Announcements

Baltimore Stories: Morrell Park: A Community Conversation Event

11/16/16 - 7:00 PM

The 4th Baltimore Stories Art of Transformation event: Morrell Park: A Community Conversation Event.

Baltimore Stories: Narrative 4 Story Exchange

11/15/16 - 7:00 PM

Baltimore Stories: Narrative 4 engages a group of Baltimore high school students and Baltimore first responders in a structured story exchange as a way to break down barriers and increase empathy.

Arts and Humanities Center for Synergy

ANNOUNCING THE SOCIETY FOR TEXTUAL SCHOLARSHIPS 2017 CFP

1/30/17

ANNOUNCING THE SOCIETY FOR TEXTUAL SCHOLARSHIP’S 2017 CFP

The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) and the Andrew W. Mellon-funded African American Digital Humanities Initiative (AADHum) invite your participation in “Textual Embodiments,” the Society for Textual Scholarship’s International Interdisciplinary Conference for 2017.

Date: Wednesday, May 31 - Friday, June 2, 2017

Location: University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland USA

Program Chairs: Neil Fraistat, Purdom Lindblad, Catherine Knight Steele, Raffaele Viglianti

Deadline for Proposals: February 26, 2017

Keynote speakers: Marisa Parham (Amherst University)

Susan Brown (University of Guelph)

Our conference theme is "Textual Embodiments," broadly construed. With this theme we hope to engage a range of issues involving the materiality of texts, including their physical, virtual, or performative manifestations as objects that can decay or break down and can potentially be repaired and sustained over time. It also concerns the processes of inclusion and exclusion through which bodies of texts take shape in the form of editions, archives, collections, and exhibition building, as well as the ethical responsibilities faced by textual scholars, archivists, conservationists, media archeologists, digital resource creators, and cultural heritage professionals engaging in these processes.

As always, the conference is open to submissions involving interdisciplinary discussion of current research into particular aspects of textual work: the discovery, enumeration, description, bibliographical analysis, editing, annotation, mark-up, and sustainability of texts in disciplines such as cultural studies, literature, history, musicology, classical and biblical studies, philosophy, art history, legal history, history of science and technology, computer science, library and information science, archives, lexicography, epigraphy, paleography, codicology, cinema studies, new media studies, game studies, theater, linguistics, and textual and literary theory. Considerations of the role of computational methodologies, tools, and technologies in textual theory and practice are of course welcome, as are papers addressing aspects of archival theory and practice as they pertain to textual criticism and scholarly editing.

Especially welcome are interdisciplinary papers addressing the theme of Textual Embodiment in the fields of Black Diaspora Studies, Indigenous Studies, LGBTQ Studies, Latinx Studies, Disability Studies, Women’s Studies, and Critical Theory.

Submissions may take the following traditional forms:

1. Papers. Papers should be no more than 20 minutes in length, making a significant original contribution to scholarship. Papers that are primarily reports or demonstrations of tools or projects are discouraged.

2. Panels. Panels may consist of either three associated papers or four to six roundtable speakers. Roundtables should address topics of broad interest and scope, with the goal of fostering lively debate with audience participation.

3. Workshops. Workshops should propose a specific problem, tool, or skill set for which the workshop leader will provide expert guidance and instruction. Examples might be an introduction to forensic computing or paleography. Workshop proposals that are accepted will be announced on the conference Web site (http://www.textual.org) and attendees will be required to enroll with the workshop leader(s).

4. Submissions may also take the form of Open Fishbowl sessions. Drawing on the expertise of both speakers and attendees, Fishbowls are small group discussions in which 5 initial participants face one another in a circle, in the middle of the larger audience. Participants cycle out as audience members join the inner circle to create dialogue across perspectives and different types of research. Submitted proposals should include a brief statement as to the core idea or theme for the fishbowl, emphasizing its relation to conference themes or relevance to the larger Textual Studies community. Naming some or all of the initial five “fish” is encouraged. Potential topics for Fishbowl session might include, for example, “Minimal Computing, Globalized Editions,” “Participatory Editions,” and “#ArchivesSoWhite.”

Proposals for all formats should include a title; abstract (250 words max.) of the proposed paper, panel, seminar, or workshop; and name, email address, and institutional affiliation for all participants. Format should be clearly indicated. Seminar, fishbowl, and workshop proposals in particular should take care to articulate the imagined audience and any expectations of prior knowledge or preparation.

All abstracts should indicate what if any technological support will be required.

Inquiries and proposals should be submitted electronically to https://goo.gl/forms/B6xi4SmZAkmwWB9o2/. Responses will be sent by March 10.

ARHU RECEIVES GRANT TO EMPOWER MIGRANT YOUTH THROUGH DIGITAL STORYTELLING

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

FALL 2016 ARHU LEADERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENTS

To: Colleagues

From: Bonnie Thornton Dill, Dean

Date: September 13, 2016

Re: 2016-17 Leadership Appointments

I am pleased to announce the following leadership appointments within the College of Arts and Humanities:

Amanda Bailey is serving as chair of the Department of English, effective July 1, 2016.

Amanda Bailey specializes in Shakespeare, early modern legal studies, political theory, economic history and the history of masculinity in literature. Her most recent book, “Of Bondage: Debt, Property and Personhood in Early Modern England,” examines dramatic literature’s contribution to the developing narrative of debt bondage, shedding new light on the conceptions of indentured servitude and slavery. In addition to publishing in journals such as Shakespeare Quarterly, English Literary Renaissance and Renaissance Drama, she has also co-edited two volumes, “Masculinity And The Metropolis of Vice, 1550-1650” and “Affect Theory, Early Modern Texts.” Her current book project, “A Natural History of Politics: Shakespeare, Sympathy and the Stars,” identifies affinity as foundational to ideas about political agency as based on affect rather than rights.

