INTERDISCIPLINARY INITIATIVES

RESEARCH NETWORKS

The Language Science Center is partnering with Translators Without Borders on a project to help humanitarian workers in countries with high rates of internally displaced people, such as Nigeria, Bangladesh and Syria, have more accurate information about the languages spoken by displaced people. >> LOOKING FORWARD The first national conference of the African American Digital Humanities Initiative at UMD will bring together researchers from across the country and the world to explore how digital humanities-based research, teaching and community projects can center African-American history and culture. As part of the “Year of Immigration,” a campuswide initiative that will foster discussions about immigration, global migration and refugees, the college’s 2018-19 Arts and Humanities Dean’s Lecture Series will host Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose book of short stories, “The Refugees,” explores what it is like to immigrate to the U.S.

2020 CENSUS AND RACE

How does racial categorization in the 2020 census reflect U.S. politics? A conference by the Center for Global Migration Studies explored how census racial categories shape experiences of citizenship, identity and belonging, and a conference hosted by the Center for Race, Gender and Ethnicity looked at how new racial categories might affect diverse Latinx communities.

ARTS AND HUMANITIES DEAN’S LECTURE SERIES

The college’s 2017-18 Arts and Humanities Dean’s Lecture Series: Courageous Conversations, ARHU Resists Hate And Bias featured Theo Wilson, Bobby Seale and Mara Liasson, who each addressed what it means to engage in courageous conversations that speak to the difficult issues of hate and bias across personal, political and historical frames.