Student’s from UB’s new Performance Studies: Baltimore specialization will perform One Particular Saturday, a play from the perspective of witnesses of Baltimore’s 1968 riot. The performances are free and will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 15 and Thursday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. in the Wright Theater in the UB Student Center. This is the final production of Spotlight UB‘s fall 2016 season.

The play was developed by Kimberley Lynne, published playwright, arts and theater manager and an adjunct faculty member in UB’s Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences. It is a collection of the accounts of a soldier, a looter, a storeowner, and an activist, organized into a presentational view of the weekend of the unrest that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968. Lynne originally wrote the play as part of the University’s public analysis of the 1968 riots on their 40th anniversary in 2008.

The play is directed by acclaimed stage director and theatre educator, Donald Hicken, who joins UB’s faculty in the Performance Studies specialization, and the cast is made up of students in ARTS 297, which is taught by Lynne.

Marion Winik teaches in the Klein Family School of Communications Design. She’s an author, a longtime NPR commentator and writes a monthly column at BaltimoreFishbowl.com.

In a new piece for Salon.com, Assistant Professor Marion Winik shares the latest developments in the testing and treatment of Hepatitis C through her own personal experience with the once elusive infection.

In “Dating after Hepatitis C: Hope on the horizon for the 1 in 30 boomers estimated to be infected” Winik says that when she tested positive for Hepatitis C more than two decades ago, there was little known about the infection and treatments at that time were not very good. She went for years without any symptoms.

“I made it all the way to 2011, and then the outlandishly good health I had enjoyed all my life started to crumble,” said Winik. “I was exhausted. My blood counts plummeted and my spleen swelled to three times its normal size.”

Winik sought treatment at Johns Hopkins in early 2012, where new and radically more effective drugs for Hepatitis C were being studied and prescribed. After several weeks of treatment, she was finally cured of the disease, but she battled a range of side effects in the year ahead. Fortunately, she was among the last patients to experience those nasty side effects. Winik says today the drugs available for Hepatitis C have a 96 percent cure rate, and few people report side effects.

Watch Salon.com editor and UB lecturer D. Watkins’ interview with Winik on the stigma of Hepatitis C.

Learn more about Assistant Professor Marion Winik.

The College of Arts and Sciences made several appearances in the Baltimore City Paper‘s 2016 “Best of Baltimore” awards, which were announced in the Sept. 14-21 edition of the free alternative weekly newspaper. Here are the winners from UB:

• Best Reading Series: Writers and Words was started by students in our M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts program.
• Best Musical: Assassins was a collaboration between Stillpointe Theatre and Spotlight UB, our performing arts series.
• Best Memoir: The Cook Up by D. Watkins, M.F.A. ’14, who now teaches in the College of Arts and Sciences.

We are thrilled that the wonderful creativity and talent that is honed here at UB has been recognized by the Baltimore City Paper!

See the complete list of 2016 Best of Baltimore winners.

This summer, seven UB students, led by Affiliate Assistant Professor and Arts and Theater Manager Kimberley Lynne, traveled to Northern Ireland to participate in the Armagh Project, a month-long creative writing residency. The project is an immersive learning experience for budding young writers, allowing them to develop their creative writing skills while learning about the culture, history, politics and people of Northern Ireland. Students from institutions across the U.S. participated in the project as well.

During the month-long residency, the students lived in Armagh, a tiny and historic town located 80 miles north of Dublin. Not only did the students get to learn and practice their writing, but they also spent time in both Dublin and Belfast, visiting museums, theatres, libraries and other historic sites. “It was an interesting time to be there in the middle of Brexit and the conventions and all that violence in July,” said Kimberley Lynne. “We felt a little disconnected from America but the distance also gave the students amazing perspective.” The students developed plays, poems, prose, songs and journalistic pieces, and at the end of the month they all performed their pieces at the John Hewitt International Summer School Festival, an annual arts and culture event that draws writers from across Western Europe.

on stage at the Armagh Marketplace Theatre & Arts Centre, location of the John Hewitt International Summer School Festival

The UB students will showcase their creative works from Ireland again this fall during UB’s Arts & Ideas classes as well as at the Maryland Irish Festival in November.

In its fifth year, the Armagh Project immersion trip continues to be a life-changing experience for its participants, inspiring them to live the itinerant life of a writer and embrace the performance aspect of their art. For several of the students, this was their first time out of the U.S., on a plane or even in a hotel. “They all want to go back,” Lynne said. “They coined the feeling ‘PID’—Post-Ireland Depression.”

‘Til next summer…

Read more about this year’s trip on the Armagh Project 2016 blog.

outside of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin

on the steps of the Irish Writers’ Centre

at historic Navan Fort, just outside of Armagh

students pose with the Lord Mayor of Armagh (middle row, third from the left)

On Monday, June 6, UB hosted a special introduction to Performance Studies: Baltimore, a new partnership with Everyman Theatre and Hippodrome Foundation that will create new college opportunities for students interested in theater arts.

UB student Marshall Glaze during a Spotlight UB performance

Performance Studies: Baltimore will be a specialization under UB’s existing Bachelor of Arts in Integrated Arts program. UB will be responsible for the curriculum, which will focus on the experiential potential of a guided, performative ensemble. Everyman Theatre and the Hippodrome Foundation will offer mentoring opportunities, lectures and residencies with artists on a visiting basis. The Performance Studies: Baltimore curriculum will focus on the “teach to performance” model; the University’s performing arts series, Spotlight UB, will promote each ensemble’s spring semester performances.

