Programs

The Annual Black & Latine/x Graduation Celebration

This event celebrates the wonderful achievements of UMBC’s Black and Latine/x graduating seniors and graduate students. Black and Latine/x students have been historically underrepresented in post-secondary degree attainment and have overcome incredible odds to succeed and make an invaluable contribution to the wider UMBC community.

This ceremony is in recognition of this milestone for our Black and Latine/x students and is an evening to be in community with all the staff, faculty, alumni, and loved ones that have supported them. Seniors and graduate students graduating in Spring and Fall 2022 will be recognized and receive a Black and Brown honor cord and a special CBLA Black and Brown pin! Award categories will encompass student, staff, faculty, and programmatic efforts, including recognition for Black and Latine/x community members and their allies. Family and friends of graduates are encouraged to attend.

Donuts & Dialogue | Music & The Mosaic

Donuts & Discussion and Music & The Mosaic are two pop-up series where in an informal, casual atmosphere, we discuss trending multicultural events, population-based topics, and current music trends globally while also enjoying beverages and donuts! This is a time to talk about anything that comes to mind, ranging from a video you saw to recent topics in pop culture and even how current music trends impact social climates.

Mundo Lingo: Conversation Starter Series

Mundo Lingo encourages community members to come for a casual conversation with each other while being exposed to different cultural items, food, and campus organizations. This may be done through a film screening and discussion, trying out a new recipe, or discussing a culturally specific topic either within the U.S. or internationally. Mundo Lingo has no critical focus on how our socio-political world impacts cultural differences but rather focuses on exposure to cultural phenomena and their respective people.

Pangea: UMBC’s Annual Cultural Showcase

Pangea is a UMBC Cultural Showcase celebrating the campus community and the unique and beautiful diversity in our student body and our Cultural and Ethnic Student Organizations. This showcase grew out of a student-driven idea and brings our community together, allowing cultural and ethnic student organizations to share their culture.

Retriever Immigrants United (RIU): Immigrant Self-Care and Advocacy Discussion Group

Originally a social action and service student organization, Retriever Immigrants United (RIU) transitioned to our department. RIU is now a self-care and advocacy discussion-based program that centers on the experiences of UMBC undergraduate students, graduate students, and staff who identify as first, 1.5, second-generation, or children of immigrants regardless of their race, ethnicity, nationality, and/or citizenship status.* This semi-structured, topic-based group discusses the diverse immigrant experience with a focus on the role identity plays on intersectionality, community building, and social justice, while also providing a safe/brave space for UMBC immigrant community members to share their feelings, experiences, and engage in vulnerable dialogue with other community members.

*Please note that this group centers on immigrants and on the immigrant experience. This is subject to change according to attendees and potential future event opportunities and initiatives for allies. For clarification on the language used, please refer to the definitions below:

First-generation immigrant: Immigrants born outside the United States have immigrated sometime within their lifetime.

1.5-generation immigrant: Can also self-identify as a first-generation immigrant. One-and-a-half-generation immigrants are defined as an immigrant who is born outside the United States but who immigrated as a minor. In some cases, this occurs at an early enough age that they become assimilated enough to the dominant culture making it difficult to distinguish them from first or second-generation immigrants.

Second-generation immigrant: Natural-born citizens of the United States and the children of first-generation immigrants. May also identify as a first-generation American.

SistaCare: Black Women and Femmes of Color Discussion Group

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence; it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
SistaCare is a self-care and community-building group that centers undergraduate and graduate students who identify as Black/Africana women (e.g., transgender, cisgender) and femmes, regardless of gender expression.* The opening quote, penned by writer Audre Lorde in 1988, illuminates the necessity of Black women to intentionally cultivate, grow, and maintain self-care practices as both a personal and political act. In doing so, we directly challenge systems of oppression that seek to dehumanize and devalue Black Women.
*Please note that this group centers the named population. This will change according to attendees and potential future event opportunities and initiatives. For clarification on the language used, please refer to the definitions below:

Transgender: Also “trans” people are those whose psychological self (“gender identity”) differs from social expectations for the gender that they were assigned at birth. One must understand the difference between biological sex, which is one’s body (e.g. genitals, chromosomes, secondary sexual characteristics.), and social gender, which refers to levels of masculinity and femininity. Often, society conflates sex and gender, viewing them as the same thing. However, this is inaccurate. For example, someone who identifies as a trans man would have been assigned female at birth but identify as a man.

Cisgender: Also “cis” refers to people whose sex and gender are congruent by predominant cultural standards: women who have female sexual characteristics, men who have male sexual characteristics. This term was created to challenge the privileging of such people relative to those who are transgender. People who are not transgender and who have only ever experienced their subconscious and sexually-specific physical characteristics as being aligned

Femme: A descriptor for a queer person who presents and acts in a traditionally feminine manner. This person may or may not identify themselves within the gender binary.
Gender expression: An expression of one’s gender or gender identity. This can include but is not limited to personality traits, behaviors, appearance, mannerisms, interests, hobbies, values, etc. Gender can be expressed in many forms and can also be culturally specific. For example, long hair may be appropriate for men of specific cultures but not all of them.

“I Am / We Are” Dialogue Series

“I am / We Are” Dialogue Series was created around the Racial and Cultural Identity Development model of Introspection and Integrative Awareness. “I Am / We Are” is in reference to self-identification when being asked questions relating to identity and creating a self and community-based appreciation around identity and culture. “I am / We Are” centers dialogue around having multiple intersecting identities, how both seen and unseen identities are shaped by social and community climates, and creating an understanding of how identity is a “both/and” and not “either/or”. These dialogues will be focused on the experiences of Bi-racial/Multiracial, Multiethnic, and Multicultural individuals and how to understand all aspects of identity relating to racial and cultural awareness and development.

Biracial / Multiracial: A person with two or multiple racial identities. This term also relates to the description of “biracial children,” having parents from two or more different races.

Biethnic / Multiethnic: A person with two or multiple ethnic identities. This term also relates to the description of “bi-ethnic children,” having parents from two or more different ethnicities.
Race is a socially constructed term that categorizes people with similar phenotypic characteristics that society deems important or distinct.

For example, the term “Black” refers to the racial group with African ancestry, lineage, or heritage regardless of ethnicity or nationality. This term is inclusive of the term “African-American,” which refers to those with African ancestry.

Ethnicity: A socially constructed term that categorizes people based on cultural and/or geographical traits that society deems important and not associated with physical appearance.

For example, “Latina/e/o/x” (hereafter referred to as Latine/x) refers to persons who have origins tied to Latin America (i.e, Mexico, Central America, South America, Caribbean) regardless of their colonial history, spoken language, color, or race (e.g. Indigenous, Afro-Latine/x, Mestiza/e/o/x, White-Latine/x). Latine/x is inclusive of the term “Hispanic,” which refers to the ethnically diverse group of persons from Hispanophone (i.e. Spanish speaking) countries that were historically colonized by Spain and are inclusive of those of Spanish Origin.