Thursday, October 11 From Exclusion to Inclusion:
Rethinking Infrastructure to Bridge Baltimore’s Divides is a one-day symposium in Pigtown that traces the impact of policies and design practices that reinforced segregation and disparity in Baltimore — focusing on infrastructure like roads, streetscape, and transit — and envisions a better way forward for the MLK, Jr. Boulevard corridor. The symposium is followed by another event: an evening networking reception that serves as the exhibition opening. The reception is free and open to a broader audience.

This Friday, October 12 at noon, is the next Engaged Humanities Speaker Series at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Brett Stoudt, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, “Researching at the Community-University Borderlands: Using Public Science to Study Policing in the South Bronx” (Malone 107) Stoudt will present on the Morris Justice Project, a participatory action research (PAR) study in a South Bronx neighborhood of New York City designed to understand residents’ experiences with and attitudes towards the New York Police Department. He will describe how a set of participatory, research-action, “sidewalk science” strategies—grounded in community knowledge/expertise—helped to challenge the ongoing structural violence of the carceral state.

If you missed the release party for Baltimore Revisited at Red Emma’s or if you just want to keep celebrating, you are invited to join us on October 15 in Fine Arts 559 from 11:30am – 12:45pm for the UMBC Book Party… there’s a free TACO BAR and you can pick up the book

OCTOBER 15, 5:30 – 6:30 pm | Macksey Seminar Room, Brody Learning Commons “Black Queer Performance in Baltimore’s ‘Cathedral of Books’” by Joseph Plaster, Curator in Public Humanities at Johns Hopkins, presents on a collaborative project between Johns Hopkins and Baltimore’s ballroom community: the Peabody Ballroom Experience. Plaster screens a short film about the project and discusses community engaged work in light of historically exploitative relationships between the university and black Baltimore. More information about the event at https://hub.jhu.edu/events/2019/10/15/black-queer-performance-in-baltimores/

The Orser Center invites you to join us as we celebrate the release of a new anthology on the political and racial economy of urban life in Baltimore!

Nicknamed both “Mobtown” and “Charm City” and located on the border of the North and South, Baltimore is a city of contradictions. From media depictions in The Wire to the real-life trial of police officers for the murder of Freddie Gray, Baltimore has become a quintessential example of a struggling American city. Yet the truth about Baltimore is far more complicated—and more fascinating.

To help untangle these apparent paradoxes, the editors of Baltimore Revisited: Stories of Inequality and Resistance in a U.S. City have assembled a collection including twenty-seven chapters and thirty experts from inside and outside academia. Together, they reveal that Baltimore has been ground zero for a slew of neoliberal policies and is a place where inequality has increased as corporate interests have eagerly privatized public goods and services to maximize profits. But they also uncover how community members resist and reveal a long tradition of Baltimoreans who have fought for social justice.

The essays in this collection take readers on a tour through the city’s diverse neighborhoods, from the Lumbee Indian community in East Baltimore to the crusade for environmental justice in South Baltimore. Baltimore Revisited examines the city’s past, reflects upon the city’s present, and envisions the city’s future.

Edited by P. Nicole King, Kate Drabinski, Joshua Clark Davis

Contributions by Lawrence Brown, Daniel L. Buccino, Michael Casiano, Sam Collins, Shannon Darrow, Matthew Durington, Nicole Fabricant, Aiden Faust, Jennifer A. Ferretti, Leif Fredrickson, Robert Gamble, Marisela Gomez, April K. Householder, Jodi Kelber- Kaye, Louise Parker Kelley, Emily Lieb, Jacob R. Levin, Teresa Méndez, Denise Meringolo, Ashley Minner, Elizabeth M. Nix, Richard E. Otten, Eli Pousson, Mary Rizzo, Fred Scharmen, Aletheia Hyun-Jin Shin, Linda Shopes, Michelle L. Stefano, Shawntay Stocks, Joe Tropea, and Amy Zanoni. Cover art by Markele Cullins.

