ellen handler spitz in czech republic and india

Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, spent her winter break traveling to the Czech Republic, for research, and to India, where she gave the first annual alumni lecture to English Alumni Association of Ravenshaw University in Cuttack and the keynote address at the International Seminar on Children’s Literature and Politics.

Spitz shares an account of her journeys and experiences abroad below.

My trip started in the Czech Republic, where I am researching the children’s drawings from Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp. This project started for me years ago when Peter Jelavich, a Weimar period historian who is now at Johns Hopkins University , asked me to work with him on a children’s opera, ‘Brundibar’ by Hans Krasa, which was produced in the camp and performed entirely by children. (This opera was performed last year in Baltimore at the Chizik Amuno Synagogue, where I gave an illustrated introductory talk.) Since first visiting the camp 20 years ago, I have written and lectured on the opera and Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, the Bauhaus-trained artist who became the children’s art teacher. Over 4,000 drawings survive today, saved and hidden by her before she was taken to the gas chambers of Auschwitz; to write on them is my next project.

umbc on “60 minutes”

We met a man with an unusual name you’ve probably never heard of, but his message about education and America’s future is something we thought you should know.

Freeman Hrabowski says the United States is not producing enough scientists and engineers – professions critical to creating more jobs.

Hrabowski is president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. UMBC, as it’s called, was once known primarily as a commuter school. Today, this mid-sized state university has earned a reputation as one of the most innovative schools in the country. Especially when it comes to getting students into math and science and keeping them there.

So begins a segment on “60 Minutes” that follows UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and Meyerhoff students and alumni to explain the UMBC approach to graduating more students, especially minorities, in STEM fields.

See the full segment here.

Leslie Morgan Helps Sun Readers Find Quality Assisted Living

“When an older family member needs supportive housing, there’s often a rush to find a place with the ‘best quality,’” wrote Leslie Morgan, professor of sociology, in an October 3rd Baltimore Sun op-ed. “But what is quality?” she asked. “Do family or friends value the same things as the future assisted-living resident?”

In searching for assisted living for a family member, Morgan recommends looking beyond a facility’s cosmetic factors to attend to the individual habits, interests and needs of the person who will live there. “What are their priorities?”; “How important is flexibility in their daily routine?”; “What about continuing lifelong behaviors, like having a drink before dinner, attending religious services or spending time outdoors?”

To learn more, read “Questions to Ask Before Choosing Assisted Living” or watch Morgan’s Talking Heads video. See also Morgan’s recent Washington Post letter “The unsung heroes of elder care.” Leslie Morgan is UMBC’s Lipitz Professor of the arts, humanities and social sciences for academic year 2011-2012 and one of the nation’s foremost scholars on aging.

life and loss in the shadow of the holocaust, part two

REBECCA BOEHLING, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND DIRECTOR OF THE DRESHER CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Rebecca Boehling and Uta Larkey, an associate professor of German studies at Goucher College, discuss their new book, Life and Loss in the Shadow of the Holocaust.

This fascinating and deeply-moving account of Jewish family life before, during and after the Holocaust reveals how the Kaufmann-Steinberg family was pulled apart under the Nazi regime and left divided between Germany, the US and Palestine. The family’s unique eight-way correspondence across two generations brings into sharp focus the dilemma of Jews in Nazi Germany facing the painful decision of when and if they should leave the country.

See a previously posted video with Rebecca Boehling and Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, a professor of biology at UMBC, on whose family letters the book is based.

shaped by 9/11

REBECCA ADELMAN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES
SETH MESSINGER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

The events of September 11, 2001 changed course of history. For Rebecca Adelman, assistant professor of media and communication studies, and Seth Messinger, associate professor of sociology and anthropology, they also changed the course of their life’s work. The attacks and subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led them to study new issues and respond to new needs. This video includes reflections from Adelman, who examines imagery of the War on Terror, and Messinger, who works with veterans recovering from limb loss.

