Take a look at all the events lined up for Critical Social Justice: Home! (Click here for a PDF of the flyer.)

 October 24th | Monday

Critical Social Justice 101: Foundations of Home – 12PM to 1PM in Commons 331 – A moderated panel discussion exploring a few of the many interpretations of how our theme of “home” relates to social justice. Panelists include: Dr. Kate Drabinski (Gender + Women’s Studies), Dr. Kimberly Moffitt (American Studies), and Dr. Thania Muñoz Davaslioglu (Modern Languages, Linguistics & Intercultural Communication).

Critical Interactions – 7:30PM to 9PM in University Center 310 – Peer facilitators and recent program participants will share their experiences with the INTERACT program, a Student Affairs initiative housed in Chesapeake Hall followed by a hands-on educational experience where attendees will craft, discuss and question what makes a home. Sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs.

October 25th | Tuesday

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha Keynote Lecture: “Body/ Land/ Home: Disability Justice, Healing Justice and Femme of Color Brilliance” – Doors open at 5:30PM, keynote begins at 6PM in the UC Ballroom – A meet-and-greet reception and book-signing will follow the keynote. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a disabled femme of color writer and performance artist whose award-winning work on disability, survivorhood, and transformative justice speaks to the many complexities inherent in navigating our way home. Facebook event

October 26th | Wednesday

Social Justice Activism Workshop – 12PM to 1PM in the Women’s Center – Learn practical skills for organizing activist projects, discuss strategies for navigating common challenges, and gain new insights into how you can create change on campus or in your community. Sponsored by the Women’s Center.

Shelter from the Storm: Mosaic Center Roundtable – 4PM to 5:30PM in Commons 329 – A roundtable discussion with students, alumni and community activists about the home challenges faced by LGBTQ youth. Intersectional perspectives of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion and socioeconomic class will be explored. Sponsored by Student Life’s Mosaic: Center for Culture and Diversity.

October 27th | Thursday

Who Gets a Home in College? – 11:30AM to 12:30PM on Commons Main Street – Panelists will discuss how institutional barriers impact the ways marginalized students find (or don’t find) themselves at home on campus. Panelists include: Dr. Nicole Cousin-Gossett (Sociology, Anthropology & HAPP), Dr. Danyelle Ireland (Center for Women in Technology), and Dr. Santiago Solis (Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs/Diversity at Towson University). 11AM to 1PM – Exhibit in recognition of the Women’s Center’s 25th anniversary. Sponsored by the Women’s Center. 

October 28th | Friday

Walking Tour of a Baltimore Neighborhood – 12PM to 3PM, meet in the Women’s Center – Join us for a 90-minute walking tour of a Baltimore neighborhood to learn about its history and present from a social justice lens. Led by Dr. Kate Drabinski. Free tickets available at the CIC desk during October.

More details and events will be announced leading up to CSJ: Home, so like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and use the hashtag #CSJhome to keep up-to-date with the latest news!

* All events are free and open to the public.

** Contact womens.center@umbc.edu if you need special accommodations. 

The Women’s Center and Student Life’s Mosaic Center appreciate the support of our Critical Social Justice: Home co-sponsors: Residential Life  |  College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences  |  Office of Institutional Advancement  |  Honors College  |  LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Association  |  Women Involved in Learning and Leadership  |  Student Disability Services  |  Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Health Administration and Policy  |  Department of Media and Communication Studies |  Department of  Modern Languages, Linguistics & Intercultural Communication | Off-Campus Student Services | Language, Literacy, and Culture

A weekly round-up curated by Women’s Center staff member, Michael Jalloh Jamboria

In the spirit of my friend, who gave us the glorious name ‘Slaying on the Weekly’, every week I will be bringing you some interesting, funny or thought-provoking content from the internet! Be sure to join us next week for more and continue to slay!

The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened this week in Washington DC! Watch the Grand Opening Ceremony, as President Obama welcomes the Museum to the DC mall.

On Monday September 26th, the first presidential debate  took place at Hofstra University. If you missed it, the full debate is available, along with fact check.

Stay lovely and dry! See you next week!

QUMBC is a student organization with the full name "Queers United, Mobilized & Bringing Change." It's a service/social action organization that focuses on projects and initiatives that take action on issues facing the LGBTQ community.

Tonight is the group's first event, beginning at 7:30 pm in the Skylight Lounge. Hear from a panel of UMBC students who will share their experiences, identity, and community, as well as answer questions.  Check it out!  For more info, RSVP, and/or to get involved, go to:

The Women’s Center at UMBC turns 25 this year! We’re excited to share our important milestone with UMBC’s 50th Anniversary and will be celebrating throughout the year with the rest of campus! We were inspired by Special Collections archival project Archives Gold: 50 Objects for UMBC’s 50th and decided to do our own digging into the Women’s Center archives. Over the course of the year, we’ll be sharing 25 “Then vs Now” archives to celebrate the origin and evolution of the Women’s Center at UMBC.
This week we’re exploring 1991 and the historical context of the year the Women’s Center opened its doors.

