A resource round-up provided by Women’s Center staff members Meagé and MJ

In case you missed Tuesday’s roundtable on (In)Visible Disabilities and Women (or if you were there and want to keep the conversation going), we thought it might be useful to summarize some of the discussion in addition to linking some useful reading materials and resources.

As with all of our roundtables, we reached out to our panel members and asked them to keep a few guiding questions in mind as they shared their stories and examples. Some of these included:

• Where do the intersections of (in)visible disabilities and gender show up for you personally? In the classroom, peer networks, etc.?

• How does disability relate to issues like reproductive justice, sexual violence, or gender socialization?

• How is the way we talk about disability influenced by gender and sexuality?

• How does ableism impact women with visible vs. invisible disabilities differently?

• Why is this a social justice and/or feminist issue?

On Tuesday, our panelists shared their definitions and experiences of disabilities and their intersection with gender. Rina Rhyne of Voices Against Violence, elaborated on the array of sexual assault/violence perpetrated towards people with disabilities. “Sexual violence is not always physical. Caretakers and partners can manipulate the power and control they hold in relationship.” (See the Power and Control Wheel: People with Disabilities and their Caregivers)  Dr. Julie Murphy spoke to the ways in with ADHD are diagnosed (or not) and the ways in which gender socialization impact the ways in which people respond or react to with women with ADHD. Dr. Kate Drabinski reflected on teaching disability studies and encouraged us to learn more about the social model of disability. Student Leader, Prachi, shared her experience as a Deaf student here at UMBC. She explained the duality of deafness, “it is both an invisible and visible disability.” Prachi also spoke to what it means to be Deaf as a woman of color and called for a change in the way we view disabilities saying, “deafness is not ugly nor is it negative.”

With only an hour to spend together, there’s still so much more we could have discussed and learned together. Below are just a few resources to help us continue to engage in self-reflection and growth.

Thanks to our panel members for the important and rich conversation!

From Stuff Mom Never Told You

• When America’s “Ugly Laws” Hid the Disabled Poor From the Public Eye
• Disabled Sexuality Podcast

From Everyday Feminism

• How Mainstream Feminism Continues to Perpetuate Ableism (And How We Can Change That)
• I’m Not a Person with a Disability. I’m an Disabled Person
• 4 Ways to Be an Ally to People with Invisible Disabilities

News and other articles

• #SolidarityIsForTheAbleBodied, and Feminism’s Ableism Problem
• The hidden victims of campus sexual assault: Students with disabilities
• The Place of Women with Disabilities in Feminist Movements

Helpful Legal Services/ Information on Disability Rights and Accommodations

• Maryland Disability Law Center
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Pro Bono Resource Center – Maryland
• Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service
• JAN Network – Job Accommodation Network
• ADA – Americans with Disabilities Act
• Rape,Abuse & Incest National Network: Sexual Abuse of People with Disabilities
• Power & Control Wheel:People with Disabilities and their Caretakers

On-campus Resources

• Student Disability Services
• AOK Library Assistive Technology
• UMBC Counseling Center
• Voices Against Violence

Read more from other roundtable roundups:

Trans Identities + Mental Health (March 2016)

Black Trauma + Mental Health (February 2016)

White Womanhood + Critical Whiteness (September 2015)

Teri Rueb, assistant professor of visual arts, is creating an interactive Baltimore City tour.

“Teri Rueb: Listening to Baltimore”

“If these walls could speak, what tales they could tell” isn’t just a saying to Teri Rueb, it’s an artistic challenge. The assistant professor of visual arts creates interactive sound installations which allow visitors to explore a terrain on several different levels � listening to its stories, songs, and history � while walking and looking.

“I approach sound from a sculptor’s point of view,” says Rueb, “exploring its spatial aspects,” while also probing themes of time, memory, identity�and technology. In her “Trace” environmental sound installation, Rueb enabled hikers in British Columbia to hear site-specific poems, songs, and musings while carrying a backpack loaded with a Global Positioning Satellite device and small computer. She took the concept to an urban landscape in her Open City installation in Washington, D.C., exploring the idea of public space and civic identity.

