Be the Solution 2019

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND / FEARLESS IDEAS

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BE THE SOLUTION / 2019

Interview with the Dean

Celebrating Dean Ball’s Five Years of Leadership PROFESSOR GREGORY BALL has served as dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences for five years, and is looking forward to his next term with our community. Here, Dean Ball reflects on how he has seen the college evolve, and his plans and priorities for the future. You’ve served as the dean of BSOS for five years. What are some of the most significant ways you’ve seen our college grow in that time? “The number of women faculty members in BSOS has increased substantially in the past few years. Of our tenuretrack faculty, 57 percent are male, and 43 percent are female. The fields within our college all have talented women in the pipeline, and we’ve been able to recruit some extraordinary new faculty. “I’m also proud of the growth in our research collaborations. Our proposals and activities cut across departments, and we are creating links with other units across campus, such as the College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences. We have projects with entities in Baltimore, including with the University of Maryland Medical Center and the Francis King Carey School of Law, that are very exciting. I think we’re just getting started with these sorts of relationships.” What is your favorite aspect of being the dean of BSOS? “I love working to expand our academic programs. I’m eager to talk with faculty and students, discussing how to further

develop their research and teaching, and how to leverage our existing talent and how to bring in new talent. Developing new, innovative programs—these sorts of conversations expand the scope of our service and our applied work. Getting the core academics right and supporting it is something I particularly enjoy.

Dean Gregory Ball

“I appreciate the opportunity to develop and renew academic programs—taking into account important intellectual trends in the field, and also trends in society and culture—which affect the preparation and success of our students. For example, the revolution in data science which has affected all of the social sciences. Meeting this challenge has been a priority of mine, and that has furthered the basic academic mission of the college, and that has also helped our students gain important, marketable skills.”

Inside This Issue

2 | Maryland in Space

6 | Faculty Books for Complex Times

10 | Digging into Big Data

How do you stay connected with students?

How do you engage with the alumni community?

“I am very fortunate to have both our Undergraduate Dean’s Student Advisory Council and our Graduate Dean’s Student Advisory Council. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well-developed these entities were when I came on board— I hadn’t seen such engaged, active councils like this at other institutions. The students I meet with and who come to see me are really my eyes and ears, and they tell me what students are concerned about, and what their experiences are like. These are wonderful assets that ensure that I have good connections with the BSOS student body.”

“I enjoy traveling across the country—and around the world— to meet our graduates and hear their stories. I’ve even met alumni and current students at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and on a shuttle bus at the airport in China. BSOS alumni always have interesting updates about their lives and their careers, and they are very generous. “We’re very grateful for the support we receive from alumni, not just through monetary gifts, but also for their gifts of time and talent. Alumni offer leadership and advice to me, and career advice and experiential learning opportunities to our students.”

You also work with students in your lab. Tell us about your lab, your NIH-funded research, and your publications.

Looking ahead to the next few years, what are some top areas of focus for the college?

“My lab, where I work with Professor Bob Dooling, explores the interrelation of hormones, brain, and behavior. We study a variety of avian species that exhibit high degrees of neuroplasticity in response to hormone treatment. It has been important to me in this role that I have the support of the provost to maintain my lab and my research agenda.

“Continuing to renew and grow the faculty to reflect diversity in all ways is important to me. Improving our students’ learning outcomes and the support we can offer for their future career paths is a priority. We are expanding the training we offer in modern research methods, and BSOS is providing expanded experiential learning opportunities, and career preparation services.

“I’ve taught a few lectures each semester in Psychology courses, in my areas of expertise of behavioral neuroscience. Having interactions with BSOS and CMNS students in the lab has also been a great way for me to talk to undergraduates and hear what’s on their minds.”

“The completion and implementation of our Strategic Plan process will help us position ourselves to address the societal issues that any behavioral and social sciences college should be deeply involved in during the next few decades.”

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Department News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Peace Chairs News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Updates from Centers and More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Giving News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

14 | Beyond Survival

On the cover: Image via Shutterstock

Maryland

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GEDI provides a new measure of Earth’s forests

GEDI’s home on the ISS!

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By Laura Ewald Ours wo hundred and fifty-four miles above Earth, an instrument about the size of a large refrigerator uses lasers to monitor the planet below from the International Space Station. This instrument, a product of Maryland innovation, represents a giant leap for humankind. Led by Professor Ralph Dubayah in the Department of Geographical Sciences and built at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md., the new Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) successfully launched and docked on the International Space Station (ISS) in early December 2018. College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 3

GEDI—pronounced “Jedi,” as in the Star Wars canon—is the first laser instrument specifically designed to comprehensively map the world’s forests. GEDI provides information on the height and structure of forests that is used to estimate how much carbon is stored in the planet’s trees, how much carbon dioxide is released during deforestation, and how much carbon dioxide forests absorb as they regrow. GEDI was competitively selected as a NASA Earth Ventures Instrument 2 mission in 2014, with a cost cap of $94 million.

A New Hope Project team members and BSOS leadership, along with their family members, attended the successful launch of the Space-X CRS 16, carrying GEDI, from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on December 5, 2018. The launch was dramatic—not just because of the countdown and the stunning visual of a rocket zooming up, up and away—but because of last-minute snags that caused expectation levels, and tensions, to rise, given the short windows available for launch. GEDI’s trip had been delayed twice; once because of complications arising from the

From left to right: Bryan Blair, Ralph Dubayah and Lola Fatoyinbo-Agueh with GEDI in the background; they are part of the team that has been working on the instrument for the past five years.

failed manned Soyuz MS-10 spaceflight in October, and once due to compromised cargo. Food bars supplied for 40 mice heading for the ISS as part of a biological research experiment were found to be moldy, and an additional day was needed to regroup. But Dubayah, the Principal Investigator of the mission, and his team finally got their champagne-and-cheering moment. “Seeing the launch was a sublime moment and one of the highlights of my career,” Dubayah said.

A few days after launch, the Dragon capsule docked to the ISS, with GEDI onboard. It took several more weeks for the instrument to be unloaded and installed, and to power on. The power-on process created another champagne—well, maybe sparkling wine— moment. Dubayah and several GEDI team members huddled around phones and iPads at an academic reception to watch the live feed and updates of the process from the ISS. The moments unfolded while

The Space-X CRS 16, carrying GEDI, launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., in December. This image and both images on the next page courtesy of the GEDI team.

Dubayah and many department faculty and staff members were attending the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C. Many excited cheers and tweets ensued. After that celebratory moment, GEDI team members had to wait a few more weeks until they could confirm a successful—and unprecedented—data flow. “From the data collected by GEDI, we will be able to make new assessments of carbon and water cycling processes, biodiversity, and habitat on a global scale,” Dubayah said. “While our team was excited that the launch, installation and power-on were successful, we really had been most anxious to see these long-awaited data.” The instrument is operated on the ground from the Science and Planetary Operations Control Center at GSFC.

Above: The GEDI team, including GEOG faculty and GSFC staff, as well as family members, celebrate the successful launch. Below: GEDI was built at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Seeing the forest for the trees While this project is about five years old, GEDI’s journey began more than 20 years ago. “My colleague at GSFC, Bryan Blair, and I have been trying to get an ecosystem laser in space since 1997,” Dubayah said. Dubayah and Blair, GEDI’s Deputy Principal Investigator and Instrument Scientist, were joined by dozens of UMD and GSFC colleagues in the long partnership that led from concept to design to engineering to launch—and beyond. Jim Pontius of GSFC served as Project Manager for GEDI, and was responsible for every aspect of developing, fabricating, assembling, testing and delivering GEDI to the ISS. After instrument commissioning, Pontius and many members of the engineering team roll off the project. But the post-installation stage is just the beginning for Dubayah. Dubayah leads the GEDI Science Definition Team comprising scientists at UMD, Goddard, the U.S. Forest Service and

BSOS Online

Watch the Video of Dubayah discussing GEDI’s capabilities: go.umd.edu/watchgedi

other academic institutions who are working to make sense out of massive amounts of data, create data products, and use these products to answer GEDI’s driving science questions. GEDI successfully completed its on-orbit checkout in March and has now transitioned into its science data collection phase, which will last two years. So far, the lasers, along with all the other components of the instrument, are demonstrating excellent performance. The first official science data products will be released in about six months. The possibilities for researchers in earth sciences and related disciplines are extraordinary.

“We like to say that this instrument adds the third dimension to our view of forests on Earth,” added Blair. “My hunch is that all the existing maps of forest carbon we have are not nearly as accurate as what GEDI will help us create,” Dubayah said. “This will enable us to finally quantify what the impact of deforestation and subsequent regrowth of forests has been on the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the last 30 to 40 years. Armed with this data, we can then meaningfully predict future concentrations under various scenarios of climate and land use change, and devise appropriate policy responses.”

