Here’s a recap of what’s in the news in and around the UMBC campus, originally brought to you by UMBC News.
This news recap is brought to you by UMBC’s Division of Professional Studies, offering a broad array of professionally-focused master’s degrees and certificate programs that address industry needs while anticipating future opportunities.
English Professor receives a grant for writing about anti-Asian racism and Asian girlhood
Dr. Sharon Tran, assistant professor in the English department, researches anti-Asian racism in the United States and how it intersects with sexism and misogyny. The anti-Asian hate crimes that occurred in Atlanta, Georgia reflect the importance of Dr. Tran’s research and were a part of The Citizens and Scholars Institute granting her the Career Enhancement Fellowship in May of 2021. Specifically, Dr. Tran’s research focuses around how histories of militarism , imperialism, commodity capitalism, and trans-Pacific migration have shaped Asian girlhood and how this intersects with anti-Black racism. The Citizens and Scholars Institute recognizes Dr. Tran’s work as a distinct point of view in English academia that fosters diversity and inclusion. Congratulations, Dr. Tran!
UMBC Student gets selected for the Marshall Scholarship
Joshua Slaughter, ‘22, , computer engineering, became the second UMBC student ever, and the first in 29 years, to earn the prestigious Marshall Scholar status. He was one of 41 American students selected from institutions around the country to complete graduate studies abroad in the United Kingdom. He will be pursuing a Ph.D. in informatics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Through his education, his goal is to advance equity in the developing field of personalized medicine. To prepare himself for his graduate studies he completed research at UMBC with Dr. Tulay Adali studying machine learning in fields such as neuroimaging. Additionally, he completed research internships at Princeton University and Carnegie Mellon University, has presented his research at national conferences, and has published two scientific papers. Congratulations, Joshua!
Economics professor conducts research to help manage common pool resources
Maria Bernedo Del Carpio, assistant professor of economics, noticed the global concern of the sustainability of common pool resources (CPRs) like water, clean air, and fisheries. She worked alongside professors of environmental and natural resource economics and public health from Wageningen University and Johns Hopkins University to research ways to sustainably manage these resources. They started their research in Costa Rica, and their study which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) inspired scholars from all over the world to implement their findings into their own communities. The subsequent studies were also published in PNAS. They all found that a community monitoring approach can be taken to manage CPRs. “These studies allow us to directly see how community-based monitoring can support more desirable natural resource management outcomes and to analyze the ways to attain those outcomes,” Bernedo Del Carpio said.
UMBC’s first postdoctoral fellow in the visual arts merges technology with hip-hop
Tahir Hemphill was awarded the Postdoctoral Fellowship for Faculty Diversity in 2021. He is one of two of these fellows joining the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. His background in engineering and the arts made him stand out from the other 500+ candidates. One of his most notable creations is his cultural analysis of hip-hop by using computing technology. In a recent presentation through UMBC’s Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA), he showcased A Mapper’s Delight. Aptly named after Rapper’s Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang, Hemphill created a visualization of how rap lyrics reference cities, neighborhoods, and regions. It showcases the geography and localization of language in hip-hop and how language can be used in a political context. Congratulations, Tahir!