnection problem when the number of available RNs is insufficient for forming a stable topology and a mix of RNs and MDCs is to be used. We present two algorithms for determining where the RNs are to be placed and planning optimized travel routes for the MDCs so that the data delivery latency as well as the MDC motion overhead are minimized. The performance of the algorithm is validated through simulation.

Committee: Professors Mohamed Younis (chair), Ryan Robucci and Tinoosh Mohsenin