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College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 5

Faculty Books for

Complex Times From global food security to immigration reform to cyberattacks, faculty members in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences frequently publish articles, books and op-eds on today’s most pressing issues. Here, we’ve highlighted just a few of these interesting works.

A Growing Political Gulf With political polarization in America at a boiling point, discourse has turned into arguments that are increasingly personal. In “Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity” (University of Chicago Press, 2018), Lilliana Mason—an assistant professor in the Department of Government and Politics—unveils political science and social psychology research showing that both Democrats and Republicans hold strongly unfavorable views of one another. This gap—rooted in social identity—is steadily growing. In the book, Mason examines this sociopolitical gulf, which encompasses racial, religious, and cultural lines. “Group identifications have changed the way we think and feel about ourselves and those we see as others. Even when Democrats and Republicans can agree on policy outcomes, they tend to view one another with distrust, and tend to work for party victory over all else,” Mason said. In some ways, this extreme polarization has simplified the way we think about politics, the way we vote, and the way we operate as political actors. “But this extremism has not been good for our democracy,” Mason said. While “Uncivil Agreement” is not a comfortable read, it is an enlightening one.

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Understanding ‘Tight’ and ‘Loose’ Cultures For many years, Distinguished University Professor Michele Gelfand of the Department of Psychology has informed important dialogues on how people with different values and priorities interact and coexist, both within the same cultures and across various cultural divides. While many people use the terms “red state” and “blue state” values and norms when discussing sociopolitical divides in the United States, Gelfand’s work offers a more nuanced way of exploring cultural differences: “tightness” and “looseness.” Tight nations, states or cultures are those with strong norms and little tolerance for deviance; “loose” nations, states or cultures are those with flexible norms and high tolerance for deviance. In “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World” (Scribner, 2018), Gelfand examines numerous nations and cultures, and offers new ways of thinking about norms and behaviors. Ultimately, Gelfand argues that human behavior—at the personal level and within large groups and territories—is highly influenced by the perception of threat.

Communities that have faced hardship are more likely to be tight with their resources and interactions; communities that have enjoyed prosperity and safety are more likely to be loose. These differences confer an important “trade-off” to groups: Tight groups have more order, synchrony, and self-control. Loose groups are comparatively more disorganized and have more self-regulation problems, but they are more open—to different types of people, to new ideas, and to change more generally. Tight cultures struggle more with these issues. “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers” covers a broad range of questions and theories, from pop culture phenomena to intricate points of international diplomacy. Why are clocks in Germany so accurate, while those in Brazil are frequently wrong? Why are ‘red’ and ‘blue’ States really so divided? Why is the driver of a Jaguar more likely to run a red light than the driver of a plumber’s van? What is the best balance in tightloose when it comes to parenting? Gelfand answers all of these questions and more. “Culture is a puzzle—it’s omnipresent but largely invisible—and it affects everything from our politics to our parenting. I hope that thinking and talking about tightness and looseness can help us to better understand each other, and to help us work together across seemingly vast divides,” Gelfand said. In October, New York Times columnist and bestselling nonfiction author Thomas Friedman moderated a discussion on campus with Gelfand about her research and

Bestselling author Thomas Friedman in conversation with Professor Michele Gelfand about her new book on campus in October. (Photo by Tom Bacho)

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her book. Friedman said the book provides a useful framework for what he called the “wrenching national drama” playing out in the current political climate. Watch the Video: go.umd.edu/gelfand1018

Who are Millennials, and What Do They Value? Millennials—the cohort born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s—is the largest generation in the United States. They exceed one-quarter of the population, and theirs is the most diverse generation in U.S. history. As Millennials become increasingly influential across major sectors of society— including business, education, and politics— Associate Professor of Government and Politics Stella Rouse and coauthor Ashley D. Ross are uniquely examining what factors help form their identity, and how that identity affects the way they think about politics. In “The Politics of Millennials: Political Beliefs and Policy Preferences of America's Most Diverse Generation” (University of Michigan Press, 2018), Rouse and Ross explore the myriad factors that shape Millennials’ political identity, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. The work draws from five years of research and includes numerous interviews and polls. Rouse and her coauthor found that, based on polls, Millennials were much less likely to vote in the 2016 elections than older adults. Of those who are politically active, 43% of Millennial poll respondents self-identified as liberal, a much higher percentage compared to the 31% of other adults polled who self-identified as liberal. But Rouse cautions readers not to think they can predict Millennial viewpoints or voting behavior based on just a few factors or common media stereotypes.

“On important social issues such as gun control, marriage equality, and the legalization of marijuana, Millennials are not monolithic, especially across racial and ethnic lines. While they may skew as more liberal than other generations overall, their liberalness has gradations,” Rouse said. Watch the Video: go.umd.edu/millennials

New Frontiers in the Study of Terrorism While stories about terrorism lead news cycles, and movies about fighting terrorists are popular, misconceptions about terrorists are prevalent. In “Countering Terrorism” (Brookings Institution Press, 2017), Professor Gary LaFree and coauthor Martha Crenshaw challenge readers to take a more informed view of terrorism today, and outline preparation for and prevention of acts of terrorism tomorrow. LaFree is the chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and previously directed UMD’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). For this book, he and Crenshaw examined nearly 190,000 global attacks since 1970—of those attacks, more than half included no fatalities. “What may surprise people is that terrorist attacks are on the decline globally, and they are frequently non-lethal,” LaFree said. Mass casualty attacks are incredibly rare, though coordinated attacks such as 9/11 are devastatingly memorable. It can be hard for members of the public to put successful attacks into scale and context. The authors also address misconceptions about where attacks occur, and who is responsible. “The vast majority of terrorist attacks— about 90 percent—are domestic, where a terrorist group from one country attacks a target from the same country in that

country. International attacks, such as the 9/11 events, are rare,” LaFree said. Unlike Hollywood portrayals of terrorism, the vast majority of attacks do not involve “super terrorists” who are highly skilled, nor do they involve long-term planning and the use of high-technology weapons. “Nearly all attacks over the past half-century have relied on widely available firearms and relatively low-technology forms of explosives,” LaFree said. “And terrorist perpetrators frequently make major mistakes.” LaFree said it is important to plan for and respond to terrorist threats and acts in an informed and measured manner. As one of the main goals of terrorism is to encourage your opponent to overreact, the authors assert the importance of avoiding that pitfall. “Our reactions to terrorist attacks can have more dire consequences than the attacks themselves. I think the best we can do, in terms of a grand strategy, is to implement as many safeguards as possible to reduce the likelihood of the deadliest potential threats. We should not institute a counterterrorism apparatus that is difficult or impossible to disassemble,” LaFree said. “We must focus on generating objective data on threats and consequences, and on building resilience and reducing fear by providing objective assessments.”

Lessons from Lattimer Professor Paul Shackel, chair of the Department of Anthropology, wonders how nations and peoples fail to remember lessons from the past. “I am interested in how and why people remember a tragedy—or why they forget it,” Shackel said. Shackel has conducted research— including an archaeological exploration—of the area and the events surrounding the Lattimer massacre near Hazleton, Pennsylvania. In 1897, 19 unarmed

anthracite miners who were on strike were violently killed by a Luzerne County sheriff’s posse—dozens more miners were wounded. Those who were killed were mostly of Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian and German ethnicity, and many did not speak English. The miners had been on strike, in part, to advocate for better wages to fend off starvation. Shackel created a research team with a graduate student and volunteers to connect with the community and perform an archeological survey to reveal the exact location of the event. They found many artifacts during their exploration, including bullets and tin cups riddled with shot. Shackel and his colleagues hope that the artifacts will soon be placed in the Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, “as a reminder of the violence between capital and labor.” Shackel’s book “Remembering Lattimer: Labor, Migration, and Race in Pennsylvania Anthracite Country” (University of Illinois Press, 2018) is the most comprehensive work about the event. The book could serve as a resource to a community that remains divided about the events of the past, and how they should be remembered. Shackel is hopeful that remembering the massacre and what the miners were fighting for will inform conversations that we have in America about immigrants and workers today. “In part, the Lattimer massacre is a story about how these particular immigrants were poorly treated—paid less than their English-speaking counterparts and placed in the poorest housing in the coal towns. Today, northeastern Pennsylvania has a new immigrant population, many of them Latinos, mostly from the Dominican Republic,” Shackel said. “Now in a position of power, the descendants of the slain miners have become anti-union and antiimmigrant. There are many lessons to learn when connecting the history of immigration to the present situation in northeastern Pennsylvania, as well as in the southern borderlands of our country.”

