YEAR IN REVIEW
PUBLISHER “Year in Review” is published by the Office of Marketing and Communications in the College of Arts and Humanities. To receive additional copies of this publication, please contact the Dean’s Office at 301.405.2090. FIND THE LATEST INFORMATION AT arhu.umd.edu CONNECT WITH US umd_arhu arhu.umd umd_arhu go.umd.edu/ARHUlinkedin
2 | YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–22 14 academic units 761 FACULTY 204 $2.7 MILLION 2788:1 FACULTY RESEARCH AWARDS $18.6 MILLION studentfaculty ratio 21 21 RESEARCH CENTERS COLLEGE PROFILE 30 academic majors and 38 minors 2,660 undergraduate & graduate students STAFF TOTAL GIVING $8,770,592 MELLON AWARDS TENURE/TENURETRACK FACULTY
I CHOSE TO COME TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AS THE DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES because of this institution’s commitment to fearlessly and positively impacting our society. I am glad to join this intellectual community, and I am proud of what ARHU does.
Our disciplines are essential to helping society evolve. Throughout history, as those in power have sought to limit freedoms—where we can go, live or learn; who we can love; what we can do with our bodies—artists and humanists have offered the context and content for understanding these threats and protecting our freedoms. Now, as we continue to find our way out of a global pandemic and prepare to encounter new ones, artists and humanists are providing crucial knowledge and insight to contextualize this moment. Our work seamlessly interlocks and undergirds other disciplines to provide meaningful and sustainable solutions that will ultimately protect our freedom to choose pathways to whole, healthy, productive lives.
At a time and in a society that often privileges other fields, the choice to pursue work and knowledge in the arts and humanities is a necessary one. We know that solutions to our grand challenges—be they technical, medical, economic or legal—are more sustainable and allencompassing if they are grounded in the arts and humanities. What must we do to continue
to bring our essential perspectives to the academy and to society?
This is our mission at this moment. We chose our fields deliberately and with deep commitment and we love what we do, but we also know that our work is indispensable to how we shape a more equitable world and better modes of democratic citizenship. This is apparent as we look back at our accomplishments in the classroom, in research and in service, as documented in the pages that follow. It shows that we are an innovative intellectual community that partners in myriad ways with disciplines across this campus.
I’m grateful to Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill for her excellent stewardship of ARHU over the past 11 years, and I’m honored to follow her as the next dean of this great college. Along with new and returning students, faculty and staff, I know we will make a difference for future generations of local and global citizens who are depending on us to produce the content and the context needed to understand who we have been, who we are now and who we might be in the future.
Sincerely, Stephanie Shonekan Professor and Dean College of Arts and Humanities
LEARN MORE AT ARHU.UMD.EDU | 3 FROM THE DEAN
STUDENT
Students in the College of Arts and Humanities bring a range of backgrounds, interests and experiences to the classroom and larger campus community. Last year, 34 ARHU students won national scholarships and awards—among them: four Fulbright awards and four National Science Foundation fellowships. Over 100 ARHU students studied abroad. Ninety-four percent of our graduates are now employed or pursuing graduate education, and our alumni are making waves as artists, entrepreneurs, diplomats, archivists, journalists, entertainers, scholars, educators, lawyers, doctors and more.
Here are some of the highlights from the
academic year:
UNDERGRADUATE:
Veteran and first-generation college student Natacia Wright ’22, communication, won a Student Veterans of America/Comcast NBCUniversal $12,000 scholarship, intended to support continuing education toward a career in the entertainment industry.
As a McNair Scholar, Jared Bennett ’22, a triple major in English, agricultural and resource economics and religions and cultures of the ancient Middle East, conducted graduate-level research on rituals within the Mormon church, even traveling twice to Utah. He is now pursuing a Masters of Arts in history focusing on Mormon studies at Utah State University.
Marjorie Justine Antonio ’22, history and American studies, curated
the February exhibition “alternate universe: visualizing queer futurisms” at the Stamp Gallery, featuring works by two artists that reimagined the future through the perspectives of LGBTQ+ and people of color. She was also named the 2022 recipient of the prestigious UMD Model Citizenship Prize
GRADUATE:
Cellist Titilayo Ayangade D.M.A. ’22 was invited to play next to the world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the Boston Symphony Hall as part of the recording of Ma’s MasterClass. Ayangade is a member of the awardwinning Thalea String Quartet, known for its 21st-century take on chamber music.
