At the inaugural COEIT Celebration on May 6, 2018, several College-level faculty and staff awards were initiated by COEIT Dean Keith Bowman. We are pleased to announce that the first recipient of the COEIT 2018 Excellence in Teaching Award is CSEE’s Professor of the Practice, Dr. E. F. Charles LaBerge!

As his nomination statement reads,

CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. LABERGE!

The post Dr. LaBerge receives inaugural COEIT 2018 Excellence in Teaching Award appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Africa has a rich history and culture often mishandled or unknown outside the continent. Inspired by a past Mosaic Center event, newly elected African Student Association president Jessica Linus desired to call attention to the cultural diversity unique to Africa.

On Wednesday, she ushered in herself and others to speak and perform for the chapter of the Mosaic Center’s Lost in Translation series, The Impact of Colonialism on African History. For the event, a presentation was comprised of multiple sections discussing misconceptions, cultural appropriation, its regional and collective history, and public health.

Linus addressed many misconceptions that afflict others’ understanding of Africa. She showed through tweets those who believe that African people smell or that Africa is a country. The worst misconception of all is that African people have “no history.”

Linus negates this statement by saying African people were “ripped out of history” due to colonialism and slavery. Linus said her father told her, “that a man without a culture is without an identity.” In addition to being dressed in Nigerian traditional wear, Linus showed the audience photos of her grandfather, a chief of the hometown adorned in a red cap for his service and dedication to the community.

In her presentation, President and Founder of the Igbo Amaka Cultural Institute, Ngozi Ogbonna, told the audience that the best way to honor their home culture is to learn and speak their traditional language. Ogbonna modified the adage that “education is power” by stating that one cannot learn without language.

She asked how many of the audience could proficiently speak their native language, and few hands were raised. Ogbonna herself is fluent in Igbo, her native language, and teaches it herself at the Community College of Baltimore County in Essex. She founded her organization with the mission of spreading Igbo education to other universities, including UMBC, her alma mater.

The audience learned that more African language classes have not been implemented at UMBC because the turnout is low, despite the great dispensary of African students on campus. Ogbonna reminded the viewers that, “English is not the first language of Africa.”

Learning your native language opens the doors to understanding the message of your culture. In between talks, the message of the event lived through dance and spoken word. An invigorating dance to African music was masterfully and playfully implemented by the Afro Connectors Dance Troupe. The spoken word by another speaker coincided with the message of Africa as the motherland of its people far and wide.

Lastly, Marion Sillah discussed cultural appropriation of African culture. Here, the audience learned that black people can appropriate their own culture by being ignorant of meanings of the culture they are following. In being cognizant and respectful of one’s culture, one can hold to the mission of keeping one’s culture and identity alive.The event ended with the audience chanting, “We can change our communities. We can change our community. We can change Africa.”

Meet Savannah, our new MRSP Nationwide Retirement Specialist.

She will be visiting UMBC on Wednesday June 13^th from 9:30 am – 2:30 pm and is taking one-on-one appointments.

She can help you:

• Enroll in the 401(k) / 457 / 403(b)
• Learn about the tax advantages of a Roth plan!  (Nationwide is the only vendor who offers Roth)
• Increase Contributions
• Consolidate Your Accounts
• Review your Investment Options
• Please note:  Contractual Employees are eligible to participate in all Supplemental Plans 

Sophie Treadwell’s play “Machinal” has been making the rounds in college theatre departments across the country. An expressionist – and incredibly feminist – play written in the late 1920’s, “Machinal” still feels relevant as ever in its most recent staging by Joseph Ritsch, Producing Artistic Director for Rep Stage and director of “Machinal” for the UMBC Theatre Department.

Treadwell’s play draws on the life and trial of Ruth Snyder, a woman who murdered her husband after enduring a loveless marriage and who was subsequently executed in January 1928 by electric chair. Nine months later, “Machinal” opened on Broadway.