Now, with the support of a Faculty Research Fellowship, Rueb will spend the fall 2001 semester creating “Invisible Cities/Sounding Baltimore,” which will collect oral histories from residents of Baltimore neighborhoods and combine them with sound compositions to create a kind of multi-layered, interactive, city tour. “I’ll go to parts of the city that I find sonically interesting, take samplings of the soundscape, and manipulate them, taking artistic license,” she explains. Using a wireless, handheld device combining palm pilot, GPS, and MP3 technologies, listeners will wander through the city and listen to the tales the streets, and walls, can tell.

A not to miss opportunity for those interested in Medical School.

Attend Monday's upcoming upcoming information session with:
Dr. Lloyd Minor, MD
Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine

THIS Monday, April 25th
11:00 AM till 12 Noon
ITE 108 A - Imaging Resource Center

Lloyd B. Minor, MD, is a scientist, surgeon, and academic leader. He is the Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, a position he has held since December 2012. 

As dean, Dr. Minor plays an integral role in setting strategy for the clinical enterprise of Stanford Medicine, an academic medical center that includes the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care, and Stanford Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. He also oversees the quality of Stanford Medicine’s physician practices and growing clinical networks.  More information on his bio can be found here.

Funding for individual artists is often scarce and always highly competitive, but the Baltimore-Washington region is fortunate to have both state and private organizations awarding funds directly to individual artists. Award announcements this spring include many UMBC students, alumni and faculty, whose recognition speaks to ongoing artistic excellence at UMBC.

The Maryland State Arts Council’s annual Individual Artist Award (IAA) “recognizes the importance of artists and their works of excellence to the cultural vibrancy of Maryland.” The award categories cycle every three years and this year awards were given within the disciplines of Creative Non-Fiction/Fiction, Media/Digital/Electronic Arts, Theater Solo Performance, Painting, and Works on Paper. Selected from more than 585 applicants, the 2016 awardees receive grants for $1,000, $3,000 or $6,000 to honor their achievement and to support further advancement of their career.

This year’s recipients, announced March 30, 2016, include Lynn Cazabon, associate professor visual arts; Dominique Zeltzman, M.F.A. ’14, imaging & digital arts; Mina Cheon, M.F.A. ’02, imaging & digital arts; and David Anthony Brown ’99, visual and performing arts. Lynn Cazabon, whose project Portrait Garden includes photographic images of plants selected to represent eleven women incarcerated at Maryland Correctional Institution for Women and audio statements, received the highest award level in Digital Medi. She commented: “This is my 4th MSAC grant since 2003 and the first time winning it in the Digital Media category. The recognition and validation of the award is valuable in and of itself but also the merit basis means the funds can support any aspect of my work, not just a specific project.”

Finalists for the 11th Annual Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize were also recently announced and include Christos Palios ’02, visual and performing arts, a fine art photographer “whose work probes ideas and aspects of identity, memory, and isolation within urban, industrial, and natural spaces.” Palios’ work can be found in public and private collections all over the country, and has appeared in such online publications as F-Stop Magazine and Dotphotozine. The award is designed to support artists working in the Greater Baltimore area, and the winner, to be announced July 9 at the Baltimore Museum of Art, will receive a $25,000 fellowship to further their career. The work of the seven finalists will be presented in the Thalheimer Galleries at the Baltimore Museum of Art from Wednesday, June 22 through Sunday, July 31, 2016.

UMBC community members who were semifinalists for the prize include Marian Glebes, M.F.A. ’09, intermedia and digital arts; Jason Hughes, M.F.A. ’15, intermedia and digital arts; Vincent Carney ’06, visual arts; Ben Marcin ’80, economics; and Lynn Cazabon, associate professor of visual arts. An exhibition of the semifinalists’ work is shown in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries of MICA on Friday, July 15 through Sunday, July 31, 2016. An opening reception for the semifinalist exhibition takes place July 14, 2016, 6-9 p.m. at MICA, located at 1303 W. Mount Royal Avenue.

