Undergraduate

By Tom Hall & Bridget Armstrong | Midday on WYPR

"The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities are two of 17 federal agencies that appear to be targeted by the Trump administration for elimination, as its budget inclinations lean heavily toward defense spending. The state of Maryland funded arts institutions at the highest level ever last year, and the Governor has proposed an additional $1 million this year, bringing the allocation for the arts to $21 million in Fiscal Year 2018. Ironically, Baltimore City Schools are facing drastic cuts. Principals looking to trim expenses, may have to make cuts to music and visual arts programs. 

"An organization called Arts Every Day is holding a symposium this weekend that will call attention to the role that arts education plays in boosting attendance, improving test scores and making schools vibrant parts of their communities.

"Tom and Dr. Sheri Parks speak with arts educators and advocates about what the arts can do for kids and their families. They also talk about the cost of funding arts programs and if that cost is worth it when belts are being tightened locally and nationally."

Listen to the complete podcast: Midday on WYPR

The Center for Synergy in the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) has received a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund “Home Stories,” a digital storytelling project that empowers migrant youth to create and share their stories with the wider public.

The award is part of NEH’s inaugural Humanities Access grants, which provide cultural programming to underserved groups and were awarded to 34 organizations. The grant is designed to encourage fundraising and sustainability of ongoing programming.

The project co-directors are Ana Patricia Rodríguez, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and Sheri Parks, associate dean of research, interdisciplinary scholarship and programming and associate professor of American studies.

The project responds to the growing number of often-unaccompanied migrant youth who travel to the U.S.-Mexico border and eventually seek to reunite with families, relatives or friends who live in the long-standing Central American communities near the University of Maryland. These newcomers navigate multiple identities but rarely have the opportunity to reflect on or share these experiences. Despite the scale of youth migration to this area, there is little research or ethnographic work generated about or by these youth.

“We are living in a historical moment where there is an explosion in migration,” says Rodríguez.  “Digital storytelling is a way of uncovering these stories and making them accessible to a wider public, and it is something that anyone can learn.”

“Home Stories” extends the Center for Synergy’s ongoing Social Innovation Scholars Program into the public humanities. Through the project, undergraduate students at the University of Maryland will enroll in a multi-semester course with Rodríguez to learn about the migrant experience while collaborating with migrant youth from local middle and high schools to explore digital storytelling.  Digital stories are multimedia movies that combine voiceovers, video, sound and text to create a narrative. Both in and out of the classroom, they are a tool for not only developing technical skills, but also promoting self-reflection and critical thinking.

“The project is a way of connecting students who have the technological skills with migrant youth in communities who have important stories to tell,” says Rodríguez.  “Digital storytelling is a democratizing tool that allows these stories to be created and shared across communities.”

The project will work with youth in local schools that enroll large numbers of recently arrived migrant youth from Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean and culminates in a community screening of the filmed stories these youth produce, which will then be available on a public website.

“The humanities help us study our past, understand our present, and prepare for our future,” says NEH Chairman William D. Adams. “The National Endowment for the Humanities is proud to support projects that will benefit all Americans and remind us of our shared human experience.”

Image Credit:
Close up of Child Migrant Quilt Project (September 2014)
© Ana Rosa Ventura-Molina 2014

As part of the Pulitzer Prizes’ Centennial Celebration, the College of Arts and Humanities and Maryland Humanities present Pulitzer Prize-winning author-historians Taylor Branch and Isabel Wilkerson. Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund will moderate a discussion between the two on the historical context behind their work and its  relevancy to our lives today. A book signing and reception will follow the event.

Who: The event will feature Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “America in the King Years,” a landmark history of the civil rights era, and Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration."

What:  NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund’s Sherrilyn Ifill will moderate a discussion between the two authors on the historical context behind their Pulitzer Prize-winning work and its relevancy to our lives today.

When: Tuesday, December 6, 2016. 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Where: Kay Theatre, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, 8270 Alumni Dr, College Park, Maryland, 20742

Why: This reading and conversation is co-presented by the College of Arts and Humanities and Maryland Humanities for the WORLDWISE: Arts and Humanities Dean’s Lecture Series, which provides an opportunity for the college faculty, students and staff to join together with colleagues across campus for stimulating conversation about issues that cross our disciplines. Lectures and performances may address either enduring or emerging questions central to the arts and humanities, or questions arising from other disciplines to which the arts and humanities might speak.

This event is part of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize Centennial Campfires Initiative, a joint venture of The Pulitzer Prize Board and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Sponsored in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

How: The event is free but tickets are required. Members of the press should contact Nicky Everette, Director of Marketing and Communications, to RSVP.

Contact: Nicky Everette, meve@umd.edu, 301-405-6714

ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES:

The College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland is home to nearly 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 14 academic departments, 20 independent research centers and nearly 300 tenured and tenure-track faculty. The college connects students with expert scholars who teach how to investigate, reflect and analyze the world around them, past and present. Through interdisciplinary approaches to the arts and humanities, students develop into global visionaries and creative problem solvers who thrive in a world of rapidly evolving opportunities. For more information, visit www.arhu.umd.edu.