Bmore Historic Happy Hour: How to Lead a Great Unconference Session is Wednesday, July 17, 2019 at 5pm at the Peabody Height Brewery. Please RSVP on the Eventbrite page or on Facebook.

Join us to learn how to translate your research interest or burning questions into a great session at the 2019 Bmore Historic Unconference on September 27. The discussion will be facilitated by local museum consultant Dean Krimmel, David Armenti, Director of Education at the Maryland Historical Society, and Kate Drabinski, a Gender & Women’s Studies faculty member at UMBC. All three are regular Bmore Historic participants with loads of experience organizing and facilitating sessions and workshops of all kinds.

Bmore Historic is a bit unusual. Instead of typical conference PowerPoint presentations, we ask our volunteer facilitators to design and lead interactive sessions full of discussion and participation. If you’ve never done that before, it might sound intimidating. Which is why you should consider attending this event where you’ll learn plenty of tips, tricks, and good ideas.

Following the discussion, stick around to talk, have a drink, and take in the brewery’s Baltimore sports history exhibits. You’ll be glad you did. Questions? Contact Dean Krimmel at [email protected].

The Orser Center is a co-sponsor of the 2019 Bmore Historic unconference at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on Friday, September 27. For more info visit: https://bmorehistoric.org/

We are excited to announce the NEW public humanities minor in the Department of American Studies‘ Orser Center for the Study of Place, Community, and Culture. Over the past three years a working group co-chaired by Nicole King (chair AMST) and Jessica Berman (Director, Dresher Center, ENGL) with representatives from over a dozen programs and departments across the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) at UMBC has been working to develop the minor. In fall 2019, we will offer the first iteration of PUBH 200: Introduction to Public Humanities (Tu/Th 1-2:15) at UMBC. More to come on the course soon… but you can read the basic details of the minor below.

Please send any questions to Nicole King at [email protected].

The New Public Humanities Minor in the Department of American Studies’ Orser Center for the Study of Place, Community, and Culture (17 credits total)

Students use the tools and methods of the humanities to build knowledge democratically and respond critically to challenges of the twenty-first century. The courses in the public humanities minor prepare students to work collaboratively and creatively to connect original research and programming more deeply the public, including local communities. The minor builds skills for creating sustainable projects that actively engage the public in meaningful dialogue, interaction, and knowledge production. During their core coursework (PUBH 200, 301, and 401) students will develop a public-facing project and a portfolio of work while taking electives offered in AMST and participating departments.

CORE: (7 credits)

1. PUBH 200: Introduction to Public Humanities (NEW course – offered in fall semester)
2. AMST 300 OR HIST 300: Approaches/Methods courses in American Studies and Public History + PUBH 301: Project Development Lab 1 credit lab (4 credits total)

ELECTIVES (6 credits):

2 courses from the same or related fields from approved programs and departments

AMST, ANTH, ART, ENGL, GES, GWST, HAPP, HIST, LLC, MCS, PHIL, SOCY, THEA, VART… +

PORTFOLIO: (4 credits total)

1 400-level research, capstone, or applied experience course (3 credits) + lab/portfolio

PUBH 401: Lab/Portfolio: 1 credit

Note: UMBC’s interdisciplinary Summer CoLab Program and AMST’s 4-week Baltimore summer field school count towards the minor.

Please join us for the 2018 Orser Center happy hour… get your tickets here.

The Bmore Historic/Orser Center happy hour is Thursday, September 6 from 4:30-7pm in the back room at Mick O’Shea’s pub (328 North Charles Street). We will provide the chips and salsa + guacamole.

It’s Taco Thursday… so there’s a cheap a la carte taco menu and margarita + tequila specials for you to purchase. Join us to workshop some specific session ideas for Bmore Historic on September 28. We will mingle and people can use notecards to write ideas (or bring your pre-written ideas so you can focus on chips and drinks)… and at around 6pm we will read out the witty proposal titles we have come up with and discuss. Feel free to just come, eat some chips, and listen. Drop in or out as you like.

