News

Meet Elisabeth Maring: Fulbright scholar, professor of public health, backpacker. Learn more about her year in Varanasi, India, teaching at Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith (MGKVP).

For those who may be unfamiliar with you and your work, can you share a little bit about yourself, your research interests at UMD, and the scope of your project?

José Magro talks with his Spanish students at the University of Maryland about language and power, sprinkling his lectures with snippets of hip-hop. Three decades ago, mic in hand in Madrid clubs, he did the reverse, injecting his hip-hop with antiracist and anti-fascist political messages as part of one of Spain’s most influential rap groups.

It’s graduation day. When Paulina Leder ‘23 walks across the stage, four years of late nights studying history, conversations in German, and term papers in French come to a close in a singular handshake from the dean of the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) and the flash of a graduation photographer’s camera. Leder has joined the ranks of other fearless alumni of one of the top 50 global universities in the world. Her first order of business? One more international exchange with her alma mater.

A lifetime of dancing around the world defines the work of Maryland faculty fellow Kate Spanos (Ph.D. ’16), non-profit founder and now first-time author. She specializes in dances of resistance, which allow communities to have their voices heard in a way that transcends speech. Through her travels to Montserrat in the Caribbean, Ireland, and Brazil—she’s seen the power of these dances to resist subjugation and build community firsthand, and she’s sharing this knowledge on campus and off.

Public Health Beyond Borders (PHBB) president Meghna Pandey '24 shares her experiences traveling to India and conducting menstrual outreach—one conversation and comic book at a time.