CURRENTS: Aimée Pohl (HIST) and Cynthia Vagnetti (ENGL)

CURRENTS: Humanities Work Now is lunchtime series that showcases exciting new faculty work in the humanities in a dynamic and inter-disciplinary setting.

Aimée Pohl, M.A. Candidate, Historical Studies, UMBC

In the early 21st century, a group of women activists from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) fought against lead paint poisoning in Baltimore City. In the course of her research and after conducting a series of oral history interviews with the activists, Aimée Pohl has learned that her informants rarely want to talk about specific policy on lead paint poisoning, but instead want to share the experiences and emotions that brought them to activism for Baltimore City neighborhoods with ACORN. In this presentation, Pohl will share excerpts from some of these interviews, as well as some background information on housing injustice and environmental racism in Baltimore during this period.

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Cynthia Vagnetti, Lecturer, English, UMBC

This talk will highlight the work that Dr. Vagnetti has conducted as an independent artist/scholar in collaboration with community-based organizations to produce public humanities programs about farmers and ranchers advancing sustainable agriculture. After 15 years of gathering primary source materials, Vagnetti ponders how to find a home for this data. What disciplines offer support to catalogue and archive this valuable record of American Agriculture history? Is there a curriculum that could build on this work?