This page shares past events sponsored by our association. Those in black are on their own web pages, so click on them. (For programs about retirement and how to retire click HERE)
October 23, 1 pm: Jeffrey K. Hollingsworth (Vice President and Chief Information Officer) and David Barks (Division of Information Technology) presented Don’t Cross the Streams: Keeping your Professional and Personal Digital Information Separate –Managing your digital presence is more important than ever. The spekers highlight why it’s essential to keep professional and personal accounts separate. Learn how to create a personal account, plan ahead for your digital legacy, and safeguard your information for the future.
October 7, 2025 Michael Raupp (Entomology) presented A Warming World, Insects, and Us – In the realm of insects who are the winners and losers as the world warms?
June 11, 2025: Adele Berlin (English) presented How to Read the Bible – We don’t all read the same Bible—and we don’t read it the same way. This webinar looked at different ways that Jews, Christians, and academic scholars understand the Bible. It shows how the contents and arrangement of the Bible differ for Jews, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Protestants, and how the interpretation of certain passages varies across faiths. We also contrast theological and academic approaches to biblical writings. Your “homework assignment” is to answer the question: How many books are in the Bible? (Hint: there is more than one correct answer.)
May 29, 2025; Town Hall meeting. See program here
May 14, 2024: Donald F. Kettl (School of Public Policy) presented Trump 2.0: Is It the End of the Democracy as We Know It — Or Is It the Restoration? – Donald Trump came barreling into office with more energy behind his ideas, more smart people to implement them, and more urgency to break a lot of china very quickly. Some analysts worry that he’s fatally breaking the fundamental norms of liberal democracy. Others say that, at long last, he’s blowing the barnacles off the ship of state. Where are we? Where are we going? And how should we assess the big changes that inevitably are on the way?
April 16, 2025: Ralph Bennett (Architectural Planning and Preservation) presented Purple Line When?, a discussion of the evolution of the purple line. Ralph is Board President of Purple Line NOW, a longstanding advocacy group for what seems to be the longest running civil work project on Earth. He explained the outcome, and describe its qualities, benefits, and currently predicted completion date, and accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
March 26 2025: Charles Caramello (English) presented Horses in the Great War of 1914-1918: They Had No Choice – World War I was the last major “horse war.” Horses served in the millions both as warhorses for cavalry and, in greater numbers, as workhorses for transporting personnel and material. They endured brutal conditions and suffered often horrific deaths. An estimated seven million perished. In addition to official records, this talk uses wartime photographs, recruitment posters, and paintings to tell their story. You can view the whole presentation or only the slides at this link.
February 12,2025: Arthur N. Popper (Biology) presented The Sound World: Environmental Noise and Its Impact on Marine (and Other) Life. Hearing the world around us is an extraordinarily important part of life. Sounds inform us in ways that no other sensory stimulus can. Sound signals provide us with information that can come from great distances, in the dark, and from any direction. While many of these sounds, from speech to sirens, provide us with vital information, there is an increasing amount of human-made (anthropogenic) sounds in our environment that may interfere with our ability to detect important sounds or may even cause harm. Dr. Popper explored how activities such as wind farm development (including those off Ocean City), offshore oil exploration, shipping, and other human endeavors can have significant – and sometimes harmful – impacts on marine life. You can see the video of the presentation or just the slides here.
December 4, 2024: Dr. J. Carson Smith presented a discussion on Exercising and Brain Health in Aging and Retirement. A video of the presentation can be found here. The same page also has the slides of the presentation.
May 23, 2024: Town Hall meeting, including an aupdate on Medicare D – Both slides and video of the presentation are available.
April 17, 2024: What Surveys Do Well and Not So Well – Michael J. Hanmer,Michael Miller Endowed Faculty Fellow in Government and Politics, Professor, Department of Government and Politics
February 21, 2024 – 1-2:30 pm: Artificial Intelligence and You: Interactive Demo of AI-Based Tools and Their Practical Uses: This interactive Webinar builds on our November introduction to AI by providing detailed demonstrations of two AI tools that can aid with emeriti professors’ common tasks and ongoing scholarly work. The idea is to provide sufficient detail so that you will be familiar enough with these tools to approach using them yourself (or enhance your usage if you are already engaged).
Mona Thompson, Senior Education Development Specialist at the Teaching and Learning Transformation Center (TLTC) will demonstrate:
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Using ChatGPT for several day-to-day tasks of interest, such as writing emails, planning travel, or brainstorming gift suggestions
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Querying Elicit for help with synthesizing research
Although no preparation is required for the upcoming February Webinar, you may want to review the video of our November workshop (Staying Current: An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence). The link to the video and presentation slides can be found here on the UMRFA Website.
Also, there you will find a link to a TLTC self-paced module on Harnessing AI for Teaching that is free to the UMD community. The content and exercises may be of value to you.
November 14, 2023: An Introduction to Artificial IntelligenceOctober 10, 2023 – Preparing for an Intellectually Active RetirementMarch 6, 2023 – The Connection between Hearing loss, Cognition, and Implications for Healthy Aging
January 18, 2023 – Professor Sylvester James Gates, Jr.
