Dresher Center Fall 2025 Fellows

This fall, two UMBC faculty members and a graduate student were awarded fellowships from the Dresher Center.

Jiyoon Lee, Associate Professor in Education, will work on two chapters of her upcoming book, “A Path to Empowerment: What, Why, and How of Language Assessment Literacy.” The book examines how language assessment literacy (LAL) can serve as a pathway for education participants’ empowerment rather than functioning as technical knowledge. By integrating humanistic inquiry with LAL theory, the book will provide educators, students, administrators, and policymakers with new frameworks to understand the human dimensions of language assessment.

Established in 1927, Planned Parenthood of Maryland (PPMD) is one of the oldest affiliates and the first in a segregated southern state. Carole McCann, Professor in Gender, Women's, + Sexuality Studies, will work on a book project that brings to light the little-known history of this local reproductive health organization. Supported by a network of Hopkins medical and public health professionals and African American and Jewish community leaders, PPMD is a rich site for analyzing entanglements of race and religion in reproductive healthcare history.

Mark Gunnery, M.A. Candidate in Historical Studies, will work on his master's thesis, “Leonard Cohen, Neo-Sabbatianism, and Heterodox North American Jewish Identities,” which examines North American Jewish identities at the turn of the 21st century through a look at singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s (1934-2016) engagement with Sabbatianism. Sabbatianism, a religious movement founded in the 17th century by the Turkish Jewish mystic Sabbatai Tsevi (1626-1676), blends aspects of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity and has long been considered heretical due to its radical rejection of traditional religious law. In his later years, Cohen studied and supported Lawrence G. Corey, leader of a neo-Sabbatian group in Southern California. For many North American Jews, particularly veterans of 1960s and 1970s countercultures, Cohen’s unorthodox approach to Judaism and other religions resonated deeply. This study explores the impact of Sabbatianism on Jews like Cohen and Corey and its appeal to countercultural Jews.