After the COVID-19 pandemic created challenges in engaging the
public in learning about linguistics, Ph.D. student in the Department of Linguistics Craig Thorburn was among a group of four UMD researchers that created innovative and interactive linguistics activities for hundreds of elementary school students using green screens, virtual backgrounds and a variety of Zoom features. The researchers presented their approaches at the 2022 Linguistic Society of America conference.
Marco Polo Juárez Cruz, a Ph.D. candidate in art history and archaeology and graduate student resident in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center, curated the exhibition “Women in All Their Diversity” at the Art Museum of the Americas, part of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. Juarez was the recipient of the 2021–22 UMD Museum Fellowship.
4 | YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–22
EXCELLENCE
2021–22
Natacia Wright
Titilayo Ayangade
Jared Bennett Craig Thorburn
Marjorie Justine Antonio
Marco Polo Juárez Cruz
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Reginald Dwayne Betts ’09, English, whose imprisonment as a teen inspired his career as a nationally recognized poet and lawyer advocating for incarcerated individuals, was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Foundation fellowship, known as the “genius grant.” He also opened the “Freedom Library” exhibition at the National Building Museum, which gives visitors a chance to see libraries installed in prisons across the country through his organization Freedom Reads.
Costume designer Marci Rodgers M.F.A. ’16 designed the outfits for this fall’s film “Till,” which focuses on Emmett Till’s mother’s pursuit of justice after her son’s lynching. Last year her work appeared in a Super Bowl spot for Michelob Ultra featuring sports legends Serena Williams and Peyton Manning and the Netflix film “Passing,” which follows the divergent paths of two Black women, one of whom “passes” as white, in 1920s New York.
Harlan ’78 and Sally Weisman’s gift of $100,000 will establish the Harlan and Sally Weisman Endowed Scholarship in Jewish Studies to provide merit-based scholarships to undergraduates with a declared major or minor in Jewish studies or another program in the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies. Preference will be given to students who are also pursuing a degree in a STEM field.
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AND STAFF EXCELLENCE
Our world-class faculty and staff are breaking boundaries in research, teaching, mentorship and addressing issues around race, equity and social justice. They are dedicated leaders who excel in their fields of expertise and beyond. Find a sampling of achievements from our faculty and staff from the 2021–22 academic year on the next few pages. A more comprehensive view can be found at go.umd.edu/YIR2122
Barbara HagghHuglo, professor of musicology in the School of Music, was named an American Musicological Society honorary member. AMS is the largest musicological organization in the world.
Sahar Khamis, associate professor in the Department of Communication, won an Activism and Social Justice Community Engagement Award from the National Communication Association’s Activism and Social Justice Division.
Ruth Enid Zambrana, Distinguished University Professor in The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, won a Lyndon Haviland Public Health Mentoring Award. The award, from the American Public Health Association, honored her “dedication to the development of the next generation of public health professionals.”
Catherine Knight Steele, associate professor of communication, won a Helen Award for Emerging Feminist Scholarship from the Feminist Scholarship Division of the International Communication Association.
John Horty, professor of philosophy and affiliate professor in the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies and the Department of Computer Science, won a Humboldt Research Award. The lifetime achievement award will support Horty’s research into topics that connect philosophy, logic and artificial intelligence.
Maria Beliaeva Solomon, assistant professor of French in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, was named a Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture scholar-in-residence and American Council of Learned Societies fellow. Beliaeva Solomon will research the Revue des Colonies, a French abolitionist journal published between 1834 and 1842.
Trevor ParryGiles, professor of communication, and Lindsay Yotsukura, associate professor of Japanese in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, were named Humane Metrics in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HuMetricsHSS) community fellows. They’ll work on projects that seek to transform academic culture in the humanities by moving beyond traditional metrics in evaluating the work of faculty and staff.
Sarah Cameron, professor of history, was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Cameron will research the decline of Central Asia’s Aral Sea.
Lillian Doherty, professor of classics, was honored with an ovatio during a Classical Association of the Atlantic States meeting. The ovatio celebrated her many years of service to the field of classics both in the region and nationally.
Thomas Zeller, associate professor of history, was named an Arthur Molella Distinguished Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Zeller will research the history of seat belt usage in the United States.
Connie DiJohnson, lead director of the National Foreign Language Center, and Yoonjee Hong, senior faculty specialist, received a Defense Language and National Security Education Office grant. They will create a Language Training Center to provide advanced training to government personnel in three critical need languages.
