In the wake of recent events such as the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s electoral victory, John Rennie Short explores the underlying causes of resistance to economic, political, and cultural globalization in a new article in The Conversation, republished by U.S. News and PBS Newshour.

Short, a professor of public policy at UMBC, traces the origins of globalization back to the end of World War II when the Allied countries set up a new order focused on free markets and trade, coupled with the establishment of international organizations, with an intent to decrease economic nationalism. He also explains how this approach led to money moving more freely around the world, with eventual global shifts in manufacturing and a loosening of trade restrictions.

“As a result, there was a global redistribution of wealth. In the West as factories shuttered, mechanized or moved overseas, the living standards of the working class declined. Meanwhile, in China prosperity grew, with the poverty rate falling from 84 percent in 1981 to only 12 percent by 2010,” Short writes. He adds, “the backlash against economic globalization is most marked in those countries such as the U.S. where economic dislocation unfolds with weak safety nets and limited government investment in job retraining or continuing and lifetime education.”

Short analyzes how expanding free markets, including the creation of the European Union and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), have contributed in recent decades to the widespread resistance to globalization as more countries with a range of economic success are included in the process: “The EU is now at a point of inflexion where the previous decades of continual growth are coming up against popular resistance to EU enlargement into poorer and more peripheral countries. Newer entrants often have weaker economies and lower social welfare payments, prompting immigration to the richer members such as France and the U.K.”

However, Short argues that globalization now more than ever before should be a more connected, sustainable, and inclusive process that benefits everyone.

“The globalization project contains much that was desirable: improvements in living conditions through global trade, reducing conflict and threat of war through political globalization and encouraging cultural diversity in a widening cultural globalization,” explains Short. “The question now, in my view, is not whether we should accept or reject globalization but how we shape and guide it to these more progressive goals.”

Read the full article in The Conversation. For additional news coverage, see below.

Why there’s a globalization backlash (U.S. News and World Report) 
Column: Why there’s a backlash against globalization and what needs to change (PBS Newshour)
The new globalization: Brexit and Donald Trump represent a different backlash to free trade (Salon) 
What could the rise of ‘economic nationalism’ portend for the US? (Christian Science Monitor) 
Globalization and its discontents (The Millennium Post)     
Globalization and its discontents: Why there’s a backlash and how it needs to change (SF Gate) 

Image: John Rennie Short in his office. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. 

Everyone had those embarrassing moments in high school when they texted the wrong person or didn’t know what to say standing in the front of a classroom. In the case of “The Edge of Seventeen,” the newly released drama/comedy from STX Entertainment, the audience can feel the secondhand embarrassment from their theater seats.

Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) is a junior in high school and someone who has never been good at making friends. She has one best friend named Krista (Haley Lu Richardson), who has been by her side since they were little, that is, until she falls for Nadine’s “perfect” older brother Darian (Blake Jenner).

While the surface-level trailers focused more on comedic hooks to bring in viewers, the underlying messages of the plot that are revealed later on are both relatable and hard-hitting. Steinfeld, who won Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer for 2010’s “True Grit” is capable of playing a character who is both comedic and serious, as Nadine faces challenges that range from an awkward ferris wheel ride to the deeper struggles of a broken family and finding her place.

Nadine’s teacher, Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson, who is known for playing Haymitch in the Hunger Games series) becomes her best confidant during the movie. Most of the humor comes from the scenes when they are together because of his own mocking, sardonic humor towards her and her problems.

While the movie was advertised as “Not Yet Rated,” it was surprising to see that it had been settled on as being rated “R” once it was released. With realistic and completely convincing reactions of teenage profanity, the rating really only became apparent when the movie took a darker turn to a very personal conflict of self-worth for Nadine.

Vanity Fair wrote an article stating that “The Edge of Seventeen” is “the best movie in years,” and although that may be a long shot, it is still apparent that many aspects of this movie stand out to viewers because it is so unique and genuine. Vanity Fair calls it a “charming and insightful film about the turbulence of teendom,” which couldn’t be more true when the situations that Nadine finds herself in could very much be taken from the life of any teenager.

There were very few interactive characters in the movie, but overall, it worked well in helping viewers focus on the problems at hand for Nadine, rather than the story being led along with secondary faces. The relationships between some of the characters like Nadine and Krista, were introduced very early on and as for others like Nadine and a boy at school named Erwin (Hayden Szeto) and even Nadine and her mother (Kyra Sedgwick), the audience gets to watch those develop throughout the whole movie.

“The Edge of Seventeen” was rated 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and has already been given high acclamation in regards to its breakout stars. There have even been several compliments of this movie holding its own against other legendary teenage drama/comedies like “Clueless” and “Sixteen Candles.”

The post “The Edge of Seventeen” appeared first on The Retriever.

The Women’s Center at UMBC is seen as a critical resource on campus to many students, staff and faculty. Within the time span from July 2015 – June 2016, the Women’s Center along with their outside programs and outreach services received 8,642 visits, organized 153 programs and had 126 community members utilize their one-on-one support from the Women’s Center Staff.

Despite servicing such a wide platform, their operating budget as of their 2015–2016 annual report is $1,237.