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Photo: John T. Consoli/University of Maryland

DIGGING INTO

BIG

DATA BSOS researchers and students use big data to tackle societal challenges By Sara Gavin

A

Google search. A tweet. An online purchase. A funny GIF texted to a friend. As we go about our daily lives, each of us generates numerous data points contributing to massive data sets stored by super computers and analyzed by complex algorithms—otherwise known as “big data.� Just as business and organizations are continually looking for ways to use big data to improve operations and profit margins, faculty and students in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences are incorporating big data into instruction and research to help answer some of the critical questions of our time.

“The big data movement cannot be ignored and will only grow in importance,” said Associate Dean for Research Jeff Lucas. “It also poses serious challenges related to the process of science and the value of statistical inference. Thankfully, we have researchers in BSOS who are at the frontiers of data science and computational social science, and they will help poise our university to be a leader in the field of big data analytics.”

Big Data Basics Students in the Department of Government and Politics aren’t always excited about taking the required course GVPT 201: Scope and Methods for Political Science Research. However, in the past few years, they’ve started to recognize how necessary it is, said Professor Jóhanna Birnir, one of several faculty members teaching the class. “We live in an increasingly numerical world where every job you have to do—just existing, really—has you presented with data every single day,” Birnir said. “We’re trying to teach students how to examine data and think about data critically.”

In GVPT 201, students learn the basics of data analysis and to use R, an open-source, publicly available data analysis software program. As government and politics majors, students may not immediately see the benefit of acquiring this skill, but faculty members say they quickly come around when it’s time to contemplate life after graduation. “No matter what career they choose, all of them are going to require some level of statistical analysis,” Birnir said. That’s why Associate Professor Sarah Croco decided to teach herself to use R during the winter break two years ago. “I just decided, now is the time to learn this or I’m going to be left behind,” Croco said. “So many times, I wanted to throw the computer across the room. The learning curve is steep initially, but then once you get it, the world is your oyster.” Now, Croco teaches multiple courses using R and helps students figure out how to use it for things like scraping data from websites, building illustrative graphics and charts, or analyzing rhetoric in President Donald Trump’s tweets.

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Big Data in Action Protecting the Planet For the past five years, Geographical Sciences Professor Matt Hansen and his team at the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory have been using free satellite data provided by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey to create high-resolution global maps of forest extent, loss and gain. In addition to sending out alerts about changes to the Earth’s forest cover, the scientists work with people from countries around the world to help them understand what’s happening to their forestland, and to train them to build and interpret their own maps. “People are really fired up to have this knowledge,” Hansen said. “We’re living in a golden age of data and information.” To do this work, the lab stores more than 18.84 petabytes of data—equivalent to 18.84 million gigabytes. The GLAD system would rank 16th worldwide for its high-performance storage based on 2019 rankings provided by the Virtual Institute for I/O.

Path from Poverty Professor Michael Rendell of the Department of Sociology received funding from the National Science Foundation to study the effects of being born into poverty by analyzing records of 100 million U.S. births from 1970 to 2015.

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Money Matters l Adjunct Professor Misty Heggeness from the Department of Economics used employer W-2 tax data from the IRS to show that married men and women misreport earnings when the wife earns more. l ECON Professor Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan uses data on firms and banks from multiple countries to understand how firms invest, employ and grow when their banks or other financing sources deplete, such as after the 2008 financial collapse. “Because this data set involves millions and millions of observations from many countries, it would not be possible to create without modern computer power.” l Distinguished University Professor John Haltiwanger is leading a collaborative project with the University of Michigan and the U.S. Census Bureau to revolutionize the way key economic indicators like inflation and real output growth are computed using big data. Working with large online retailers, as well as information aggregators like Nielsen and the NDP group, researchers will aim to “tap into the literal firehouse of transactions-level scanner data to track the revenue, prices, and quantities of millions of individual products on an almost real-time basis.”

Informing the Immigration Debate Associate Research Professor Chris Antoun from the Joint Program in Survey Methodology is co-teaching a new course with an instructor at the University of Mannheim in Germany, “Big Data in Immigration.” Students from both universities will team up to learn about how traditional data sources (such as population censuses, administrative records and sample surveys) and new types of data (including mobile phone call logs, Google searches and social media content) can help answer a research question related to the immigration debate. “There are obviously different issues in Germany than there are here in the United States,” Antoun said. “Germany recently accepted a large number of Syrian refugees. So my guess is that the students in Germany will have different ideas about how analyzing data can inform the debate compared to the students here, who will probably be looking at migration from Latin America to the United States from the southern border.”

Tracking Terrorists The Global Terrorism Database, created and managed by UMD’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), uses algorithms to examine roughly 2 million news stories a day to identify events that meet a set of criteria qualifying them as terrorist attacks. To date, this open-source database includes information on more than 180,000 terrorist events around the world from 1970 through 2017.

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Che Bullock, left, and Dr. Joseph Richardson work together to help victims of violent injuries recover and break the cycle of violence.

BEYOND SURVIVAL VIOLENCE INTERRUPTED

Research by Dr. Joseph Richardson leads to a hospital-based violence intervention program

WHEN YOUNG MEN ARRIVE at the University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Trauma Center to be treated for violent injuries like gunshots, stabbings or beatings, one of the first faces they see at their bedsides is Che Bullock’s. “It brings up a lot of memories,” Bullock said. “I see myself in them every time I go into a room.” In 2013, Bullock was lying in one of the very same hospital beds he now visits regularly. Stabbed 13 times during a fight at a nightclub, he suffered a collapsed lung and severe internal bleeding. Although the medical staff at Prince George’s County Hospital treated his life-threatening injuries,

Bullock credits Dr. Joseph Richardson with saving his life. Richardson is an associate professor in the Departments of African American Studies and of Anthropology. “If it weren’t for Dr. Richardson, I would definitely be dead or locked up,” Bullock said. Bullock met Richardson during his recovery at the hospital, which lasted nearly two months. At the time, Bullock was “into the drug game very hard,” he said. He carried a gun with him at all times and wore a bulletproof vest everywhere he went. “I accumulated a lot of enemies because of the money I was bringing in through the drugs,” Bullock said.

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Richardson, meanwhile, was visiting the hospital regularly to recruit participants for a research study he was conducting on victims of violent injury and the factors that make them likely to become violently injured again. Although Richardson was interested in Bullock’s story from a research perspective, he also tried to get to know him on a personal level. “The first thing he asked me was, ‘What do you want to do with your life? What are your dreams?’” Bullock recalls. “At 24 years old, no one had ever asked me that question—and, honestly, I didn’t have an answer for it.” Bullock admits it took some time for him to trust Richardson and to open up to the

professor. Once he did, however, the two quickly formed a strong bond that now feels like family to both of them.

Breaking the Cycle THROUGH HIS RESEARCH on dozens of victims of violent injury like Bullock, Richardson identified several prominent risk factors contributing to trauma recidivism. These findings led Richardson to develop the Capital Region Violence Intervention Program (CAP-VIP), which launched in August of 2017 at Prince George’s Hospital Trauma Center. The program provides job placement services, educational training, housing assistance, mental health counseling, health insurance support and legal aide to participants, all in an effort to break the cycle of violence prevalent in many communities in Prince George’s County and Southeast D.C. “It’s really rewarding to see the program start as a research study and then translate into an intervention,” Richardson said. “Typically as scholars, we don’t get to see that transformation.” Richardson serves as co-director of CAP-VIP along with Dr. R. Sean Benoit, the hospital’s trauma medical director. Since its inception, the program has provided services to 116 survivors of violent injury from Washington, D.C. and Prince George’s County. To date, none has been hospitalized for a repeat violent injury. One of only 35 officially recognized hospital-based violence intervention programs in the nation, CAP-VIP was recently awarded $427,000 from the Maryland Governor’s Office of Crime Control Prevention to expand services for violently injured residents of Prince George’s County. In addition to supporting the victims themselves, CAP-VIP provides services for their family members and caregivers. “We know that violence is contagious and infectious within social networks,” Richardson said. “Our approach is that if we have a young man we’re working with, we also need to get other people involved in his life on board as well.”

Bullock was hired to serve as what’s called a “credible messenger” for CAP-VIP: He is the first point of contact for violently injured patients coming into the hospital, and lets them know about the services the program offers. Not only can he relate to what the injured young men are going through, he serves as an example of how the intervention program works.