Bailey joined the faculty in the English department in 2012, coming to us from the University of Connecticut.

She earned her doctorate in English literature from the University of Michigan.

David Ellis is serving as executive director of the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), effective September 7, 2016.

Ellis has nearly 20 years of experience in foreign language teaching, training and curriculum design and is currently focused on developing a model of learner persistence and clarifying the role of technology in foreign language education. He will provide overall leadership and direction to the center, serving as the principal investigator for the Center’s federally-funded STARTALK program, which is designed to increase national capacity in critical-need languages. He is also program manager of the Analysis and Language Learning contract, a federally-funded project to develop self-guided, web-based learning materials in over 100 critical-need languages.

Ellis joined the NFLC in 2006 after leaving the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, where he was a faculty developer. He previously served as deputy director and interim director.

He earned his doctorate in second language acquisition from the University of Maryland.

Jason Geary is serving as director of the School of Music, effective July 1, 2016.

A respected musicologist and conservatory-trained pianist, Geary has focused his research on the music of nineteenth-century Germany and its role in European cultural and intellectual history. In addition to several articles and book chapters, he is author of “The Politics of Appropriation: German Romantic Music and the Ancient Greek Legacy,” which explores the reception of ancient Greece as it relates to German music and culture of the 1800s. His latest book project investigates the theme of childhood in nineteenth-century music amid changing ideas about children that emerged during the late Enlightenment. His work has been recognized by, among other honors, a Fulbright grant and a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

As a young pianist, he won competitions that resulted in performances with the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra, and at New York’s Alice Tully Hall.

Geary joins UMD after a 12-year career at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where he served as associate professor and associate dean for graduate studies, equity and inclusion.

He earned his doctorate in musicology from Yale University.

Catherine Knight Steele is serving as the inaugural director of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded “Synergies Among Digital Humanities and African American History and Culture” initiative, effective August 15, 2016.

Steele is an expert in digital media, online communication and race. Her research examines the representation of marginalized communities in the media and how those populations use online technology to create spaces of community and resistance. Her current project focuses on digital black feminism and how the technical and imaginative possibilities of new media are shaping online black feminist discourse.

Steele comes to UMD from Colorado State University, where where she was an assistant professor of journalism and media communication.

She earned her doctorate in communication from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Please join me in congratulating our new leaders in the College of Arts and Humanities. I would also like to take this opportunity to offer my warm thanks to the former directors and chairs: former Director of the School of Music Robert “Bob” Gibson, who will continue teaching, performing and composing, following a research leave; and former Chair of the Department of English Kent Cartwright, who will continue his research in medieval and renaissance literature.

Fall 2016 ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Below is a list of enrichment opportunities for ARHU faculty, staff and students for fall 2016. We hope you will be able to join us for some of these exciting events. Faculty, please consider incorporating some of these events into your syllabi and pass these opportunities along to your students. A copy of these events is available for download here. If you have something you would like to be included in this listing, please submit them to arhusynergy@umd.edu.

Artist Partner Program
3RD Annual NextNOW Fest
September 9 & 10, 2016; The Clarice
Most events are free. All events are freeing.Just because class will be in session doesn’t mean festival season will be over! NextNOW Fest kicks off the school year and The Clarice’s 2016–2017 season with a creative welcome and welcome back for Terps. Experience two days of nonstop music, theatre and dance performances and immersive, technology-driven installations by artists from around campus and the country. NextNOW Fest is open to all. Be a part of what’s next now! For the latest details, we encourage you to join our weekly email list and RSVP to the Facebook event page. (While you're at it, join us on Twitter and Instagram too.)

Careers in Performing Arts Panel
Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, 5-6 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Learn from and connect with alumni working in all aspects of the performing arts field during this panel discussion. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please contact Kate Juhl at kjuhl@umd.edu.

Career Shuttle to the Phillips Collection
Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, 8:45 am- 1 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Take a career field trip to the Phillips Collection to learn about available internship and job opportunities. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please contact Kate Juhl at kjuhl@umd.edu. Space is limited- RSVP soon!

UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Mamela Nyamza: Performance and Conversation
Friday, September 16, 2016, 6:30pm; The Clarice, Dance Theatre
Free, No Tickets Required
Dancer, choreographer and performance artist Mamela Nyamza confronts South African political issues and radically challenges the notions of who can be a classical ballerina.

Central American Film Festival
September 16-18, 2016; Stamp, Hoff Theatre
All films and events are free and open to the public. Films are in Spanish with subtitles.
The Central American Film Festival will include three feature films from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica, as well as various documentaries and film shorts, all made in and/or about the people, culture, and politics of Central American countries. Hosted by the Latin American Studies Center at the University of Maryland. Co-sponsored by the Departments of Spanish and Film Studies. This CAIFF festival has traveled to El Salvador and Los Angeles and now joins us in College Park, Maryland! For festival line-up and descriptions, see: www.centralamericanfilmfest.com. This event is being held in honor of Latino Heritage Month at UMD and nationwide. Contact the Latin American Studies Center for more information (lasc@umd.edu).

Engaging Imagination: Helping Students Become Creative and Reflective Thinkers
Monday, September 19, 2016, 12-1:30pm; McKeldin 4123
Free, No Tickets Required
This session is a combination of talk, hands-on exploration and discussion to focus on the ways that creativity, imagination and play can be harnessed to our approaches to teaching across the disciplines - as opposed to our focus on practice or content. Rooted in pedagogic theory and with a scientific underpinning it gives participants the opportunity to hear about imaginative teaching practices in a variety of contexts and take away ideas that are readily adaptable and applicable to colleagues' own subjects and interests. Come ready to play with some Legos!