In 1991, Anita Hill stood up to sexual harassment in the workplace. Hill testified against her former employer, Judge Clarence Thomas, as he had perpetrated inappropriate sexual behavior towards her while she was working for him a few years prior. Thomas was being appointed as a Supreme Court Justice when Hill came forward, ending her silence and sparking a national interest in sexual harassment in the workplace. The majority male Senate went on to confirm Thomas, but this highly publicized trial brought the issue of sexual harassment into focus. After Hill stood up, more women came forward about their own experiences, and more measures were taken to prevent harassment in the workplace. This included places like higher education and our own UMBC.

Anita Hill testifying on Capitol Hill.

After this event, many more women became involved in politics, and many believe this boom came about as a direct response to the nomination of Thomas. While this wasn’t the only reason the Women’s Center was founded on campus, the national attention being paid to women’s issues in the workplace certainly helped spark an interest in creating a safe space and resource for women on campus. This story of our beginning is captured in our 20th anniversary video about the Women’s Center.

Other 1991 noteworthy events include, the release of Thelma and Louise and the influential documentary Paris is Burning. Riot grrrl, the punk feminist music movement, also began in the early 90s, and ushered in a new format of women creating activist art and music at the same time the internet opened up to commercial use for the first time ever.

What are the memories you have of the Women’s Center over the years that are meaningful to you? What does the Women’s Center mean to you today? Share your memories and pictures with us in the comment section below!

Stay up-to-date with our 25th anniversary on social media using #UMBCWC25. Share your Women’s Center experiences and memories with the UMBC community using #UMBCWC25 AND #UMBC50!

In recent months, as the U.S. presidential election has approached, concerns over email hacks and the security of voting systems have frequently appeared in the news. Rick Forno, assistant director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity and director of the Cybersecurity Graduate Program at UMBC, recently described to WYPR’s Sheilah Kast that voting machines are just one part of a system that has concerning vulnerabilities.

“I think we have to separate the issue between voting machines and the overall voting process, because the two are related but have very different threat and vulnerability characteristics,” said Forno, who is particularly interested in the voting process and technologies used to collect data, as well as how that data is collected, counted, and reported.

A voting machine might report votes to a laptop across the room at a polling location, and that computer might then share data from the single polling place with a computer in a regional or state hub to be aggregated. In this scenario, Forno wonders how the laptop—as one small but crucial piece in the full chain of data transfer—is protected.

Data can be corrupted at moments when it is moving, and also when it is stationary, he says. “You’re looking at a range of security concerns that start with the individual voting machine in the voting booth, all the way up through the systems that officially record and report out the outcomes of an election.”

Voting machines include computers and other hardware that need to be maintained on a regular basis, much like computers that people use at work or at home. Forno warns that not regularly updating the technologies used in voting systems, can give hackers and researchers the opportunity to identify weaknesses and potential vulnerabilities in those systems.

Listen to the full segment “Cybersecurity and the Ballot Box” on the WYPR website.

About Nielsen:

Today, there were over 500 million Tweets, over 85% of U.S. Consumers used their mobile device while watching TV, and within the next four years, women will control $28 Trillion in annual consumer spending. At Nielsen, you will help analyze and understand what all this means to our consumers, and how it truly influences and drives consumer behavior in what people watch and what people buy.

At Nielsen, we invest in you. Nielsen’s Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) offers a powerful and unique experience for top undergraduates interested in a leadership career with the world’s leading provider of global marketing information, consumer insights, and business media. Emerging Leaders Program Internships provide an opportunity for 2018 graduates to explore the Nielsen environment and gain insight into the full time Emerging Leaders Program Human Resources track.

Program Summary:

The Human Resources track is a challenging Internship program designed to develop leaders who will position Nielsen for growth. As a Human Resources intern, you will work with Nielsen businesses to help us attract, engage and develop the talent we need to grow and help our clients compete more effectively.

Intern assignments will be project-oriented and focus on the Human Resources Centers of Excellence including: Organization and Leadership Development, Talent Acquisition, and Compensation, with additional exposure to the HR Business Partner role. Assignments vary according to business need and intern qualifications; all are designed to stretch your skills, and to support your professional development by providing clear goals and actionable feedback on your performance.

Selection Criteria:

To apply for an internship, you should be an undergraduate with an anticipated graduation date of 2018 with a Human Resources related discipline and a strong record of academic achievement (minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA).

You must also meet the requirements for the full-time Emerging Leaders Program. Full details are available in UMBCworks.

Please apply through UMBCworks and Nielsen Careers. UMBCworks number 9286492.

Deadline: Thursday, September 29, 2016 at 11:59pm.