BSOS UMD Be the Solution Magazine 2020

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND / FEARLESS IDEAS

BE THE SOLUTION MAGAZINE

Alumni Gift Opens Doors The Joel and Kim Feller Advising and Career Center

Letter from Dean Ball

Meeting Challenges, Moving Forward WHETHER ADDRESSING A GRADUATING CLASS virtually for the first time, or meeting with alumni via Zoom, or writing this letter to you, it is hard to know where to begin.

I am proud to tell you that we adapted to an online environment in the spring, but of course we were devastated that we had to leave campus. I am very grateful for our instructors and staff who responded to move classes and student advising and services online on very short notice. I am also honored to be part of a community of researchers who have shed light on the COVID-19 pandemic from virtually every angle, as you will see in these pages. But I am deeply saddened by both the loss of life we have faced in this country, and the drastic changes to life as we know it.

We have been working hard with colleagues across campus to develop a plan for the fall semester. The UMD experience in the fall semester will be like no other semester in our history.

In general, we are planning for as many scenarios as we can reasonably anticipate. Every day, there seem to be new challenges, new factors, new ideas. Like many of you—in your professional lives and at home—we are doing the best we can, and respond to the rapidly changing circumstances as nimbly as possible.

In addition to responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are facing another insidious and deadly pandemic in our country— systemic racism—as well as the horrific murder of Black men and women, at times in police custody. Here on campus, we are

not only analyzing and addressing racism and the need for major reform in policing policies through town hall dialogues and multidisciplinary research; we are addressing our own university policies, culture and behaviors in the academic community.

As a college, we recognize the barDean Gregory Ball riers to entry and advancement that many Black scientists, staff and students face in academic settings. We embrace this opportunity to continue our efforts to recruit, support, retain and encourage Black students, faculty, staff, and alumni in every way possible. I invite you to join our events, and to contact me and other faculty and leaders in BSOS to discuss concerns and possible actions.

Amid uncertainty and difficulty, we still have much to celebrate in BSOS. I am honored to announce that we will

In Memoriam: Jonathan England This issue of Be the Solution is dedicated to the memory and to the legacy of Jonathan England, AASD/GVPT ’95, a lecturer in the Department of African American Studies, who passed away on June 1, 2020. Jonathan was a memorable teacher, a respected scholar, and a treasured friend. He was a beloved husband and father of four children.

Jonathan England

Through his teaching, his research and writing, and through the events that he organized, Jonathan engaged thousands of people in meaningful discussions on race, racial politics, and strengthening communities. Jonathan worked toward a better nation and a better world. The BSOS community will continue this work.

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soon open the doors to our new Joel and Kim Feller Advising and Career Center.

Made possible by the Fellers’ extraordinary gift, the Feller Center combines the BSOS Advising Center and the University Career Center @ BSOS into a college hub for academic and career resources for students.

Hundreds of donors from BSOS have also supported our students in life-changing ways through the UMD Student Crisis Fund. Maryland students continue to need help with securing food, housing and basic day-to-day necessities.

We will work with every student to help them make the most of their Maryland experience. To our engaged alumni and donors, thank you for helping us to support our students and our recent graduates.

I seem to end every videoconference, phone call and email with “Be safe” or “Be well” these days. To this community, I will add, “Be the Solution.”

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Sincerely,

Gregory F. Ball Dean and Professor

Supporting Neurodiversity at UMD BSOS is proud to announce that $500,000 from Martin Friedman, ’92, and Dina Friedman will provide current use and endowed funds supporting the Social Interaction Group Network for All (SIGNA), an advocacy, support and training group for UMD students on the neurodiverse spectrum.

“Our family understands the needs of neurodiverse kids, and we wanted to help this community,” Mr. Friedman said. “The program represents a unique opportunity for kids to develop during their college career and provides skills for their future launch into the workforce.”

Martin Friedman, ’92

Mr. Friedman said his unforgettable experience at Maryland has also inspired him to give back. “Being a Terp and getting my education at the college has launched me into the world, and I have stayed connected by following the progress of the university. I was happy to help do my small part to help SIGNA reach as many students as possible.”

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Inside This Issue Alumni Gift Opens Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Criminology for the 21st Century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Priceless Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Border Lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Department News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Updates from Centers and More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Alumni and Giving News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

On the cover: Illustration by Chris Campbell based on photograph courtesy of Joel and Kim Feller.

ALUMNI GIFT

The Joel and Kim Feller Advising and Career Center Expanding and Integrating Career Services, Academics and Advising

From the time he joined the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences six years ago, Dean Gregory Ball has worked with leadership and staff members across campus to make advising and career services a top priority for BSOS. While students in the college already work closely with academic advisors, experiential learning experts, and career advising staff, Ball and Associate Dean Katherine Russell saw the need to expand and better integrate career services for BSOS students with existing academic experiences and advising.

Successful BSOS graduates have demonstrated that they do not solely choose a career path just by attending classes—rather, they integrate classroom experience with opportunities such as internships, research projects, public service and leadership activities.

“Over the past few years, we’ve moved from the attitude that these activities outside of the classrooms—internships, workshops, research projects— are optional, useful things to do, and have instead adopted the attitude that these experiences are actually an essential part of a broad education,” Ball said. “This means that we need to ensure that we are making these opportunities available for all students.”

The expansion of BSOS’s advising and career planning has been at the forefront of many meetings and conversations that Ball has had with alumni and donors. Longtime BSOS supporters Joel J. Feller, GVPT ’90, and Kim A. Feller, ’89, have become key partners in these efforts.

The Feller family has made an extraordinary gift of $4 million to expand advising and career services within the college. It is the single largest donation the college has ever received, and the news of the gift has bolstered the spirits of the BSOS community at a challenging time.

Set to officially launch in the fall, the Joel and Kim Feller Advising and Career Center will support academic and careerrelated programs, as well as dedicated staff members. The center will be housed in Tydings Hall, following a renovation that is also made possible by the Feller family’s gift.

Meeting a Need for Comprehensive Support The Fellers, who met at Maryland, have many wonderful memories of their alma mater. They have stayed connected through Mr. Feller’s service on the University’s Board of Trustees, and by attending football games and other events.

Their son Cory will begin as a freshman at UMD in the fall semester. Their oldest son, Jordan, graduated from Indiana University, and now attends Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Their daughter, Emily, recently graduated from Syracuse University, and has secured a job in New York.

As both longtime supporters of Maryland and as the parents of children who are starting or who have graduated from college and from law school, the Fellers have directly seen the need for comprehensive career and advising support, from a student’s first day on campus until graduation.

Mr. and Mrs. Feller also talked with their children about their experiences, and discussed the landscape with friends who also have children who have graduated and entered the workforce.

“In the past few years, Kim and I have realized that there is something missing from the current academic experience. We want students to be prepared for not only the academic rigors of college, but for networking and landing a job,” Mr. Feller said. “We’ve seen how important it is for students to connect with talented alumni, to gain exposure to businesses and to real-life work situations.”

The Fellers have also seen how economic and social disparities leave some students at a disadvantage. They have spoken with BSOS leadership about the importance of making the Feller Center an accessible and equitable resource for all students. Career and academic advising resources have never been more timely or important.

“Well before the COVID-19 crisis affected the operations of our university and had an impact on the job market that our students will enter, we were making advising and career planning the focal

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include linking students to alumni who have forged paths in directions the students would like to pursue.

“We want all students to have access to the same resources. We want every student to gain advantages and strategic assistance,” Mrs. Feller said.

