On this episode, our host, Dr. Ian Anson, speaks with Dr. Michelle Scott, Professor of History and Affiliate Faculty in Gender and Women's Studies, Language, Literacy and Culture, and Africana Studies at UMBC, about her recent book:  T.O.B.A. Time: Black Vaudeville and the Theater Owners' Booking Association in Jazz-Age America

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About The Series

The most recent artworks by Hadieh Shafie, M.F.A. ’04, intermedia and digital arts, appear like optical illusions, tricks. Tightly stacked lines of colored pencil suddenly twist and warp into circles. The two-dimensional surface swirls and vibrates, like eddy lines in a river or sound waves blasting from a speaker. Tucked into these dancing lines, Shafie has written the Persian word for passionate love: eshgh.

The drawings pull together many themes from Shafie’s work and life experience, of leaving her home country of Iran in 1983 at the age of 12 and never going back. From her childhood there, she recalls how women were banned from reading certain texts.

“The importance of books and the power of language, the seed of that idea was implanted in my heart and mind then,” says Shafie, a 2014 Alumni Award recipient. “I saw things as a child there that were really traumatic. So, I felt that while my culture is imbued with all this poetry and love for beauty—things that are beautiful, and homes are decorated, and there’s this idea of paradise in the Persian carpet—there was a lack of really practicing any of it.”

Work documentation of Shafie’s Draw, Cut, Rotate series by Robert J. Fagan.

Love and the circle have shown up in her art since the beginning, since her days studying painting at the Pratt Institute in the nineties and intermedia and digital arts at UMBC in the early aughts. Her work now resides in collections of the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and in exhibits from Virginia to Dubai to Australia.

She considers herself a Brooklynite, but when she found the M.F.A. program at UMBC, she was ready for a break from the city. She was drawn to the program because it was small, intimate, and she was excited about the writings on performance art by Kathy O’Dell, a faculty member in the Department of Visual Arts.

At UMBC, Shafie began a deeper exploration of the Whirling Dervishes, the religious art form of spinning meditative circle dance, and the poems of Rumi, the 13th-century Persian mystic who expounded on the idea of passionate love. Shafie started whirling at UMBC.

“I was getting better at it, only to come to realize that as an Iranian woman, the very first session when I was whirling and I got sick, and I fell on the ground and slammed into the wall—that was my work,” says Shafie, explaining that was symbolic of the role of women in Iranian society. “As a woman I’m never allowed to forget I’m a woman, my place in society, and the things that are barriers to me, so that was very significant.”

Shafie carried these themes into the “Paper Works” series, where she packs a frame with tightly rolled and stacked sheaves of colored paper that have been filled with texts. The effect is a dizzying mosaic of thousands of circles.

“I started with fragments of poems and then kept reducing it to one word, and the word and the common denominator for all of our problems was love and hate,” Shafie says. “I didn’t want to use the word hate. So I use the word for passionate love.”

In her new body of work, the optical “Cut & Rotate Series,” love continues to prevail, the word eshgh appearing like notches, like dragonflies that have landed on rivers of color and line.

“This word that’s so ordinary holds so much power,” Shafie says.

By Alex V. Cipolle

Other members of the UMBC community are also asking big questions and using their intuition to follow the question for as long as it takes. Read about these creative thinkers willing to get lost on a tangent, to joyfully put themselves in positions of not knowing, and looking for new ways of translating the world around them in Open to Interpretation.

The most recent artworks by Hadieh Shafie, M.F.A. ’04, intermedia and digital arts, appear like optical illusions, tricks. Tightly stacked lines of colored pencil suddenly twist and warp into circles. The two-dimensional surface swirls and vibrates, like eddy lines in a river or sound waves blasting from a speaker. Tucked into these dancing lines, Shafie has written the Persian word for passionate love: eshgh.

The drawings pull together many themes from Shafie’s work and life experience, of leaving her home country of Iran in 1983 at the age of 12 and never going back. From her childhood there, she recalls how women were banned from reading certain texts.

“The importance of books and the power of language, the seed of that idea was implanted in my heart and mind then,” says Shafie, a 2014 Alumni Award recipient. “I saw things as a child there that were really traumatic. So, I felt that while my culture is imbued with all this poetry and love for beauty—things that are beautiful, and homes are decorated, and there’s this idea of paradise in the Persian carpet—there was a lack of really practicing any of it.”

