An Invitation to Return...

Chili Tortilla Bake

Applications have opened for non-UMBC faculty to apply for the Inclusion Imperative's 2021-2022 Visiting Faculty Fellowship! Please share with your colleagues at other institutions. If you are a full-time UMBC faculty member interested in becoming a collaborator to the 2021-2022 fellows, please contact us at inclusionimperative@umbc.edu

Accepting Applications for 2021-2022 Visiting Faculty Fellows

Apply Here

The Dresher Center for the Humanities at UMBC invites applications for Visiting Faculty Fellowships as part of its Inclusion Imperative Program. Funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Inclusion Imperative is a five-year initiative to support diversity and inclusion in humanities scholarship and curriculum. Applications are welcome from full-time faculty pursuing humanities research at four-year colleges and universities in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Fellowships will be awarded to scholars who are committed to diversity in the academy and to the advancement of groups historically underrepresented in the professoriate. Fellows will spend one semester or one academic year advancing their research while in residence at the Dresher Center. The Dresher Center provides research support and collegial conversation in a robust humanities center environment that includes public events and symposia, grants workshops, works-in-progress talks, internal residential faculty research fellowships, and graduate student fellowships.

Faculty will be in residence at the Dresher Center for the Humanities at UMBC for a period of either one semester or one academic year and will receive a salary support stipend of up to $50,000 (one year) or $25,000 (one semester). They will have access to an office and to administrative and research development services in the Dresher Center, as well as to the Albin O. Kuhn Library and other UMBC events and facilities. This regional program does not provide funds for housing and transportation; however, each fellow will receive funding support of up to $2,500 for research and travel-related expenses.

For more information on the fellowship and the application process please visit our FAQ.

Applications are due by February 1, 2021. Nomination and recommendation letters are due by February 7, 2021 (please review and follow the application instructions for these letters).

Questions: email inclusionimperative@umbc.edu

Nearly 100 industry experts and entrepreneurs gathered virtually for Cybertini 2020, hosted by bwtech@UMBC, UMBC’s research and technology park, on October 15. The annual event offers a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn from industry professionals and experts in academia, and this year focused on cybersecurity related to elections. This is the second of three Cybertini events scheduled for this year.

UMBC’s Rick Forno, assistant director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity, joined Ron Gula, president of Gula Tech Adventures, and Sarah Lenti, executive director of the Lincoln Project, for the panel discussion. In the context of a highly contentious 2020 U.S. election season, panelists shared their perspectives on the particular cybersecurity challenges the U.S. electoral system faces today. 

Gula grounded the conversation with a key point: that elections are now considered to be part of critical infrastructure, but that challenges to its security are unique. Megan Wahler, director of entrepreneurial services at bwtech@UMBC, moderated the event. 

Continuous attention to security

Forno and Gula both argued that it’s important to continuously look at the security of information sharing broadly, rather than focusing on security when an election comes around.

Rick Forno. Photo by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

“I think you don’t look at it in the context of securing an election,” said Forno. “I think you need to look at it as securing an information ecosystem over time, not just every two or four years.” This means there will always be a need for expertise and innovations related to securing information, he noted. 

Gula similarly emphasized that it is important for leaders to take cyber hygiene and data security seriously in order to protect companies, governments, and elections from vulnerabilities in the long term. “If we can educate [people running for office] before they get into office, then they’re going to make better cyber policy decisions for all of us,” he said. 

Electronic voting and misinformation

The speakers also discussed how to ensure the security of future electronic voting platforms, a particularly hot-button issue in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gula explained that it’s possible to develop a secure electronic voting system, but that this security might be dependent on maintaining a paper trail. Forno cautioned that the U.S. electoral system also poses particular challenges, given that each state and territory has its own process for running elections. 

Ron Gula. Photo courtesy of Gula.

Returning to the present election, Forno discussed how securing information shared on social media also plays a role in elections, even if people are still voting through traditional means. He suggested that social media companies must play a major role in identifying and preventing the spread of misinformation. By blocking inaccurate information from being posted or shared online, these companies can thwart efforts to bad actors to influence elections. UMBC faculty, students, and alumni are currently working on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity technologies to address these issues.

Sarah Lenti. Photo courtesy of Lenti.

Further discussing vulnerabilities of the current election, Lenti described her organization’s work to track voter suppression efforts, to hold leaders accountable to maintaining a secure and accessible electoral process. The Lincoln Project recently announced a partnership with See Say 2020, which allows people to report acts of voter suppression and election interference in real time. 

“The Lincoln Project’s role is to basically shine a light on these activities with the hopes of it leading to some remedy and creating a deterrent,” Lenti said.

Forno reflected that looking at the broad ways in which cybersecurity plays a role in current and future elections shows how “cyber touches every aspect of society.”

Banner image: The entrance to bwtech@UMBC. Photo by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.