BSOS Hosts Inaugural Community Forum Events
In April 2026, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences launched the BSOS Community Forum, an event series that is designed to showcase the groundbreaking work of BSOS faculty, staff and students, while also informing the public on timely, important topics.
The three events that comprised the first official BSOS Community Forum respectively discussed artificial intelligence, voting rights, and finding ways to better serve the neurodiverse community, together.
“I am so proud of all of the work we do in BSOS to fulfill the mission of the University of Maryland in education, research and service,” BSOS Dean Susan Rivera said. “When we can inform our community on timely issues—which are increasingly integral to our personal as well as professional lives—and highlight our college’s expertise, that pride is amplified.”
April 7
AI at Your Side: A Guide for Smarter Learning
The first event of the series was a webinar led by Department of Economics Professor Sebastian Galiani on how artificial intelligence can be used ethically and meaningfully in academic settings. The talk was in line with a forthcoming, student-centered book from Oxford University Press that Galiani co-wrote with Raul A. Sosa of the University of San Andrés Department of Economics: “AI at Your Side: The Student’s Guide to Smarter Learning.”
“The book was written with students in mind, but its core idea is universal: AI should augment human thinking, not replace it. That distinction will shape whether AI elevates or diminishes us,” said Galiani. “After the event, I received thoughtful messages from both faculty and graduate students describing how they are already using AI to move away from routine execution and toward higher-level reasoning. That is precisely the transformation we should be aiming for.”
April 9
An Exploration of Modern American Suffrage Movements
The second event of the series was an in-person event co-hosted by the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement (CDCE) and the Maryland Democracy Initiative. The event was also a part of the First Year Book Initiative.
Researchers—CDCE Faculty Fellow and University of Mary Washington Professor Jared McDonald, UMD Department of Government and Politics and American Studies Professor Janelle Wong, and UMD Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice Professor Rob Stewart—and activists—Vote16USA, Vote16Maryland, We Are CASA, and the Sentencing Project—familiar with various movements that seek to expand voting rights to United States citizens gathered together for this event.
McDonald discussed efforts to lower the voting age to 16, Wong discussed efforts to allow non-citizen residents to vote in local elections, and Stewart discussed efforts to restore voting rights to people who had felony convictions.
“I hope attendees learned about how suffrage is always being contested in the United States, often at the local level,” CDCE Chief Strategist Sam Novey said. “The U.S. Constitution gives states extraordinary control over the conduct of elections and many states devolve control for municipal elections even further to the local level. This legal context creates extraordinary openings for local innovation and fascinating opportunities for research that we are exploring every day at the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement.”
CDCE Director Michael Hanmer added, “I hope attendees took away three things: our faculty have built incredible partnerships with community organizations; the faculty have co-created cutting-edge research that is informed by the experiences of community partners; and the results have a direct impact on the strategic decisions community partners are making.”
April 15
What Should We Build Together? Research and Technology to Power Autistic Futures
The third event of the series was co-sponsored by UMD’s Neurodiversity and Autism Transition Services (NATS) program and the UMD Autism Research Consortium (UMARC). It gathered together researchers, autistic advocates, and community partners in the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center for a presentation and panel discussion on how all parties can work together to improve autistic lives most effectively—particularly via better employment, social connections, and mental health tools/resources.
“The broad goal of the event was to spark new community-engaged research by giving autism community stakeholders a chance to voice their needs, providing examples of collaborative research projects and UMD research capabilities, and showing UMD researchers who haven't been working on autism a range of interesting challenges that may intersect with their expertise,” said UMARC Director and Associate Research Professor at the Maryland Language Science Center, Shevaun Lewis.
Keivan Stassun, Vanderbilt University’s Stevenson Endowed Professor of Physics & Astronomy, delivered the event’s main presentation. Stassun directs Vanderbilt’s Frist Center for Autism & Innovation.
For the panel of autistic advocates, organizers created a “game café” set at the front of the auditorium, where panelists engaged in a lively discussion of “The Autistic Game of Life.” The non-traditional format allowed panelists to move around the set and engage each other directly with questions and reactions. They discussed how they define success and what kinds of support are effective for them.
“It evolved into a powerful, authentic conversation between autistic experts about their own lives,” said Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences Clinical Professor and Friedman Family Director of Neurodiversity & Autism Transition Services, Kathy Dow-Burger.
Dow-Burger continued, “This work is critical; as our keynote, Keivan Stassun, noted, ‘despite having more tools, more research, and more technology than ever before,’ statistics still reveal extreme unemployment rates. To meet this moment, we must work together to reduce fragmentation and foster the resilience, creativity, and entrepreneurship required for real change.”
Published on Thu, Apr 23, 2026 - 11:39AM