Artist Partner Program
Bassem Youssef
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 & Wednesday, September 21, 2016; The Clarice, Gildenhorn Recital Hall
Bassem Youssef, Egyptian political satirist, talks about democracy and free expression. باسم يوسف الكوميدي المصري الساخر يرافق الأستاذ الدكتور شبلي تلحمي لمناقشة باللغة العربية حول السياسة وحرية التعبير.

Artist Partner Program
Piesni Leara / Songs of Lear: Song of the Goat Theatre
Friday, September 23, 2016 & Saturday, September 24, 2016; The Clarice, Gildenhorn Recital Hall
Taking top honors at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, this poetic and visceral song cycle distills Shakespeare’s darkly tragic King Lear to its musical essence. Join the artists for a conversation following each performance.

WORLDWISE Arts and Humanities Dean’s Lecture Series
Claudia Rankine in Conversation with Sheri Parks
Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016, 5:30-7:00pm; The Clarice, Gildenhorn Recital Hall
Free, but ticketed
Award-winning poet Claudia Rankine joins Sheri Parks for an intimate conversation on the role of public education, specifically art, in the making of American democracy. The event combines a poetry reading from Rankine’s New York Times best-seller “Citizen: An American Lyric,” and a discussion in which the two engage audience members on themes related to race, art and citizen making. In partnership with the Democracy Then and Now: Citizenship and Public Education Program. This event and free (ticketed) and open to the public.

UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
The Call
By Tanya Barfield
Directed by Eleanor Holdridge
Friday, September 30, 2016 - Saturday, October 8, 2016; The Clarice, Kay Theatre
Tanya Barfield’s smart and darkly funny story about transracial adoption explores racial and cultural identity.

UMD School of Music
UMD Concert Choir: Duruflé Requiem
Edward Maclary, conductor
Steven Seigart, organ
Sunday, October 2, 2016, 3pm; The Clarice, Dekelboum Concert Hall
The UMD Concert Choir opens its 2016 - 2017 season with Duruflé's contemplative Requiem for mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, mixed chorus, organ, and chamber orchestra.

DeVos Institute of Arts Management
Introduction to Arts Management for UMD Students and Alumni: Lecture and Discussion Series
Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - Wednesday, November 9, 2016; The Clarice, Faculty/Staff Lounge
Free, Registration Recommended
Do you have an interest in the arts? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to run a symphony or a museum or a performing arts center? Do you have an interest in what it takes to market or fundraise for a dance or theater company? Join the leadership of the University of Maryland’s DeVos Institute of Arts Management and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center for a four-session lecture and discussion series which will introduce you to the business of arts management through the lens of The Clarice. The series is designed for participants to attend all four sessions, although it is not mandatory. To register, contact Syrah Gunning at segunning@devosinstitute.net.

Artist Partner Program
Small Business/Big Art: Quinteto Latino
Thursday, October 6, 2016, 5:30pm; The Clarice
Free, Registration Recommended
A roundtable discussion about artist-led small businesses.

Artist Partner Program
Composer Reading: Quinteto Latino
Friday, October 7, 2016, 5:30pm; The Clarice
Free, No Tickets Required
UMD composers will have their new works performed by this California-based wind quintet.

UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
MFA Dance Thesis Concert: Waking Darkness. Waiting Light.
by Colette Krogol and Matt Reeves|
Friday, October 7, 2016 - Sunday, October 9, 2016; The Clarice, Kogod Theatre
MFA Dance candidates Colette Krogol and Matt Reeves present their thesis work in a joint concert that exhibits Krogol’s exploration of her Cuban-American heritage and Reeve’s examination of origin myths.

UMD School of Music
UMD Symphony Orchestra: Shostakovich 10
James Ross, conductor
Friday, October 7, 2016, 8pm; The Clarice, Dekelboum Concert Hall
Shostakovich’s creative force was so strong, he once said, “If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth.” Voted by UMSO performers as the work they most want to perform this season, Symphony No. 10 is paired with selections from Bernstein’s On the Town, the 1944 musical about three sailors enjoying a 24-hour shore leave in New York City, and Variations on a Theme by Haydn composed by Brahms.

Government Employer Meet-Up
Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, 12-2 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Interested in government? This meet-up will connect you to employers who are hiring in these fields. The meet-up is a casual environment where you can meet representatives and ask questions over a light lunch. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please contact Lydia Woods at

Artist Partner Program
Family Art Day at Langley Park Community Center: Quinteto Latino and Others
Saturday, October 9, 2016, 10am; Langley Park Community Center
Free, Registration Recommended
Artful fun for the whole family! Join in for lunch, crafting and salsa lessons to the sounds of Quinteto Latino at nearby Langley Park Community Center.

UMD School of Music
UMD Wind Orchestra: Black Sounds and Vivid Colors
Lee Hinkle, percussion
Michael Votta, conductor
Saturday, October 8, 2016, 8pm; The Clarice, Dekelboum Concert Hall

Artist Partner Program
Quinteto Latino
Sunday, October 9, 2016, 3pm; The Clarice, Gildenhorn Recital Hall
Quinteto Latino blends the vibrant colors and vigorous rhythms of Latin American music with the sumptuous voices of the wind quintet.

Careers in Libraries, Museums & Archives
Monday, Oct. 10, 2016 from 5-6 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Learn from and connect with alumni working in libraries, museums & archives during this panel discussion. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please contact Kate Juhl at kjuhl@umd.edu.

Law School Fair
Tuesday, October 11, 2016, 1-4 pm; Grand Ballroom, Stamp Student Union
Considering law school? Don’t miss this chance to connect with many law school admissions recruiters at one time to get your questions answered. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please contact Greg Shaffer at gshaffer@umd.edu.