Ritsch’s own vision of the show stands in stark contrast to typical productions which often explore the literal definition of machine, transforming the set into a pseudo-factory. Instead, he looks at theatre itself as a machine where all the actors come together, miniature automatons within a theatrical production. All characters, except Young Woman (Andie Cappelletti), the representation of Snyder, wear face masks, hiding their true feelings and selves from the world until moments of vulnerability shine through.

The play opens with Young Woman receiving a marriage proposal from Husband (Cynthia Davis), who falls in love with her because of her hands, which are unmarred from any physical labor, but still act as a symbol of the service Young Woman is expected to provide those around her. Davis plays Husband with terrifying realism, a personification of a hand sliding too far down the back.

Husband values Young Woman because of her inherent physical worth to him, and so Young Woman traverses a rocky relationship, much of it left out of the narrative. The hints Treadwell leaves behind, however, speak volumes. Young Woman is plagued with forceful contact – she repeatedly insinuates how uncomfortable Husband’s hands make her feel – and on her wedding night she makes it very clear she does not want to be touched. In the next episode of the play, Young Woman gives birth to a baby girl.

Cappelletti plays Young Woman with wide-eyed fervor and gives even her most disorganized ramblings focus. She fits effortlessly and yet not at all in the arms of those closest to her: Husband, Mother (Thelma Bush) and eventual Lover (Kathrin Bizzarro). Bizzarro shines in her role, embodying both a self-assuredness and openness that draws Young Woman in, and Bush plays a maternal figure ignorant of the many struggles her daughter faces.

The cast is made up exclusively of women, with male stagehands, but the all-female cast stands to draw further attention to the lines and behaviors that make up the male characters’ personalities. When Lover tells Young Woman that “there wasn’t one of [my former lovers] any sweeter than you,” it feels cheap, calling to mind confessions of love in romantic comedies. Even though Lover’s mask has long been forgotten by this point in the play, it still feels like he is lying.

“Machinal” would not be complete without its incredible costume design by Eric Abele, who outfitted everyone but Young Woman in bright, solid print colors. Young Woman, by contrast, looked like a porcelain doll, out of her element in a narrative in which she never felt accepted or at home.

Additionally, Alexander J. Roberts’s sound design brought another dimension to the storyline, adding in a uniquely mechanized component that implied the inevitability of the play’s outcome – the gears would just keep on turning until Young Woman met her death.

The masks come down at the end of “Machinal,” reminding the audience of the human behind each faceless character and bringing together Young Woman’s enduring experiences with coercion, flirtation and heartbreak as her small world gathers around the electric chair. “Machinal” offers an unsettling – and unmasked – look into a woman’s life, one that still feels relevant and realistic 90 years later.

The history of America is extremely diverse, including many different ethnic and racial groups since the country’s inception. However, many groups’ histories have faded from mainstream discussion. One of these histories is that of Chinese Americans argues Irene Chan, associate Professor of Visual Arts at UMBC and a 2018 Dresher Center Residential Faculty Fellow.

Chan is conducting research on the forgotten stories of Chinese Americans by collecting songs, poetry, diaries and other Chinese voices from all different parts of the country.

This research has been divided into two parts. The first is a website that Chan and her production team designed called the “Railroad Track of Violence,” where animation and visual arts meet to tell these unknown stories of violence and discrimination.

The second phase is what Chan is currently working on by compiling instances of Chinese voices, but her ultimate goal is to create a physical space where people can interactively hear and experience Chinese American stories. This blend of visual arts and history are what make Chan’s research unique and appealing in allowing people to actively participate in learning.

The actual stories that Chan found in her research have hard-to-swallow themes like slavery, brutality, apathy and hatred. Chinese Americans were called “yellow rats scurrying around” and were believed to eat “rats and puppies.” Nineteen Chinese people were lynched all at once in the Chinese Massacre of 1871, and 28 Chinese were killed in the Rock Springs Massacre with their bodies left mutilated and unburied.