BSOS alumni, especially those living in the D.C. Metro region, have already helped A Cohesive Path to establish networks and resources for Understanding that many students see current students, from offering tours of their academic and career planning as interwocompanies to conducting mock interviews ven, the new BSOS branded, co-located acato hiring BSOS students as interns. demic and career advising services hub will “Our alumni are eager to help curhighlight to all students that academic and rent students and recent graduates—we career planning are integrated endeavors. have seen that time The Feller Center will and again,” Ball said. open on the second floor “Alumni engagement of Tydings Hall, following will be strengthened a renovation and expanthrough the work and sion project of the existing resources of the new BSOS Advising Center, Feller Center.” to be launched in the While the COVID-19 fall of 2020. pandemic disrupted “This space will be a collearning, teaching and lege hub, not just for stuall manner of campus dents, but also for faculty activities, it has already and advisors,” Russell said. sharpened skills “Once the Feller Center related to technology opens, BSOS students can and virtual engageexpect to enroll in more ment. These skills Renovations in Tydings Hall are under way for the new Feller Center. academic courses that could prove beneficial will offer an opportunity for advising and career preparation.

It is very important that all BSOS to explore how their academic learning will “We’ve seen that alumni can connect students have access to career plancontribute to their professional development. with students in many ways, even virtuning resources. Some BSOS students They will also have increasing opportunities ally. This is an opportunity to bring alumni are fortunate to have parents and other to network with alumni and employers who together and to be involved. We have adults in their lives who can offer professerve as mentors to students.” talented, smart alumni who are willing to sional mentoring and make introductions Students will have increased access give of their time. We hope to see lots of to professionals for internships and other to career-related events and opportunities mentoring and guest speaker opportunities, opportunities.

However, many BSOS stuas collaborations between the college and in person and online,” Mr. Feller said. dents do not have access to these personal its departments and programs, as well as connections.

Therefore, part of the college’s with the University Career Center, continue Unprecedented Support goal through the new center is to close this to grow. access gap so that students who do not in Unprecedented Times “Career planning and job searching already have these networks can get this BSOS graduates already have very favordoes not start the day you graduate. personal help and support from alumni and able outcomes when they apply for their Networking and exploring resources and friends of the university. first jobs when they graduate from college. taking advantage of mentoring should Students who are members of underIn recent years, more than 90 percent of start very early on in a student’s career,” Mr. represented groups in their professions of BSOS students secured employment or Feller said. “We hope that the Feller Center interest and students who have neurodifgrad program entry after graduation. will help students follow their interests and ferences will be supported with customThese successful outcomes are due, in gain some exposure to possible careers ized career preparation.

These efforts will part, part because BSOS majors all include and to opportunities.” point of the college’s immediate and future operations and plans,” Ball said. “We are in a better position to help our students face these new challenges as a result of this earlier preparation. We know that our students and alumni will need our full support to be competitive.”

To facilitate and accelerate this learning and engagement process, BSOS leadership said that faculty will be encouraged to assist with career preparation more than ever before.

“Faculty are eager to help students understand the value of what they are teaching in the classroom to future professional goals. Having professional career staff who can work with faculty to highlight the course-specific or curriculum-specific learning that is valued by employers will help students make the connections in their learning that might not be immediately obvious,” Russell said.

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the foundational tools of a social science education. This education includes statistics, research methods, data science skills, outstanding written and oral communications skills, real-world problem-solving, and experience working in a diverse environment. Students learn these tools and values in their BSOS classes, and then practice their skills in their internships and other out-of-classroom experiences.

Yet, some BSOS students are not always able to articulate the depth and breadth of their knowledge and skills to prospective employers. The expanded Feller Center will focus on helping more students fully articulate their knowledge and skills so that they are ready to enter the job market with their strongest presentation of their strengths.

Some examples include the BSOS Career Inventory, which helps first-year students explore their career interests as early as their summer orientation. Employer Pop-Up Shops allow a faculty member to welcome an employer to the classroom and then allows students to follow up with that employer for office hours. A 75-credit hour “career check-in” invites each BSOS student to ask for a personalized evaluation of their career development strategy during the junior year.

“It is very important to us that graduating students who don’t immediately have a job do not feel lost,” Mrs. Feller said. “We want them to have connections, to have a network. We hope that when alumni have opportunities and resources to offer, that they can look to these Maryland students first.”

While much is uncertain about the academic and career landscapes, the extraordinary support of the Fellers will give BSOS leadership greater flexibility and room to meet the needs of students and graduates.

“It is the perfect time for the Feller Center to open in order to help support BSOS students and recent alumni in their professional preparation,” Russell said. “We want our students and our young alumni to know that their advisors, career counselors, professors and alumni mentors are here for them, now and in the future.”

BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE The Feller family has long supported the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, making leadership gifts to BSOS in support of a broad range of initiatives and activities.

In 2018, the Fellers generously donated $500,000 to help BSOS enhance career planning services and begin important physical improvements to Tydings Hall. 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. They also previously donated $500,000 to establish a dean’s-level professorship aimed at helping the college recruit or retain faculty in academic areas of need.

Joel Feller, GVPT ’90, and Dean Greg Ball A number of BSOS faculty members have served as Feller Professors, including Dr. Jack Blanchard in the Department of Psychology and Dr. Joseph Richardson in the Departments of African American Studies and of Anthropology.

The Joel J. Feller Esquire Faculty Fund was established in 2015 by a $100,000 donation from the Feller family to support the needs of the Department of Government and Politics and to recruit and retain highly qualified faculty. Holders of this faculty position include Feller Senior Lecturer Dr. Michael Spivey, who is using the funds associated with the award to support research on the changing dynamics of the U.S. Supreme Court. Feller Research Associate Professor Dr. Robert Koulish, who directs MLAW Programs, used the funds to help support his research on the criminalization of immigration in the United States and an undergraduate student course trip to the U.S.-Mexico border in January 2020.

An additional $500,000 given by the Fellers established the Feller Lecture within the Department of Government and Politics. The first Feller Lecture featured Meet the Press host Chuck Todd and noted journalist Mike Viqueira, GVPT ’86.

The Fellers’ impact on the campus community goes far beyond gifts.

The Fellers contribute to the college and to the university through their time and talent. Joel Feller is a member of the University of Maryland Board of Trustees, and in 2016 was named BSOS Alumnus of the Year.

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

CRIMIN How the Top-Ranked Program in the Nation is Shaping the Future of the Field

OL GY FOR THE 21st CENTURY FOR THE PAST TWO DECADES,

crime, terrorism, human trafficking, or cybercrime—the landscape looks very different. Yet all of these new forms of crime are extremely important, and in many ways more important than the UMD’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice has been traditional types of crime identified by the Uniform Crime Reports, ranked as the #1 criminology program in the nation by U.S. News because they have the potential to affect millions of & World Report. Professor Gary LaFree, chair of the people, nationally and internationally.” department and director of the Maryland Crime The changes in the data, technology and methods Research and Innovation Center, wants this ranking to now available to study crime would perhaps have not only encapsulate the reputation and history of the been beyond the imagination of Hoover and his program, but to tell the story of its future. contemporaries.

“Our faculty and staff feel an obligation to help “We’re using satellite technology, which has had a chart the future of the field,” LaFree said. revolutionary impact on the criminal justice system— The landscape of criminology has changed rapidly we can now pinpoint with great accuracy the locaand dramatically in the past few decades. The first tions where crimes happen, and use data to predict major source of crime data in the United States was where crimes are likely to happen. The police can now the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, established by J. Edgar Dr. Gary LaFree study crime patterns, identify hot spots and concenHoover in the 1920s. This foundational report focused Photo by UMD/ trate patrol activities where they are needed most,” on seven types of crime: murder, rape, robbery, assault, John T. Consoli LaFree said. burglary, auto theft, and other theft.

We are learning that we may be better at ‘wheredoThese types of crime seem personal and communeit’ than ‘whodoneit.’” nity-based when compared to what many researchers and investiSatellites, big data, social media, video, artificial intelligence, gators are currently studying. facial recognition software—all of these methods and technolo“When you compare those Uniform Crime Report areas of gies are helping criminologists and law enforcement and public focus to what criminologists are focused on now—hate crime, bias

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Facing Sentencing Inequalities Professor Brian Johnson While justice is supposed to be blind, Brian Johnson examines how factors related to defendants’ appearance can influence judicial decision-making and sentencing outcomes.