Artist Partner Program
Wallflower: Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak Dance Company
Thursday, October 13, 2016, 8pm; The Clarice, Kay Theatre
Costumed from head to toe in colorful hand-knitted body suits, 10 dancers throw away the conventions of western movement and create startling shapes and shocking sculptural configurations with their bodies.

Artist Partner Program
Meklit
Friday, October 14, 2016, 7pm & 9pm; The Clarice, Kogod Theatre
Drawing from her Ethiopian heritage, Meklit Hadero performs a unique and thrilling blend of jazz, folk, hip-hop and more.

UMD School of Music
UMD Choirs Showcase Concert
Friday, October 14, 2016, 8pm; Memorial Chapel
Free, No Tickets Required
The warm acoustics of the Memorial Chapel will ring with the sounds of choral masters in this showcase of UMD's choirs.

HR/Recruiting Employer Meet-Up
Friday, Oct. 14, 2016, 12-2 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Interested in HR or recruiting? This meet-up will connect you to employers who are hiring in these fields. The meet-up is a casual environment where you can meet representatives and ask questions over a light lunch. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please contact Caroline Lee at clee91@umd.edu.

UMD School of Music
Music in Mind: Henri at 100: Mystery and Memory
Sunday, October 16, 2016, 3pm; The Clarice, Gildenhorn Recital Hall
An engaging retrospective of composer Henri Dutilleux’s most powerful compositions, created from the wreckage of postwar Europe. Presented with works of Debussy and Ravel.

Technology, the Brain and Audience Expectations: Vying for Attention in “Generation Elsewhere”
Monday, October 17, 2016, 4-6:30pm; The Phillips Collection
As new technologies have dramatically altered 9-to-5 modes of communication, work, and leisure, have they also changed—consciously or unconsciously—what today’s audiences expect from their encounters with art? How will the cultural sector’s ability to develop and market its content compete in an era of cognitive and behavioral change accelerated by new technologies? This debate explores how the contemporary brain is changing as a result of its encounter with new technologies, and how this change must be addressed—even manipulated by—administrators and artists.

Language Career & Internship Fair
Wednesday, October 19, 2016, 11 am- 3 pm; Colony Ballroom, Stamp Student Union
Do you speak another language, have cross-cultural career interests or want to work, intern or teach English abroad? If so, this fair is for you! Connect with 35+ organizations looking to hire you. Open to all undergraduate, graduate students, alumni and their spouses/partners. For more information, please contact Kate Juhl at kjuhl@umd.edu.

Artist Partner Program
Schick Machine
Paul Dresher Ensemble
Friday, October 21, 2016, 8pm; The Clarice, Kay Theatre
Large-scale invented instruments and a flurry of spinning and thrashing metal help percussionist Steve Schick tell a story of infinite possibilities. Join the artist onstage after the performance to explore and ask questions.

Careers in Event Planning
Monday, Oct. 24, 2016, 5-6 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Love to plan events? Learn from and connect with alumni in this fast-paced, exciting field during a panel. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please contact Kate Juhl at kjuhl@umd.edu.

Music in Mind: Meriam Fried, violin
Tuesday, October 25, 2016, 8pm; The Clarice, Gildenhorn Recital Hall
Free, No Tickets Required
Internationally renowned violinist Miriam Fried performs an all solo Bach program. Fried has played with virtually every major orchestra in the United States and Europe and has been a frequent guest with the principal orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as with the Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony. Recital tours have taken her to all of the major music centers in North America and to Brussels, London, Milan, Munich, Rome, Paris, Salzburg, Stockholm and Zurich. Earlier in the day at 12:30pm, Ms. Fried will give a masterclass in Gildenhorn Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

Art into Public Spaces Conference
UMD School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Maya Brin Residency Program
Friday, October 28, 2015, 9am-5pm; St. Mary’s Hall/Language House
More about the event: https://sllc.umd.edu/russian/mayabrin

Artist Partner Program
Creative Conversation: Jerusalem Quartet
Sunday, October 30, 2016, 2pm; The Clarice
Free, No Tickets Required
Before the concert, join members of the Jerusalem Quartet for a conversation about the program and about the history of the ensemble.

Artist Partner Program
Jerusalem Quartet
Sunday, October 30, 2016, 3pm; The Clarice, Gildenhorn Recital Hall
This award-winning Israeli string quartet performs with a unique combination of confident energy and exquisite sensitivity.

Careers in Arts Management Webinar
Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 12-1 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Interested in arts management? Learn more about this exciting career path during a special webinar. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please contact Kate Juhl at kjuhl@umd.edu.

Visual Arts Hiring Fair
Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 5-7 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Are you skilled in graphic design, video production or animation? If so, join us for the Visual Arts Hiring Fair, a reverse career fair in which employers will circulate around the room to meet students and see work samples. Open to all majors (with skills in graphic design, video production and/or animation). For more information, please contact Kate Juhl at kjuhl@umd.edu. Space is limited- RSVP soon!

UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
The Wild Party
Friday, November 4, 2016 - Friday, November 11, 2016; The Clarice, Kogod Theatre
Against a backdrop of 1920s jazz era music, a couple sets out to throw the party to end all parties, escalating to a deadly game of one-upsmanship. With book, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Based on the poem by Joseph Moncure March.

The Business of Arts Meet-Up
Friday, November 4, 2016, 12-2 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Interested in the management and/or business side of the arts? This meet-up will connect you to employers who are hiring in these fields. The meet-up is a casual environment where you can meet representatives and ask questions over a light lunch. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please contact Kate Juhl at kjuhl@umd.edu.

