Announcements

By ARHU Staff

University of Maryland Provost Mary Ann Rankin announced yesterday that Bonnie Thornton Dill’s term as the dean of the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) has been extended until June 30, 2022. 

“Under Dean Thornton Dill’s leadership, the College of Arts and Humanities has secured major donor support for its performing arts programs and initiatives, received numerous significant grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of inclusive humanities and digital technologies, and engaged in several major curriculum initiatives that include new interdisciplinary majors such as Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and Immersive Media Design,” Rankin said in an email to campus leadership and the college. 

Thornton Dill, who has led the college since 2011, has focused her work on increased support and visibility for arts and humanities research; provided leadership for interdisciplinary initiatives within the college and across the campus; supported student engagement with underserved communities; and helped increase the number of UMD’s national scholarship award recipients.

In Spring 2019, ARHU launched an integrated curriculum-career initiative “Be Worldwise. Get Worldready.,” which prepares students for life after graduation. The initiative blends new and reimagined course offerings, integrated academic and career advising and access to internships, alumni networking and other opportunities across the region. 

Thornton Dill looks forward to further advancing this initiative and highlighting to prospective students and families the adaptability of a liberal arts education. Additionally, she will launch robust discussions about the future of the humanities Ph.D.

“I am proud of what the college has achieved over the past ten years and am so thankful to the faculty and staff who have worked diligently to make Maryland a destination for arts and humanities study. I look forward to amplifying the exciting work happening in the college at the intersection of art, culture, technology and social justice and plan to work toward solidifying resources that raise our profile and continue to enable collaborations across disciplines.”

During Thornton Dill’s tenure, the college has been intentionally focused on weaving equity, social justice and inclusion into all aspects of teaching, research and service. She established a 21-person Committee on Race, Equity and Justice, which advises her on goals related to the eradication and dismantling of structural racism and on strategies for ensuring equity and social justice throughout the college, campus and community. This past fall, the campus announced the university’s first honorific naming of an academic department, the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS).

Recognized internationally for her scholarship on the intersections of race, class and gender in the U.S. with an emphasis on African American women, work and families, Thornton Dill is also a professor in WGSS. She is the founding director of both the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis and the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity at UMD. Her scholarship includes three books and numerous articles.

The University of Maryland has been invited to nominate early-career humanities faculty (received their doctorate between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2020) for the 2022-23 cycle of the Whiting Public Engagement Programs. Both TTK and PTK faculty are eligible. These programs aim to celebrate and empower early-career humanities faculty who undertake ambitious projects to infuse the depth, historical richness, and nuance of the humanities into public life. In brief, the two programs are:

• A Fellowship of $50,000 for projects far enough into development or execution to present specific, compelling evidence that they will successfully engage the intended public.
• A Seed Grant of $10,000 for projects at a somewhat earlier stage of development, where more modest resources are needed to test or pilot a project or to collaborate with partners to finalize the planning for a larger project and begin work.

The College of Arts and Humanities will be nominating a full- or part-time, early-career faculty candidate for either program or one for each. If you are interested in submitting an application and wish to be considered as the College nominee for this program, please submit all required application materials except the collaborators documentation to Linda Aldoory by March 5, 2021. ARHU will then invite up to one humanities professor for each program to submit their application to the UMD Limited Submission.

Click here to read the revised guidelines and eligibility criteria for the 2022-23 cycle. 

Dean Thornton Dill's ARHU's Campaign on Race, Equity and Justice have the following goals:

1. Increase knowledge among students and faculty of systemic racism and the issues related to anti-racist practice

2. Transform curriculum and scholarship to center the experiences of historically underrepresented communities

3. Increase engagement and motivation of students, staff and faculty to plan, speak and act for equity, justice and elimination of systemic racism.  

4. Reduce incidents of individual and systemic racism and discrimination found in teaching, research and service in the college

5. Expand the impact of ARHU’s work on racism, equity and justice through community and other partnerships. 

6. Increase awareness across campus of ARHU’s expertise around issues of systemic racism, equity, and inequality.

These goals motivated strategies and tactics in several areas. Some are linked below.

Committee on Race, Equity and Justice:
The committee and its task forces advise the Dean on how to address the goals and work toward the eradication and dismantling of structural racism and ensuring equity and social justice.

ARHU Dean’s Colloquium Series on Race, Equity and Social Justice:
The Colloquium Series highlights faculty experts from ARHU in conversation with the Dean about their scholarship and creative projects related to anti-racism and social justice. The Fall program included five speakers, and four more are planned for Spring, 2021. Click above for more information. 

ARHU Curriculum Addressing Race, Equity and Justice:
We have culled together all ARHU courses that are related to anti-racism and social justice, at the link above. These courses may be available for students outside of ARHU as well.

