SUMMER 2020
Interdisciplinary CoLab is a 4-week paid summer internship on narrative-based research offered to undergraduate UMBC students. Participants work in interdisciplinary student teams to create effective narratives about our campus, our larger communities, and our lives. Their research results in public-facing products, such as websites, apps, or videos. Open to all majors, it is an excellent opportunity for students in STEM fields to learn to tell effective stories and for students in social science and humanities fields to gain research and technical skills.
Participants receive a $3000 stipend and a scholarship for a 3-credit internship course. The internship commitment is 30 hours per week (Monday - Friday, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm) during the 4-week Summer Session One, which runs from Tuesday, May 26th - Friday, June 19th.
Low cost summer housing is available in on-campus residence halls and apartments.
For more information, and to apply, please visit:
https://summer.umbc.edu/beyond-the-classroom/colab
SUMMER 2020 PROJECTS
1) A Protocol Manual for Urban Forest Health as Citizen Science: From Patch Sample to Public Advocacy
Project Leader: Dr. Jennifer Maher, English
Project description
The mission of the non-profit organization Baltimore Green Space is "to be a leader and partner in ensuring the communities’ open spaces and forest patches are considered priority assets in the growth and redevelopment of Baltimore.” The organization supports scientific documentation of the “social, health, environment, and economic benefits” green spaces create. The goal for this interdisciplinary team of student researchers will be to produce an urban forest health research protocol manual. Building on the collaboration of Baltimore Green Space, Dr. Matt Baker’s Summer Forest Patch Project, and community land stewards, the CoLab team will create the field manual to enable other advocates of forest health to develop persuasive, evidence-based information related to urban forest health for policymakers and the general public.
Required skills and abilities for applicants
Student members of the interdisciplinary team should share the following traits: intellectual curiosity, strong written and oral communication skills, leadership ability, and solid research skills. Ideally, the team would have student expertise in:
• Environmental science
• Rhetoric/technical communication
• Web design and video editing
2) Jazz and Justice: An American Art Form as Civic Deliberation
Project Leader: Dr. Earl Brooks, English
Project description
Celebrated trumpeter Wynton Marsalis calls jazz a model of participatory democracy and integration. Its performance as well as its complex history bridge the divides between art, rhetorical invention, and civic deliberation. At a time when democracies around the world are grappling with the immense challenges of polarization, wealth inequality, mistrust of institutions, and a media landscape that is as disorienting as it is informative, the history and vitality of jazz takes on a new importance. What does jazz teach us about navigating the issues that paralyze and fracture public consensus? This CoLab attempts to wrestle with such questions by exploring the local history of jazz in Baltimore. Students will work with the Baltimore Jazz Alliance to create content to educate the public about the history and importance of jazz for their newsletter and website.
Required skills and abilities for applicants
This project will require students to build strong written and oral communication skills, facility with multimedia composing platforms (i.e. Adobe Spark, Audacity, iMovie), research skills, leadership ability, logistics, and organizational strategies.
3) People and Places of Baltimore City - An Audio Tour of the Historic Zion Church of the City of Baltimore
Project Leader: Susanne Sutton
Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication
Project description
The Zion Church of the City of Baltimore is one of the oldest churches in the city. Founded in 1755 as “The Evangelical Lutheran Congregation at Baltimore Town,” it serves Baltimore’s German immigrant community. Throughout its over 250-year history, pastors and congregations left their mark on Zion and the city as they led efforts to expand the church, to add a school, and to rebuild after a fire in 1840. Zion Church leaders are looking to modernize the visitor experience to appeal to a wider audience and increase interest in the Church as a central institution in Baltimore. The goal of this project is to produce an audio narrative tour of the historic Church. The CoLab student team will meet with Church leaders, examine historical resources, and, using appropriate technological tools, create audio narratives about the Church and its history for use in a digital visitor guide.
Required skills and abilities for applicants
Team members should have excellent communication and problem solving skills, work well in a group, and be flexible and creative. They should also have an interest in local history. Useful specific skills are: technical skills needed to produce audio narratives and display them and possibly link them to an existing website. Knowledge of historical research methods as well as writing and editing of audience-directed narratives are also important.
4) Radical Literature: Radical Literature in the First Half of the 20th Century
Project Leader: Dr. Kate Drabinski
Gender, Women’s, + Sexuality Studies
Project description
An interdisciplinary team of student researchers will explore UMBC’s Special Collections holdings in radical literature. The collection boasts important primary sources for understanding the history of socialist movements in the United States, and debates within that movement about internationalism, racism, sexism, and other issues. Based on their research, the student team will create an online exhibition for the Special Collections website that will include a historical timeline, digital stories, and 2-4 research essays based on the collection. Additionally, the team will create a pamphlet about the collection that borrows from the style of the documents themselves to advertise the collection. The project’s goal is to make visible the collection’s breadth to encourage researchers, including students, faculty, and researchers from elsewhere, to use the collection.
Required skills and abilities for applicants
Student members of the interdisciplinary team should come to the project with an interest in understanding radical political movements in the past, and strong written and oral communication skills. At least one student should have some experience with graphic design and/or website production. Students will be trained to use the Omeka platform, but it would be helpful to have at least one member of the research team with some familiarity with digital skills.
5) The German-American Cultural Center: Celebrating Baltimore’s History and the German-Americans Who Helped Shape It
Project Leader: Dr. Xenia Wolff
Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication
Project description
The Baltimore City Heritage Area includes Gay Street, a once vibrant main mercantile thoroughfare. The street has notable examples of late 19th and early 20th century small-scale commercial buildings. The last remaining example of this architecture is the Sexton House / Storefront at 146 North Gay Street, constructed in 1922. It is one of three buildings on the campus of the Zion Church of Baltimore. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it will house the German-American Cultural Center. Heritage Walks through City districts give visitors unique glimpses of important landmarks. The German-American Cultural Center will be an important stop along this Heritage Walk. In collaboration with Zion Church leaders, the interdisciplinary team of students will create a well-researched, informative, and entertaining website and a promotional video telling stories of Baltimore’s German-Americans and their role in Baltimore’s history for use in the Center at the Sexton House.
Required skills and abilities for applicants
Diverse skills are needed for the successful completion of this project. The ideal student team will have the following strengths: an interest in local history; ability to work as a group towards a common goal; ability to work with archived texts and images from various sources; interview skills; and web-building and video production skills.
