Mary Rivkin, Education, on Chevy Chase Patch

Mary Rivkin, associate professor of education, recently shared her opinion on the Capital Crescent Trail with readers of the Chevy Chase Patch website.

“The Trail is a safe and healthy way to travel to school for many children, and it could be so for many more, with clear benefit,” she wrote, arguing that the plan to impose a two-track light rail—the Purple Line—on the trail’s Bethesda-Silver Spring section is shortsighted.

Her op-ed, “Good for Children? The Capital Crescent Trail—Let’s Keep It,” appeared on the Chevy Chase Patch.com site on June 20.

Seth Sawyers ’99, History, in The Morning News

Growing up in rural western Maryland, history alumnus Seth Sawyers ’99, history, couldn’t possibly have known what was in store for him—or how his world would expand—as a student at UMBC. Now an English lecturer at UMBC, Sawyers shares some of those initial experiences in an essay appearing in The Morning News:

When I was 18, I left the skinny part of Maryland and woke up in a place paved over with asphalt, girded by concrete, nourished by it. I awoke fascinated by the mechanized hum, disoriented, wide-mouthed before the man-made angularity, the downtown steel visible from the top floor of the college library. I woke up that September in the middle of the great flowering of the American Dream. I woke up in the suburbs.

Read the full story here, and link to additional essays by Sawyers.

Zynep Tufekci, Sociology, in the News

Recently named to Foreign Policy Magazine’s Twitterati 100 list for 2011, UMBC sociologist Zeynep Tufekci has become a central figure in new media studies through her blog, technosociology. Most recently she discussed recent events at the intersection of technology and politics on “The Marc Steiner Show” and commented on gender segregation in the field of computer science in the New York Times opinion feature, “Room for Debate.”

“Addressing why bright young women gravitate toward other majors will not just diversify the field and increase the supply of students, but also improve the way programming is taught and practiced,” writes Tufekci in “Change the Cowboy Culture.”

Later this summer, Tufekci will be moving on to the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She will be greatly missed at UMBC, but we look forward to following her writing on technosociology and @techsoc on Twitter, and catching her presentation at TEDxMidAtlantic 2011 on October 29 in Washington DC.

Christopher Corbett, English, in Style

In his latest essay for Style magazine, Christopher Corbett, professor of the practice of English, reminisces about the unstructured summers of his youth. “Most days were spent risking life and limb crossing railroad trestles or scaling vacant buildings,” he remembers.

Corbett also laments the fact that today’s children do not have the same freedom that he enjoyed. “Today, there is no time for wet cement, no time for disturbing hives… The summer these children know is not the summer of not so long ago. I fear adults have plainly ruined the season,” he says.

The essay, “Time Change,” appeared in the July-August issue of Style magazine.

Donald Norris, Public Policy, and Todd Eberly ’06, Ph.D., on WYPR’s “Maryland Morning”

UMBC’s Donald F. Norris, chair of public policy, and Todd Eberly ’06, Ph.D., appeared on “Maryland Morning” with Sheilah Kast, exploring the role of “political operatives” in relation to the deceptive robocalls made during Maryland’s 2010 gubernatorial election. Responding to news coverage of the indictment of Julius Henson and Paul Schurick on charges related to the calls, the program interrogates the concept of the “political operative” and what is and is not protected as free speech during a campaign.

Norris also appeared in the Baltimore Sun’s front page story on the U.S. Conference of Mayors last week, where he commented on the impact (or lack thereof) that Baltimore’s hosting of the conference might have on Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s reelection bid. He also offered insight on the proposed expansion of the Howard County Council to reflect a growing county population. He asked the key question: “Does a larger or smaller council improve democracy?”

UMBC Grad Student Huguens Jean on “PEP Talk!”