Center Spotlight on Scholarship and Creative Inquiry:
The above link highlights the expertise of ARHU faculty and those who were awarded grants for their work on race, equity and justice.

By ARHU Staff 

The College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) at the University of Maryland is launching a yearlong colloquium and conversation series, hosted by Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill, to introduce audiences to faculty expertise on issues of systemic racism, inequality and justice. The events are free and will take place virtually. 

The first colloquium will be held Wednesday, Sept. 16 from 9-10 a.m. and features Perla Guerrero, associate professor of American studies and U.S. Latina/o studies. Guerrero’s talk will engage the audience in a discussion on racialization, the different ways Latinx communities are perceived and the way these communities address justice and equity. It will be followed by a conversation with the dean and a Q&A. 

Upcoming talks will focus on topics ranging from ‘racial battle fatigue’ in Black theatre and culture to incarcerated women and media activism. A full list with links to register is available below.  

“This series provides a special opportunity for people to engage with ARHU faculty members, whose expertise on aspects of race, inequality and justice can promote thoughtful conversations and generate ideas for social action and change,” said Thornton Dill. 

The series is part of a new college-wide campaign to address racism, inequality and justice in curriculum, scholarship, programming and community engagement. Among other actions, a recently announced 21-person Committee on Race, Equity and Justice, led by Associate Dean Linda Aldoory and made up of faculty, staff and graduate students, will serve to advise the dean on goals related to the eradication and dismantling of structural racism and on strategies for ensuring equity and social justice throughout the college, campus and community. 

The full list of Fall 2020 colloquia is as follows (spring dates coming soon): 

• Sept. 16, Perla Guerrero, associate professor in the Department of American Studies, will discuss: “How Latinx communities organize for justice and equity and/or experience inequality in different work spaces.” Learn more and register.
• Oct. 6, Marisa Parham, professor in the Department of English and director for the African American Digital Humanities initiative (AADHUM), will discuss: “Purpose, Frivolity, Futures: What, really, is inclusion?” Learn more and register.
• Oct. 26, Scot Reese, professor in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, will discuss: “Racial ‘Battle Fatigue’ in Black theatre and culture.” Learn more and register.
• Nov. 5, Julius Fleming, Jr., assistant professor in the Department of English, will discuss: “His book, ‘Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Refusal to Wait for Freedom.’” Learn more and register.
• Nov. 17, Tamanika Ferguson, presidential postdoc in the Department of Communication, will discuss: “The power of voice and resilience: incarcerated women and media activism.” Learn more and register.
• Dec. 8, Richard Bell, professor in the Department of History, will discuss: “African American political culture, and his book: ‘Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped Into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home.’” Learn more and register.

The University of Maryland has announced the launch of a new Research Leaders Fellows Program for faculty this fall. The program is designed to support its newest research leaders, helping promising scholars expand their impact in their fields while providing the leadership skills to compete for large-scale multidisciplinary awards.

UMD President Darryll J. Pines introduced the Research Leaders Fellows Program in his inaugural message to campus, saying, “In this time of change, we need to be prepared and competitive as new research funding opportunities arise.”

The 10-month program will be organized by the Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR) and will feature ten interactive modules that will prepare and position faculty to advance the growth of their research program to new levels of excellence. Approximately 18 Research Leaders Fellows from across campus will be selected to participate in the initial cohort.  

“The Research Leaders Fellows Program will further advance our research enterprise and prepare our faculty to lead large-scale, transformative research initiatives that achieve broad, societal impact,” said Vice President for Research Laurie Locascio. "This program is timely, because we’re at a critical juncture for public universities in general, and these researchers are at a critical point in their careers. The breakthroughs related to many of the most difficult challenges in our world today—COVID-19, racism, climate change—will come at the intersection of different research disciplines, and the convergence of many ways of thinking.”

The new program will help faculty: 

• Develop unique leadership skills 

• Build and manage large multidisciplinary research teams

• Learn approaches for creative ideation to formulate and capture big ideas 

• Connect with a peer group of similarly focused and motivated researchers 

• Receive individual, personalized mentorship from current research leaders at UMD  

• Learn from other faculty who have successfully pursued and led center-level awards 

• Discover proposal support resources available to help advance large-scale proposals

This program is specifically designed for recently tenured associate professors who have the potential to lead multidisciplinary research initiatives and direct future campus-wide centers or institutes. Nominations will be solicited from the Deans, and candidates are also encouraged to self-nominate, as well. Deans do not need to endorse or review self-nominations. Exceptions for assistant and full professors will be considered with appropriate justification. 

• Research Leaders Fellows Program - Call for Nominations (PDF)
• Research Leaders Fellows Program - Nomination Form (MS Word)

“We are committed to nurturing our young, talented researchers, mentoring them so they can lead the kind of projects that address the grand challenges of our time,” said President Pines. “They represent the next generation of leaders who will help take our research enterprise to new levels of excellence.”