Johnson and his collaborators have led studies on the impact of physical appearance and punishment in the criminal court context. Some of this work focuses on facial features, such as whether someone is conventionally attractive, or whether they have defining characteristics like visible scars, facial tattoos, or tattoos on the neck. Of particular interest to the researchers is whether a defendant has a “baby-faced” appearance, or has more mature qualities about their face.

“When we look at the relationship between these things and punishment outcomes, we find that—independent of the crime that they commit, or their criminal history, or other kinds of things that are related to normal punishment outcomes—more attractive defendants tend to be less likely to go to prison. Defendants with ‘baby-face’ characteristics are also less likely to receive prison sentences.

Defendants who have visible tattoos on their face or neck are significantly more likely to receive prison terms.”

Johnson said there is literature suggesting that the impact of appearance on sentencing outcomes is happening subconsciously, and that many judges aren’t aware that factors related to appearance might be impacting their decisions.

“Making judges and attorneys more aware of those kinds of dynamics through research and publications, I think, is an important first step toward a more just system,” Johnson said.

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safety officials explore new frontiers of crime and possibility.

Criminologists are even exploring the ways that hotter temperatures and rising sea levels linked to climate change have an impact on crime rates.

But with new possibilities come new problems and challenges.

“As the tools and methods available to criminologists become more sophisticated, we are undoubtedly going to face major issues related to privacy and civil liberties,” LaFree said. “We will have to confront how far we should go with law enforcement technology— we are seeing some of these challenges unfold already in more authoritarian societies like China and Saudi Arabia.”

LaFree cautioned that without proper training and context, crime fighting tools can be used to suppress protest and to target vulnerable populations, including members of minority groups. He believes it is critically important for criminologists and researchers to help provide good information, context and data to help public safety officials, judges and policymakers make good decisions.

To that end, UMD received a $500,000 grant from the Maryland Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth and Victim Services to To learn more about the support the development innovative and interdisciplinary of the new Maryland work of the CCJS faculty, watch Crime Research and the “Criminology for the 21st Innovation Center Century” video series: (MCRIC). The center, led go.umd.edu/criminology21

by CCJS faculty, is a collaboration of University System of Maryland institutions to engage interdisciplinary capabilities, in coordination with resources offered by industry and state partners, to support the establishment of a knowledge and research center to help the state’s crime control and prevention efforts. (See story page 18.)

MCRIC is now working with the Baltimore Police Department to collect and analyze data to support crime reduction. “We look forward to building a long-term partnership with our colleagues in BPD to help make a positive impact and to help keep Baltimore residents safe,” LaFree said.

While criminology has long been an interdisciplinary field, with roots in sociology and psychology, advances in technology and the exponential growth of global communication have necessitated even stronger cross-disciplinary connections.

“We’ve started to work with colleagues in social, behavioral and physical sciences, as well as public safety professionals outside of academia,” LaFree said. “The possibilities are endless.”

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A Closer Look at Corporate Crime Distinguished University Professor Sally Simpson Director, Center for the Study of Business Ethics, Regulation and Crime Sally Simpson studies the causes of corporate criminality, and investigates strategies for the prevention and control of corporate crime.

“My work has looked at the corporation as the illegal actor over a series of years, over a series of different crime types, and what happens to them as a consequence of being involved with illegal activity.”

Simpson has done work on both the aggregate corporation and how it behaves as an actor. She has also examined managerial decision-making within organizations, and how their decision-making is affected by their own personal characteristics, by their work environment, and what the company is experiencing in its economic, cultural and political environment outside of the company.

“Certainly, some of my research has shown that the majority of serious crime is committed by a fairly small group of companies; a pattern that’s replicated at the individual level. A small group of individuals are responsible for the bulk of serious crime; we see similar patterns in organizations as well.”

Challenging Dangerous Assumptions about Immigration and Crime Associate Professor María Vélez Reflecting on the current social and political climate in the United States, María Vélez sees a pervasive presumption that immigrants are criminal.

While today’s immigration debates and concerns focus on people from Mexico coming into the United States at the southern border, Vélez notes that areas of focus have changed over the decades, recalling concerns about European immigrants coming into the Chicago area at the start of the 20th century.

“It’s not a new thing that we think of immigrants as criminal. We tend to think of new groups—groups that challenge our status quo, or the way our society works— as threats. In some cases that I see through a lot of my work, I find that it actually is an inverse relationship; so that as immigration goes up, crime goes down in that particular community.”

Vélez said there are policies in place that were created based on the assumption of an immigrant-criminal connection, which she views as misguided and even dangerous.

“If we continue to engage in rhetoric—and also policies—that are targeting immigrants as being criminogenic, it may set in motion processes that marginalize them over time. The marginalization of any group can set the stage for criminal behavior. So we may, in fact, spark criminal behavior when it wasn’t there already because of that marginalization,” Vélez said.

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P

S S E L E C I R EXP E

A $300 Metro card to pay for fares from campus to a D.C. internship site. A few hundred dollars to cover parking fees for a volunteer position at the Baltimore Zoo. A plane ticket that makes it possible for a student to participate in a conference. Supplemental funds to cover the costs of books or a tablet. Sometimes, students need just a little support in order to make opportunities possible.

BSOS Undergraduate Student Experience Funds are designed to help students pursue experiential learning and career opportunities. Now more than ever, alumni and donor support to these funds are needed and appreciated, as students face financial burdens related to the COVID-19 crisis.

Here, student recipients of these funds share their stories and their appreciation to the donors who have invested in their futures.

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BSOS Undergraduate Experience Funds Help Students Take Advantage of Opportunities Beyond the Classroom

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Esteban Sanchez Senior ECON/Business Major An international student from Bogotá, Colombia, Esteban Sanchez says the University of Maryland had everything he was looking for in a college: great academics, and a picturesque campus close to a big city but not inside its limits.

Since arriving in College Park, Sanchez, an economics and business double major, has tried to take advantage of as many opportunities that come across his path as he can—such as the Global Fellows program in Washington, D.C., a year-long internship program focused on global policy and leadership.

“That experience opened my eyes to many of the challenges of my generation and, in particular, sparked my interest in a career path I hadn’t considered before—working to promote environmental sustainability and climate change,” Sanchez said.

Through Global Fellows, Sanchez learned about the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) “Initiative 20x20,” a project aimed at restoring 20 million hectares of degraded land and forests in Latin America and the Caribbean. Sanchez jumped at an opportunity to intern as a business analyst with the initiative, even though it would be unpaid. Fortunately, BSOS Experience Funds came through just in time.

“I did the math before starting the semester, and overall it would have been a big investment with the Metro and buying lunch in the city that would have had to come out of my pocket or my parents’ pocket,” Sanchez said. “The experience funds came at the right point and gave me the last push I needed to take on this opportunity.”

Sanchez completed the internship at WRI in the Spring of 2020, partially in person and partially online due to restrictions imposed by COVID-19.

During this time, he was able to support a team of professionals serving as liaisons between project investors and experts in the field working to restore land. Sanchez says it opened his mind up to new possibilities about the type of career he might want to pursue in the future.

“I love working for something that has a purpose I really care about, which is environmental sustainability,” Sanchez said. “If what I’m doing helps, even a little bit, in the end, that is so valuable to me.”

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Molly Ahearn Senior GVPT Major Proximity to the nation’s capital was one of the main reasons Massachusetts native Molly Ahearn decided to attend the University of Maryland. A government and politics major with a global terrorism minor, Ahearn knew almost immediately after arriving on campus that she would need to intern in Washington, D.C. before receiving her degree.