SAVE THE DATE: The annual Bmore Historic unconference is scheduled for September 29, 2017 from 8:30am to 4pm at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Please stay tuned for more details. The Orser Center has been a co-sponsor of Bmore Historic from the inaugural event in 2011. For more information, see the Bmore Historic website and RSVP on the Facebook page.

All friends of the Orser Center are invited to the upcoming Bmore Historic Happy Hour at the Village Learning Place in Charles Village (2521 St. Paul St.) on Friday, May 12 from 6 to 7:30pm.

Please join fellow old building lovers, history nerds, library geeks, neighbors, friends, and family for our Bmore Historic happy hour at the Village Learning Place on the evening of Friday, May 12. The Village Learning Place is a unique, nonprofit community library established by a group of Charles Village residents in 1997 in the former St. Paul Street Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The charming 1896 brick building, designed by local architect Charles L. Carson, includes a handsome outdoor garden where we’ll enjoy an evening of refreshments and informal conversation.

If you’re interested in participating in the Bmore Historic unconference this fall, this happy hour is a great opportunity to meet the organizers, ask questions, and share your ideas for sessions: http://bmorehistoric.org/

We are also partnering with the bLAM Collective to seek ideas for future#bLAMclass workshops: https://blamcollective.wordpress.com/events-2/blamclass/

Don’t forget to register on Eventbrite.

This event is free but we will be accepting donations to cover the costs of refreshments and help support the Village Learning Place. Registration is encouraged!

Michael Woodhouse

Inaugural Orser Center Fellow: Spring 2016

Thursday, April 28

4-6p

University Center 310 

During spring 2016, Woodhouse interned at Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA), a non-profit organization within the heart of Baltimore. The internship included working with the lead art education coordinator Nicoletta Darita de la Brown, working hands-on with inner-city youth, and taking part in two major programs headed by BOPA during the 15-week internship: Light City Teen Scholars and Bright StARTS.

The Orser Center Fellow Student Award is $1,000 for an undergraduate student at UMBC completing an unpaid internship at a non-profit or cultural institution in Baltimore.

UMBC’s Orser Center for the Study of Place, Community, and Culture is pleased to announce the Spring 2016 Orser Center Fellows program. Any UMBC undergraduate student who has an unpaid internship with a Baltimore-based non-profit or cultural institution during spring 2016 can apply for the $1,000 Orser Center Student Award.

Students must submit a one-page personal statement describing their internship and the goals they want to achieve, a copy of their transcript, a letter or email of support from the organization offering the internship, and a letter of recommendation from a faculty mentor. We will accept application materials until January 15, 2016.

The Orser Center fellow must register for a three-credit course, AMST 498: Internship (or other UMBC approved 3-credit internship course), which requires the following: (1) 120 hours at the internship (2) weekly journal entries on the internship experience including hours worked (3) a final project relating the experience to issues in American studies. The student must also do a public presentation on the internship experience at UMBC at the end of the internship. The fellow will have access to the Orser Center office and library in the Department of American Studies.

The 2016 Orser Center Fellow should be committed to the Center’s mission of fostering innovative collaborations among scholars, students, and local community organizations. The Center seeks to put humanities research to work as a creative response to problems, challenges, and issues identified by communities in the greater Baltimore region.

Please email all application materials to Dr. Nicole King at [email protected] by January 15, 2016. Notification of award by January 22, 2016.

Chesapeake American Studies Association CHASA Conference 2015

The 2015 meeting theme “Urban Places, Digital Spaces” will investigate issues of place, space, and power as well as the role of media and digital culture in an urban context.

Registration: http://tinyurl.com/CHASA2015

Click for Directions to UMBC

Parking info: Please park in the Commons Garage (no fee) See the campus map

Note: the entrance to UMBC is currently under construction 

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

Plenary Panel Discussion on Friday – March 27 from 7-8:30pm in Commons 329

How and why does place matter in an urban context?

The plenary panel will discuss how place matters in an urban context. Panelists will begin with a brief discussion of their intellectual history and current projects. Then the panel will discuss the conference’s central questions: How and why does place matter? What is the role of media and digital culture in urban culture? How does digital culture influence cities? How has the spatial turn in the humanities influenced our understanding of place? How are issues of power and identity grounded in place? What is often neglected in our discussions of the digital in the city? How can we cross the digital divide?