Patience in the Process BULLOCK WILL BE the first to admit, however, that the transformation in his life didn’t happen overnight and was anything but an easy process. After the two had formed a friendship, Richardson invited Bullock to guest lecture for one of his classes at the University of Maryland and to share his story. Bullock described it as the moment he realized he might be able to do something positive with his life. On his way back to Southeast D.C. from College Park, Bullock’s car was shot at while he was driving on the highway. He would later count a dozen bullet holes in his vehicle, yet, miraculously, he wasn’t hit. “I went from speaking to a college class to getting my car shot up in the span of about an hour—and that’s when I knew it was time for a change,” Bullock said. “Because when I was on that stage in Dr. Richardson’s class speaking in front of those students, I felt very empowered and I felt like I had a voice; and I never wanted to lose that feeling ever again. So instead of chasing the money, I chased that feeling.” Still, Bullock faced an uphill journey to get free from his past. He found himself homeless, sleeping on the couches of family members and friends, and faced with violence on a daily basis. Eventually, he had to cut off contact with neighborhood friends and even family members, and moved in with Richardson and his wife for several months. “Dr. Richardson invested so much time and energy in me, and I had to sit back and think about, ‘Am I worth it?’” Bullock said. “I had to come to a realization that I can do anything I set my mind to do. Without Dr. Richardson, I would have never thought that.”

Today, Bullock lives on his own and travels around the country sharing his story, when he’s not at the hospital working for CAP-VIP. The program is also producing a digital storytelling project chronicling Bullock’s transition from the streets to working with fellow survivors. “Che is basically the glue,” Richardson said. “As someone who was previously injured who can identify with the young men we work with, to now being that first point of contact for us at the hospital; he represents the full spectrum.”

Passing it On AFTER 18-YEAR-OLD Airique Bond was shot in the chest in December of 2017, he became one of the first young men to encounter Bullock in his role with CAP-VIP. “When I was laying in the hospital bed, Che came into the room and he gave me a pamphlet and at first I was like, ‘I’m not doing this,’” Bond said. Before long, though, he listened to Bullock’s story and found it quite familiar. A once promising football player, Bond’s life went into a downward spiral after he lost a scholarship to play at a private school in Maryland. Like Bullock, he soon became involved with drugs and spent some time in jail. “I got eight uncles and all eight of them have been in and out of jail,” Bond said. “This is what I come from, this is what I see, this is my community. How else am I supposed to get money?” Through the services provided by CAP-VIP, Bond began to hope that he could build a better life, but it took hearing Bullock’s story to convince him to go for it. “I wanted to believe, but I didn’t have proof,” Bond said. “He (Che) is the proof. I look at him and think, ‘That could be me.’” Today, Bond is employed at a hospital center in the region and regularly looks for opportunities to share his own story of survival in the hopes of providing others with the same sort of spark Bullock once gave to him. “All it takes is one inspirational voice to change somebody’s life,” Bond said.

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College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 15

AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

AASD News

New Faculty and Leadership A NUMBER OF NEW FACULTY MEMBERS have joined the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the past few years. In particular, the Department of African American Studies (AASD) and its affiliated Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center for Education, Justice and Ethics have grown in ranks and in scope. Meet some of our new faculty and members of our leadership team below, and learn more at aasd.umd.edu.

CARYN BELL joined AASD as an assistant professor in Fall 2017. Her research interests focus on the intersection of race, place, and socioeconomic status on cardiovascular disease risk factors. She is currently exploring racial health disparities in college-educated and high-income African Americans and whites. Her research has recently been published in Preventive Medicine, American Journal of Health Behavior and the American Journal of Men’s Health. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded Bell a 12-month grant through its New Connections program. The grant supports Bell’s study that examines the effects of the urbanization and demographic changes on health and racial health disparities. Additionally, the study focuses on the role of racial residential segregation and structural racism on health and health-related resources.

KAMERON VAN PATTERSON joined the Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center for Education, Justice & Ethics as Director of Programs in December of 2017. He also serves as a faculty specialist in AASD. Prior to joining the University of Maryland, Patterson served as the director of foundation and government grants at The Ellington Fund, a nonprofit organization that works in collaboration with the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. His scholarly research employs critical race theory to examine the historical impact of inequality and social justice movements throughout the African Diaspora. Born and raised in Long Beach, Calif., Patterson holds a Ph.D. in African and African American Studies from Harvard University.

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ANGEL DUNBAR joined AASD as an assistant professor in the fall of 2018. Dunbar recently served as a postdoctoral associate in the department. Her research focuses on understanding the unique developmental challenges that children of color encounter and the family processes and individual factors that influence positive adaptation in the face of these challenges. Dunbar is investigating Black children’s distress responses to racialbias stimuli and the role of parents in either facilitating or hindering children’s emotion regulation in response to distress. She examines parents’ supportive and suppression-focused responses to children’s negative emotions in order to elucidate the conditions under which parental messages about racism reduce children’s reactivity, and promote regulation in response to racism stimuli. The long-term goal of this work is to determine which early parenting strategies and behaviors equip children with selfregulation skills they can use to combat the harmful, long-term emotional, psychological, and cardiovascular effects of chronic exposure to racism.

NIKEEA COPELAND LINDER joined AASD as an associate research professor in 2018. Linder’s research focuses on the impact of chronic stress on the mental health and health-risk behaviors of children and adolescents. She is particularly interested in the role of individual, family, and community protective factors in promoting resilience among African American youth, and the development of prevention and intervention programs for youth.

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Sharing the Experiences of African-American Women Living with HIV ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR THURKA SANGARAMOORTHY, an anthropologist and a public health researcher, studies HIV disparities among African Americans and black immigrant groups primarily living in the southern United States. In a new project, she chronicles the lives of African-American women living with HIV in Prince George’s County, Md., in the hopes of bringing their often-ignored stories to light. Sangaramoorthy is working on visualizing the women’s narratives through a series of photo essays, and plans to eventually compile a book and exhibit highlighting their resilience in the face of adversity. This work is important, she said, because “their stories have not been told.”

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Images by Aamir Khuller BSOS Online Watch the video about Sangaramoorthy’s project: go.umd.edu/HIVdisparities

Activities, Awards and Honors FACULTY, STUDENTS AND ALUMNI in the Department of Anthropology have won prestigious awards and honors in recent months. For more information on activities and recognition, visit anth.umd.edu.

n In 2018, Professor Emerita Judith Freidenberg was awarded the Governor’s Volunteer Service Certificate in appreciation of her contribution to the citizens of Maryland. n Assistant Professor Christina Getrich won the college’s 2018 Excellence in Mentorship Award.

Photo: John T. Consoli/ University of Maryland

n Hope Loiselle, ANTH B.S. ’18, was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

n Assistant Professor Andrea López was awarded a $375,000 grant by the Maryland Department of Health through the CDC Public Health Crisis Response funds to conduct a regional ethnographic assessment from the perspective of people who use drugs about their access to harm reduction services, the service gaps they experience, barriers and facilitators to accessing these services, and potential regional capacity for the expansion of harm-reduction interventions.

n Lecturer Marilyn London received the Provost’s Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty in 2018.

n Ph.D. candidate Adriane Michaelis received the National Science Foundation’s Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement

n Emilia Guevara, a Ph.D. student, was awarded a dissertation seed grant from UMD’s Qualitative Research Interest Group.

n Undergraduate student Nipun Kottage was awarded a BSOS Summer Scholars Grant through the Dean’s Research Initiative.

Grant to study the “Dynamic Socio-economic Systems and Cultural Ecosystem Services: The Case of Oyster Aquaculture.”

n Samantha Primiano, a Ph.D. student, was honored with the Graduate School’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award for academic year 2018–19. n Led by Professor Paul Shackel, chair of the department, the Anthracite Heritage Project received the Mark E. Mack Community Engagement Award at the 2019 Annual Meeting for the Society for Historical Archaeology.

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College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 17

ANTHROPOLGY

ANTH News

CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE

CCJS News

Peter Reuter Awarded 2019 Stockholm Prize AN INTERNATIONAL JURY awarded the 2019 Stockholm Prize in Criminology to Professor Peter Reuter, a faculty member in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and in the School of Public Policy, and to former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss. The jury recognized Reuter’s work in examining the relationship between drug policy and crime. Reuter has also made important contributions to the study of organized crime and money laundering.

Photo courtesy of Peter Reuter

Reuter has chaired a number of National Academy of Sciences panels, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the United Nations World Drug Report. In 2007, he became the founding president of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy.

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Evaluating the Effects of Education Behind Bars RESEARCHERS FROM UMD and Drexel University in Philadelphia received more than $900,000 from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to fund the first experimental evaluation of college education in prison.

rates in the United States, Tahamont and Hyatt argue that further research is needed to explain the connection between educational opportunities during incarceration and an inmate’s likelihood of staying out of prison.