“Being a GVPT major, you hear that it’s all about who you know and the best connections are made through coffee dates in D.C.,” said Ahearn, now a senior. “I really took that to heart and wanted to be in D.C. to give me the best opportunity to get a job when I graduate.”

Throughout the Spring 2020 semester, Ahearn interned in the Counterterrorism Bureau at the U.S. Department of State. Before the coronavirus pandemic moved her internship online at the end of March, she would take the Metro into downtown D.C. every Monday through Thursday. “The BSOS Experience Funds helped

cover a lot of what I was worried about,” Ahearn said. “I paid for a monthly Metro pass, which was $170 for the month, and it would have been so much harder to figure out what I was going to do without that support.”

Not having the financial stress to contend with, Ahearn was able to focus on making connections and seeking out guidance through the course of her internship. Whether by writing and editing reports or helping to plan and execute events for officials from different countries, Ahearn says she’s energized by the experience of working in “a real job that matters.” As for the future, Ahearn hopes to one day live in D.C. and to work for the federal government.

“I think I want to try to go for being a foreign service officer,” she said. “I really love the idea of having a job that lets me travel and see other cultures. Working in national security would be a really good balance.”

Lee Brady Senior SOCY Major Lee Brady, a senior Sociology major, received BSOS Experience Funds to attend the annual Creating Change Conference in Dallas, Texas in January 2020. Organized by the National LGBTQ+ Task Force, Creating Change brings together thousands of LGBTQ+ and allied activists to build skills and community in pursuit of social justice.

“There’s such a sense of solidarity being in a space densely packed with people who share many of the experiences I personally have had and queer people as a whole have had,” Brady said.

The Experience Funds made it possible for Brady to travel to the conference alongside three other UMD students, as

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well as a faculty advisor, and to partake in four days packed with workshops, panels, presentations and daylong institutes.

Originally an engineering major, Brady said he discovered a passion for advocacy after taking several LGBT study and sociology courses. Attending Creating Change reinforced his decision to change majors and helped solidify plans for his future.

“I want to be able to do research on identity and socialization in the trans community,” Brady said. “I also want to teach, but my real passions lie in advocacy and activism. Being central to Washington, D.C. at the University of Maryland makes that a lot easier to pursue.”

Erica Lemen Senior ECON Major

How to Apply During the past year, 32 BSOS students received experience awards from 10 funds amounting to $18,742 worth of support.

For more information or to apply, visit go.umd.edu/EXPERIENCE

While other 10-year-olds were dreaming of becoming firefighters or politicians or professional athletes, Erica Lemen set her sights on a somewhat unconventional place of employment; the U.S. Census Bureau.

“It’s such a weird, niche thing,” Lemen said. “I don’t really understand it.”

Lemen said it all started when her fifth grade class in her hometown of Elkton, Md. did a project on the 2010 Census and received free T-shirts. From that point on, she became “fascinated by how populations move” and the idea that “everyone could be counted.”

Nine years later, as a junior economics major at the University of Maryland, Lemen came across an opportunity to make her long-held wish come true when she received an email about an opening for an internship at the Census Bureau. She applied right away and, soon after, received word she had been accepted.

One thing tempered Lemen’s excitement: She wasn’t sure she could afford to accept an unpaid internship that required her to take the Metro to Suitland, Md. each week.

“It was a hefty Metro expense because you’re going so far, probably like $12 a day,” Lemen said.

“There are so many internship options on campus that are closer and are paid that would have been much better for me financially.”

Fortunately, Lemen knew about the BSOS Undergraduate Experience Funds. Applying for and

receiving these BSOS experience funds meant Lemen could accomplish the goal that she had set back in the fifth grade.

As an intern with the federal audit clearinghouse at the Census Bureau, Lemen learned about the process of collecting and disseminating audits, gained experience with the statistical programming language SAS, and got her first real glimpse of what being a part of the federal workforce might be like one day.

“Doing this [internship] really helped guide me and to understand that this is a path that I could seriously see myself in, and that I would love to be back at the Census Bureau after graduation,” she said. “Without these funds, I would have had to think seriously about not taking this internship.

Because of them, I was able to realize this dream that I had.”

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College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 13

B OR DER

Winter Class Gets ‘Chilling’ In-Person View of Daily Life on U.S.-Mexico Border 14 | College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution

I L NE S Story by Liam Farrell courtesy of Maryland Today

G

with officials from U.S. Customs and Border During the trip, students met with rowing up in Rockville as the Protection, as well as Immigration and activists such as Sister Norma Pimentel, son of Honduran immigrants Customs Enforcement, but was ultimately executive director of Catholic Charities of and studying public policy at unsuccessful. the Rio Grande Valley; Jennifer Harbury, UMD, then-senior Jonathan “Our intention was to meet with everyGarcia always had some under- a founder of the Angry Tias and Abuelas one who would meet with us, and to gain human rights organization; and Mariana standing of the challenges as many points of view as possible from Trevino Wright, executive director of the surrounding the United States’ National Butterfly Center who is challenging people working at these sites in different border with Mexico. ways,” Koulish said. plans for a border wall that would split the But seeing it in person—from the metal Esmeralda Espinoza-Castillo, a environmental refuge. barriers separating portions of the counthen-senior American studies major and The students also spent an hour talktries to a judge sentencing two dozen U.S.-Latino studies minor, was struck by the ing with members of the National Guard people at a time—affected him in ways he complexity of a border wall’s impact, from the about the service members’ experiences. didn’t expect. potential environmental damage to breaking Koulish says he tried to set up meetings “It’s very heartbreaking for me,” he said. up indigenous peoGarcia was one ple’s land holdings. of a dozen students And while who took a new she wasn’t totally Winter term class in surprised by the January called “Law criminal court hearand Disorder at the ings, where the Border” through class watched as MLaw Programs, several dozen immia partnership grants in a McAllen between UMD and courtroom were the University of tried and sentenced Maryland Francis as a group, she felt King Carey School like she was “experiof Law. For about a encing it on week, undergraduanother level.” ates toured the Rio “There were Grande Valley, met people younger with local advocates Students and Professor Robert Koulish stand near a fence separating the United States and than I am being Mexico in the Rio Grande Valley as part of a winter MLaw Programs class on law and the border. and viewed court Photo courtesy of Robert Koulish. deported,” Espinozaproceedings.

Castillo said.

Robert Koulish, Then-senior My-Asia Chaplin knew lots director of MLaw Programs—part of the of recent immigrants during her childhood MPowering the State collaboration between in Elizabeth, N.J., but the specific stories UMD and the University of Maryland, of refugees fleeing cartel violence were Baltimore—said he took students to the “chilling,” she said, and will inform her border near McAllen, Texas, because it’s plans to be a physician in underserved the closest entry for refugees coming from communities. For example, she wants Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. It to learn more about the personal toll on also is a central point for the U.S. governadvocates who spend each day on the ment’s family separation policy. border trying to help the desperate people “This is what experiential education is crossing it. all about. The law as it played out at the “It was such a raw experience,” she said. border is completely different than what we “I can’t imagine this being every day.” read about in books,” Koulish said. “I wanted to see change [in the students], I wanted to see them questioning and I wanted to see — Robert Koulish, BSOS Online some of them want to do something about what they saw.” director of MLaw Programs Learn more at mlaw.umd.edu

“This is what experiential education is all about. The law as it played out at the border is completely different than what we read about in books.”

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

Mellon Grant to Support Study of Evolution of Identity in African Diaspora in United States THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND was awarded a two-year, $500,000 grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch an interdisciplinary African Diaspora studies research seminar that will examine the impact and interplay of nationality, ethnicity and gender among first- and second-generation African immigrants, as well as among U.S. native-born African Americans.

