The Dresher Center invites proposals for new Faculty Working Groups in the Humanities. Dresher Center Faculty Working Groups are collaborative, interdisciplinary communities of scholars working on humanities projects, research concerns, or matters of public interest. The Center provides support for the formation of these groups in an effort to promote intellectual exchange and support research activity in the humanities among scholars across campus. Working groups meet regularly and can use their funds to travel to sites or archives, host speakers, explore technologies, create new resources or materials, or other similar activities.

Faculty Working Groups can apply for up to $1,000 in annual support ($500 per semester) for their first-year activities. Priority will be given to groups with at least one member from a humanities department.

Fundable activities include travel to sites or archives, speaker presentations, use/purchase of technology, creation of resources or materials, and support for regular meetings or workshops, etc.

Deadlines for best consideration are November 3rd for groups beginning in spring 2015 and April 1st for groups beginning in fall 2015.

More information and 2015 Application Form: http://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/scholarly-resources/faculty-working-groups-in-the-humanities/

The Imaging Research Center at the UMBC  is partnering with the Maryland Historical Society to create an interactive 3-D representation of Baltimore as it was a few years after the War of 1812. It's called "BEARINGS of Baltimore, circa 1815."

WYPR host Sheilah Kast recently visited the Maryland Historical Society to check out the interactive map. She spoke with Kristin Schenning, Education Director at the historical society, and Dan Bailey, professor in UMBC’s Department of Visual Arts and Director of its Imaging Research Center.

Listen to the story by clicking this link.

Winter Session Student Ambassador

The Office of Summer, Winter & Special Programs seeks an energetic and outgoing junior or senior to serve as an ambassador for Winter Session 2015. The ambassador will assist with on-campus events and other tasks with the goal of connecting with the student population. The ambassador would work closely with the Division of Professional Studies’ marketing team for approximately 4-8 hours per week in the fall. 

The ambassador will:

• Represent Winter Session regularly at in-person events (such as tables in the Commons or athletic events). During events, engage with students about winter session and be able to answer and/or direct their questions.
• Assist with posting flyers across campus and chalking various areas on campus.
• Contribute ideas for how to engage students and spread the word about winter session via in-person events, social media, or through other tactics.
• Assist with gathering student feedback about winter session through polls, surveys and face-to-face interaction.

For consideration, please submit your resume and cover letter to juliem@umbc.edu by Sept. 10.  Students who plan to attend Winter Session 2015 are encouraged to apply, and will be given first priority in the review and selection process.

IMDA alumnus and adjunct professor Gary Kachadourian interviewed by UMBC Visual Arts Professor Mark Alice Durant.

From the introduction to the interview:

Laconic is a word that comes to mind when not only speaking with Gary Kachadourian but also when engaging his artwork. He is eminently likable and articulate but seemingly allergic to self-promotion, Gary could be a charter member of Understaters Anonymous. As an arts administrator, curator, and now active visual artist himself, he has been a constant and vital presence in Baltimore cultural life for most of his adult life.

His drawings are an index of the urban quotidian, dumpsters, utility boxes, weeds, empty lots, port-o-potties, jersey barriers, and parking booths, rendered precisely without a trace of subjectivity or editorial comment.  His largely black and white installations are as funny and familiar as they are ambitious and labor intensive. To step inside one is an experience in quiet disorientation; suddenly the world of color and three-dimensionality somehow seems alien, as if we have been living in the wrong dimension all along.

              - Mark Alice Durant