College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

The process of enacting laws is often compared with sausage-making in that a certain outcome is sought, but people do not want to see how it is reached. After a lengthy and contentious legislative process, people sometimes decide the outcome is unwanted after all.

UNC Charlotte political scientist Mary Layton Atkinson in her book, “Combative Politics: The Media and Public Perceptions of Lawmaking,” suggests ways that journalists and educators, in particular, can help negate the common notion that congressional debate equals congressional dysfunction.

Today’s political climate is energized, at times in a polarizing way. At 5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 12, at UNC Charlotte Center City, a community conversation will consider how to channel this energy into meaningful political participation at the local level.

Alessandro Delfanti from the University of Toronto will present “The History and Politics of Distributed Biotechnology” at 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, Oct. 30, in the Cone University Center, Room 113.

Delfanti, assistant professor of culture and new media, teaches at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology; he is the author of “Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science.”

Researchers at UNC Charlotte have been awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Smart and Connected Communities program to co-develop technology to support public safety. The $1.9 million, four-year grant will develop an optical sensing platform that uses artificial intelligence to detect and prevent street crime without the use of profiling.

Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, is a small town at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains; from there, it is about 4,200 miles to Landstuhl, Germany, home to the United States’ largest international military hospital.

Tara Green, professor and director of African American and African Diaspora Studies at UNC Greensboro, will deliver the 10th annual Bertha Maxwell-Roddey Distinguished Africana Lecture at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 18, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.

A sociologist with a national best-selling book detailing the rise of for-profit colleges, growing debts from student loans and their impact on social inequality will give a public talk on Thursday, Oct. 18.

Tressie McMillan Cottom, an award-winning author and assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, will speak on her book, “Lower Ed:  The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy,” at 7 p.m. in Cone University Center’s After Hours Lounge.

The Charlotte Teachers Institute will host an “Evening for Educators” from 6 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 9, at Discovery Place Education Studio.

The Fall Plant Sale at the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens is a great place to find selections that will yield spring blooms.

This annual sale will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Oct. 5-6, at the McMillan Greenhouse. A preview sale will be noon to 3 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 4, for members of the campus community and garden stewards. Students, faculty and staff receive a 10 percent discount with UNC Charlotte ID.

A free screening of the film “The Silent Holy Stones” is scheduled for noon, Friday, Sept. 28, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.

Prior to the screening, the film director’s Wanmacaidan will give a brief lecture, starting at 10:30 a.m., and a complimentary light lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. A question-and-answer session will follow the screening. The film is presented in Tibetan with English and Chinese subtitles.