The project, led

by Associate Professor Sharon Harley, will bring together distinguished senior scholars, rising junior scholars, and graduate and undergraduate students to examine how multiple facets Images by Aamir Khuller of identity affect personal reflections, as well as social and cultural interactions within and between these diverse populations.

“These individuals, both native-born and increasingly of multicultural, multinational origins, share African descent but are not of one mind about how they self-define their racial/ethnic identities in the U.S.,” Harley said.

Recent years have seen tremendous growth in immigration from Africa, along with consistently strong immigration from Caribbean nations. The United States is facing a complex array of social and cultural changes as a result, with a shifting demographic composition that reflects new and historic mixtures of peoples and attitudes regarding identity and cultural representations of blackness, Harley said.

Time-honored conceptions held by many, if not most, native-born African Americans may not accurately indicate the experiences of new citizens or their perspectives regarding self-identity as first- and second-generation Americans, Harley said. But because of their numbers and activity in their new communities, and through their relationships with native-born African Americans, the immigrant populations are influencing the evolution of black identity.

The grant will support research seminars, social media outreach and a series of public events.

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

Research in Action: Angel Dunbar UTILIZING OBSERVATIONAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND SURVEY METHODOLOGY, Assistant Professor Angel Dunbar is investigating Black children’s distress responses to racial-bias exposure and the role of parents in either facilitating or hindering children’s emotion regulation in response to distress.

She has received a Dean’s Research Initiative seed grant from BSOS to apply Artificial Intelligence software to read the emotional expressions of her participants. Preliminary results indicate that high child empathy and parental distress are risk factors for children’s distress to witnessing racial bias.

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Society for Applied Anthropology Honors Paolisso, Chambers PROFESSOR MICHAEL PAOLISSO was elected as the new President of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA).

He has been a member of the organization for more than 30 years.

Paolisso’s applied anthropology research focuses on coastal socio-ecological resilience, climate change, natural resource management and restoration, fisheries, and agriculture. He co-founded the Deal Island Peninsula Project, a network of coastal residents, researchers and government and

non-government officials undertaking collaborative science and management to increase coastal socio-ecological resilience in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

tourism and heritage. Chambers served as president of the SfAA from 1987 to 1989, and was a founding editor of the journal Practicing Anthropology.

In November, to honor the continuing legacy of Professor Emeritus Erve Chambers, the SfAA named the prize for their student paper competition as the Erve Chambers Tourism and Heritage Student Paper Award. This award was named in recognition of Chambers’ contributions to the anthropology of

In other department news, Paolisso and colleagues Christine Miller Hesed, Katherine Johnson, and Elizabeth Van Dolah were selected as the winners of the Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists’ Praxis Award for their work with the Deal Island Peninsula Project.

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Alumna Documents LGBTQ Heritage Sites for National Park Service MEGAN SPRINGATE, ANTH M.A. ’15, PH.D.’17, has cultivated a wealth of knowledge about places that have historic significance for LGBTQ Americans. These locations include the UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans, where 32 members of the gay community died in what many believe was an arson attack in 1973, as well as an office in Puerto Rico that housed the territory’s first gay organization, founded in 1974 and inspired by Stonewall.

Springate discovered these locations and their history while serving as an intern at the National Park Service (NPS) during the pursuit of her Ph.D. At the time, there were only five entries in the National Register of Historic Places recognized for their association with LGBTQ heritage.

Springate compiled a list of more than 750 sites relevant to LGBTQ history, and created a map to go with it. The Gill Foundation donated money to the National Park Foundation to complete a theme study of LGBTQ history in America for the NPS, and asked Springate to lead the project. What resulted was a 1,200-page document, freely available on the NPS website, which provides an overview of LGBTQ history connected to physical places in the United States.

Published in 2016, the study marked the first time any federal government officially documented LGBTQ history. It also laid the groundwork for people to recognize and preserve LGBTQ heritage sites, including by going through the process of adding them to the National Register.

Springate’s work has turned her into somewhat of a celebrity within NPS and the field of archaeology. Often, when she attends meetings and conferences, people come up to thank her.

“Almost every LGBTQ person I knew remembers being alive when the government was out to get us—we couldn’t serve in the military, couldn’t adopt kids, could be fired for just being who we were,” she said. “To have the NPS then want to look at LGBTQ history in the United States was just incredible. The power of being seen and to have your story told is amazing.”

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BSOS Online Read more: go.umd.edu/springate

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MCRIC Working with Maryland Leaders to Reduce Violent Crime n educating the next generation of crime data analysts to lead the future regional workforce in innovative crime analysis methodologies.

MCRIC and BPD have partnered on a new initiative to apply data-driven research strategies to crime reduction efforts in Baltimore. UMD is collaborating with BPD on their new Baltimore Community Intelligence Centers, modeled after the Chicago Police Department’s Strategic Decision Support Centers.

DRAWING UPON INTERDISCIPLINARY EXPERTISE, the Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center (MCRIC) serves as a research partner for federal, state, and local officials to help prevent and reduce violent crime and to support victims through data-driven strategies.

The UMD center is supported by the Maryland Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention,Youth and Victim Services and collaborates with a number of law enforcement and community partners, including the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, the Maryland Attorney’s Office, and Roca, a service program.

MCRIC is taking a multi-faceted approach to addressing crime, including: n supporting law enforcement efforts with data-driven, research-informed strategies; n working with community groups to evaluate the most effective programs to reduce violence; n helping victims of crime through injury and violence prevention initiatives; and

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

These new centers provide an innovative model for law enforcement, bringing together tools, technology, processes and personnel to put data-driven, proactive strategies in the frontline of policing operations. The centers implement new technology—including mobile devices, predictive policing, gunshot detection—and additional cameras, as well as new processes, including a commander’s daily briefing, and embedded crime data analysts who work collaboratively with police.

The centers help police focus on high-risk offenders, places, and activities, practicing focused deterrence, place-based responses, and hot spot policing, and have led to a sustained drop in violent crime in the areas where they have been implemented.

A Crime Data Analyst from MCRIC is now embedded with BPD, focusing on the launch of the new Baltimore Community Intelligence Center in the Southwestern District. The MCRIC crime data analyst, Sarah Appleby, is an advanced UMD Ph.D. student. She is applying her data analysis and research skills to her new role with BPD. “MCRIC is excited to partner with BPD on this important initiative and to contribute our research expertise and data analysis skills toward crime reduction efforts in Baltimore,” said MCRIC Director Gary LaFree, chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. “We look forward to building a long-term partnership with our BPD colleagues to help make a positive impact and to help keep Baltimore residents safe.”

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Embracing Diversity in ECON AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC UNFOLDED this spring, faculty in the Department of Economics worked to ensure many voices would be represented when setting the research agenda. Professor Melissa Kearney, who is one of 10 women among the tenure-track faculty in the department, immediately recognized that various policies aimed at aiding the economic recovery would affect populations differently.

“There are numerous ways in which the burdens of this coronavirus pandemic have fallen disproportionately on less advantaged demographic groups,” Kearney said. “This moment in history is a chance for the United States to shift economic policies and spending priorities so that we don’t merely survive this crisis, but emerge with a system that delivers economic security equitably for all Americans.”

Kearney has become a leading voice in studying the disparate economic impacts of the pandemic and policies—including the Senate CARES Act—and the University of Maryland is well-positioned to lead the profession in terms of research and inclusion because of its unusual composition.

highest number—10—of women tenure-track faculty. UMD is also essentially tied for the highest percentage of women tenure-track faculty in economics at 29.4%, compared to Carnegie Mellon University, which at 29.6% leads the pack.

Additionally, several members of UMD Economics are helping to bring about solutions to the gender diversity problem on a national scale. For example, Professor Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan is part of an American Economics Association task force charged with developing best practices for administrators and faculty members at colleges and universities across the country.