Just two weeks after receiving his first documentary directing award from the 2011 Amsterdam Film Festival, Huguens Jean appeared in an extensive 23-minute interview on “PEP Talk!” Radio (6:45-29:30). The interview focuses on Jean’s film “Lift Up,” as well as his UMBC experience, including both his dissertation research in electrical engineering and his friendship with co-director and UMBC alumnus Philip Knowlton ’03, visual arts. Learn more about future “Lift Up” screenings through the documentary website or by “liking” the film on Facebook.

UMBC Researchers Find 1 in 30 Maryland Adults Has a Gambling Problem

On June 13, Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) released “Gambling Prevalence in Maryland: A Baseline Analysis,” prepared by a team from UMBC’s Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR). Mandated by a 2007 law authorizing video lottery terminals, the study found that although gambling is largely a positive activity for Marylanders, 3.4% of Maryland adults experience problem or pathological gambling. The research team was led by Judith Shinogle (MIPAR), with Donald F. Norris (Public Policy) and DoHwan Park (Mathematics and Statistics), and they considered gambling through casinos, lottery, horse and dog racing, bingo, sports, private games and websites.

Shinogle explains, “the baseline study determines the geographic regions where Marylanders gambled prior to the implementation of slots.” Future studies will be necessary “to determine whether the implementation of slots can be associated with any subsequent changes in problem gambling behaviors and negative social impacts.” For more information, see the UMBC press release or read the full report from MIPAR. This research also appeared on the Baltimore Sun Picture of Health blog, WYPR news and WBAL radio, which included an interview with Shinogle.

Psychology Faculty in the Afro American

The Afro-American recently featured UMBC faculty Shawn Bediako and Danielle Beatty, assistant professors of psychology, and Adia Garrett Butler, psychology lecturer, who received a $3,000 grant from the American Psychological Association to work with Baltimore City High School students to increase the diversity pipeline into psychology. The researchers hope that they can inspire minority students to study psychology in college and beyond.

“Clearly, as you go farther up the career ladder in psychology, there are fewer and fewer people of color,” said Bediako. He said it’s imperative to expose more young people to the career and increase the number of minority students pursuing graduate-level studies.

During the year-long program, called ASPIRE (Applied Social Psychology Intensive Research Experience), the faculty members will mentor three students each, meeting after-school twice-a-month to introduce them to research methods, statistics, scientific writing and dissemination.

The story, “UMBC Faculty Receives Grant to Increase Diversity Pipeline into Psychology,” appeared in the Afro-American on June 16.

Bruce Lesh, Center for History Education, in the Carroll Eagle

Bruce Lesh, co-founder and consulting director of the Center for History Education as well as a history, government and politics teacher and chairman of the social studies department at Franklin High School, in Reisterstown, recently received a 2011 Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Education Award.

“I try to teach [students] how to evaluate evidence and make, substantiate and articulate an argument,” said Lesh, who has taught for 18 years in the Baltimore County school system. “These are the kinds of things that have longevity. If they forget particular facts, they can always go Google them.”

Lesh is also the author of the recently published textbook, “Why Can’t You Just Tell Us the Answer?: Transforming High School History Instruction.”

The Carroll Eagle profiled Lesh and his teaching style in a June 12 story entitled “History is no mystery for teacher from Westminster.”

Bill Thomas Delivers Energizing Talk on Elderhood at TEDxSF

“We inhabit a culture that worships youth with near religious zeal. And youth—or more accurately, our obsession with achieving an everlastingly youthful adulthood—is sucking the life out of us,” argued Bill Thomas, at the TEDxSF conference on June 4 in San Francisco. Thomas is a geriatrician, founder of the Eden Alternative and Green House Project to abolish nursing homes, and faculty at UMBC’s Erickson School. In seeking to improve the living conditions of older adults, Thomas challenges what he describes as our society’s failure to recognize elderhood as a rich and meaningful stage of life following adulthood. “It is good to live one’s adult years with the knowledge that the torrid pace of that life stage is not permanent,” Thomas argues, “We are meant to outgrow adulthood and leave its fevered realm behind.” Watch his talk online and read his accompanying op-ed, published in the San Fransisco Chronicle.