In the face of this violence, many important Chinese fought back, like Wong Chin Foo, who was a major spokesperson for social justice and change that many Americans do not know about today. “I want people to know Wong Chin Foo just as much as they know Martin Luther King Jr.,” Chan articulated.

Throughout her education, Chan realized that she was never taught these histories of Chinese Americans who were an extremely vital part of the growing America in the nineteenth century. Nine out of ten men building the Central Pacific Railroad were Chinese and much of the country was built by this group. Yet, in schools today, Chan argues, students only learn that the Chinese were oppressed and did not fight back.

Chan wants to challenge this disregard for history with her research of art, political comics, poetry, song lyrics, newspaper articles and other valuable Chinese American voices of the time.

Chan also wants to give life to the suppressed voices of Chinese American women who were kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery in great numbers. Chan found poems and songs from some of these women which she plans to present in Cantonese and English in her exhibit.

However, the songs Chan found did not come accompanied with music; they were simply lyrics. She wondered what the music would look and sound like, given the terrible hardships and discrimination these men and women faced from the American government. Would the music itself be a story?

Shedding a newfound light on this forgotten history of this major ethnic group in America is the ultimate goal of Chan’s research. Using her visual arts skills, the final product of her research is sure to resound in many people’s hearts as they learn more about the diversity of American history.

For now, Chan’s first phase is up and running for people to check out at railroadtrackofviolence.com.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, from April 27 to May 27, will present its adaptation of “Alice In Wonderland.” “Alice in Wonderland,” a classic tale written by Lewis Carroll, has been revisited and reinterpreted by media and acting companies numerous times, yet the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company managed to mold the well known story in a way that is still entertaining for a modern audience.

One of the greatest and most recognized aspects of Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” is its childlike flair; the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s production captured that youthful whimsy perfectly. To begin with, the set, designed by Chester Stacy, resembled an enchanted garden of sorts which immediately transported the audience members “across the looking glass,” so to speak.

The audience lived Alice’s experiences; they shrank with her, they grew colossally with her, they swam with her and they danced with her. Specifically, these were the moments when the audience members were encouraged to use their own imaginations which is the entire purpose of the story: to ignite and enlighten the imagination of a mundane adult mind.

The actors were spectacular; they each approached their characters with authenticity. Alexandra Palting, who portrayed Alice, perfectly presented Alice’s conflicting confusion and awe with the new world she had entered. She also carried herself as a child, meaning she would mimic the other characters and toy with her fingers and feet when Alice was not directly addressed or invited into conversation.

Michael Toperzer, the White Rabbit, impeccably portrayed the anxious tendencies and timidness of the White Rabbit. Toperzer was lively, energetic and fully engaged the audience. He even ran throughout the seating among the audience members in a frenzy and constant hurry.

Vince Eisenson presented a lovely interpretation of the Mad Hatter. Although, in the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s production, the character was a bit milder and less exaggerated than in other portrayals, Eisenson’s performance was more reminiscent of the authentic tale. Eisenson made the Mad Hatter easy to admire and to trace motive in all of his madness.

Gregory Atkin, who played the Mock Turtle among many other characters such as the Wind, was an audience favorite. He was the most humorous and comical of all the characters. To each of his characters, he added a touch of musicality and sass which the audience adored. Atkin is also a phenomenal singer and overall performer who added his own touch to the classic, usually forgotten characters, making them very memorable.

Above all, one could easily tell that the actors love what they do. Before the show and during intermission, the actors would either walk around in character and interact with the audience or play songs on stage. They livened and excited the audience by just having fun themselves.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company will present “Alice in Wonderland” until May 27. The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has a whole list of plays planned for the 2018- 2019 season. These plays include: “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “Macbeth,” “A Christmas Carol” and many more.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company put on an incredible performance and it is encouraged for students to come and abandon their mundane responsibilities for a night full of imagination with the cast of “Alice in Wonderland”.