Assistant Professor Sarah Tahamont and Jordan Hyatt, an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology and Justice Studies at Drexel University, are working with staff at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections over the next five years to evaluate the Pennsylvania sites of the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program. The program allows eligible incarcerated U.S. citizens to receive federal Pell grants to pursue postsecondary education.

“Although there are many individual success stories and plenty of descriptive evidence that supports the theory that increased access to education for prisoners helps reduce recidivism and increase employment after release, it’s still not clear to what extent this correlation is due to the educational programs directly, or to underlying individual differences,” Tahamont said. “Our study will be the first randomized controlled trial of postsecondary education in prison, and we hope it will help us better understand whether these educational programs are driving the dramatic differences in recidivism that we observe between prisoners who participate in education programs and those who do not.”

The study will analyze recidivism and employment outcomes for participating inmates during the first year after their release from prison, and will also include visits to a number of correctional facilities in Pennsylvania to learn more about the educational programming options for prisoners. While many politicians and scholars advocate for increased educational opportunities in prison to help reduce recidivism

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BSOS Online Watch the video to learn more about Tahamont’s research: go.umd.edu/tahamont

Introducing the Economics Leadership Council THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS is pleased to announce the formation of the Economics Leadership Council (ELC). This newly appointed council will help promote students, alumni and faculty from the department in a variety of areas, and will elevate the reputation of the department regionally, nationally and internationally. Activities of the ELC include providing internships and advice to students; creating scholarships; encouraging a diverse population of students to pursue careers in economics; helping the department attract strong undergraduate and graduate students; supporting graduate student and faculty research; and assisting the department with outreach to the business, nonprofit and policy communities. “I am thrilled at the interest and involvement of our alumni, and would especially like to thank the inaugural members of the Economics Leadership Council. The department is truly fortunate to have such support,” said Dr. Maureen Cropper, chair of the Department of Economics. Members of the first ELC include: n Kabir Chaudhary (B.A. ’05): Chief Executive Officer and President, NIKA n Ed DeMarco (Ph.D. ’91): President, Housing Policy Council; Former Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency n Nellie Liang (Ph.D. ’86): Senior Fellow, Brookings n Aparna Mathur (Ph.D. ’05): Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute n Thomas McCarthy (Ph.D. ’80): Senior Vice President and Managing Director, NERA Economic Consulting

n Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak (Ph.D. ’02): Professor of Economics,Yale University n Frank Nitkiewicz (B.A. ’83): Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer, Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston n Andrew Palmer (B.A./M.A. ’81, ’84): Chief Investment Officer, Maryland State Retirement and Pension System n Gary Rozier (B.A. ’99): Senior Vice President, Institutional Marketing and Client Services, Ariel Investments n John Sabelhaus (B.A./M.A./Ph.D. ’82, ’84, ’88): Assistant Director, Research and Statistics Division, Federal Reserve Board n Robert Satterfield (B.A. ’95): Senior Vice President, Investments, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management n Todd Snyder (B.A./B.S./J.D. ’85, ’89, ’94): Founding Member, Snyder Kearney, LLC n Chad Syverson (M.A./Ph.D. ’98, ’01): Eli B. and Harriet B. Williams Professor of Economics, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business n Thomas Teles (B.A. ’92): Partner, Goldman Sachs, 2006-2018 n Mark Turner (Ph.D. ’96): Founder, President, CEO and Principal Research Associate, Optimal Solutions Group LLC Council members are appointed for a three-year term, which is renewable. Over time, the department hopes to expand the number of members on the ELC.

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BSOS Online Learn more at go.umd.edu/elc

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 19

ECONOMICS

ECON News

GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCES

GEOG News

Tackling a Toxic Practice in Thailand A RESEARCHER IN THE Department of Geographical Sciences is working to address a major contributor to dangerously poor air quality in Bangkok, Thailand—the burning of agricultural crop residue. Thai farmers routinely burn rice stubble when preparing fields for the next round of crops, often during dry conditions. With funding from NASA, UMD researchers are collaborating with partners in Thailand to conduct an interdisciplinary project aimed at assessing alternative methods for managing crop residue. The goals are to reduce emissions and to improve soil quality. The research integrates satellite remote sensing, field-scale research, agroecosystem modeling and socioeconomic analysis to better understand the emissions caused by burning practices, and to evaluate the potential economic and environmental impacts of adopting more sustainable crop management strategies. During a recent visit to Thailand, Associate Research Professor Varaprasad Bandaru and local partners interacted with farmers and community leaders in Chaiyaphum Province, collecting information on various residue-burning practices and the barriers to implementing more sustainable methods. “Ultimately, we expect to provide a standardized framework with which to monitor emissions from crop burning and to offer critical data that will promote sustainable residue management practices,” Bandaru said.

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Researchers Attribute Global Forest Loss to Land Use Change RESEARCH FROM THE Department of Geographical Sciences reveals that more than a quarter of the forests lost around the world in the last 15 years are gone for good. Without significant changes to land management policies and corporate supply chains, the rate of commodity-driven deforestation is not likely to decline in the future. Researchers from UMD, the University of Arkansas-based Sustainability Consortium and the World Resources Institute used satellite imagery to develop a forest loss classification model and assign a driver of forest loss for each 10x10 km parcel of land globally between 2001 and 2015. Their findings, published in Science, show that 27 percent of global forest loss can be attributed to permanent land use conversion for the production of commodities such as palm oil, mining or energy infrastructure. “Our work reveals the reality that more than a quarter of the forests lost in the last 15 years are not re-growing any time soon,” said Alexandra Tyukavina, a post-doctoral associate. Results also indicate that, despite recent commitments from nearly 450 companies worldwide to end deforestation in their supply chains by 2020, the rate of commodity-driven deforestation did not decline between 2001 and 2015. “Our analysis can help international policymakers better understand what is creating changes to forest cover around the world, so that we can stop or slow future forest loss,” said Professor Matt Hansen. The team is working on a more detailed map of forest disturbance drivers to provide better analyses at national, regional and local levels.

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In Memoriam: Joseph D. Tydings FORMER SEN. JOSEPH TYDINGS, who served the state of Maryland and the university throughout his career, passed away in October at the age of 90. Tydings served in the Army, and later played lacrosse and football at UMD. He earned a B.A. in government and politics in 1951, and a law degree in 1953. Tydings served in the Maryland House of Delegates and as the U.S. Attorney for Maryland. He was elected to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate in 1964. After losing a bid for re-election in 1970, Tydings resumed his legal career, and always stayed connected with his alma mater. He was appointed to three terms on the university’s Board of Regents. Until his passing, Tydings served on the Board of the University of Maryland Medical System. He was the son of former Sen. Millard E. Tydings, for whom Tydings Hall— which houses the BSOS Dean’s Office—is named.

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BSOS Online Learn more about Tydings and future plans to commemorate his legacy at go.umd.edu/honoringtydings

Research Shows Lawmaking Remains a Largely Bipartisan Practice WHILE THE TONE of American politics is increasingly divisive, laws being passed by Congress are as bipartisan as ever, finds new research from UMD and the University of Utah. In a study published in Perspectives on Politics, Professor Frances Lee of the Department of Government and Politics and James Curry, GVPT Ph.D. ’11, now a University of Utah political science professor, examined passage votes that resulted in new laws, as well as the legislative priorities of each congressional majority party from 1985 to 2016. “Congress is more partisan, party leaders are more influential, and the legislative process is more centralized. In theory, these changes should make it easier for majority

Illustration by Jason Keisling, courtesy of Maryland Today.

parties to achieve their legislative goals,” Lee said. “However, our research shows that these changes have had little impact on a majority party’s ability to achieve its objectives without reaching across the aisle to find support from the minority party.” After examining speeches, bills and articles, the researchers discovered that congressional majority parties rarely succeed

in passing their agenda priorities over the opposition of the minority party. During this 30-year period, majority parties only achieved 10 clear agenda successes without support from members of the minority party and its top leaders. That represents just 4 percent of the 254 policy priorities identified by the researchers. Despite party polarization in Congress, the researchers found that few significant laws are being enacted on party-line votes on the model of the Affordable Care Act (2010) or the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017). Lee and Curry say their results have major implications for activists and lobbyists pushing for legislation on highly partisan policy issues such as climate change and immigration.