Trevor Muñoz is Associate Director of Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) as well as Assistant Dean for Digital Humanities Research at the University of Maryland Libraries.

Michelle L. Stefano leads the partnership between UMBC and Maryland Traditions, the folklife program of the Maryland State Arts Council. She divides her time between serving as Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies at UMBC and the Assistant Director for Maryland Traditions.

D. Watkins is a writer, speaker, and educator who grew up in East Baltimore. His writing has been published widely. Watkins holds a Master’s in Education from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Baltimore. He is an adjunct professor at Coppin University and runs a creative writing workshop at the Baltimore Free School.

 * For more info on the panelist see the previous post.

Saturday, March 28: CHASA 2015 Conference

 9:30-10:30am: Registrations (with a light breakfast served)

10:30-11:45: Session I 

Panel A: Diverse Method of Engaging Places

Responsive Ethnography: Potential Impacts of Digital Storytelling on Ethnographic Research (Kalima Young, American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park)

Digital Cairns in Physical Space (Joe Reinsel, Media Art, University of Michigan, Flint)

El Paso Petrochemical and the Biopolitics of “Public Good” in the Texas Permian Basin (Sarah Stanford-McIntyre, American Studies, College of William & Mary)

Baltimore Brick by Brick: Transforming Blight through Digital Story Telling and Material Community Benefits (Shannon Darrow, Retrofit Baltimore)

Chair: Kelly Quinn, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian

Panel B: Social History in the 21^st Century: What Would a “New” Baltimore Book Look Like?

Linda Shopes (Independent historian/consultant) one of the editors of The Baltimore Book

Ed Orser (American Studies, UMBC) contributor to The Baltimore Book

Kate Drabinski (Gender and Women’s Studies, UMBC) teaches The Baltimore Book

Betsy Nix (Legal, Ethical, and Historical Studies, UB) teaches The Baltimore Book

Chair: Nicole King (American Studies, UMBC)

LUNCH 12-1:15pm 

Session II 1:15-2:30

Panel A: Explore Baltimore Heritage: Teaching and Telling Stories Go Better Together

Auni Gelles (History, UMBC & Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area)

Sydney Jenkins (Education Programs Assistant, Maryland Historical Society)

Denise Meringolo (Public History, UMBC)

Chair: Eli Pousson (Director of Programming & Outreach, Baltimore Heritage)

Panel B: Western Narratives of Black Deviance: Deforming Urban Neighborhoods in the Baltimore/Washington Corridor

Rosemary Ndubuizu (Women and Gender Studies, Rutgers University)

Robert Thomas Choflet (American Studies and African American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park)

Mary Corbin Sies (American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park)

Chair: La Marr Jurelle Bruce (American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park)

Session III 2:45-4pm

Panel A: Critical Perspectives on Digital Spaces

 Creating “Gothic” Spaces: Scene, Style, and Community in the “Goth” Subculture (Leah Bush, American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park)

Urban Markets and the Virtual Rural: Whole Foods Market’s Re-Presentation of Agricultural Production (Allison Lakomski, Cultural Studies, George Mason University)

Deceptive Innovation: The Rhetoric of a Monopoly (Matthew Poissant, American Studies, UMBC)

Anthropology by the Wire: A Multimedia Research Project (Matthew Durington, Anthropology, Towson University)

Chair: Kate Drabinski

Panel 2: Training Session: Omega +Curascape with Eli Pousson, Baltimore Heritage

 4:15-5pm Closing remarks & best student paper award

 Optional dinner in Baltimore at 6pm (dinner not funded by CHASA)

Call For Proposals: CHASA Spring 2015: Urban Places, Digital Spaces

The annual conference of the Chesapeake American Studies Association (CHASA) will be held at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) on Saturday, March 28 (plenary panel discussion on Friday evening March 27).

