Our sincere congratulations to Andrew DeVos and Jermaine Ellerbe who received their PhD diplomas during the graduation and hooding ceremony last December. This is a photo of Dr. Ellerbe with his dissertation chair, Dr. Susan Blunck.

September 30th - October 3rd

Baltimore, Maryland

Hosted by UMBC

Co-sponsored by MICA and Morgan State University

Have you been wondering how to connect your learning, teaching, research, and work to meeting society’s complex challenges? You’re not alone! This fall, UMBC will host the national conference of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. Imagining America is a national consortium of colleges, universities, and organizations dedicated to advancing the public and civic purposes of arts, humanities, and design. 

From September 30 to October 3, 2015, join faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate students, community organizers, and artists from all over the country who use scholarly, artistic, social, and entrepreneurial resources to address pressing challenges. As we collectively find new footing in our examination of real-world issues, Imagining America provides a source for information and ideas in support of engaged undergraduate and graduate pedagogies, public scholarship, and institutional-change initiatives. This is an excellent opportunity to see what this work is all about and meet scholars from across the nation—and it is happening right in the center of Baltimore City, and here on the UMBC campus!

Imagining America chose UMBC as the 2015 conference host six months before the nation turned its attention to Baltimore in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death. Our selection is a testament to the long record of powerful civic work underway at UMBC, and to campus leaders’ commitment to fostering civic agency, engaged scholarship, and a culture of innovation and inclusive excellence. UMBC’s Imagining America planning team, consisting of staff, faculty, alumni, and graduate and undergraduate students, has been leading a conference organizing process that includes Baltimore grassroots organizations, non-profit organizations, and other Imagining America university partners MICA, Morgan, and Towson to ensure sustainable impact in Baltimore beyond 2015. Post-conference organizing is already underway!

The LLC is well represented in IA as some of our faculty and alumni have lead the conference's organizing committee:

Also, members of our LLC community will present in some of the panels of IA:

The Language, Literacy & Culture PhD Program is pleased to announce that Dr. Isabel Moreno-Lopez was promoted to Full Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Goucher College. Dr. Moreno-Lopez graduated from the LLC Program in 2002 (she was in the first cohort of the program and was the second student to graduate from it).

Dr. Moreno-Lopez´ teaching interests include critical pedagogy, peninsular and Latin American literature, queer studies and translation and Interpretation. Her research focuses on classroom assessment and the intersection of experiential learning with language courses through technology, community-based learning and study abroad experiences.

Her recent publications include Critical Activities in the Spanish Classroom: A Qualitative Study (NECTFL Review, 2015), Quantitative Study Comparing Network-based Language Teaching (NBTL) to Traditional Spanish Classes (Revista de Educación, 2013) and Outcomes of an Interdisciplinary Study Abroad Course: Learning Spanish and Multicultural Education Concurrently (Intercultural Education, 2012).  Dr. Moreno-Lopez often presents at national and international conferences. On July 10th, 2015 she co-presented research with her department colleagues entitled “Think Outside the Classroom: Innovative Ways of Enhancing Foreign Language Learning” at the Twenty-Second International Conference on Learning at CEU San Pablo University  in Madrid, Spain. 

We are pleased to announce the inaugural issue of out new eNewsletter, Of Note. It provides an overview of some of the recent, notable accomplishments and activities of the Language, Literacy & Culture PhD Program’s faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

Also, we want to invite you to let us know about your recent accomplishments during this new academic year: publications, presentations, exhibitions, participation in events, etc. If you want to share your achievements, please send an email to Felix Burgos, fburgos1@umbc.edu.

Enjoy!

View or Download the eNewsletter HERE

UMBC's Graduate Student Association (www.umbc.edu/gsa) allocates up to $2,500 in research support to all students during the course of their graduate education. However, this money is only available to graduate programs with active student representation in the GSA. So we MUST have a representative at every meeting. It has been customary that two LLC students share this position. Last year, Uzma Rashid attended monthly Senate meetings, which usually occur from 5-7 p.m on the first Monday of the month during the fall & spring semesters.

We kindly ask the collaboration from two new or current students to become LLC representatives in the GSO senate!

Also, we would like to let current and incoming LLC students know that we are inviting everyone to be active members of the GSO. We must have an executive board to receive the GSA money for the organization.

The outgoing LLC GSO Executive Board would like to invite everyone to consider joining the Board. Our past president, Dr. Uzma Rashid has graduated. The remaining members of the 2014-2015 executive board have expressed their desire to continuing serving as GSO officers. However, if there is more than one person interested in becoming an office-bearer for the same position, we will hold elections for those positions.   

 

President: Felix Burgos

Vice-President: May Chung

Treasurer: Erin Berry

Secretary: (open)

Please contact Felix Burgos (fburgos1@umbc.edu) for details and to volunteer to be a GSA Senator or to nominate yourself or someone else for the GSO Board!

Thank you!

The Language, Literacy & Culture Doctoral Program is pleased to announce that Professor Cedric Herring will be its next Director beginning August 23, 2015. Prior to coming to UMBC last year, Dr. Herring was Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  He was also the Founding Director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy and former Interim Head of the Department of Sociology at UIC.  Dr. Herring is also former national President of the Association of Black Sociologists and recipient of the Joseph S. Himes Lifetime Achievement Award.

The LLC Program extends its sincere gratitude to Dr. Craig Saper who has served as its Director for the past three years.  During his tenure as director, Dr. Saper managed the growth of the program from eight affiliated departments to nine.  He also conducted a thorough analysis of the program for LLC’s 7-year External Academic Program Review and obtained the approval of the USM for LLC to grant masters degrees.  He will remain Professor in LLC and will gladly devote more of his time to research.

Please join us in welcoming Cedric Herring in his new role within the LLC Program.