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College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 21

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

GVPT News

HEARING & SPEECH SCIENCES

HESP News

Toward Better Identification of Child Language Disorders RESEARCHERS IN THE Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences received more than $1.7 million from the National Institutes of Health to update antiquated measures for identifying young children with language disorders. New procedures based on a broader range of data than those currently used could result in diagnoses that are faster, more accurate and less likely to rely on biases that could result in children receiving incorrect assessments because of dialect, gender or class differences. “Language disorder is considered the ‘canary in the coal mine’—if a child is not talking well or on time, it can be a first sign of a serious developmental problem,” said Professor Nan Bernstein Ratner, who leads the project. “However, assessing whether spoken language is age-appropriate has relied upon time-intensive, poorly normed procedures.” Ratner and her team will spend the next five years analyzing data archived in an online repository called the Child Language Data Exchange System that’s part of a larger, federally funded initiative called TalkBank. The database includes spoken language samples recorded and transcribed during the last 30 years from 1,500 North American English-speaking children ages 1 to 5.

Image courtesy of HESP

The research team will painstakingly comb through each record in an effort to establish better methods for diagnosing language problems in preschool-aged children. Researchers will also study whether current measures result in misdiagnoses of children who speak certain dialects within American English. Once researchers determine the parameters to confidently diagnose language disorders, the final product will be a freely available, user-friendly software program that can quickly assess a child’s language ability and compare it to updated norms. “We want this process to be so fast and free that the therapists can get to the work they’re supposed to be doing—helping kids through therapy and interventions,” Ratner said. “We can do better using computer-based methods.”

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Celebrating 70 Years of Speech and Hearing at UMD In March, HESP faculty, staff, students and alumni celebrated 70 years of speech and hearing at Maryland with a day of learning and networking and a reception in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union. Professor Rochelle Newman, chair of the department, outlined current research and activities. Several timely panels were offered by experts for continuing education credit. “We were thrilled to give an update on our work and our outreach, and to connect with so many alumni. Our attendees gained a lot of knowledge to bolster their careers and help their clients,” Newman said. “Our community is engaged and connected, and we have much to celebrate.”

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BSOS Online Learn more about the department at hesp.umd.edu

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BSOS, iSchool Establish Center for Advances in Data and Measurement BSOS AND THE COLLEGE OF INFORMATION STUDIES joined with several other campus entities to establish the new Center for Advances in Data Measurement (CADM). CADM is designed to meet critical industry needs for greater expertise, fundamental research, development of methods and systems, and extensive education about the challenges and potential of efficiently, effectively, and ethically creating information products that characterize humans and their activity and behavior. CADM also expands opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, who often support faculty researchers on projects and in labs. “This center will leverage UMD’s strengths in survey methodology, measurement, information and data management, visualization, and analytics. These strengths are particularly visible

Faculty, staff and students celebrated the launch of CADM with a networking event on campus.

in our college’s Joint Program for Survey Methodology,” said Dean Greg Ball. “CADM will further establish the university as an international leader in research, education, and application of social data and measurement.” The launch of CADM was celebrated in October with a special event on the College Park campus. In what was designed as a “speed-dating” style meeting, faculty and staff from participating units outlined the basic vision and initial plans for the center, discussed their related projects, and brainstormed about future collaborations and events.

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ASA Honors Frauke Kreuter with Links Lecture Award THE BSOS COMMUNITY CONGRATULATES Professor Frauke Kreuter, the 2018 recipient of the American Statistical Association’s Links Lecture Award. Kreuter was chosen because her work has added important links in the progress of official statistics through leadership in education and in training. She was also recognized for her distinguished contributions to literature on social and economic measurement. Each year, a lecturer is chosen from among a set of nominated candidates to receive the award and to present a lecture. Kreuter presented a lecture on “Survey and Data Science: Aspects of Privacy.”

In addition to her service at UMD, Kreuter is a professor of statistics and methodology at the University of Mannheim, and is head of the Statistical Methods Research Department at the Institute for Employment Research in Nürnberg, Germany. Her research focuses on sampling and measurement errors in complex surveys. In her work at JPSM, Kreuter maintains strong ties to the Federal Statistical System, and has served in advisor roles for the National Center for Educational Statistics and for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 23

JOINT PROGRAM IN SURVEY METHODOLOGY

JPSM News

PSYCHOLOGY

PSYC News

Researchers Identify Brain Circuits Influenced by Intoxication DRINKING ALCOHOL MAY FEEL like “liquid courage,” but the effect is really just the dampening of the brain circuits that regulate anxiety, according to a study published in Scientific Reports by a team including postdoctoral researcher Juyoen Hur and Assistant Professor Alexander Shackman. The study demonstrates for the first time that moderate consumption of alcohol reduced reactivity of the central amygdala, a brain structure related to fear. The research provides important new clues about the neural systems involved in alcohol consumption and abuse in humans. Researchers used cutting-edge brain imaging techniques to compare the brain activity of people who drank either alcoholic or placebo cocktails. Intoxicated participants demonstrated significantly less reactivity than the control group in the central nucleus and the bed nucleus, the two major divisions of the brain’s central extended amygdala. “Oftentimes, a glass or two of wine can take the edge off an anxiety-inducing situation, like a first date,” Shackman said. “Our results provide an important step to understanding

Illustration courtesy of Maryland Today.

why and how alcohol affects some of the brain regions most intimately involved in processing social cues and orchestrating states of fear and anxiety.” Shackman said this research sets the stage for improved treatments for alcohol abuse.

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Helping Students Play to Their Strengths WHEN TASKED TO REPORT about any one student’s strengths and difficulties, teachers and parents are sometimes not on the same page about what those dynamics are. These differences in views have the potential for helping professionals to develop educational programs that target specific strengths and difficulties requiring attention at school and at home. For the first time, researchers in UMD’s Department of Psychology are developing tools that leverage these differences in views in the service of students’ needs. Professor Andres De Los Reyes is leading a team of researchers that received a $1.4 million award from the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to create new survey

instruments designed to sensitively assess mental health in the school system and in the home environment. Once good data is collected through these new mental health surveys, the researchers will be able to develop tools that will personalize educational programs to meet students’ specific needs.

Professor Andres

intervention progress, and inform the selection of evidence-based services,” De Los Reyes said. “We are now reviewing an emerging body of interdisciplinary theory and research that demonstrates how patterns of informant discrepancies inform our understanding of students’ psychosocial strengths and difficulties.”

De Los Reyes “Right now, service providers In turn, the research team and researchers commonly is advancing an agenda rely on multiple informants—like parents, for improving use and interpretation of teachers, and the students themselves—to informant discrepancies in school-based characterize intervention targets, monitor services and research.

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C&C Photography

Tracking the Progress of the Black Middle Class IN 1987, Professor Emeritus Bart Landry published “The New Black Middle Class,” which outlined the emergence of the African American middle class in the early 20th century, and compared its economic position with that of the white middle class after the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Now, Landry’s book “The New Black Middle Class in the TwentyFirst Century” (Rutgers University Press, 2018) provides research-based information about the progress the class has made in the past few decades, as well as challenges.

FOR 20 YEARS, Samia Mahbub Ahmad, SOCY M.A. ’94, Ph.D. ’05, has performed and taught Hindustani classical music. She has traveled the world, won awards and performed for audience members including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter.

The initial Black Middle Class was formed in the United States amid the extreme forces of segregation. While the current Black Middle Class has made record gains in areas including education and employment, the members of the group still face significant disparity and discrimination.

A vocal artist, Ahmad also plays the tanpura, a long-necked string instrument, and the harmonium, a wind keyboard instrument.

“I do take a ‘glass half-full and glass half-empty’ perspective,” Landry said. “When we look at educational advancements, the half-full view is that college degree attainment rates for African Americans aged 25 to 29 increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 22 percent in 2017. But the half-empty view is that, for the white population aged 25 to 29, the attainment rate increased from 14 percent in 1964 versus 42 percent in 2017. So the gap remains, the disparity persists.” Looking ahead, Landry said he expects the Black Middle Class to continue to grow and make gains, but at a steady rate rather than at an accelerated rate, given the overall state of the economy.

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BSOS Online Read more at go.umd.edu/blackmiddleclass

Connecting through Music

Ahmad also has a lifelong passion for sociology, earning a B.A. from Dhaka University in Bangladesh, where she grew up. In the 1990s, she relocated to Washington, D.C., with her daughter and husband, and worked for the World Bank. Ahmad then pursued graduate degrees in sociology at UMD. “The multi-disciplinary and inclusive nature of sociology presented me with a lens to view the world more holistically,” Ahmad said. “I decided to explore teaching, performing and recording for a year to see how it evolved. The music practice flourished, and I ended up not looking back. Even more powerful was the realization that I never actually stopped being a sociologist.” Today, Ahmad divides her time between India and Maryland. She remains connected to UMD through alumni events, performances and master classes. Ahmad hopes to work with health practitioners who incorporate music into therapy and treatments to help patients relax.

