College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

UNC Charlotte journalism students won a 2014 Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists at the SPJ Region 2 conference held at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

The students received “Best Independent Online Student Publication” for a website created from student work for the 2014 course “Covering Poverty in America,” conceptualized and taught by senior lecturer Cheryl Spainhour.

Chair of the Africana Studies Department Akin Ogundiran has been named a National Humanities Center Fellow for the upcoming academic year. He will join 36 other distinguished scholars from 32 institutions across the United States and eight foreign countries working on a wide array of projects as part of this competitive, prestigious fellowship program.

UNC Charlotte’s Botanical Gardens will celebrate the opening of the Mellichamp Native Terrace Garden with a ribbon-cutting and self-guided tours from 4 to 6 p.m., Sunday, May 31.

UNC Charlotte students were recognized recently for their writing achievement as part of the University Writing Program’s Excellence in First-Year Writing ceremony in the Atkins Library, Halton Reading Room.

Janna Shedd, Tonya Bates and Robin James have received the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ 2015 Teaching Awards in recognition of “their dedication, teaching and research contributions and lasting impact on students.”

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences will add the position of associate dean for academic affairs and diversity to the Dean’s Office in 2015-16. Shawn Long, currently chair of the Department of Communication Studies, will assume this role effective July 1.

The Africana Studies Department, the Department of History and the Latin American Studies program will co-host the international conference “Locating and Connecting Latin America and the African Diaspora” on Thursday and Friday, April 30-May 1. The conference is free and open to the public; all activities will take place in the UNC Charlotte Student Union

Gov. Pat McCrory visited UNC Charlotte Monday morning to convene a roundtable discussion with campus officials and business leaders regarding his Innovation to Jobs initiative. Following the forum held in the Student Union, McCrory and several others toured the Burson science building, one of the more overcrowded and outdated classroom and lab buildings on campus.

UNC Charlotte study abroad students will present live and recorded scenes from a 2014 London production of Shakespeare’s “Pericles” and Cervantes’ “The Sultan’s Queen” on Tuesday, April 21, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall. 

The performance, which is free and open to the public, will be from 7 to 9 p.m. and will include a question-and-answer session with a student/faculty panel. 

Sarah Tracy, a professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University, will present “Compassion in the Face of Terror” at 9 a.m., Tuesday, April 21, in the Student Union, Room 340 (A-E). This presentation is for the Communication Studies Week Spring Colloquium, sponsored by the Communication Studies Graduate Student Association and the Communication Studies Department’s graduate program.