Fashion designer
Sharon Keyser, assistant director for finance in the School of Music, had her designs featured at New York Fashion Week. Keyser was also featured in Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE UK, Weekly Style Magazine and the museum shop of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
6 | YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–22 FACULTY
NOTABLE FACULTY BOOKS
Associate Professor of American Studies La Marr Jurelle Bruce received a 2022 outstanding book award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association for his 2021 book “How to Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind.” The Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award is intended to award a work that contributes to “Caribbean thought and philosophical literature.”
Professor of English and Comparative Literature Ralph Bauer’s work “The Alchemy of Conquest: Science, Religion, and the Secrets of the New World” was awarded the Modern Language Association of America’s Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies.
Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies Psyche Williams-Forson’s “Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America” was highlighted by Publisher’s Weekly in a list of Health Books of 2022.
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art History and Archaeology Aneta Georgievska-Shine’s “Vermeer and the Art of Love” was named by Christie’s as “one of the best new art books” of 2022.
A new documentary film, “The Soldier’s Opinion,” which premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival, grew from Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies Shay Hazkani’s research for his book “Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War.” Hazkani is credited as a co-creator and scriptwriter of the film.
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PUBLIC HUMANITIES AND PARTNERSHIPS
University of Maryland language science scholars are conducting research at the Planet Word museum in downtown Washington, D.C. A $440,000 grant from the National Science Foundation is funding a partnership between UMD, Howard University and Gallaudet University and Planet Word to advance research and public understanding about the science of language.
A nearly $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will support a project to record the unique linguistic features of heritage Spanish speech in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) region for the first time. Faculty in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, led by Elisa Gironzetti, assistant professor of Spanish applied linguistics, will collaborate with partners across the DMV to collect written texts, audio and video recordings and tag and annotate the data.
The research organization AAPI Data, codirected by Professor of American Studies Janelle Wong, released The Asian American Voter Survey, which examined Asian Americans’ and Pacific Islanders’ attitudes about key issues leading up to the 2022 elections. It found that while hate crimes and education continue to be significant to Asian Americans, the group’s priorities also lie in issues like health insurance, the economy and the environment.
Bowie State University (BSU) and UMD students collaborated to create the Unity Mural, an artistic outpouring of both grief and hope for healing after a white UMD student murdered Lt. Richard W. Collins III, a Black BSU student, in 2017. It now hangs in The Clarice over an archway to the building’s dance wing. A replica was installed at a new memorial plaza at the site of the tragedy.
Artistic Planning Program Director at The Clarice Jane Hirshberg was awarded for her contributions to the BSU and UMD Social Justice Alliance (SJA), launched in 2020 to promote social justice and to honor Collins’ legacy. As co-chair of SJA’s programming committee, Hirshberg helped design SJA’s first in-person annual symposium on the UMD campus, held this past April, entitled “Healing from Hate: Advancing Racially Equitable Policies.”
8 | YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–22
PHOTO BY DUHON PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF PLANET WORD
On March 10, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies celebrated its second annual commemoration of Harriet Tubman Day and the bicentennial of Tubman’s birth. Speakers included Ernestine (Tina) Wyatt, a descendant of Harriet Tubman and a UMD alum. The event considered Harriet Tubman’s historical presence in Dorchester County, Maryland, before her self-emancipation and her ongoing legacy towards “freedom” as a daily politic and practice.
Associate Professors Elsa Barkley Brown and Michelle V. Rowley, who both teach in the Black women’s studies minor, worked with students in their classes to design units on social justice inspired by Tubman’s legacy that could be taught to local middle school students. Plans are underway to expand the partnerships with local schools.
A $3 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is supporting an effort to expand the pipeline of women faculty and Black, Hispanic and American Indian/Alaskan Native faculty in the arts and humanities to the ranks of academic leadership. The three-year Breaking the M.O.L.D. initiative—a collaboration between UMD; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Morgan State University—will have senior faculty in the arts and humanities guide associate and full professors in skill-building seminars and leadership experiences. Seven UMD faculty members are part of the inaugural cohort.
Christina Farrera ’68, M.A. ’74 agreed to bequeath her home to the University of Maryland College Park Foundation to establish the Farrera Family Public Humanities Endowed Faculty Support Fund in English, which aims to make British literature accessible and compelling to the general public through exhibitions, podcasts, plays and other creative initiatives. It will also advance the department’s efforts to expand literary studies beyond the academy and forge ties to the surrounding community.