“We are trying really hard to reduce the bias, raise the awareness, and explain to everybody that we do need BSOS Online gender diversity in this field.

Watch the Women in ECON video series: go.umd.edu/womeninecon This is because the way In a discipline in which women women and men approach are significantly underrepreeconomic problems are extremely different, and if you have sented—and where the gender gap isn’t closing as quickly as this diversity, the discipline is going to go much farther,” in other STEM fields such as physics, computer science and Kalemli-Ozcan said. mathematics—women make up roughly a third of the faculty in UMD’s Department of Economics, and have for nearly a decade.

In a new Women in ECON video series, female faculty from the Department of Economics share their views on what makes Among the top 25 economics departments ranked by U.S. economics at UMD unique, what they love about working in News and World Report, UMD (#21 overall) is tied with Yale the field, and why more women should join their ranks.

University, which has a significantly larger department, for the “Our department is committed to increasing diversity on all fronts and bringing that diversity to bear on current and future social and economic challenges,” said Professor and Chair Judy Hellerstein.

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

Professor John Townshend Named as AAAS Fellow PROFESSOR JOHN TOWNSHEND was named as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was recognized for “fundamental contributions to earth resources remote sensing, especially the global study of deforestation and land cover change, and significant administrative leadership in academe.”

Improving Food Security in East Africa ASSISTANT RESEARCH PROFESSOR CATHERINE NAKALEMBE, GEOG PH.D. ’17, is one of the inaugural winners of the 2019 Group on Earth Observations Individual Excellence Awards.

Nakalembe’s research highlights the impacts of drought on land use in northeastern Uganda, and has led to a remote sensing project that supports more than 370,000 people in the region and saves the Ugandan government resources that would otherwise go toward emergency assistance.

Nakalembe also revolutionized and repurposed remote sensing by the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for agricultural monitoring, refugee settlement surveying and landslide mapping in Uganda.

“I hope the light this award shines on me and the programs I work with will attract others who want to work with institutions that need Earth observations to bring about positive change and global food security,” Nakalembe said.

Nakalembe organizes trainings on remote sensing tools and data, works with national ministries on their agricultural decision-making processes and heads initiatives to prevent potentially disastrous impacts of crop failure. Due in part to her efforts, policies and programs have been enacted that directly impact the lives of farmers and people most defenseless against the impacts of food scarcity.

Much of Nakalembe’s work is through NASA Harvest—a multidisciplinary program commissioned by NASA and led by UMD to enhance the use of satellite data in decision-making related to food security and agriculture across the nation and world.

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

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

Townshend is an internationally renowned scholar and author whose research focuses on the rates and causes of vegetation cover change, especially deforestation, through the use of remotely sensed data from satellites; his work is funded primarily through NASA grants. He was also the head of UMD’s Global Land Cover Facility, which housed the largest open access, non-governmental online collection of Landsat data in the world.

From 1989 to 1995, and again from 2001 to 2009, Townshend served as Chair of the Department of Geographical Sciences.

From 2009 to 2014, he served as Dean of the College and Behavioral and Social Sciences.

“I am honored to have been awarded a fellowship by AAAS. My endeavors have been greatly aided by colleagues in the Department of Geographical Sciences.

In particular, I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the many post-docs and graduate students with whom I have worked,” Townshend said. “My work—and in particular my international peregrinations— would not have been possible without the tremendous support of my wife, Jan.”

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UMD-Washington Post Poll Sheds Light on Coronavirus Crisis AS OF LATE APRIL, roughly a third of Americans worried about how they would afford food and basic household items through the next month as COVID-19 kept the U.S. economy shuttered, according to findings from a University of MarylandWashington Post poll.

The poll, which surveyed a random sample of 1,013 Americans April 14-19, also documented a large gap in the numbers of whites and nonwhites struggling financially: 48% of Hispanic and 39% of black respondents said they were concerned about being able to afford necessities, compared with 23% of white respondents.

“The survey revealed alarmingly high levels of financial hardship across the board, but especially among racial and ethnic minority populations,” said Professor Michael Hanmer of the Department of Government and Politics, who co-directed the poll. “National and local leaders alike should take note.”

A clear majority of Americans did not believe the economy or life in general would begin to return to normal in the next few months, although the poll documented differences in attitudes across partisan lines. While Republicans viewed President Donald Trump’s response to the pandemic favorably, 51% did not believe it will be safe to gather in groups of 10 or more at least until June. Democrats and independents were significantly more likely (78% and 66%, respectively) to say that large gatherings would not be safe until the end of June or beyond. (A poll released in May showed that most Americans did not feel gatherings of 10 or more would be safe until July or later.)

“To me, this suggests the optimism that often comes from White House press briefings has not penetrated the public consciousness,” Hanmer said.

Most Americans — 54% — rated the president’s handling of the outbreak in this country as “not so good/poor” and offered mixed reviews for the federal government as a whole. By contrast, 72% of Americans viewed their governor’s response to the crisis positively.

The poll, which has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, was conducted by the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement (CDCE) and The Washington Post. It was the first of several surveys planned to track Americans’ views and experiences related to COVID-19.

The survey offers an immersive learning experience for groups of UMD students: Terps in Hanmer’s seminar on political surveying methods and experience, for instance, contributed by suggesting ideas and drafting questions considered for the survey. Additionally, Alauna Safarpour, a Ph.D. student in government and politics, is serving as a fellow in news polling at The Post and helped evaluate the poll’s findings.

“This timely poll highlights the important work the CDCE is doing to better understand Americans’ attitudes about how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting their lives,” said Associate Professor Stella Rouse, director of the CDCE. “Together with dedicated faculty and graduate and undergraduate students, we hope to continue doing work that pushes forward the mission of the center—advancing knowledge to help build better communities and improve the overall health of our democracy.”

In May, an additional poll found that an overwhelming majority of Americans support safety measures like wearing masks in public and limiting contact with others to curb the spread of COVID-19, even as back-to-work protests occurred nationwide.

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BSOS Online Learn more about additional polls at cdce.umd.edu

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

The Power of Baby Talk SEVERAL RECENT RESEARCH PROJECTS from the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences are providing new guidance on the best ways for parents and caregivers to help babbling babies develop into articulate toddlers.

Researchers Daniele Raneri, Katie Von Holzen, Professor and Chair Rochelle Newman and Professor Nan Bernstein Ratner discovered that when mothers spoke more slowly to their 7-month-old infants, children developed higher vocabulary knowledge at 2 years old.

The results, published in the Journal of Child Language, show that slower infantdirected speech may benefit language learning even before children speak their first words.

Meanwhile, the goo-goos and ga-gas coming out of babies’ mouths may sound like nonsense to the untrained ear, but Kayla Gerhold, Catherine Torrington Eaton, Newman and Bernstein Ratner discovered that they can serve as an indication of how many words children will be speaking at 2 years old. Findings published in the journal Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica reveal that infants who use a wider variety of sounds and syllables at 11 and 18 months of age are better able to express themselves verbally at 2.

“The more we can discover about how infants gather the first building blocks to language development, the earlier we can pinpoint language problems that are likely to crop up through childhood,” said Bernstein Ratner. “Early intervention is paramount in treating language disorders and delays.”

Finally, parents reaching for a bedtime book to read to their preschoolers might want to search for one where words are repeated numerous times throughout.

Research by Maura O’Fallon,Von Holzen and Newman published in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research showed that 3-year-olds were able to learn new words after a single storybook reading with an adult when target words were repeated, either with or without an explanation.

“Prior studies with older children have suggested that what benefits learning is basically hearing a definition of new words as you come across them,” Newman said. “However, we found that younger children learn just as well from simply hearing the words repeated in the story, even without a definition.”

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

Professor Abraham Honored by the American Academy PROFESSOR KATHARINE ABRAHAM, a faculty member in JPSM and in the Department of Economics, in April was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.