Career Shuttle to Google DC
Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, 8:30 am- 1 pm; 3100 Hornbake Library, South Wing
Join us on a career field trip to Google DC to learn about non-technical career paths with their organization. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students in non-technical majors. For more information, please contact Kate Juhl at kjuhl@umd.edu. Space is limited- RSVP soon!

Artist Partner Program
Point of Interest: Raphael Xavier
Thursday, November 10, 2016 & Friday, November 11, 2016; The Clarice, Dance Theatre
This minimalistic hip-hop piece from self-taught hip-hop dancer and breaking artist Raphael Xavier offers audiences multiple perspectives on the inner workings of dance. Join the artists for a conversation following each performance.

UMD School of Music
UMD Symphony Orchestra: Beethoven Symphony No. 8
Eric Kutz, cello
James Ross, conductor
Friday, November 11, 2016, 8pm; The Clarice, Dekelboum Concert Hall
Considered lighthearted but not lightweight, Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony is paired with Debussy’s beloved Impressionist piece, La Mer. In honor of the 100th anniversary of Dutilleux’s birthday, his cello concerto Tout un monde lointain, written for Rostropovich, will be performed by faculty artist Eric Kutz.

Music in Mind: 12 Strings and 88 Keys
Wednesday, November 16, 2016, 8pm; Gildenhorn Recital Hall
Free, no tickets required
Irina Muresanu, violin
Katherine Murdock, viola
Eric Kutz, cello
Rita Sloan, piano
This program of masterworks for piano quartet features one of Brahms' most emotionally charged chamber works, the Piano Quartet in c-minor, op. 60, alongside the beloved Mozart's Piano Quartet in E-flat Major KV 493 and the Andalusian folk music infused Piano Quartet in a- minor, op. 67 by Joaquin Turina.

Artist Partner Program
NEXTLOOK: Flying V
It's the Rest of the World that Looks So Small: A Theatrical Review of Jonathan Coulton
Thursday, November 17, 2016, 7pm; Joe's Movement Emporium
Pay What You Wish, No Tickets Required
Using dance, theater and a live band, Flying V stages a collection of cult singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton’s hilarious music, which encompasses everything from zombie co-workers to lonely sea monsters.

UMD School of Music
Maryland Opera Studio: The Rape of Lucretia
Craig Kier, conductor
Amanda Consol, director
Friday, November 18, 2016 - Tuesday, November 22, 2016; The Clarice, Kay Theatre
Benjamin Britten’s haunting chamber opera explores a brutal ancient crime to find meaning in suffering.

UMD School of Music
Opera Resonates: An Ancient Crime in the Artist’s Eye: The Rape of Lucretia
Sunday, November 20, 2016, 1:30pm; The Clarice, Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library
Free, No Tickets Required
A conversation about what stays with us long after the last high note has been sung in the opera.

UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Second Season: Blood Memories: Women and Violence Repertory
Two plays written by Jonelle Walker and Leticia Ridley
Written by Jonelle Walker and Leticia Ridley
Directed by Brittany Ginder
Friday, November 18, 2016 - Saturday, November 19, 2016; The Clarice, Cafritz Foundation Theatre
Free, Tickets Required
Two original plays by Jonelle Walker and Leticia Ridley that focus on women as victims and perpetrators of both systematic and physical violence, in the present as well as in the past.

Artist Partner Program
Kekuhi Keali’ikanaka'oleohaililani & Kaumakaiwa Kanaka’ole
With Shawn Pimental, guitar
Friday, November 18, 2016 & Saturday, November 19, 2016; The Clarice, Kogod Theatre
A mother and transgender daughter duo take the stage to showcase traditional Hawaiian cultural practices through dance, poetry and song.

UMD School of Music
Korean Drumming Concert
Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 7:30pm; The Clarice, Dekelboum Concert Hall
Free, No Tickets Required
Experience the sights, sounds, and rhythms of Korean percussion — Samulnori! This exhilarating contemporary form of Korean music will be performed by the UMD Korean Percussion Ensemble.

Artist Partner Program
Jazz Clinic: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah
Friday, December 2, 2016, 12pm; The Clarice
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and his band perform and discuss their work and inspiration.

Artist Partner Program
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah: Stretch Music
Friday, December 2, 2016, 7pm & 9pm; The Clarice, Kogod Theatre
A concert featuring the Grammy-nominated trumpeter hailed as the father of Stretch Music, a genre that stretches jazz’s conventions to encompass many other musical forms and cultures.

UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Second Season: The Goldfish By Shuping Yang & B.W.A. (Black Woman’s Anonymous) By Whitney Geohagan and April Monu
Friday, December 2, 2016 - Saturday, December 3, 2016; The Clarice, Cafritz Foundation Theatre
Free, Tickets Required
In The Goldfish, follow the journey of a Chinese son as his scandalous cousin pays him a sudden visit before his wedding night. B.W.A. (Black Woman’s Anonymous) explores what it means to be an African American woman in America.

UMD School of Music
Gamelan and Koto Concert
Friday, December 2, 2016, 8pm; The Clarice, Kay Theatre
Free, No Tickets Required
The complex interlocking rhythms of Balinese music on percussive instruments, the myriad expressions and the delicate motions of Balinese dance unite in the UMD Gamelan Saraswati. The quiet beauty, simplicity and harmonizing effect of Japanese nature are revealed in the music of the UMD Koto Ensemble.

UMD School of Music
Music in Mind: UMD Symphony Orchestra: Migration Series
Friday, December 2, 2016, 8pm; The Clarice, Dekelboum Concert Hall
In its first collaboration with new partner The Phillips Collection, the UMD School of Music Symphony Orchestra performs Derek Bermel’s Migration Series, joined onstage by UMD’s Jazz Band, Chamber Singers and Wind Orchestra. The performance is inspired by paintings from The Phillips Collection’s Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence, depicting the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North between the World Wars. Duke Ellington’s Harlem depicts the Harlem Renaissance, and John Harbison’s Flight into Egypt continues the migration theme.