The 2015 meeting theme “Urban Places, Digital Spaces” will investigate issues of place and space as well as the role of media and digital culture in an urban context. Papers may explore the impact of digital technology on cities or other places, examine specific digital projects on places, or analyze the changing nature of space in the digital age.

How does digital culture influence cities? How has the spatial turn in the humanities influenced our understanding of places? How are issues of power and identity grounded in place?

We encourage scholars at all levels to apply, including undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals working in museums, archives, libraries, non-profits, historic preservation, and community organizations. The CHASA conference is an open and friendly space that is ideal for presenting new work or project ideas.

Proposals may be for an individual paper or a complete panel. Please note that we will reward the best undergraduate and graduate papers with a cash prize.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words (500 words for a panel proposal) along with a short biographical statement (maximum 200 words) to Nicole King at [email protected] by December 14, 2014.

Plenary Panel Discussion on Friday – March 27 from 7-8:30pm

How and why does place matter in an urban context?

The plenary panel will discuss how place matters in an urban context. Panelists will begin with a brief discussion of their intellectual history and current projects. Then the panel will discuss the conference’s central questions: How and why does place matter? What is the role of media and digital culture in urban culture? How does digital culture influence cities? How has the spatial turn in the humanities influenced our understanding of place? How are issues of power and identity grounded in place? What is often neglected in our discussions of the digital in the city? How can we cross the digital divide?

PANELISTS

Trevor Muñoz is Associate Director of Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) as well as Assistant Dean for Digital Humanities Research at the University of Maryland Libraries. Muñoz holds an MA in Digital Humanities from the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London and a MS in Library and Information Science from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in issues related to curation of humanities data including data management planning, systems, and best practices. Trevor is co-editor of a forthcoming guide to resources for Data Curation in the Humanities and co-organized the first Humanities Data Curation Summit intended to promote the development of a sustainable plan for preserving digital humanities research. He is involved in the “O Say Can You See”: the Early Washington, D.C. Law and Family Project explores multi-generational black and white family networks in early Washington, D.C., by collecting, digitizing, making accessible, and analyzing over 4,000 court documents: http://mith.umd.edu/research/project/o-say-can-see-early-washington-d-c-law-family-project/

Michelle L. Stefano leads the partnership between UMBC and Maryland Traditions, the folklife program of the Maryland State Arts Council. She divides her time between serving as Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies at UMBC and the Assistant Director for Maryland Traditions. In 2010, Stefano was awarded her Ph.D. from the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies at Newcastle University (UK). Her research examines how “intangible cultural heritage” can be most effectively safeguarded at the non-local level (international and national) and local levels. She received her MA in International Museum Studies from Gothenburg University, Sweden in 2004, and her BA from Brown University in 2000. Her work is published in various journals, and she is co-editor of Safeguarding Intangible Heritage (Boydell & Brewer, 2012) and the Routledge Companion to Intangible Heritage (forthcoming). Stefano has worked on various new media projects focused on places in Maryland, such as Mill Stories—a cultural documentation project on the communities of the Sparrows Point Steel Mill in Baltimore County: http://millstories.umbc.edu/

D. Watkins is a writer, speaker, and educator who grew up in East Baltimore. Like most residents of his neighborhood, his life was never destined for college campuses. The choices he made in his youth seemed to make sure his journey would end before it even began. But somewhere along the way, D. Watkins saw the error of his ways; he enrolled in college, and vowed to make a difference in his community. You can still find Professor Watkins in those same East Baltimore streets, but now as a teacher and youth advocate. He has decided to embrace his mission by using his writing to give a platform to the unheard occupants of his old neighborhood. Watkins has been published in The Huffington Post, Vice, StopBeingFamous, 1729mag, and Salon. He has also been featured on NPR’s Monday Morning, The Marc Steiner Show, and Huff Post Live. Watkins currently holds a Master’s in Education from John Hopkins University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Baltimore. He is an adjunct professor at Coppin University and runs a creative writing workshop at the Baltimore Free School. Watkins’ debut memoir, Cook Up, will be published by Grand Central Publishing in 2015: http://d-watkins.com/