Fall 2025 UMDRFA Events

Fall 2025 Seminars & Webinars!

UMDRFA announces Silver Terp Seminars and UMDRFA Webinars. Silver Terp Seminars are by retired UMD faculty. They focus on scholarly subjects in all disciplines with a strong emphasis on presentations designed for a broad audience rather than for academic specialists.

UMDRFA Webinars focus on topics related to retirement.

All presentations are on Zoom. Announcement of specific links will be sent out a week or so before each talk to our various mailing lists.

Silver Terp Seminars

Tuesday, December 9, 1 PM: Jonathan Auerbach (English) Early Cinema as New Media

     Looking closely at the short Edison Company story film “Life of an American Fireman” (1903), I show how early cinema in its first decade rendered time and space in experimental, surprising, and unconventional ways. By fits, starts, and repetitions, it follows men, machines, and horses moving across streets, up ladders, down poles, and through doors and windows. In this regard, the film imagines how bodies in motion can construe new kinds of cinematic space not necessarily dependent on time, action.

Thursday, January 8, 1PM: Spencer Benson (Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics) Will China be the New Leader in Higher Education?

This presentation will examine key developments shaping China’s academic landscape in the competition for global academic leadership.

UMDRFA Webinars

Come back in early January for spring 2026 webinars