June 1, 2022 – A Conversation with Provost Rice
April 27, 2022 – Addressing Housing Challenges in an Aging America
December 9, 2021: Lecture by Professor Emerita Rita Colwell
June 2021: Managing the Quality of Aging – Decisions Around Housing, Health and Family Location – Many of the decisions about the quality of aging are within your control: where to live, type of medical care, how to manage your money and proximity to your family. The challenge is the many unknowns and changes. The positive aging field addresses these issues using a decision framework and methods to identify your unique interests followed by methods to learn more and make decisions. Jim Sanders, Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, Smith School of Business, provided an informative session on an approach to managing the quality of aging with a focus on where and how we live. The presentation by Jim Sanders is below (by permission). Contact him at: jsanders@rhsmith.umd.edu, Managing the Quality of Aging
February 2021: Lakeland Community Heritage Project – UMEEA sponsored a presentation on the Lakeland Community Heritage Project. As stated on the Project’s website, the “Lakeland Community Heritage Project’s mission is to collect, preserve, and interpret the heritage and history of those African Americans who created, lived in, and/or had association with the Lakeland community of Prince George’s County, Maryland from the late 19th century to the present.” The panel was moderated by Mary Corbin Sies,Associate Professor of American Studies, UMD, Lakeland Community Heritage Project Board Member. The panelists included: Violetta Sharps-Jones, Lakelander, LCHP Founder, local historian and genealogist of African Americans in Prince George’s County; Courtnie Thurston, Lakelander, LCHP Board Member, M.A. Student in African American Studies, Morgan State University; and Maxine Gross, Lakelander, LCHP Founder and President, Local historian.
November 2020: Beyond Numbers and Firsts: Toward a History of Black Women at UMD – Elsa Barkley Brown, Associate Professor of History and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, presented her ongoing research into the history of Black women at the University of Maryland. The event covered archival research as well as student-conducted oral histories, and pointed toward a fuller history of the University by moving beyond recognizing firsts to consider Black women’s daily lives on campus.
September 30, 2020: Preparing for an Intellectually Active Retirement
Remaining intellectually active during retirement takes planning ahead of time. To assist faculty in planning an intellectually satisfying retirement, this panel offered perspectives, ideas, experiences, and suggestions of recently retired faculty and administrators. Topics addressed included: tips for negotiating this major life transition, ways in which to remain engaged with the university, and resources from the University and its academic units that can help to sustain research and intellectual engagement.
September 2020: A Conversation with President Pines – President Darryl Pines shared his initiatives for the campus community and how emeritus/emerita faculty members can get involved. The event also provided information on the Association’s initiatives and upcoming events.
March 2020: Maintaining and Improving the Quality of Life After Retirement – This presentation addressed preparing for challenges retirees face relating to the aging process, such as: physical issues, difficulty learning new technologies, legal issues, cognitive changes, etc. The presenters discussed how to best prepare for these challenges and how to find and access the resources to help us figure out how to deal with these issues when they occur. The slides from this presentation can be viewed HERE.
December 2019: Greater College Park Initiative – Ken Ulman, Chief Strategy Officer for Economic Development and President of the Terrapin Development Company for the UMCP Foundation described the Greater College Park Initiative, which is designed to create a vibrant community with amenities for all ages in and around the Campus.
February 2019: Insights into the Dynamics of Aging – Researchers at UMD are actively engaged in providing new and exciting insights into the aging process and how people can deal with its effects on hearing, speech, memory and brain function through exercise and health informatics through human-computer interaction.
Panelists: Samira Anderson, Associate Professor, Hearing and Speech Sciences, Amanda Lazar, Assistant Professor, College of Information Studies, and J. Carson Smith, Associate Professor, Kinesiology
September 2018: Preparing for an Intellectually Active Retirement – Remaining intellectually active during retirement takes planning ahead of time. To assist faculty in planning an intellectually satisfying retirement, this panel offered perspectives, ideas, experiences, and suggestions of recently retired faculty and administrators. Topics addressed included: tips for negotiating this major life transition, ways in which to remain engaged with the university, and resources from the University and its academic units that can help to sustain research and intellectual engagement.
Panelists: Frank B. Alt – Associate Professor Emeritus, Robert H. Smith School of Business, Donna Hamilton – Professor Emerita, English, former Associate Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Studies, William Hodos – Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Psychology, and Arthur N. Popper – Professor Emeritus, Department of Biology; former Associate Dean, the Graduate School; former chair, University Senate
August 2018: Changes to Your Retiree Prescription Drug Coverage: A Workshop for Retired Faculty – UMEEA provided an overview of the changes, their implications, possible options and a chance to ask questions.
May 2018: Re-Creating Our Lives and Work: Stories From Retirement – Three emeritus/emerita faculty members whose retirements have been full of creative and productive labor and learning share their experience.
Panelists: Evelyn Torton Beck, Women’s Studies, J. Robert Dorfman, Physics, and Charles E. Sternheim, Psychology
February 6, 2018: The Post – A lively panel and audience discussion on the film “The Post,” the history it represents and its relevance to the current moment.
Panelists: Maurine Beasley – Professor Emerita, Journalism, James B. Gilbert – Professor Emeritus, History, and Carl Sessions Stepp – Professor, Journalism
December 2017: Intergenerational Communication and the Aging Workforce, A Research Program – Featured speaker Lindsey B. Anderson presented her work on “Intergenerational Communication and the Aging Workforce: A Research Program.” Dr. Anderson presented an overview of her research program on age and organizations. Topics addressed included: Retirement, Bridge employment, and Intergenerational interactions in the workplace from a communicative perspective.
September 2017: Town Hall –Follow-up – This gathering followed up on the successful Emeritus/Emerita Town Hall of spring 2017. It provided an opportunity for participants to:
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Review the results of the Faculty Emeritus/Emerita survey;
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Take a look at our new bylaws, now under review in the Provost’s Office;
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Learn about your Steering Committee’s plans for the fall of 2017;
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Participate in planning for the spring of 2018 and the future; and
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Socialize with your colleagues over refreshments.
May 2017: Town Hall – Inaugural Event – The Advisory Council of Emeriti (ACE) and the Office for Faculty Affairs hosted a Town Hall meeting for current emeritus/a faculty members and prospective faculty retirees. The purpose of this meeting was to generate ideas for post-retirement involvement on campus.