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College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 25

SOCIOLOGY

SOCY News

BAHÁ’Í CHAIR

Peace Chairs News

Steve Brigham, Marcus Bullock, Amy Kincaid, Hoda Mahmoudi, Sacoby Wilson, Brittney Drakeford, Tonia Wellons, and Rashawn Ray participated in “Pursuing Racial Equity in Prince George’s County, MD.”

Bahá’í Chair Events Explore Obstacles to Peace “THE OBSTACLES TO GLOBAL PEACE are numerous and diverse in nature. We must explore and address these problems—and possible solutions—from every angle.” That statement by Professor Hoda Mahmoudi, holder of The Bahá’í Chair for World Peace since 2012, explains the broad portfolio of topics explored in Chair events during the 2018–19 Academic Year. The Chair applies a multidisciplinary approach to examine important social issues; structural racism and inequality were recurring topics addressed over this past year by expert scholars brought to campus by Mahmoudi. The Fall Lecture, “Deconstructing Race/Reconstructing Difference: Beyond the U.S. Paradigm,” was presented by Professor Jabari Mahiri, the William and Mary Jane Brinton Family Chair in Urban Teaching at the University of California, Berkeley. Mahiri believes it is time to re-examine the terms on which race is discussed and racial justice pursued. Speaking before an audience of 370, he argued that it is time to transcend the “black-white binary” and to break out of what he calls “the color bind.” The fall conference on “The Future of Humanity: T   he Challenge of Global Peace and Security” highlighted the importance of structural changes to the global system. W. Andy Knight from the University of Alberta described how decisions and institutions governing the global order have been “frozen in time” since the middle of the 20th century. Craig Murphy, a professor of political science at Wellesley College, spoke on

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the need for greater equality and “deep cooperation” to address global problems. Severine Autesserre, a political science professor at Columbia University, argued that “To end violence from war, we have to change the way we view and build peace.” In November, the Bahá’í Chair, The Critical Race Initiative, and MLAW Programs co-hosted “Be the Solution: Interrogating Structural Racism.” The panelists discussed how structural racism harms people, maintains division between racial groups, and minimizes social justice; then they engaged the audience in an exchange of ideas to identify solutions. The series on Structural Racism continued in February with the Critical Race Initiative cosponsored panel discussion, “Pursuing Racial Equity in Prince George’s County, MD.” The panel featuring faculty, graduate students, and community members discussed how the university and the county can learn from each other and collaborate on initiatives aimed at bringing educational, housing, health, and economic equity to the community. This past year’s events resonated with the aspirations of students on campus and the greater community who want a more just and unified society, a prerequisite for any peace.

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BSOS Online To watch videos of past presentations, and to learn more about recent and future Bahá’í Chair events and activities, visit bahaichair.umd.edu

Gibran Chair Launches Website Showcasing Arab Women Pioneers exemplify the values of progress, peace and human rights for all,” said May Rihani, director of the Gibran Chair.

THE KAHLIL GIBRAN CHAIR for Values and Peace launched a website that for the first time features current and past Arab women leaders in a searchable directory and database. This innovative tool allows users from all over the world to draw inspiration from Arab women pioneers, and to potentially connect with them on research and projects. The Pioneers and Leaders Knowledge Center about Arab Women features profiles of women leaders and organizations that promote the interests of women from 15 countries across the Arab world. More than 200 women and organizations are featured, and users may submit

In addition to profiles of women pioneers, the Knowledge Center features facts and statistics about women in the Arab world, and outlines Gibran Chair research aimed at understanding and improving the lives of women in the Arab world.

nominations for more women to be added. “The women we’ve chosen to feature represent various fields and have achieved a diverse array of accomplishments. But they are all women who have overcome barriers, served as role models, and

The second phase of the website— known as the Hub—recently launched, and selected users are able to log in and use it as a tool for networking and for international dialogue via chat functions and project-sharing tools.

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BSOS Online Learn more at pioneersandleaders.org

Gibran Chair Hosts Groundbreaking Symposium on Arab Luminaries IN MARCH, SCHOLARS AND STUDENTS from several countries attended a landmark Gibran Chair event, the first symposium in the United States about three leading figures in the Arab Renaissance: Kahlil Gibran, Ameen Rihani and Mikhail Naimy. These three thinkers and writers were the powerful voices that re-formed the Mahjar literature. They also initially formed, in 1916, the Pen League, the first Arab-American literary society, and then established it in 1920.

The groundbreaking symposium on Gibran/Rihani/Naimy featured (from left to right): Dr. Elizabeth Saylor, Dr. Peter Wien, event keynote speaker Dr. Paul Salem, Gibran Chair Director May Rihani, Dr. Roger Allen, Dr. Terri deYoung, and Dr. Rebecca Gould.

The symposium featured presentations by scholars from 10 universities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Participants explored the contributions of these important literary figures to the rich fabric of the American culture.

“This was an extraordinary day of learning, conversation, and the rare opportunity to be immersed in Arab thought, literature and scholarship,” said May Rihani, director of the Gibran Chair.

Keynote remarks were offered by Dr. Paul Salem, president of the Middle East Institute. The event also featured an innovative, interactive exhibit showcasing the works of Gibran, Rihani and Naimy.

BSOS Online

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Learn more at gibran.umd.edu

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GIBRAN CHAIR

Peace Chairs News

SADAT CHAIR

Peace Chairs News

Sadat Chair Events Feature Global Policy Experts THE ANWAR SADAT CHAIR FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT hosted three events this academic year that gave UMD audiences access to expert opinion on topics related to U.S. national security and international dialogue. IN MARCH, “THE GLOBAL RESPONSE TO THE REFUGEE CRISIS” featured a discussion with Nancy Lindborg, president of the United States Institute of Peace; Eric Schwartz, president of Refugees International; and Her Excellency Ambassador Dina Kawar, ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the United States. The event was part of the university’s “Year of Immigration.” Watch the event at go.umd.edu/watchrefugee2019 THE SADAT FORUM, presented in September, marked the 40th anniversary of the Camp David Accords and the Accords’ impact on U.S. foreign policy. Special messages from President Jimmy Carter and Dr. Jehan Sadat opened the event. The discussion featured Professor Daniel Kurtzer of Princeton University, former ambassador to Egypt and Israel; Professor Ellen Laipson of George Mason University, former vice-chair of the National Intelligence Council; and Professor Emeritus William Quandt, former top Middle East Assistant to President Jimmy Carter. Watch the event at go.umd.edu/sadatforumcampdavid THE SADAT CHAIR AND BSOS, with co-sponsorship of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Office of International Affairs, held an event on “Immigrant Stories” as part of the “Year of Immigration” in April.  The event featured a panel of highly accomplished immigrants, including President Wallace

Professor Shibley Telhami, Ambassador Dina Kawar, Nancy Lindborg and Eric Schwartz discuss the international refugee crisis at the Sadat Forum.

Loh; Professor Nina Khrushcheva of T   he New School; former U.S. Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Maria Otero; and Abderrahim Foukara, Al Jazeera. Watch the event at go.umd.edu/watchimmigrantstories All events were moderated by the Chair’s incumbent, Shibley Telhami, who was named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher last year.

Critical Issues Polls DIRECTED BY TELHAMI, a University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll, fielded by Nielsen Scarborough in September–October among a nationally representative sample of 2,352 adult Americans, showed that American survey respondents were evenly divided among

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those who back a one-state solution and those who back a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Thirty-five percent of respondents say that the United States should support a one-state solution, and 36% say it should support a two-state solution. T   his is a significant increase in support of the one-state solution compared with a November 2017 poll, which found that 41% of respondents favored a two-state solution, and 29% favored a one-state solution. The Critical Issues Poll also conducted a national poll in October–November, which included a nationally-representative sample of Hispanics. More polls will be fielded and released in the coming year on domestic issues and foreign policy. Learn more at go.umd.edu/onestatesolutionpoll

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UMD Hosts Big Ten Conference to Address Redistricting, Gerrymandering RESEARCHERS FROM ACROSS the Big Ten gathered at UMD in March for the Strategic Partnership for Applied Redistricting Knowledge (SPARK) Conference. The event, sponsored by the Big Ten Academic Alliance, focused on how academia can address challenges associated with redistricting and gerrymandering.

awareness, as well as an academic resource to develop new courses and research on redistricting.

