Department Highlights

Please also see our Professors in the news page and view more news about state and local politics from UMBC’s Institute of Politics.

April 2026

Congratulations to the eight UMBC alumni and students who received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship this year. A story celebrating this news is now live on UMBC News.

Recipients include:

  • Sydney Braithwaite ’26, forensic chemistry from Towson University
  • Caly Ferguson ’26, mechanical engineering
  • Lesley Hernandez ’25, biochemistry
  • Terra Miley ’25, chemical engineering
  • Salman Mirza ’25, mechanical engineering
  • Meredith Morse ’25, chemical engineering
  • Shefra Shah ’24, biochemistry and molecular biology
  • Peter Allen Wilschke ’24, economics and political science

September 2025

Dr. Eric Stokan has some new publications!
  • Stokan, E., Overton, M., & Hatch, M. (2025) “Toward Housing Equity: The
    Role of CDBG Grants.” Urban Affairs Review
  • Stoker, R., Rich, M., & Stokan, E. (Accepted) “Linking Economic and Com-
    munity Development: Challenges and Opportunities.” Economic Development
    Quarterly.
  • Stokan, E., & Stoker, R. (Forthcoming) “The Changing Nature of Community
    Development Priorities in Baltimore, MD” In Developing the City: Community Development, Power, and Urban Democracy in U.S. Cities edited by Ashley Nickels and Zachary Wood, Temple University Press.

Dr. Brian Grodsky does an interview with WBAL

August 2025

Dr. Eric Stokan, Director of CS3 and Associate Professor of Political Science, has been awarded the prestigious Elkins Professorship. This University System of Maryland (USM) award will help fund a forthcoming book on computational social science and Large Language Models (LLMs) as well as a workshop series on this same topic.

May 2025

Dr. Dasgupta reviews Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI. 

Check out Dr. Dasgupta’s Podcast: I Hate Politics

April 2025

Dr. Stokan and Dr. Anson co-publish an article in the Policy Studies Journal: When sunshine gets you down: The role of transparency on public sentiment toward the amazon HQ2 competition

February 2025

Dr. Felipe Filomeno has his op-ed published in the Christian Cosmopolitan: Instead of Christian nationalism, try Christian cosmopolitanism

January 2025

Dr. Jé St Sume did an interview with the Baltimore Banner: Almost no Black Marylanders wanted Trump’s return. Here’s how they’ll spend his Inauguration Day.

Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Dr. Roy Meyers published an article titled “Celebrating the Pyrite Anniversary of the Congressional Budget Act.”

November 2024

Dr. Jé St Sume did an interview with the Baltimore Banner: Young people could define this election — if they vote

October 2024

Dr. Jé St Sume did an interview with the Baltimore Banner: Maryland’s growing multiracial voters are changing the politics of identity

May 2024

Dr. Anson continues his media appearances offering expert insight on the primaries

Dr. Starkey making an impact with freshman students!

Dr. Stokan published in three top publications!

April 2024

Dr. Anson interviewed on WBAL!

Dr. Schaller featured in The Conversation

February 2024

Professor Schaller Publishes to Massive Acclaim!

In White Rural Rage, Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman explore why rural Whites have failed to reap the benefits from their outsize political power and why, as a result, they are the most likely group to abandon democratic norms and traditions. Their rage—stoked daily by Republican politicians and the conservative media—now poses an existential threat to the United States.