UMD School of Music
Maryland Gospel Choir Concert
Saturday, December 3, 2016, 7:30pm; The Clarice, Dekelboum Concert Hall
Free, No Tickets Required

UMD School of Music
UMD Wing Orchestra & Wind Ensemble: Circus Maximus
Michael Votta, conductor
Sunday, December 4, 2016, 4pm; The Clarice, Dekelboum Concert Hall
John Corigliano’s Circus Maximus for wind orchestra is, like the ancient Roman arena, built both to embody and to comment on massive and glamorous barbarity. A large and theatrical piece, the audience is encircled by musicians, literally becoming the center attraction of the grand arena. This massive work is contrasted with two chamber pieces, Bernard’s elegant Divertissment for woodwinds and Ewazen’s Symphony in Brass.

UMD School of Music
Winter Big Band Showcase
UMD Jazz Ensemble, UMD Jazz Lab Band & University Jazz Band
Chris Vadala, conductor
Monday, December 5, 2016, 7:30pm; The Clarice, Kay Theatre
In this annual event, director Chris Vadala brings together three ensembles in innovative interpretations of classic and contemporary jazz works.

WORLDWISE: Arts and Humanities Dean’s Lecture Series:
Taylor Branch and Isabel Wilkerson in Conversation with Sherrilyn Ifill
Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016, 7-8:30pm; The Clarice, Kay Theatre
Free, but Ticketed
What is the impact of the humanities on American life? As part of the Pulitzer Prizes’ centennial celebration, we’ve partnered with Maryland Humanities to present Pulitzer Prize-winning author-historians Taylor Branch and Isabel Wilkerson. NAACP’s Sherrilyn Ifill will moderate an engaging discussion between the two on the historical context behind their Pulitzer Prize-winning work and its relevancy to our lives today.

Artist Partner Program and Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library
Margaret Leng Tan, Piano: Cabinet of Curiosities
Thursday, December 8, 2016, 8pm; The Clarice, Kogod Theatre
Avant-garde pianist and the world’s first toy piano virtuoso, Margaret Leng Tan, performs a joyful evening of music played on pianos large and small.

Artist Partner Program
NEXTLOOK: Afro House - Ebon Kojo: The Last Tribe
Friday, December 9, 2016, 7pm; Joe’s Movement Emporium
Pay What You Wish, No Tickets Required
Pianist and composer Scott Patterson uses acoustic piano, synth keyboards and sound design to weave together a story of space exploration, environmentalism, family relationships and greed.

UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Shared MFA Dance Thesis Concert
Bearglove for Cary. Ask Her. By Sarah Beth Oppenheim
Full Circle: Bridging the Gap By Chris Law
Friday, December 9, 2016 - Sunday, December 11, 2016; The Clarice, Dance Theatre
MFA Dance candidates Sarah Oppenheim and Chris Law present their thesis concerts. Oppenheim’s process-oriented work features a DIY aesthetic; Law uses the hip-hop cypher to explore personal and community themes.

Additional opportunities at The Clarice “For Student Terps”

To submit a new opportunity email arhusynergy@umd.edu with relevant details.

THREE UMD AFRICAN-AMERICANISTS AWARDED FELLOWSHIPS

Congratulations to ARHU professors La Mar Jurelle Bruce, Julius B. Fleming Jr. and Christopher J. Bonner, who received fellowships for their research projects related to African-American literature, history and culture.

Bruce, Fleming and Bonner were part of an African-Americanist cluster hire, joining a community of scholars at the University of Maryland (UMD) that are at the forefront of the discussion on race and produce scholarship at the intersections of history, literature, gender studies and artistic expression.

La Mar Jurelle Bruce, Assistant Professor in the Department of American Studies

La Marr Jurelle Bruce was awarded the 2016 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, which is sponsored by the Ford Foundation and administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. He is one of only 21 scholars to receive the postdoctoral fellowship in this year’s rigorous nationwide competition.

Bruce’s scholarship focuses on “blackness and feeling—that is, the phenomenological, affective, and erotic textures of black life across the diaspora,” Bruce said. “I am especially interested in how feeling informs, inspires, infuses, and sometimes inhibits black expressive cultures,” he added. At UMD, he teaches courses in Africana and American performance, literature, visual art and popular culture.

The fellowship will fund Bruce for the 2016-17 academic year while he completes his first book, “How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind: Madness, Blackness, and Radical Creativity.” The book is a study of black artists who mobilize “madness” within radical performance and literature. Proposing a theory of madness that addresses its floating signification—and traverses its phenomenological, clinical, sociocultural, and political dimensions—Bruce confronts “the mad” in the work of Charles Mingus, Nina Simone, Amiri Baraka, Ntozake Shange, Patricia J. Williams, Lauryn Hill and Dave Chappelle, among others.

“African American artists have deployed ‘madness’ as content, methodology, metaphor, form, aesthetic and existential posture in an enduring black radical tradition,” Bruce said. “By ‘going mad,’ these artists also expose and convey the violence, chaos, strangeness, wonder, paradox, and danger—in short, the phenomenological madness—that infuses modernity’s racial drama.”

Bruce will be hosted by the Center for Africana Studies and the Department of Music at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During his time there, he will be mentored by Guthrie Ramsey, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Ford Foundation Fellowship Program awards pre-doctoral, dissertation, and postdoctoral scholarships to scholars who promote diversity in the academy.