Finalists for the 2016 Baker Artist Award were also recently announced and include Vin Grabill, associate professor of visual art; Richard Chisolm ’82, interdisciplinary studies; Stephanie Schafer ’00, visual and performing arts; and current Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA) students Jeffrey Gangwisch, M.F.A. ‘18 and Christopher Kojzar M.F.A. ’18. This year, five artists will be selected to win $85,000 in prizes: the $50,000 Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize, the $20,000 Mary Sawyers Baker Prize, and three $5,000 prizes (the Semmes G. Walsh, Nancy Haragan, and Board of Governors Awards). These prizes will be awarded “to artists who exemplify a mastery of craft, commitment to excellence, and a unique and compelling vision.” Awardees will be announced on May 12 on a special episode of Maryland Public Television’s “Artworks” program.

Images by Lynn Cazabon: Above left, installation of Portrait Garden interactive poster in Baltimore Light Rail car; above right, Portrait Garden (C, Echinacea purpurea), 22″ x 23″, 2014

Cybersecurity concerns continue to make headlines, including the recent attacks at MedStar Health and fraudulent tax returns being filed for Baltimore City employees. In response to this, many local governments, like their counterparts in the private sector, are taking steps to protect their websites and information.  

UMBC’s School of Public Policy hosted a forum on “Cybersecurity Concerns in Local Governments” on Friday, April 15 to present research on cybersecurity initiatives in local governments in Maryland and to highlight the policy implications of these initiatives. The event was sponsored by the UMBC School of Public Policy, bwtech@UMBC Cyber Incubator, and the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity. 

Speakers included School of Public Policy Professor and Director Donald Norris, Anupam Joshi, professor and chair of computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE) and director of UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity, Rob O’Connor, chief technology officer for Baltimore County, and Gayle Guilford, chief information security officer for Baltimore City.

Norris discussed cybersecurity challenges in local governments across the country based on his research. In 2013, along with Joshi, he convened a focus group of technology officers from around Maryland to identify challenges and what governments are doing to help prevent cyber attacks.

“It was fascinating, because in part, we went in thinking cybersecurity is a technology problem and that the technology would fix itself,” Norris explained. “But people, policy, and process in government and large organizations are almost always the problem.”

Norris found that technology professionals in government identified people as the weakest link in cybersecurity threats because of phishing emails, lack of user training, under enforced and inefficient policies, and lack of funding to deal with cybersecurity threats.

To further research constantly evolving cybersecurity challenges in local government, Norris and his colleagues developed a questionnaire which will be conducted through the International City and County Management Association (ICMA) for city and county governments with populations greater than 50,000 around the country. They anticipate receiving the results this summer.

“We want to find out what local governments across the nation say are their biggest cybersecurity problems and the barriers that they face in addressing cybersecurity,” Norris said.

Joshi discussed various policies that are needed to keep computer and data systems secure, and said that policies should ideally be written in terms that both people and computers can easily interpret. “We need shared ontology that many systems can understand,” he explained. Computer systems can use policies to better understand the computer system’s actions and behaviors and identify issues and cybersecurity threats as they arise.

To regulate access to information, Joshi recommends having adjustable responses and a “need to know versus need to share” framework that can determine who has access to what levels of information. For example, he said that a general question, such as a person’s location, can be answered generally or very specifically. Sharing the state where the a person is located is less helpful than knowing what city they are in, and sharing GPS coordinates is the most helpful information. This method can be applied to providing access to information and data that needs to be kept secure and confidential.

He says that it is increasingly difficult to walk away from a cyber attack, especially if the cyber attack is in progress. “Technology evolves so quickly that hacks also have to evolve rapidly,” Joshi said.

Gayle B. Guilford, chief information security officer for the City of Baltimore, pointed out that the “new ransomware does not require human interaction,” so education about maintaining security on computers needs to change. “It used to be ‘don’t click,’ now you don’t even have to click,” she said, adding that the users should be the biggest group identifying oddities and suspicions.

“End users are the biggest vulnerability, but need to be the biggest defense,” said Rob O’Connor, chief technology officer for Baltimore County.