“Mentoring is a respected tradition in education and nowhere is this more important than in the arts,” said Donald Hicken, retiring chair of the drama department at Baltimore School for the Arts and the originator of the idea for Performance Studies: Baltimore. “Our program will unite young gifted performing artists with experienced, respected, practicing professionals whose artistic tap root is in Maryland.”

Monday’s unveiling was covered by WJZ-TV.  Watch the video.

Learn more about Performance Studies: Baltimore.

The College of Arts and Sciences has been busy! Check out some of the latest accomplishments from our students and faculty:

• In a piece for elle.com, Digital Communication major Laurise McMillian shares her personal story of how her identity has evolved. Read Laurise’s story.

• Psychology student Jefferson Huggins and psychology grad Humama Khan, M.S. ’14 presented at Morgan State University’s 23rd Annual Undergraduate and Graduate Research Symposium held on April 14, winning the award for outstanding oral presentation in psychology.

• English major Mariame Dangnokho won the Alumni Association-International Scholarship at the 2016 Eubie Awards Ceremony.

• Division of Legal, Ethical and Historical Studies Associate Professor Elizabeth Nix was named the recipient of the 2016 President’s Faculty Award. The award is given each year to a UB faculty member who has made significant contributions to the University and its educational mission. Learn more about Prof. Nix’s honor.

• Freshman Evelyn Atieno recounts the year that has gone by since the death of Freddie Gray and Baltimore’s subsequent civil unrest in a piece for the Huffington Post blog, “Black Voices.” Read Evelyn’s story.

• Faculty members Michele Cotton, Jane Delury and Elizabeth Nix were all promoted to associate professor with tenure, and Kathryn Summers was promoted to full professor.

Way to go everyone!!

On Thursday, April 14, the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences held its annual Merit Awards Ceremony. Faculty, staff, students and family members gathered in the UB Student Center’s Bogomolny Room to recognize and celebrate the outstanding scholarly achievements of recent and soon-to-be graduates.

Kristen Eyssell, assistant professor in the Division of Applied Behavioral Sciences, and Hilary Kiel, recipient of the Outstanding Student Award in the Psychology program

Shannon Jones, recipient of the Outstanding Student Award in Integrated Arts, and Jonathan Shorr, associate professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design

Interim Dean Christine Spencer welcomed guests followed by opening remarks from Provost Darlene Brannigan Smith, then faculty and staff members from each program introduced the honorees and presented them with their awards.

Each program/major recognizes one student who exhibits academic excellence in that program and embodies the spirit, energy and core values that are central to the CAS mission.

Cheryl Wilson, chair of the Klein Family School of Communications Design, and Lauren Hutcheson Smith, recipient of the Outstanding Student Award in the Integrated Arts program

Stehle Harris, recipient of the Outstanding Student Award in the Environmental Sustainability and Human Ecology program, and Stanley Kemp, assistant professor in the Division of Science, Information Arts and Technologies

In addition, some academic programs have endowments for special awards that include a monetary prize.

Cheryl Wilson, chair of the Klein Family School of Communications Design, and Christy McCurdy, recipient of the Betty Tarpley Turner Award for English and the Outstanding Student Award in the English program

Cheryl Wilson, and Brandy McCluskey, recipient of the Alexander Rose Memorial Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and the Beatrice Kanigel Prize for Language and Literature

View the full list of awardees in the 2016 Merit Awards program. (program design by Jennifer Taylor, academic program specialist)

Learn more about the College of Arts and Sciences’ student awards.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, the Klein Family School of Communications Design is hosting its annual poetry reading for the UB community. Students, faculty and staff are invited to read their favorite poem on Wednesday, April 6 from 12-1 p.m. in LAP 308. You are also welcome to attend without reading, but reading is encouraged! Refreshments will be served.

Come share your favorite poem with other poetry lovers, and come away with new favorites! To sign up to read a poem, email kkopelke@ubalt.edu.

Join us for “From Rights to Rhetoric: Why Voting Matters” this Thursday, March 31 from 6-8 p.m. in the H. Mebane Turner Learning Commons Town Hall. Our panel of experts will provide multiple perspectives on voter registration and legislation to help you become more informed before Election Day. Refreshments will follow the discussion.

RSVP on OrgSync: https://orgsync.com/86827/events/1082806/occurrences/2409207

On March 22, 23 and 25, the University of Baltimore will host forums for the Democratic and Republican candidates for the Baltimore mayoral race and the Maryland representative to U.S. Senate race. The forums are co-sponsored by the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs, Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences and Schaefer Center for Public Policy, the Baltimore City League of Women Voters, The Baltimore Sun and WJZ-TV, who will be taping the forums for rebroadcast. The forums are FREE and open to the public, but tickets are required for entry.

In addition to the forums, the Schaefer Center and the College of Public Affairs have been working in conjunction with The Baltimore Sun to keep tabs on voters’ thoughts through co-sponsored polls as the primaries approach.

To reserve tickets, submit questions for the candidates and read commentary on the latest Sun/UB election poll results, visit www.ubalt.edu/election2016.