Julius Fleming Jr., Assistant Professor in the Department of English

Julius Fleming Jr. was awarded a post-doctoral residential research and teaching fellowship at the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia, where he will be completing his first book manuscript, “Technologies of Liberation: Performance and the Art of Black Political Thought.” In addition, he will begin his second book project, which examines the intersections of race, medicine and capital in black performance and literature—19th century to the present.

Fleming specializes in twentieth and twenty-first century African diasporic literatures and cultures, with particular interests in performance, visual culture, sound studies, philosophy and medicine, particularly how they intersect with race, gender and sexuality. He was inspired to pursue his field of research when he was an undergraduate student at Tougaloo College, a private, historically black college in Central Mississippi that served as a bastion for civil rights activism.

The Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia funds residencies for scholars who specialize in the study of Africa and the African diaspora. Fleming will be part of the post-doctoral program that offers a two-year research and teaching fellowship.

Christopher Bonner, Assistant Professor in the Department of History

Christopher Bonner was a 2015-16 recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Library Company of Philadelphia. The fellowship has enabled him to work on his current book project, “The Price of Citizenship: Black Protest, American Law, and the Shaping of Society, 1827-1868,” which examines the lives of free Africans who were working to define citizenship and secure rights in the decades before the Civil War.

Bonner chose to pursue the NEH fellowship in Philadelphia, a city that is considered a center for African American politics before the American Civil War broke out in 1789.

In his book project, Bonner poses questions about how people can change their government and about what black freedom means in a slaveholding society. His ultimate goal, Bonner says, is to shed light on the contributions of black activists before the end of slavery and their role in the creation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which is considered the foundation for citizenship and rights for the modern United States.

“I've been drawn to this work as a way of exploring the long history of struggles for civil rights in the United States,” Bonner said. “I'm also interested in understanding how black Americans have related to and worked to transform the structures of American law and government.”

The NEH Post-Doctoral Fellowship supports scholarship related to United States history and the Atlantic world from the 17th through the 19th centuries. It provides a monthly stipend and access to conduct research in residence at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

About the College of Arts and Humanities

The College of Arts and Humanities has made serious investments in African American culture and history, hiring faculty clusters in African American literature and history, adding to the strong community of African Americanist scholars already spread across the campus’s many colleges. The university is also home to important research centers such as the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity and the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora.

Through interdisciplinary collaborations led by the College of Arts and Humanities, UMD is also expanding the breadth of research possibilities in the fields of African American history, literature and culture, and the digital humanities. A new project co-directed by the Arts and Humanities Center for Synergy and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)—“Synergies among Digital Humanities and African American History and Culture”—will utilize digital humanities to develop tools, methods and archives to address African American themed research questions.

VAN PELT ON THE TIGER EFFECT

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt is asking an important question for the world of professional golf after Tiger Woods’ victory at the Masters Tournament nearly 20 years ago: “Why haven’t more African Americans joined the game?”

In collaboration with the University of Maryland’s Arts and Humanities Center for Synergy, Van Pelt is moderating a daylong symposium, “Race, Social Class and Professional Golf,” on Friday, March 4, to ask and address questions of race and social class in professional golf.

Van Pelt believes it is important that we engage in a dialogue on issues of race and culture and how we use language in framing controversial topics. As this year’s Masters Tournament approaches in April, questions of diversity in sports resurface in our conversations and in the media.

The symposium is free and open to the public. To register, click here.

Van Pelt has been covering golf for years. He kickstarted his sportscasting career at the Golf Channel and then moved on to ESPN, where he currently serves as a presenter for SportsCenter and is one of the network’s top golf correspondents. He covers major golf tournaments including the Masters Tournament and the U.S. Open.

This is an arts and humanities themed race discussion to support the campus’s initiative–The Maryland Dialogues on Diversity and Community–a series of events that aims to help advance discussions of identity, difference and commonality. The Maryland Dialogues (include link) emphasize issues of race and racism, not in isolation but in relation to issues of gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity and language, each of which will be the focus of future lectures and symposiums on campus.

This event is co-sponsored by the University of Maryland’s Golf Course and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Media space is limited; credentialed media only; advance media registration required.

WHEN:

Friday, March 4, 2016, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

9 a.m. – Welcome, Bonnie Thornton Dill, professor and dean, College of Arts and Humanities

Introduction: Scott Van Pelt, alumnus, ESPN commentator and anchor, SportsCenter

9:15 a.m. – Session 1: Journalists and industry officials

Steve Burkowski, reporter and producer, Golf Central, Golf Channel
George Bradford, alumnus, PGA golfer

10:30 a.m. – Session 2: Academics and authors

Othello Harris, sports sociologist, professor, University of Miami of Ohio
Jane Stangl, dean, first-year class, Smith College; sports sociologist, consultant to LPGA
Rose Harper, founder, Grass Ceiling Inc.; originator, Golf Digest Minority Golf Summit and PGA Tour Wives Association

Noon – Lunch break

1:30 p.m. – Session 3: The life and work of an African American golfer

Harold Varner III, PGA golfer

3 p.m. – Session 4: Q/A and action recommendations

Jon Guhl, Middle Atlantic executive director, PGA
Clint Sanchez, executive director, The First Tee of Greater Washington, D.C.

WHERE:

University of Maryland Golf Course, 3800 Golf Course Road, College Park, MD 20742

MEDIA:

Media coverage of the event is welcome; however, space is limited and restricted to credentialed media who have pre-registered. Media badges will be distributed on site.

To register, media representatives should send email requests and RSVP to:

Nicky Everette, director of marketing and communications for the College of Arts and Humanities, at meve@umd.edu or 301-405-6714.

Please indicate: name(s) and position(s), media affiliation, credentials possessed [these will be required at check-in] and full contact information so we can confirm your request. We will email you a confirmation of your registration, along with parking and check-in details.