JPSM, Facebook Partner to Gather Global COVID-19 Symptom Data PROFESSOR FRAUKE KREUTER, director of the Joint Program in Survey Methodology, is working with researchers at other universities and with Facebook on a public survey tool that is helping to track the spread of COVID-19 worldwide. The researchers hope to predict virus “hot spots,” both in the United States and around the world.

In April, the survey was offered through the social network to random users worldwide. The survey asks about coronavirus symptoms the respondent might be experiencing, testing availability in the respondent’s area, whether a respondent has been tested/what the results were, and whether the respondent has had contact with anyone known to be infected.

The project expands on a Facebook partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to track early symptoms of infections. UMD collaborated with the Center for Health Policy and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health on the survey. UMD also hosts the international data.

“We are thrilled to work with Facebook and other partners to take the symptom survey global. The survey data have the potential to help researchers better monitor and forecast the spread of COVID-19, and possibly when, where, and how to reopen parts of society.”

“The news that I had been elected to the Academy came as a completely unexpected surprise,” Abraham said. “I am so honored to have been chosen to be a part of this distinguished group.”

Abraham’s research over the years has focused on numerous complex topics, including the contingent workforce, work and retirement decisions of older Americans, labor market adjustment over the business cycle, unemployment and job vacancies, and the measurement of economic activity, among other topics.

She is the current President of the Society of Labor Economists and Chair of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth. She also serves as an advisor to the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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Kreuter and her students are working with researchers across campus on related projects. With researchers in the College of Information Studies, JPSM is building dashboards and other data visualization products.

Researchers in the Center for Geospatial Information Science are interested in incorporating the Facebook survey findings with COVID-19 maps that are already being produced (see story page 26).

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

Parenting through a Pandemic Andrea Chronis-Tuscano is a clinical psychology professor who specializes in parenting and in parent mental health. She offers these tips for families navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, which are relevant in many difficult or uncertain times: WE AS PARENTS set the “emotional tone” for our families.

Children take cues from their parents regarding how to respond to stress. Although it may be a challenge, parents need to find a way to stay calm during times that feel chaotic.

When there is much we cannot control, we need to focus on those things we can control. Know that you are not alone in your struggles and keep these simple messages in mind as you rise to meet challenges: Model and practice self-care. Things like maintaining some level of daily structure and routines is important for parents and children alike. First and foremost, keeping regular sleep routines are so important to our overall well-being. The amount of sleep we get affects our moods and abilities to manage stress.

Further, sleep-deprived parents have a harder time staying calm, and sleep-deprived children have a harder time regulating their behaviors. Other routines like taking our daily shower, eating meals at roughly the same time, and getting some exercise each day will help us (and our children) to feel more settled.

It is natural for both you and your child to feel some anxiety and stress during challenging times, and to miss seeing friends and going to work/school. If your child expresses an emotion, try to notice the feeling, label it, let them know that feeling is natural, and that many of us are feeling that way right now. By doing this “emotion coaching,” you will give them the language to express emotions and show them that it is safe to share their emotions with you.

Avoid setting unrealistic expectations. When stay-at-home orders are in effect, parents who are fortunate enough to be working from home are also charged with taking care of their children who are home from school. Complex homeschooling schedules and activities are circulating on social media, but parents need to be realistic about what they can accomplish on both fronts (work and family). It’s important to avoid comparing yourself to others, who might not have it as together as their Facebook posts would like to suggest! Your main goal right now is to keep your family feeling safe and calm. Anything else is gravy.

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Make plenty of time for fun. When the weather cooperates, families need to get outdoors as much as possible. Fresh air and exercise benefit us all! When weather or social distancing mandates interfere with that plan, there are also plenty of indoor activities that can elevate our moods: reading a book, practicing meditation or yoga, or watching a Netflix series. Rarely do we have as much free time to spend as a family, so take out the board game that is collecting dust on the shelf, do a puzzle, or cook together. Parents and children may want to generate a list of fun activities to do together during challenging times to distract from what is happening in the outside world and build deeper connections.

Stay socially connected. We are social creatures and derive so much enjoyment from our social interactions. When it is not possible to be with our friends and family, video chats (using FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Skype, Zoom or WhatsApp) are a great way to stay in touch and connected.

Seek help when needed. For people who are really struggling with anxiety and depression, most mental health professionals are providing teletherapy services to allow people to get help through their smart phones, tablets or computers. Contact your health care practitioner for guidance on how to use these services and don’t be afraid or ashamed to seek help when you are truly feeling overwhelmed.

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Conventional Gender Roles Still Popular with American Youth, Study Shows ALTHOUGH MODERN YOUTH are often perceived as having liberal attitudes and willingness to challenge social norms, results of a new study show young people overall continue to prefer and even prioritize traditional roles of men as breadwinners and women as homemakers.

Researchers Brittany Dernberger, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology, and Joanna Pepin, Ph.D. SOCY ’18, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, analyzed nearly 40 years (1976-2014) of responses to a nationally representative sample of high school seniors. The 17- and 18-year-olds were asked to imagine their future selves married with pre-school-aged children and to consider a variety of possible working arrangements.

While findings, published in Sociological Science, showed a greater openness to multiple types of arrangements, a conventional scenario—consisting of a husband working full-time and the wife staying at home—remained the most desired among high school

students over time. Although there was a substantial decline in favor of this arrangement initially, decreasing from 44 percent in 1976 to around 25 percent by the 1990s, there has been minimal change since then. Fewer than five percent of youth desired gender atypical scenarios in which the husband does not work or works part-time and the wife works full-time.

“Continued gender inequality at home and at work is frequently explained by a lack of ‘family-friendly’ policies like paid parental leave and affordable childcare,” Dernberger said. “However, these structural constraints are not the only barrier to manifesting equitable relationships. Our findings show just how sticky attitudes about gender continue to be.”

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

Stepping Up the Science of Street Protests THE UNITED STATES has seen a surge in street protests since the election of President Donald Trump. Yet current methods for studying this form of social activism are struggling to keep pace, says Professor Dana R. Fisher.

In a paper in Science Advances, Fisher and colleagues outline the challenges and limitations associated with studying protests scientifically on a large scale.

For example, the frequency and widening geographic scope of protests throughout the country makes it difficult to gather event data and conduct crowd surveys for demonstrations happening simultaneously in different regions and cities.

“Participating in protests and demonstrations is an important form of political participation throughout the world,” Fisher said.

“If scholars are to understand the meaning of these events for politics, greater collective effort is needed to scale-up and standardize the way we study them.”

In her book “American Resistance: From the Women’s March to the Blue Wave” (Columbia University Press, 2019), Fisher studied the participants in seven of the largest protests in Washington, D.C. associated with opposition to President Trump, and traced those participants’ political work through the 2018 midterm elections. She and co-authors on the Science Advances paper say forming teams of scholars and developing a methodology for conducting crowd surveys across a range of protest sites would create a more robust dataset and more comprehensive answers to crucial questions, such as: Who is protesting?

How often? What messages are they trying to send? How do protests connect, if at all, to other political activities?

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

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

UPDATES FROM CENTERS AND MORE

CGIS Students, Faculty Create Online Maps to Track US COVID-19 Cases by County FACULTY MEMBERS AND STUDENTS in the Center for Geospatial Information Science (CGIS) worked together to create two mapping platforms to show positive COVID-19 cases in the United States. Dr. Junchuan Fan and Yao Li created the map visualizations. Hai Lan, Jeff Sauer, Zhiyue Xia, and Guimin Zhu also assisted with data collection, preprocessing and organization.

Visualization

by Junchuan Fan, CGIS; data source: Johns Hopkins University

The point map (see image above)—available at go.umd.edu/cgispointmap— shows the latest number of COVID-19 cases for U.S. counties.The left side shows the total number of cases, latest time stamp update, as well as the top 10 states and counties with the most reported positive cases.