For more UMBC experts on 9/11, click here.

life and loss in the shadow of the holocaust

REBECCA BOEHLING, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND DIRECTOR OF THE DRESHER CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES

While cleaning out her mother’s closet a few years ago, Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, a professor of biology at UMBC, discovered a worn brown cardboard box covered with German writing and filled with wartime letters. Most of the letters were dated between 1938 and 1941 – after her mother had left Germany and come to the United States. Now, thanks to Rebecca Boehling and Uta Larkey, an associate professor of German studies at Goucher College, this extraordinary family story comes to life in a new book: Life and Loss in the Shadow of the Holocaust

This fascinating and deeply-moving account of Jewish family life before, during and after the Holocaust reveals how the Kaufmann-Steinberg family was pulled apart under the Nazi regime and left divided between Germany, the US and Palestine. The family’s unique eight-way correspondence across two generations brings into sharp focus the dilemma of Jews in Nazi Germany facing the painful decision of when and if they should leave the country.

Published by Cambridge University Press.

quality assisted living

LESLIE MORGAN, PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY

Looking for a high quality assisted living facility can be a stressful experience for older adults and their families. The challenge starts when we ask, “What is high quality?” Dr. Leslie Morgan suggests a more helpful question: “What facility would best meet the individual personality and needs of my loved one?”

“Quality Assisted Living” provides results from a study on perceptions of what constitutes quality of life in assisted living facilities, funded by the National Institute on Aging. In this video, Morgan explains how her research team completed in-depth interviews with residents, staff and family members to tease apart the notion of “quality.” The book they’ve delivered is a down-to-earth, accessible discussion of topics ranging from dining preferences to housing regulations to financial issues, in residents’ own words.

Morgan is a professor of sociology at UMBC and a researcher with UMBC’s Center for Aging Studies. For more information on “Quality Assisted Living” see the book’s official website.

edication rethunk

LEE BOOT, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE IMAGING RESEARCH CENTER

Lee Boot, associate director of UMBC’s Imaging Research Center, has been producing a series of videos entitled “Education Rethunk,” which deconstructs the education problem in the US by looking at it through the lens of culture.

Boot produced the videos for What Weekly and the blog WhoWeAm, which is a project of the Imaging Research Center seeking to discover who we are as individuals and as the collection of cultures that make our city, region and country.

Part One of the series, “Schools Unhinged,” features Diane Lee, vice provost and dean for undergraduate education at UMBC.

Other videos in the series:
Education Rethunk, Part 2: Edu-culture
Education Rethunk, Part 3: Ad-ucation
Education Rethunk, Part 4: Dusting Off Our Game

More videos will be posted as they become available.

civil marriage and civic engagement

JODI KELBER-KAYE, LECTURER IN GENDER AND WOMEN’S STUDIES

When Maryland’s state legislature sent the Civil Marriage Protection Act back to committee in March, both supporters and opponents of the bill were left with a lot of questions. In this video interview by the student journalists of the USDemocrazy news blog, with support from UMBC’s Talking Heads, Jodi Kelber-Kaye discusses her concerns with how same-sex marriage legislation is addressed in the media, her own work as a marriage equality advocate, where Maryland stands in terms of LGBT representation at the state level, and next steps for the marriage bill. She also offers tips on how young people can become engaged in issues that matter to them by communicating with their state representatives.

Kelber-Kaye is a lecturer in Gender and Women’s Studies and director of the Women Involved in Learning and Leadership program at UMBC.

pratt street riots

DR. ANNE RUBIN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY

On April 19, 1861, Baltimore was the site of the Civil War’s pratt Street Riots. Here, Anne Rubin tells the story of the riots and the first casualties of the war.

Anne Rubin, associate professor of history, is the author of A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868, and, with Edward Ayers, the CD-ROM The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in The American Civil War Part I: The Eve of War, which won, among others, the E-Lincoln prize. She has authored articles and chapters in numerous Civil War books, magazines, and encyclopedias.

Rubin is now developing Sherman’s March and America, an interactive project that tells the story of the march through maps, photos, videos and voices, and writing a related book called Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman’s March and America, which will be published by UNC Press.