The SPARK conference was facilitated by UMD’s Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center for Education, Justice and Ethics, and the Department of Government Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. moderates a SPARK panel. and Politics; experts from both units played key roles in the proceedings. Redistricting and gerrymandering—the manipulation of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan recently selected Judge Williams to district boundaries to serve political interests—pose a major co-chair the state’s new Redistricting Reform Commission. national issue that affects the health of American democracy. This issue is timely, as the 2020 U.S. Census will soon be in the Dean Gregory Ball expanded the scope of the academic research initiative by engaging peer universities in the Big Ten. field and will provide a basis for the next reapportionment of congressional and state legislative seats. Discussions centered on establishing an independent group of experts that can serve as an objective resource for decisionmakers in any state. Another priority that emerged was the creation of a data hub that can be used as a resource for public

“The SPARK Conference represents a special opportunity,” Ball said. “The expertise we have gathered here—from more than 50 researchers and content experts—will serve as a powerful, independent and objective resource for decision-makers nationwide.”

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BARNEY FRANK DELIVERS FISHLINGER FAMILY LECTURE In March, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the Center for the Study of Business Ethics, Regulation and Crime presented the 2019 Fishlinger Family Lecture. The event featured The Hon. Barney Frank in conversation with Thomas B. Edsall. Frank is a noted author, a former congressman representing Massachusetts, and is the co-author of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. Edsall is a journalist and opinion columnist for The New York Times. The discussion featured observations about the current state of regulation, 2019 politics, and Frank’s experience as the first openly gay politician in Washington, D.C.

Photo by Stephanie S. Cordle, courtesy of Maryland Today.

BSOS thanks Matt Fishlinger, ’07, and Bill Fishlinger, ’71, and their families for their generous support of this annual lecture. Watch the video at go.umd.edu/cbercfrank19.

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 29

BSOS CENTERS

Updates from Centers and More

BSOS CENTERS

Updates from Centers and More

Research Shows More Women Opting to Give Birth Outside of a Hospital AN INCREASING NUMBER OF WOMEN in the United States are choosing to give birth outside of hospitals, and the demand for nontraditional delivery options is likely higher than current data shows, new research from the Maryland Population Research Center (MPRC) finds. The study, published in Birth in December, shows that one out of every 62 births (1.61%) in the United States in 2017 took place at a home or in a birth center—the most ever recorded in the 30 years of national birth certificate data available. After a gradual decline between 1990 and 2004, out-of-hospital births increased by 85 percent from 2004 to 2017, researchers discovered. They also found that non-Hispanic white women were more likely than any other group to have an out-of-hospital birth. For these women, one out of every 41 births (2.43%) was an out-of-hospital birth. MPRC researchers say these figures underestimate the true number of women who choose out-of-hospital births, because those who plan to give birth outside of the hospital but then are transferred to a hospital during labor or delivery are reported on birth certificates as hospital births. Meanwhile, newly available data on payment methods showed more than two-thirds of planned home births were self-paid by the mother (i.e. not covered by either private health insurance or Medicaid), compared to one-third of birth center births and just 3 percent of hospital births. “The lack of access to payment options for out-ofhospital births may prevent many women from making these choices, suggesting demand for out-of-hospital birth is considerably higher than what the data tells us,” said Research Professor Marian MacDorman, the lead author on the study. “The question that arises from our findings is, what is happening during hospital births that is leading women to seek other options, even when that means bucking convention and paying more to deliver at home or in a birth center?”

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Photo: John T. Consoli/University of Maryland

Maryland Population Research Center receives $2.16 million from NIH THE MARYLAND POPULATION RESEARCH CENTER (MPRC) received $2.16 million from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to further its mission to produce and promote population-related research from an interdisciplinary perspective. The award will support the MPRC for the next five years, placing it in an elite cadre of population research centers nationwide with more than two decades of activity. “This award is testament to the cutting-edge population research that UMD faculty are engaged in to address critical challenges in health, immigration, social inequalities, and many other areas, both in the United States and globally,” said Sangeetha Madhavan, acting director of the MPRC.

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BSOS Online

BSOS Online

Read more at go.umd.edu/birthresearch

Learn more at popcenter.umd.edu

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Feller Family Gift Enhances BSOS Career Services AT THE CLOSE OF 2018, Joel J. Feller, GVPT ’90, and Kim A. Feller, ’89, generously donated $500,000 to help BSOS expand and enhance career development services offered to students. This landmark gift will update physical space in Tydings Hall and will strengthen the scope of the University Career Center @ BSOS into a new, integrated BSOS Advising & Professional Development Center. “The majority of BSOS graduates go directly into the workforce after college, but students are not always effectively linking the valuable knowledge and skills they gain in their major classes with what prospective employers value most in their employees,” said Associate Dean Katherine Russell. “The Feller family’s gift will help us to enhance the career services we offer to our students, who are eager to better position themselves for bright futures.” While still in the planning phase, college leadership have outlined several priority areas for the expanded center. These goals include hiring a career coach and faculty liaison who would help faculty to integrate more professional development assignments and resources into courses, and to create physical lab space and staffing to support students seeking help with data science and statistical tools. The Fellers have a long history of supporting the College, through gifts and through participation and leadership. In 2017, their $500,000 gift established the Joel and Kim Feller MLAW Endowed Scholarship, which supports merit-based scholarships for qualified undergraduate students in MLAW; recipients are known as Feller Scholars. They also previously donated $500,000 to establish a dean’slevel professorship aimed at helping the college recruit or retain faculty in academic areas of need. Dr. Jack Blanchard in the

Joel Feller, left, and Kim Feller, right, with their son Cory.

Department of Psychology has carried the title of the Feller Professor in BSOS. An additional $500,000 given by the Fellers established the Feller Lecture within the Department of Government and Politics. A gift of $100,000 supported a research professorship in the department, which was awarded to Dr. Robert Koulish, director of MLAW Programs. Joel Feller is a member of the University of Maryland Board of Trustees, and in 2016 was named BSOS Alumnus of the Year. The Feller family is well-known throughout the legal community, as Joel Feller is a founding partner at Ross Feller Casey, LLP in Philadelphia, and is a nationally renowned victims’ rights advocate. “Joel and Kim Feller have set an outstanding example of leadership and of philanthropy for our students and our alumni community,” said Dean Gregory Ball. “I am deeply grateful for their continued friendship to the college.”

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College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 31

GIVING NEWS

Giving News

GIVING NEWS

Giving News

Thank You for Supporting BSOS on Giving Day ONCE AGAIN, the BSOS community had much to celebrate on Giving Day. On behalf of our students, faculty and staff, thank you for supporting our college on March 6. This annual 24-hour fundraising challenge features friendly competition among campus units for hourly prizes and challenge funds. As has become a tradition, BSOS was one of the biggest winners of the day! Our community raised $131,382—the largest amount received by any academic unit—from 526 gifts. BSOS also unlocked challenge funds, and won a prize in an hourly competition

for School/College Donors. We especially would like to thank Robert R. Satterfield, ECON ’95, for providing challenge match funding. The engagement of our alumni and donors allows us to support students, faculty and programs in ways that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Gifts of every amount go toward new textbooks and classroom equipment; student travel to academic conferences; bringing exciting speakers to campus; and much more. Thank you for your generosity. We hope you will join us for Giving Day 2020!

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Giving Opportunity: BSOS Undergraduate Experience Funds EACH ACADEMIC YEAR, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences accepts applications from undergraduate students seeking funding for Summer and Fall learning experiences. For many BSOS students, financial burdens are a barrier to pursuing internships, travel to academic conferences and unique research opportunities. Through the generosity of alumni and donors, students can pursue these opportunities and more with the support of BSOS Undergraduate Experience Funds. In the last year, 38 students have received student experience awards from among 10 funds, resulting in $22,150 worth of support. BSOS’s Undergraduate Experience Funds include: n The Beardsley Family Endowed Student Experience Fund n The Taylor and Brandon Cole Student Experience Endowment n The Jay G. Cohen Memorial Student Opportunities Endowment n The Dries Family Student Experience Endowment n The Fishlinger Family Student Opportunities Fund

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Photo: John T. Consoli/University of Maryland

n The Felecia Love Greer Student Experience Endowment n The John M. Haas Sr. Student Experience Endowment n The Gary L. Rozier Professional Experience Fellowships n The Robert R. Satterfield Economics Student Opportunities Endowed Funds n The Robert R. Satterfield LGBTQ+ Opportunities Endowed Fund To learn more about these funds and how to support them, contact Jenny Kilberg, director of Alumni and Donor Relations, at jkilberg@umd.edu or 301-405-2998.

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BSOS Points of Pride

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Office of External Relations 0145 Tydings Hall 7343 Preinkert Dr. University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742

Be the Solution is produced annually by the Office of External Relations, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. For more information about this publication, or about alumni engagement and giving opportunities, please contact 301.405.3475 or bsosalumni@umd.edu.

Gregory F. Ball Dean and Professor, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

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