Dresher Center for the Humanities at UMBC

05/18/2026

Appropriately, chapter one of UMBC’s inaugural BookFest began at AOK Library Plaza. Hundreds of students gathered at the BookMarkIt to try letterpress printing, stitch pamphlets, create and swap zines, and browse a book arts display and used books.

Lindsay DiCuirci, associate professor of English, envisioned Bookfest ’26 after receiving professional development funds from the Breaking the M.O.L.D. leadership program in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences in spring 2025. Her proposal for the funds included hosting a book festival that explored both the creative, maker-based aspects of book history and the importance of advocacy and access. BookFest came to fruition this April when UMBC celebrated writers, readers, makers, and advocates during National Library Week.

UMBC's inaugural BookFest brought together students, faculty, and staff to celebrate reading, books, and more.

05/13/2026

The Dresher Center is pleased to announce our Summer 2026 Tenure and Non-Tenure Track Fellows, as well as our Fall 2026 Residential Faculty Fellows.

For Summer 2026: Haniyeh Barahouie Pasandi (modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication); Lisa Cassell (philosophy); and Iris Blake (american studies)

For Fall 2026: Jason Loviglio (media and communication studies) and Brian Van Wyck (history)

Learn more about their projects on our website!

https://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/news/post/158201/

04/22/2026

Two partner (and virtual!) events are coming up on Monday, April 27:

First, Dr. Mimi Khúc will facilitate an interactive tarot-making workshop that will use the Asian American Tarot to explore mental health and the current social, cultural, and structural forces that shape it, engaging critical arts approaches that provide new vocabularies for both what hurts and how we might care for what hurts, together. This event is hosted by the Critical Disability Studies Minor.

Then, Peruvian performer Luciano Anahel, whose work across drag, ballroom, and experimental performance offers a lens to understand masculinity as something constructed, negotiated, and lived, will be in virtual conversation with Dr. Meloddye Carpio Rios for her "Masculinities in the Americas" seminar.

Learn more at https://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/partner-events/

04/21/2026

THIS EVENING AT 5PM:

Join us and Maryland Humanities for the first One Maryland, One Book event for 2026, an evening with author Lawrence Burney.

Burney’s book No Sense in Wishing was selected as the 2026 OMOB as part of the America 250 theme, “Revolution, Reaction, Reform.” Burney will reflect on his essay collection, growing up in Baltimore, and his deep relationship to music with Assistant Professor of English, Chris L. Terry.

https://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/events/event/152998/

04/20/2026

Next Monday is the final event in our Spring 2026 Humanities Forum.

Orianne Smith, UMBC professor of English, will discuss her new book, ROMANTICISM BEWITCHED: WITCHCRAFT, REVOLUTION, AND THE FEMALE DEMONIC.

The Romantic-era witch was a remarkably flexible symbol of political and social disorder. The recent seventeenth-century witch hunts had already revealed deep anxieties about the subversive potential of women, and the witches who stalk the pages of Gothic poetry and prose or glare menacingly from works of art by Henry Fuseli and William Blake embody revolutionary anger and the possibility of radical social transformation. Despite the fears surrounding such figures, however, the Romantic period also saw witchcraft open up in conceptually new ways, enabling writers and artists to envision alternative means of interacting in the world that were not predicated on the subordination of women and other marginalized groups. Here, Orianne Smith embarks on an interdisciplinary reimagining of witchcraft, women's writing, religion, and social reform, providing original insights on the history of witchcraft and its influence on public discourse, literature and art.

We hope you can join us!

04/13/2026

On April 20, our last CURRENTS session of the semester.

Erin Hogan, associate professor of Spanish: Starting Again: The Story of 2 Spanish Films and a Video Essay

Bao Nguyen, .umbc MFA candidate: "I have been standing here for a long time."

In-person in the Dresher Center and online via WebEx.

https://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/upcoming-events/event/152492/

04/09/2026

Save the date for UMBC BookFest '26!

Celebrate all things books--making them, reading them, preserving them, donating them, advocating for them--across campus during National Library Week on April 21 & 23. Events will include BookMarkIt on the Library Plaza, featuring letterpress printing, zinemaking and swaps, a book drive, giveaways, and more!

https://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/news/post/157637/

04/07/2026

In celebration of National Library Week, , in partnership with the Dresher Center for the Humanities, will welcome Dr. Kenvi Phillips, Inaugural Director of the Baraka Obama Presidential Library, on April 22 at 4pm.

A New Model: The Barack Obama Presidential Library

https://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/partner-events/event/152983/

04/06/2026

Neisha-Anne Green, doctoral candidate in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program and our Spring 2026 Graduate Student Fellow, will share her doctoral thesis, "Breaking Bread, Breaking Cycles: Food, Trauma, and Generational Healing in Black Women’s Writing."

April 13 at noon. In-person in the Dresher Center and online via WebEx

https://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/upcoming-events/event/152175/

04/02/2026

A new blog post from UMBC Special Collections!

"We often think of books as sacrosanct – and as a librarian, I have to agree! Many people can't abide writing in, dog-earing, or otherwise defacing a book. But there are cases where changing the structure of a book can be a creative rather than a destructive endeavor. Enter the altered book.

What is an altered book? Altered books are "a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into a different form," thereby changing both its functionality and its meaning. These alterations can be, according to book artist Barbara Pearman "as simple as adding a drawing or text to a page, or as complex as creating an intricate book sculpture." Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to catalog two altered books for Special Collections. While they were very different from one another, each presented a similar cataloging challenge, and a similar opportunity to reflect on the meaning of printed books."

Read the full blog post at the link below

Categories Altered Books in UMBC’s Special Collections: When a Book Becomes a Canvas Post author By Lindsey Loeper Post date February 20, 2026 We often think of books as sacrosanct – and as a librarian, I have to agree! Many people can’t abide writing in, dog-earing, or otherwise defacing a bo...

04/01/2026

Aisha Beliso-De Jesús, Olden Street Professor of American Studies and Chair of the Effron Center for the Study of America, Princeton University is returning to UMBC as a part of our Humanities Forum.

April 15, 2026 at 4pm in the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery: UMBC

She will discuss her latest book, "Excited Delirium: Race, Police Violence, and the Invention of a Disease"

In 1980, Charles Wetli – a Miami-based medical examiner and self-proclaimed “cult expert” of Afro-Caribbean religions – identified what he called “excited delirium syndrome.” Soon, medical examiners began using the syndrome regularly to describe the deaths of Black men and women during interactions with police. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús examines this fabricated medical diagnosis and its use to justify and erase police violence against Black and Brown communities. Exposing excited delirium syndrome’s flawed diagnostic criteria, she outlines its inextricable ties to the criminalization of Afro-Latiné religions.

https://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/humanities-forum/current/event/149520/