Scholarship and Academic Life

 Craig Ogle, the Charles H. Stone Professor of Chemistry, is the 2014 recipient of the First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal. The prestigious award, presented by First Citizens Bank and UNC Charlotte, honors faculty scholarship and intellectual inquiry.

The Africana Studies Department in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences will host its 12th annual symposium on Wednesday and Thursday, April 2-3.
This year’s symposium will focus on the topic of “Moral Economies.” According to Akin Ogundiran, chair of Africana studies, the goal of the two-day event is to diagnose and evaluate the rise in and ramifications of social inequality at the local and international levels despite increases in global wealth.

The Blumenthal Foundation of Charlotte has awarded the University $22,500 for a collaborative initiative that will increase the profile of and engage the public in issues about the natural environment.

The newly published “Visible Man: The Life of Henry Dumas” by English professor Jeffrey Leak has been praised for “shining a piercing light” on the elusive Dumas, who has remained a mystery even to his fans.
Leak, through interviews with Dumas’ family and friends, along with writers who knew Dumas, examined the author’s life and writing.

Faculty author and national expert on election administration Martha Kropf will discuss how the 2000 election continues to affect policymakers nearly 15 years later in the final installment of the 2013-14 Personally Speaking Lecture Series. This free, public talk is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 20, at UNC Charlotte Center City. A reception will follow.

James Tabor, professor and chair of religious studies, will discuss the relationship between Israel and the United States at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 12, at UNC Charlotte Center City, Room 204, as the fourth speaker in the 2014 Great Decisions lecture series.

 Local communities can expect the number and asset size of philanthropic foundations to increase, due to the rise in health care consolidations driven by health care reform. In the past, assets of this kind may have been underused or even undocumented.  A new database created by UNC Charlotte researchers can help bridge this gap.

James Walsh, associate professor and associate chair of political science and public administration, will discuss defense technology at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 5, in UNC Charlotte Center City, Room 204, as part of the 2014 Great Decisions lecture series.
Walsh’s research and teaching interests also include international human rights, national security policy and European integration. Currently, he is studying the relationships between terrorist attacks and human rights abuses and is completing a book on the politics of international intelligence sharing.

Parallels between social media blogs, tweets and other virtual media to that of writings in 17th-century France is the focus of the next Personally Speaking talk scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 13, in the J. Murrey Atkins Library.

For the first time in five years, 2014 is poised to be a “recovery year” for the North Carolina economy, UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton reported today in his quarterly forecast for the state.