Montgomery College criminal justice professor and program coordinator Bridget Lowrie has been selected for the 2026 MC-Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship cohort, a yearlong academic partnership that connects college classrooms with Smithsonian collections, scholars, and digital resources. The 2026 fellowship theme, "Fostering a Culture of Critical and Ethical Learning to Shape Future Leaders," will focus on leadership and ethics in a rapidly changing world.
The MC-Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship, housed in the College's Paul Peck Humanities Institute, grew out of a collaboration with the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology and the Smithsonian Learning Lab. The initiative, the first of its kind between the Smithsonian and a community college, has involved 256 Montgomery College faculty and more than 26,000 students and their families since 1998. For more information about the fellowship program, visit https://www.montgomerycollege.edu/special-programs/paul-peck-humanities-institute/smithsonian-faculty-fellowships.html.
Lowrie will use the fellowship to develop a project on civil disobedience, leadership, and ethics that connects museum artifacts to contemporary questions in criminology. Her proposal includes potential partnerships with the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian, as well as virtual artifact collections that help students examine the intersections of disability, protest and justice.
"As an attorney and criminal justice professor, I see students wrestling every day with questions about power, fairness, and accountability," Lowrie said. "Working with Smithsonian collections on civil disobedience and social movements will give them concrete objects, stories, and images to ground those conversations, not just abstract theories."
The interdisciplinary fellowship is open to faculty from all three Montgomery College campuses. Fellows participate in seminars with Smithsonian curators and educators, explore on-site and virtual exhibitions, and design projects that embed museum resources into their courses. Lowrie's students will begin engaging with the fellowship project in fall 2026 through class visits, virtual collections, and research assignments focused on leadership, ethics, and civic engagement.
Lowrie teaches in the Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice Department at Montgomery College and serves as the Rockville and Takoma Park/Silver Spring coordinator for criminal justice. She began teaching in 2013 after nearly a decade in law practice as a Maryland attorney and prosecutor and as a judicial law clerk.
The selection of a criminal justice professor for this prestigious fellowship highlights the growing importance of ethical leadership education across disciplines. By connecting historical artifacts and museum resources with contemporary criminal justice issues, this fellowship has the potential to transform how future law enforcement professionals, legal experts, and community leaders approach questions of justice, protest, and social change. The project's focus on civil disobedience and ethics comes at a time when communities nationwide are grappling with questions about police reform, social justice movements, and the role of protest in democratic societies.
For students, this fellowship represents an opportunity to engage with primary sources and museum collections that bring abstract concepts to life, potentially influencing their career paths and civic engagement. For the criminal justice field, this type of interdisciplinary approach could help bridge the gap between academic theory and practical application, preparing future professionals to navigate complex ethical dilemmas with historical context and critical thinking skills.