Note: On the same day as the forum, Norris and Richard Forno, assistant director of UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity, were quoted in a Baltimore Sun article about fraudulent tax returns being filed for Baltimore City employees. Read “Federal, state authorities investigating source of data used to steal city employees’ tax returns” on the Baltimore Sun website, and “Investigation into Baltimore City Employees’ Stolen Tax Returns Underway” in Government Technology.

Forno also was quoted in “Maryland National Guard steps up role in cyberspace” on the Baltimore Sun website, and “Why haven’t hackers taken down the power grid?”in Parallax.

Image: Cybersecurity Forum Speakers (from left to right): Donald Norris, Gayle Guilford, Anupam Joshi, and Rob O’Connor. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. 

This is a blog post written by student staff member, Carrie Cleveland.

This post is reflective of my own journey in trying to embrace who I am while trying to work on improving my overall health.  I chose to write about what I am doing because it is an important part of who I am right now. Everyone has their own path, this just happens to be mine.

So I joined a gym. Not just a regular gym with a bunch of treadmills and elliptical machines. I joined  Conquest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA gym. I mean, what middle aged, overweight woman decides that this is the way that she’s going to lose weight?  At least, I didn’t think it would be my personal path. But, it went something like this…

I saw a post on Facebook for a weight loss challenge that said that for $100 I’d receive 10 weeks of classes and nutritional coaching. There are classes specifically for women called Fight Fit. They are like Crossfit mixed with some punches and kicking. I also get access to their yoga classes.  I love me some yoga!  I thought “what the hell?!” and I signed up.

It took my ENTIRE being to not make that same face as the woman in green!

The first day that I walked in to the gym, I was measured and my weight was taken. I knew the woman who was doing this for me, and when I stepped up on the scale, I cried. I was so upset with myself that my weight was as high as it was. I immediately felt a sense of shame, but I did not want to let that shame stop me from taking the next step on this journey.

Photographic evidence of my first Fight Fit class

After the traumatic weigh in, I walked in and started my class. Everyone looked super fit and healthy and in shape. I mean, professional MMA fighters train at this gym. Come on! I definitely thought my fat ass did not belong there (this warrants an entire post on its own but this blog sort of sums it up) but I got through that first workout with some modifications. I was surprised though that all these people that I just met were amazingly supportive. I think I had a preconceived idea that everyone would be super judgy and think I did not belong. The instructors all were willing to meet me where I am at and help me modify some things so I could get through the workouts.  I was not expecting the huge levels of support I would receive from all of them and truly, it is priceless.

The next day I woke up and could barely move. My entire body hurt. Every muscle was sore. By the end of that day I basically crawled into bed and just curled up in a ball because I felt like I could no longer function. Then Monday came and I did something I thought I would not do.

I went back.

I took another class, and I was so surprised because it was hard and the workout SUCKED, but I did it. I got through it and I was so proud of myself. The other women in the class were cheering me on and encouraging me. I mean who does not want that?!?!

Repeat like 1000 times

For the past five weeks I have gone to classes almost regularly. I have made modifications to my diet like eliminating sugar and alcohol, and it is making a difference. I have noticed small changes in myself and I am shocked. My pants are looser. I am less sore after a workout. My wedding rings fit again after what feels like forever. Today, one of my friends stopped me and told me I looked good.  It was such a great affirmation of my hard work and even though I know my value is not determined in how I look or how much I weigh, I do appreciate someone noticing that I am working on me.

I have five weeks to go and I think I have a real chance of winning the challenge. After these first few weeks though I realize it is not about the potential prize at the end, it is about me. Many women, myself included, spend so much time taking care of other people that we put ourselves last on our own list. I am so guilty of this and I need to do better. I need to make myself a priority and that is what I am doing right now. I stepped out of my little box of fear and I tried something new. When I did that I found a gym that met me where I am at and embraced the person I am.  The trainers, yoga instructor, and the other students have been nothing but encouraging and helpful.

Daniel recently wrote this blog about how important it is that we treat ourselves with love. His words ring so true to my own journey in valuing myself and my body.  Although our paths are different, I believe our destinations are similar.  We just want to feel good about the body we are in. This is very reflective of what the body positivity movement is trying to teach all people. I am a work in progress but I feel good for the first time in a long time about who I am TODAY and who I can be TOMORROW.