Work documentation of Shafie’s Draw, Cut, Rotate series by Robert J. Fagan.

Love and the circle have shown up in her art since the beginning, since her days studying painting at the Pratt Institute in the nineties and intermedia and digital arts at UMBC in the early aughts. Her work now resides in collections of the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and in exhibits from Virginia to Dubai to Australia.

She considers herself a Brooklynite, but when she found the M.F.A. program at UMBC, she was ready for a break from the city. She was drawn to the program because it was small, intimate, and she was excited about the writings on performance art by Kathy O’Dell, a faculty member in the Department of Visual Arts.

At UMBC, Shafie began a deeper exploration of the Whirling Dervishes, the religious art form of spinning meditative circle dance, and the poems of Rumi, the 13th-century Persian mystic who expounded on the idea of passionate love. Shafie started whirling at UMBC.

“I was getting better at it, only to come to realize that as an Iranian woman, the very first session when I was whirling and I got sick, and I fell on the ground and slammed into the wall—that was my work,” says Shafie, explaining that was symbolic of the role of women in Iranian society. “As a woman I’m never allowed to forget I’m a woman, my place in society, and the things that are barriers to me, so that was very significant.”

Shafie carried these themes into the “Paper Works” series, where she packs a frame with tightly rolled and stacked sheaves of colored paper that have been filled with texts. The effect is a dizzying mosaic of thousands of circles.

“I started with fragments of poems and then kept reducing it to one word, and the word and the common denominator for all of our problems was love and hate,” Shafie says. “I didn’t want to use the word hate. So I use the word for passionate love.”

In her new body of work, the optical “Cut & Rotate Series,” love continues to prevail, the word eshgh appearing like notches, like dragonflies that have landed on rivers of color and line.

“This word that’s so ordinary holds so much power,” Shafie says.

By Alex V. Cipolle

Other members of the UMBC community are also asking big questions and using their intuition to follow the question for as long as it takes. Read about these creative thinkers willing to get lost on a tangent, to joyfully put themselves in positions of not knowing, and looking for new ways of translating the world around them in Open to Interpretation.

Hello! I’m looking for someone(female) who takes over my place and sign a new lease starting from next week (June 19th): $650 a month with utilities averaging around $50 in Elkridge. *security deposit of one month rent is required.

I just graduated UMBC last month and my lease will finish in August. But since I got a job moving next week to NJ, I’m trying to find someone who can move in ASAP.

You will have 2 female roommates who are college students (Johns Hopkins). They both are in their early 20s and super clean & friendly. You will share 1.5 bathroom with one of the roommate (Another roommate has her own bathroom since her bedroom is master room.). You have a bathroom on the 2nd floor and 1st floor so I’ve never felt any discomfort living here for 2 years.

House details:

- Laundry machines available

- Dish washer available

- Parking available 

- AC/Heater available 

-Unfurnished (If you want to take over my bed and work desk, we can talk about it)

Location details (drive):

- Arundel Mills 10 minutes

- 7Eleven, Library, Green valley, Walgreens, Liquor store, Sushi place, Pizza hut, and more 5 minutes

- UMBC 15 minutes (This area doesn't have a UMBC bus stop so you will need a car)

- Fire department is in walking distance so it’s really safe area

*If you’re interested, please contact me I will send you the house video and pictures (jmin3@umbc.edu / 5713318632). The landlord will set up the interview and prepare to sign the lease if you like to do. You can come see to check the house anytime)

Thank you!

Hello! I’m looking for someone(female) who takes over my place and sign a new lease starting from next week (June 19th): $650 a month with utilities averaging around $50 in Elkridge. *security deposit of one month rent is required.

I just graduated UMBC last month and my lease will finish in August. But since I got a job moving next week to NJ, I’m trying to find someone who can move in ASAP.

You will have 2 female roommates who are college students (Johns Hopkins). They both are in their early 20s and super clean & friendly. You will share 1.5 bathroom with one of the roommate (Another roommate has her own bathroom since her bedroom is master room.). You have a bathroom on the 2nd floor and 1st floor so I’ve never felt any discomfort living here for 2 years.