DOCUMENTING THE NOW: ARCHIVING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR GENERATIONS TO COME

COLLEGE PARK, MD -- A two-year, $517,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will fund a project called “Documenting the Now: Supporting Scholarly Use and Preservation of Social Media Content.” Washington University in St. Louis, the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland and the University of California, Riverside, are collaborators on the project.

The project responds to the public’s use of social media for chronicling historically significant events as well as demand from scholars and archivists seeking a user-friendly means of collecting and preserving digital content.

As part of the project, the three institutions are developing DocNow, a cloud-ready, open-source application that will be used for collecting tweets and their associated metadata and Web content.

Twitter emerged as one of the most important channels of communication during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo., when it served as a primary conduit for disseminating information. DocNow will be developed using tweets and Web content related to the events in Ferguson, resulting in a data set that can be used in research.

“The DocNow application will provide scholars with new ways of gathering and analyzing data from Twitter, which is a tremendous source of documentation on contemporary events,” said Chris Freeland, project co-principal investigator and associate university librarian at Washington University in St. Louis.

DocNow is among a growing number of applications that make social media datasets available for noncommercial, scholarly research. The app will be specifically designed to help authenticated users tap into Twitter streams to identify Web content that is of value for current and future research.

“We at MITH are honored to be partnering with Mellon, Washington University and the University of California to ensure that the documentary record around events such as the protests in Ferguson can be studied in an ethical, timely and cost-effective manner,” said Ed Summers co-principal investigator and technical lead on the project “I am specifically interested in the challenges of not only collecting and analyzing the data, but also packaging and archiving it for future use.”

Scholars on the project also seek to produce a white paper on ethical, copyright and access issues related to the collection of social media content.

Bergis Jules, co-principal investigator and community lead at the University of California, Riverside, hopes the DocNow project will be a catalyst for community building around the scholarly use and preservation of social media archives.

“Community building will be vitally important as we continue to develop standards and effective practices around the collection and access to this rich content, said Jules. “I’m excited The Mellon Foundation is supporting this project as it will be an important contribution to scholarship on social media archiving.”

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About the University of Maryland College Park

The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 37,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty includes three Nobel laureates, two Pulitzer Prize winners, 49 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution has a $1.8 billion operating budget, secures $500 million annually in external research funding and recently completed a $1 billion fundraising campaign. For more information, visit www.umd.edu.

About Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis was founded in 1853 as a non-denominational community of scholars and now ranks among the nation’s leaders in higher education. The university’s undergraduate, graduate and professional programs are highly regarded. Its libraries’ hold distinguished collections of rare books, manuscripts and that draw scholars from around the world. For more information about the university and its libraries, visit wustl.edu and libraries.wustl.edu.

About the University of California, Riverside

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.

Photos by Jamelle Bouie

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AND MARYLAND HUMANITIES COUNCIL AWARDED NEH GRANT TO ADVANCE DISCOURSE ON RACE

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A $225,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded to the College of Arts and Humanities at University of Maryland (UMD) and the Maryland Humanities Council will fund a series of public programs that are designed to explore the way citizens of Baltimore are thinking about the narratives that influence the life and identity of the city. Major partners will include the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Dresher Center for the Humanities, the Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

The initiative, Baltimore Stories: Narratives and the Life of an American City (Baltimore Stories), seeks to establish a model that utilizes humanities scholarship— literature, history, philosophy, communication, art and cultural studies—to produce print and digital materials that help frame and contextualize narratives of race in American cities. The project will also shine a spotlight on the ongoing, collaborative work being done in Baltimore neighborhoods by universities and non-profit organizations.

“During the uprising, Baltimore residents had lively conversations about the stories that shape our perceptions of each other,” said Sheri Parks, co-project director of the initiative and associate dean for research and interdisciplinary programming in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland. “We are elated to use this grant as a platform to continue these conversations.”

The NEH announced yesterday $21.8 million in grants, including $3.6 million devoted to new “Humanities in the Public Square” grants that support community discussions on the relevance of the humanities to civic life.

“We are honored to answer the call that NEH Chairman Adams issued earlier this year to use the humanities to ‘take up the grand challenges of our time,’” said Phoebe Stein, co-project director of the initiative and executive director of the Maryland Humanities Council. “The equity that needs to be created here in Baltimore, and across much of the nation, can begin with the humanities as they give us contexts for understanding and addressing this inequity and the narratives that undergird it. The humanities facilitate the conversations that can ultimately contribute to solutions.”

The idea for Baltimore Stories was born from UMD’s third annual Baltimore ThinkAThon, which was held April 30, 2015 in the midst of the Baltimore protests. Over 100 participants from the state’s major cultural institutions gathered to demonstrate the efficacy of humanities-based ideas and methods in the real world. Many proposed projects centered on the way stories shaped the understanding of the protests, and narrative emerged as a central concern.

“Narrative or the collectives of stories we tell ourselves and each other is also a major focus of the humanities, so we hope to help citizens investigate and contextualize the past, present and future to uncover truths and move communities toward reconciliation,” said Parks.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 37,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty includes three Nobel laureates, two Pulitzer Prize winners, 49 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution has a $1.8 billion operating budget, secures $500 million annually in external research funding and recently completed a $1 billion fundraising campaign. For more information, visit www.umd.edu.

ABOUT THE MARYLAND HUMANITIES COUNCIL
The Maryland Humanities Council is a statewide, educational nonprofit organization that creates and supports educational experiences in the humanities that inspire all Marylanders to embrace lifelong learning, exchange ideas openly, and enrich their communities. For more information, visit www.mdhc.org. The Maryland Humanities Council is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the State of Maryland, and the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Awards.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.

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