“After I went from being coordinator to assistant director my pay increase came out of our baseline budget so after that money went away our new baseline budget is $1,237,” explained Megan Tagle Adams, assistant director of the Women’s Center.

The baseline budget, also known as the operating budget, is the funding the Women’s Center receives from the state of Maryland. However, this budget continues to grow smaller as the years go on. Their budget has been slowly decreasing over the past several years with last year’s operating budget at $4,469.

“A lot of it is we’ve never had a huge budget to begin with but when I look back from our archives ten years ago and what not, it was higher and then when there had to be budget cuts they had to get taken from some places,” Adams continued.

“The Women’s Center is very important as is our other offices on campus so it’s some of those hard decisions but there will be year after year of budget cuts so sometimes it was only one percent budget cuts but we have such a small budget and those cuts happen year after year. It’s sort of like the death by a thousand paper cuts… ”

Jess Myers, director of the Women’s Center, said, “I think one of the challenging things about the budget at UMBC in general is that a lot of offices are really struggling financially. So, sometimes I acknowledge that the university has made some really hard decisions.”

“Of course I think that [the Women’s Center is] really important but in the grand scheme of the university there’s lots of people that are really important,” Myers continued.

Housed under academic rather than student affairs, the Women’s Center does not have access to student fees from undergraduate tuition like many other campus resources. They utilize other forms of funding with a heavy reliance on co-sponsorships. Some of their biggest partnerships being the Mosaic Center, ResLife, Off Campus Student Services, the Honors College and the Dean’s Office.

“It’s definitely difficult to provide the programming that we want to provide because we are absolutely depending on co-sponsors. That’s how we’re able to do things like Take Back the Night and Critical Social Justice,” said Adams.

In addition to being vital to funding, programming is dependent on the co-sponsorships as well.

“For example, last year we got over $9000 in co-sponsorships, which is great but we don’t know if we’re going to get those co-sponsorships until we start planning the program. We just really hope they say yes. We can’t plan them ahead because it’s so dependent on what type of co-sponsorships we’ll get.”

They also utilize a GiveCorps page through the Office of Institutional Advancement to raise money for their Returning Women students, as well their 25^th anniversary celebration.

“There’s been things that we would love to do but we just can’t and I think the hard thing about it too is not just that we have a small budget but people don’t realize it. The just assume that we have money for things,” Adams continued.

“The significant piece for us is that those [budget] cuts can’t come from our staff … we have to protect the salaries and because our budget’s so tiny most of our budget really is just salary.”

Often, the Women’s Center attempts to come up with ideas to further their budget; however, due to the limitations of their staff budget, funds set aside to pay full-time employees, there are not enough people in positions of power to back the Center.

However, the Women’s Center has had a heavy reliance on a separate funding account, their carry forward funds. For the past six years, the Women’s Center’s carry forward funds have been in use with $12,217 of the funds reported in their 2015–2016 Annual Report.

“It’s been our rainy day fund that we saved. That’s what we’ve been using… and we’ve made it last for a very long time… ” Adams explained.

That fund is expected to run out this year.

Due to this, the Women’s Center foresees a lack of publicity and outreach. However, even if they receive more visitors, increased demand could also become an issue. “We want more people to come here and also we need more money to do the programs to bring them here or to get the staff to meet with them and offer them resources and support,” she continued.

“Sometimes it’s like, what could we be if we just had more money,” said Myers.

The post The Women’s Center’s fight for funding appeared first on The Retriever.

A thought-provoking memoir about love, loss, and survival published earlier this year by Nancy Rankie Shelton has received a 2016 Best Book Award. Shelton, a professor of education, is the author of 5-13: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Survival (Garn Press, 2016), a book that has made significant contributions to the growing body of literature on living and dying well.

The i310 Media Group announced the 2016 Best Book Awards earlier this month, which included more than 2,000 entries from mainstream and independent publishers. Shelton’s book received the Best Book Award in the Health: Death and Dying category.

The book encourages readers to overcome fears of cancer, remain loving and strong, survive the death of a loved one, and continue living. The story traces Shelton’s husband Jack’s fight with lung cancer and the stress and confusion of managing his treatment. The book reflects on the 35 years the couple was together and the family’s relationships with others over the years.

In a review posted earlier this year on the Garn Press website, the reviewer notes, “Nancy Rankie Shelton’s 5-13, A Memoir of Love, Loss and Survival is a breathtaking read. It is work of great courage but also a literary triumph. Like an uncut diamond it is rough reading in places and then the light fractures and you feel the surge of an enduring human spirit who is not frightened to love, face death, and then reimagine her life.”

In a press release announcing the 2016 Best Book Award winners, Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of i310 Media Group, stated that “the 2016 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States,” adding, “our success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise.”

Professor Shelton is the author of 23 publications appearing in prominent academic journals and leading publishing companies specializing in literacy research and/or education policy. Her teaching areas focus on reading and language arts, literacy/culture and composition theory/practice. Her research interests include children’s writing development, effects of mandated instruction on elementary literacy development, literacy/art connections, and children’s literature. Read more about her work on the education department website.

Image: Nancy Rankie Shelton. Garn Press photo. 

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