New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones discussed The New York Times Magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project” as part of the 2021-22 Arts and Humanities Dean’s Lecture Series. She was in conversation with former ARHU Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill; it was Thornton Dill’s final Dean’s Lecture Series event.
A $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation is supporting a new network of senior and established researchers and graduate students in the field of HSTEM (History of Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine) in Latin America and the Caribbean. Led by Professor of History Karin Rosemblatt, the network will secure ties among researchers in North and South America, produce publications that make their research widely available and provide training and mentoring to graduate students.
UMD received a $1.75 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to continue development of open-source technology to expand digital access to manuscripts and books from the premodern Islamicate world in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Urdu. Matthew Thomas Miller, assistant professor in the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, leads the project. UMD also received a nearly $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to support similar efforts.
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The Clarice’s annual BlackLight Summit explored the intersection of dance, race, gender, sexuality, the pandemic and more through in-person and virtual performances, workshops and panel discussions on movement and dance by national up-andcoming artists.
Kenneth Elpus, associate professor of music education in the School of Music, is launching a research lab at UMD that will survey 4,000 K-12 public schools to learn about their educational programming across music, theater, dance and visual arts. Elpus received $150,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Arts for the project.
Twenty faculty members from the Department of Art exhibited their work at the UMD Art Gallery’s triennial Faculty Exhibition
The Clarice received a $35,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support an Artists in Residence program, which will bring regional and national artists to the university to develop new work and engage with local community organizations, area residents and UMD staff, students and faculty.
The School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies’ 2022 Black Theatre and Dance Symposium aimed especially to “give back” to K-12 educators seeking knowledge on expanding inclusive practices, civility and social well-being in the performing arts at their institutions. The symposium also coincided with the opening of TDPS’ production of Lydia Diamond’s “Stick Fly,” a play about an affluent African American family gathering at their Martha’s Vineyard home for the weekend.
The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora presented “American Landscapes,” an exhibit that centered the work of African American artists in the landscape painting genre. The exhibition of 73 works spanned from 1850 to 2020; roughly two-thirds were by Black artists.
10 | YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–22 THE ARTS
ARTS FOR ALL
UMD’s Arts for All initiative partners the arts with the sciences, technology and other disciplines to develop new and reimagined curricular and experiential offerings that nurture different ways of thinking to spark dialogue, understanding, problem solving and action. It bolsters a campuswide culture of creativity and innovation, making Maryland a national leader in leveraging the combined power of the arts, technology and social justice to collaboratively address grand challenges.
An expanded NextNOW Fest took place in venues across campus as well as in College Park with dozens of free events celebrating imagination and creative expression.
For its inaugural production, the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance presented “Hookman.”
Associate Professor of Violin in the School of Music Irina Muresanu is working with Cornelia Fermüller, associate research scientist in UMD’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, to develop an app that can observe classical violin students play and guide them toward better posture and form. The virtual “teacher’s aide” system will be powered by artificial intelligence (AI) technology and will be revolutionary for a field rooted in tradition. Muresanu and Fermüller were awarded a $115,000 Phase I Maryland Innovation Initiative award by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation.
In what playwright Lauren Yee describes as an “existential slasher comedy,” the play tells the story of Lexi, a college freshman who is dealing with grief and guilt after the sudden and tragic death of her best friend Jess on a car ride to the movies. To bring the play’s intense scenes to life, the team used cuttingedge technology and design
The inaugural “Immersive Media + Arts For All Showcase,” held in five buildings across campus, highlighted the Immersive Media Design program—a major offered jointly by ARHU and the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences—through exhibits, workshops and panel discussions.
Nancy ’78 and Chuck Clarvit’s gift of $2.25 million will bolster the art department through faculty and graduate student research opportunities, arts programming, technology, renovated studios and an outdoor exhibition space that will highlight work produced by UMD students, faculty and visiting artists.
A new minor in creative placemaking debuting this fall— in collaboration with the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation—will use art, culture and design to spark conversations about a community’s future. Students will employ techniques like mural design, storytelling, pop-up installations, public events and performance to advance a community’s vision and nurture vibrant, socially responsive and just places.
