College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Oscar de la Torre, associate professor of Africana Studies, will have his first book, “The People of the River: Nature and Identity in Black Amazonia, 1835-1945” published by UNC Press; it is scheduled for release in October.

This work is a social and environmental history of the Africa-descended people in Brazil’s Amazonian forest. It is a story of the difficult journey from slavery to peasantry, and how Black Amazonians used the environment to forge new overlapping identities as citizens, black and indigenous in the post-emancipation years.

Tanure Ojaide, the Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies, has published a new collection of short stories, “God’s Naked Children,” and a volume of 105 poems, “The Questioner.”

Min Jiang, an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies, will begin a four-year tenure as associate editor of the Sage journal, Communication and the Public, in January 2019.

The GI Bill, environmental protections and the desegregation of public schools and housing were all “gifts” to the Baby Boomer generation. Post-World War II legislative actions led by Presidents Truman, Eisenhower and Johnson were based on the belief that encouraging individual opportunity would result in the betterment of the entire nation.

A series of five events this fall will focus on the campaign for and election of the tripartite presidency in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mirsad Hadžikadić, a well-known UNC Charlotte professor, is one of the candidates.

What is at stake in the confirmation process of President Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court is the topic of the University’s annual Constitution Day presentation, scheduled for 11 a.m., Monday, Sept. 17, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.

Richard Bowser, a professor at Campbell University’s School of Law, and John Szmer, an associate professor in UNC Charlotte’s Political Science and Public Administration Department, will be the speakers for this event.

The UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens is offering a course on fall vegetable gardening at 10 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 30, in the McMillan Greenhouse.

Don Boekelheide will lead this two-hour workshop in which attendees will learn the best varieties of fall vegetables to plant for Carolina Piedmont conditions. Participants will learn about soil care techniques to keep fall crops strong and to keep diseases under control.

An extensive experiment testing the immune effects of a broad group of lab-designed nucleic acid nanoparticles did not find a strong, uniform immune response, as had been predicted. Instead, the tests found varying and specific responses from different immune cells, depending on each particle’s shape and formulation, a finding that may encourage further study of the particles’ therapeutic use.

Most North Carolinians have known someone who has had kidney or bladder stones. The pain can be excruciating – a stabbing sensation in the side, abdomen or back. UNC Charlotte student Luke Hardy, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in optical science and engineering, is a member of a research team working to transform treatment options.

Rajan Puri, a doctoral student in mathematics, recently received the David Merchant International Student Award for Achievement from the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars. The award honors one international student who demonstrates exceptional accomplishments in the areas of scholarship and service.