House details:

- Laundry machines available

- Dish washer available

- Parking available 

- AC/Heater available 

-Unfurnished (If you want to take over my bed and work desk, we can talk about it)

Location details (drive):

- Arundel Mills 10 minutes

- 7Eleven, Library, Green valley, Walgreens, Liquor store, Sushi place, Pizza hut, and more 5 minutes

- UMBC 15 minutes (This area doesn't have a UMBC bus stop so you will need a car)

- Fire department is in walking distance so it’s really safe area

*If you’re interested, please contact me I will send you the house video and pictures (jmin3@umbc.edu / 5713318632). The landlord will set up the interview and prepare to sign the lease if you like to do. You can come see to check the house anytime)

Thank you!

Very few Retrievers can say they’ve spent as many years on campus or enjoyed quite so many roles in doing so as Joan Costello ’73, social work. From her first days as a student and student worker; to 41 years as a staff member in the library, audiovisual (AV) services, and multimedia center; to her current role as basketball season ticket holder, committee member of the Founding Four, and board member of the Wisdom Institute—UMBC’s organization for retired staff and faculty—Costello shares why she’s chosen to make UMBC her second home for more than 50 years.

The first days

I grew up two miles away, and when this new school opened, I thought I would give UMBC a shot. In my memory, it rained at the beginning of most semesters—a nice complement to the on-going construction. But I really enjoyed the experience of being part of a young university. It was fun seeing everything grow up with me. 

College was hard at first. It was a big change for me academically; even the language used was very different from what I was used to. Terms like mean and median and bell curve I had never heard of! I took a statistics course and I thought I was doing okay compared with everybody else. We were all on that same curve, right? But when it came to the final, I ended up getting a D in that class. I didn’t know yet about repeating classes, or dropping them at the last minute, so it took me a while to bring my GPA up, but I did.

In my second semester, I got a job at the library—not yet the Albin O. Kuhn Library that Retrievers have access to now—and it gave me an outlet to learn more about the campus, faculty, staff, student workers, and patrons. The library was a great place to work. We learned each other’s jobs so that we could help in a pinch, and we had the best parties—staff Olympics and talent contests like the Gong Show. We were all young, students and staff, and many of those bonds have lasted over 50 years.

Returning to work at UMBC

After I graduated, I worked at the Good Shepherd School for Girls for five months, but UMBC called me and offered me a job in the library, so I happily returned. I eventually became a supervisor of Record and Tape. Back then there was an AV department on campus that did the movies and equipment around campus, which eventually went under the wing of the library. It became two jobs: supervising Record and Tape and AV services. AV was located in the Chem/Physics building, which had to be the worst office ever because it was in the basement and you got the lovely fumes from the labs.

We later moved to a new building, Academic IV (now Sherman Hall). Victor Aulestia (director of instructional technology) made his case to put the media areas together—AV services, the International Media Center (the Language Lab), and the TV studio.

I always loved getting to know the students, staff, and faculty. And I liked to help. If somebody needed help in a pinch, I would try to arrange it. I later worked in the International Media Center in Academic IV. It was a great study area for students to hang out.

At the beginning of the school year, kids often looked lost, and so I tried to help with directions and encourage them—I really enjoyed that. I had a crew of students who worked with me—students from all over the place—and it was fun getting to know all of them. I wanted to make them feel comfortable because some of them were away from home for the first time.

Long-term Retriever

I’ve found ways to stay involved. I am a part of the Founding Four group (our members include the first four graduating classes of UMBC). It’s been rewarding to be involved with that group and to hear other people’s stories. In fact, we have just put together a book of early recollections, This Belongs to Us. I go to the UMBC theatre to see the plays as often as I can, and I’m also a basketball season ticket holder. I always see friends there.

I’m also on the board of the Wisdom Institute, a group of UMBC retirees always working to bring folks together with activities and volunteering and camaraderie. We’ve done luncheons, we’ve gone to plays and concerts at Lurman Woodland Theatre, in Catonsville. We also get people involved in service, like helping tutor or mentor students in the nearby schools, and that’s a great way of giving back. Our biggest hit as an institute is our annual special talk and luncheon—we’ve had some great speakers, and you get to see so many people coming back to campus.

That’s the best part. You get to keep your connections to people you knew at UMBC, and maybe you wouldn’t think of getting together with them otherwise, but we have this venue that makes it easy and makes it so much fun. 