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DEAN’S OFFICE
Dean Stephanie Shonekan
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Research Trevor Parry-Giles
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Ralph Bauer
Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion GerShun Avilez
Associate Dean for Arts and Programming Patrick Warfield
Assistant Dean of Development Laura Brown
Assistant Dean of Technology and Personnel Management, and Staff Equity Kathleen Cavanaugh
Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Audran Downing
Acting Assistant Dean for Marketing and Communications Rika Dixon White
Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration Julie Wright Director of Facilities Lori Owen
DEPARTMENTS
American Studies
CHAIR
Psyche WilliamsForson Art CHAIR Brandon Morse
Art History and Archaeology (ARTH) CHAIR Jordana Moore Saggese Classics CHAIR Eric Adler
CENTERS
Center for East Asian Studies (SLLC)
DIRECTOR Minglang Zhou
Center for Global Migration Studies (History)
DIRECTOR Julie Greene
Center for Health and Risk Communication (Communication)
DIRECTOR Xiaoli Nan Center for Literary and Comparative Studies (English)
CO-DIRECTORS
Tita Chico Karen Nelson
Communication CHAIR Shawn Parry-Giles English
CHAIR Amanda Bailey
Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
CHAIR Neda Atanasoski History CHAIR Ahmet T. Karamustafa
The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies (JWST)
DIRECTOR
Maxine “Max” Grossman
Linguistics
CHAIR William Idsardi
Philosophy
CHAIR Samuel J. Kerstein
School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SLLC)
DIRECTOR Mary Ellen Scullen
School of Music DIRECTOR Gregory E. Miller
School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) DIRECTOR Maura Keefe
For the most up-to-date information, please visit arhu.umd.edu
Mark and Heather Rosenker Center for Political Communication & Civic Leadership (Communication)
DIRECTOR Shawn Parry-Giles
Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity
DIRECTOR Ruth Enid Zambrana
David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Curlee Holton
Herman Maril Gallery (Art)
GALLERY ADVISER Justin Strom
The Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies (JWST)
DIRECTOR Paul Scham
Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center
DIRECTOR Isabella Alcañiz
Maryland Center for Humanities Research
DIRECTOR Trevor Parry-Giles
Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities
DIRECTOR Trevor Muñoz
Maryland Language Science Center
DIRECTOR Colin Phillips
Maya Brin Institute for New Performance (TDPS)
CO- DIRECTORS Jared Mezzocchi Kendra Portier
Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture (ARTH)
DIRECTOR Quint Gregory Nathan and Jeanette Miller Center for Historical Studies (History)
DIRECTOR Karin Rosemblatt
National Foreign Language Center
LEAD DIRECTOR Connie DiJohnson
Potomac Center for the Study of Modernity (ARTH)
DIRECTOR Joshua Shannon
Roshan Institute for Persian Studies (SLLC)
DIRECTOR, ROSHAN INSTITUTE CHAIR IN PERSIAN STUDIES Fatemeh Keshavarz
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Terrence “Terry” Dwyer
University of Maryland Art Gallery
DIRECTOR Taras Matla
12 | YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–22
ARHU LEADERSHIP
UNDERGRADUATE ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
Major | Minor | Certificate Program
American studies
Arabic Arabic studies
Archaeology
Art history
Arts leadership
Black women’s studies
Chinese Chinese language
Cinema and media studies
Classical languages and literatures
Classical mythology Communication
Creative placemaking
Creative writing
Dance
East Asian studies
English language and literature
French language and literature
French studies
German studies
Germanic studies
Greek language and culture
Hebrew studies History
Humanities, health and medicine
Immersive media design
Israel studies
Italian language and culture
Italian studies
Japanese Jewish studies
Korean studies
Latin American studies
Latin American and Caribbean studies
Latin language and literature
LBGTQ studies
Linguistics
Middle East studies
Music and culture
Music education
Music: Liberal arts program
Music performance
Music: Professional program
Persian studies Philosophy
Philosophy, politics, and economics
Portuguese language, literature, and culture
Professional writing
Religions of the Ancient Middle East
Religious studies
Rhetoric Romance languages
Russian language and literature
Russian studies
Spanish heritage language and Latina/o culture
Spanish language, culture, and professional contexts
Spanish language, literatures, and culture
Spanish literature, linguistics, and culture
Studio art Theatre
U.S. Latina/o studies
Women, gender, and sexuality studies
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University
of Maryland 1102 Francis Scott Key Hall 4282 Chapel Lane College Park, MD 20742 arhu.umd.edu