“The overall goal was to create a kind of free tool to give a more intuitive picture of the disease to people who want to monitor the data—maybe federal officials deciding how to distribute resources, or a state government that wants to see what’s happening in its region,” Fan said.

The choropleth map—available at go.umd.edu/choropleth—shows a timeline of positive COVID-19 cases across the United States. The user can toggle the bar across the bottom of the map to change the date and see the total number of cases on a particular day, with a visualization of the positive cases that darken in color as the numbers rise.

CGIS focuses on supporting the development of next-generation geospatial information science, and pioneers innovative research capabilities using geospatial technologies.

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BSOS Online

Online Master’s Program Designed for Public Safety Officials A NEW ONLINE master’s degree program developed jointly by BSOS and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law will prepare public safety officials for careers in a rapidly changing landscape. The Master’s of Professional Studies in Public Safety Leadership and Administration (PLA) is set to launch in the fall.

The curriculum is a response to a growing need for advanced training in leadership, policy, and law for police, public safety officials and other public servants. The program is funded by The University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State.

“Law enforcement faces challenges in the twenty-first century that we couldn’t have anticipated just a few decades ago. Advances in AI technology and predictive policing, the emergence of social media and increased public scrutiny, and increased coordination between local, state, and federal agencies— these all have an impact on public safety,” said Professor Rashawn Ray of the Department of Sociology. “We designed this program alongside law enforcement professionals and criminal justice practitioners who are dealing with new phenomena and working with members of their communities every day to keep people safe.”

While working toward the master’s degree, students will earn two graduate certificates— one in Criminal Justice Administration and one in Leadership in Diverse Organizations.

Both the graduate certificates and the Master’s degree can be completed in 15 months. All courses are online to give students flexibility, as many who enroll are likely to be working professionals.

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Read more at geospatial.umd.edu BSOS Online Learn more at go.umd.edu/plamaryland

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

ALUMNI AND GIVING NEWS

Two-Time Super Bowl Champion Torrey Smith Inspires BSOS Graduates HUNDREDS OF WINTER graduates were inspired by a commencement address from Torrey Smith, CCJS ’10, in December 2019 at the Xfinity Center.

“It’s amazing that about 10 years ago, I was sitting in Professor Laure Brooks’s class, asking questions, voicing my opinion, and speaking up about things mattered. It’s special to me now because I am able do that same thing on a national stage to push towards equality and criminal justice reform. Attending this school right here, the best university in the world, helped spark that interest that now serves as a major purpose in my life,” Smith said.

The former Terps football standout announced his retirement in September 2019 after eight years as a National Football League

wide receiver, winning Super Bowls with the Baltimore Ravens and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Smith says football was always meant to be a stepping stone— not the end zone—that would put him on a path to pursuing his true purpose in life.

“My goal was not just to go to the NFL. My goal was to earn a scholarship and be able to graduate,” Smith said. “Whether I made it to the pros or not, I wanted to speak up and be a voice for the voiceless and to help others. I think that’s who I was always meant to be.”

While on campus, he met his wife, Chanel Smith, another student-athlete who ran for the university’s track team. The Smiths created T he Torrey Smith Family Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting underserved communities in the Baltimore area.

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BSOS Online Watch Torrey Smith’s winter commencement address: go.umd.edu/smithspeech

Strong Sense of Belonging

remote sensing and geographic information systems projects.

WHEN JINGLI YANG, PH.D. GEOG ’95, arrived at the University of Maryland as a graduate student from China, at first she wasn’t sure how quickly she would feel at home. Things turned out much better than Yang expected. Even now, some 25 years after she earned her Maryland degree, she still has fond memories of her years on campus.

Yang also serves on the Board of Visitors for BSOS. Being a Terp means a lot to her: “I’m a proud Maryland graduate,” she affirms. “UMD is my home. I run into Terps all the time, as customers, business partners, government officials. It’s always a great pleasure, and the sense of community is just inspiring.”

“It didn’t take long for me to feel a strong sense of belonging,” she recalls.

Story courtesy of UMD’s Campaign Insider e-newsletter, produced by the Division of University Relations.

In 2019, Yang and her husband established the Dr. Jingli Yang and Dr. Peter Li Graduate Support Endowment Fund in BSOS. Their endowment fund will

provide support to graduate students in the Department of Geographical Sciences pursuing summer research opportunities, specifically those focused on developing

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

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 27

ALUMNI AND GIVING NEWS

Donors Make a Difference for BSOS Staff from Prince George’s County Hospital receive a donation of masks from GEOG alumni and affiliates in China. Photo courtesy of GEOG.

Masks Donated by GEOG Alumni, Affiliates in China Benefit Maryland Hospital IN APRIL, a group of Chinese scholars who either graduated from the Department of Geographical Sciences, or worked in GEOG as visiting students or scholars, donated 17,550 surgical masks in honor of the Department to help with the COVID-19 response in the College Park region.

The generous donors currently work at various universities, research institutes, and private companies in China. “Our experiences at UMD Geography have greatly benefited our personal and institutional academic and engineering research development. We want to take this opportunity to express our appreciation,” the donors wrote in a letter to the Department.

Upon receiving the masks, representatives from Prince George’s County Hospital said that the masks would be put to immediate use for staff and patients.

“It’s absolutely amazing to have support from all the way across the world. This really helps our community in the fight against COVID19,” a hospital representative said.

“This very kind and generous gift from our Chinese colleagues is a touching example of our strong and continued international academic relationships with China in these globally challenging times,” said Professor and Chair Chris Justice.

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MORE THAN 1,400 DONORS MADE GIFTS TO BSOS DURING THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR. Included here are just a few of the transformative gifts that have strengthened our college and opened doors for our faculty, students and alumni. n Four hundred and twenty four donors made 559 gifts in support of BSOS funds on Giving Day, which was held March 4. Giving Day is the university’s annual fundraising challenge that engages alumni, staff, students, faculty and friends from around the world to support Maryland. BSOS donors raised $81,132 in just 24 hours—thank you for your support and your enthusiasm! n $6,000 from the Rozier Family—including BSOS Board of Visitors member Gary L. Rozier, ECON ’99—was the largest gift to BSOS on Giving Day, and gave a significant boost to our overall performance. n $50,000 from K.M. Vijayalakshmi, MA ECON ’71, established the Kusumadhara and Vijayalakshmi Gowda Maryland Promise Scholarship supporting need-based scholarships for undergraduate students in BSOS. n $25,000 from Dr. Jack J. Blanchard and Dr. Melanie E. Bennett established the Dr. Jack J. Blanchard and Dr. Melanie E. Bennett Student Experience Endowment, which facilitates undergraduate student support for experiential learning opportunities in the Department of Psychology.

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Give to BSOS Learn more at go.umd.edu/givetobsos

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

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

UMD Student Crisis Fund With the continued COVID-19 pandemic, Maryland students have been hard hit by campus disruptions and need help with getting food, housing and basic day-to-day necessities.

Since March, the UMD Student Crisis Fund has distributed nearly $1 million to more than 2,000 students.

Thank you for your support and consideration! go.umd.edu/crisisfund

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.

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

bsos.umd.edu

Sara Gavin, Journalism ’01 Associate Director, Communications and Media Relations

/bsosumd

Dr. Katherine Russell Interim Assistant Dean, External Relations Laura Ewald Ours Senior Director, Communications and Marketing

Tom Bacho Associate Director, Creative Services Elena LeVan, ’20 Editorial Intern

We gratefully acknowledge the numerous contributions of staff members from Maryland Today and in the Office of Strategic Communications for this publication.

Covers and interior pages contain recycled content.

Daniel Longest, ’21 Creative Services Intern Ramsey Telhami, ’20 Creative Services Intern Chris Campbell Design and Production