I’ve stayed connected to UMBC for all this time because it’s familiar, convenient, and like another family. UMBC is its own community within the loop. I enjoyed the people…and I still do!

Learn more about the Wisdom Institute, now celebrating its fifth anniversary.

For more than a decade, Rita Choula was the primary caregiver for her late mother who lived with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD), a lesser known form of early onset dementia that typically affects people under the age of 60.

“My mother started saying things like ‘I don’t feel like myself. I feel like I’m losing my mind.’ She used to be someone that was really engaged and outgoing and she started to pull back a bit. She used to be very empathetic, very people-loving, and showed a lot of concern, and it reached a point where that empathy went straight out the window,” recalls Choula ’95, information systems management, M.A. ’16, aging services.

The process of learning what was affecting her mother, who passed away in October 2020, was a long and challenging one for Choula and her family. That’s why in her current role as the senior director of caregiving at the AARP Public Policy Institute, Choula advances equitable, culturally responsive policies and practices by elevating the unique nature of each caregiving experience.

After four years of misdiagnoses and cycling through several neurologists and medical practitioners, Choula’s mother, at age 60, was finally diagnosed with behavioral variant FTD, a subtype of early onset dementia that doesn’t specifically impact memory, but instead causes personality changes, apathy, and a progressive decline in socially appropriate behavior, judgment, self-control, and empathy. 

“It was a true battle to determine her diagnosis. The lack of an early diagnosis left me bitter because it took away a lot of opportunities for us to just be with her,” says Choula. “So much of our journey was me figuring it out and having to educate professionals on it.”

Developing as a leader in aging services

But how did she go from a frustrated family caregiver to a leader in the aging studies field?

Nearly 20 years after receiving her undergraduate degree, Choula returned to UMBC to continue her academic journey at the Erickson School of Aging while in the throes of caring for mother. Her caregiving experience encouraged her to learn more about how to more adequately and holistically care for aging adults and the caregivers that supported them, like herself. 

“The program was shaped in a way that allowed a working caregiver and mother to be able to pursue her dreams of getting a degree, while still helping me navigate a really difficult time in my life,” says Choula. 

Becoming a critical thinker

In the 1990s, UMBC was one of Choula’s top university choices, stemming from the keynote speech delivered at her high school graduation by none other than UMBC’s then-president, Freeman A. Hrabowski, III.

“Hearing this educated Black man speaking about the importance of education and quoting Langston Hughes’ ‘A Dream Deferred’ made me say ‘[UMBC] is where I want to go.”

Choula, who hails from Suitland, Maryland, was interested in information systems management because of UMBC’s strong computer science programs. She found value in coupling her major with a minor in Africana Studies. Her educational experience helped her to “broaden how I saw myself as a Black woman in this world,” Choula shares. 

Choula cites professors emeritus Acklyn Lynch and the late Miriam Decosta-Willis as mentors who helped expose her to many Black scholars and thinkers across the African diaspora. 

“I was challenged across my courses to critically think about what we were learning, to ask those difficult questions, and to work together as a student body on many different issues to push forward change.”

A personal touch

When Choula returned to earn her degree in the Erickson School, she says the professors imparted much more than academic knowledge—they also assisted her in her personal caregiving experience, especially when it came time to transitioning her mother into living at a nursing home facility. “I went to several of my professors and asked how I should navigate this. They picked up the phone to make calls to care facilities on my behalf—it impacted me tremendously and taught me the importance of seeing a student as a whole person.”

Choula’s experience as a Retriever laid the foundation for the work that she does in support of family caregivers. She specifically remembers a class with Joseph DeMattos, president of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland— the state’s largest and oldest long-term care association. Choula noted how DeMattos’ guidance on leadership helped to inform her current career pursuits. “DeMattos taught me how to position myself as a leader, the different types of leadership styles, and what type of impact I want to have not just on my work but on the people who I’m leading,” says Choula.

Choula applies all that she’s learned at UMBC to bring together policy, research, and practice—the three critical areas of aging services. With her expertise, she works to bridge the three areas, centering on identifying and supporting the needs of diverse family caregivers across ethnicities, cultures, and generations.

“I learned so much about myself as a UMBC student. My experience taught me to take on issues from a place of critical thinking and ensure that we center the needs of people while working with them to affect change and impact.”