Scholarship and Academic Life

Professor of Theatre Bruce Auerbach is the co-editor of the second edition of “Practical Projects for Teaching Lighting Design: A Compendium, Volume 2,” published by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology Inc. (USITT) in 2016.

The book, a collection of practical lab projects that can be used in a lighting class, was edited with Anne McMills and is a project of the USITT Lighting Design and Technology Commission. Auerbach was the sole editor of the first edition of the book, which was published in 1990.

For innovative teaching methods that extend well beyond a traditional classroom setting, Joanne Maguire Robinson, chair of the Religious Studies Department, has received the 2016 American Academy of Religion Excellence in Teaching Award.

Since joining the UNC Charlotte faculty in 1996, Robinson has focused on how students engage with the classroom environment. She sees the job of a teacher as creating an environment that helps students leave as more informed, more reflective and more capable and resourceful thinkers.

South Africa is relying upon the expertise of College of Education faculty member David Test to develop and implement an ambitious plan to revamp that nation’s special education system.

Test, a professor of special education, recently returned stateside after traveling to South Africa as part of an envoy to assess how the country educates its special needs students.

A pair of UNC Charlotte social work master’s students recently unveiled a plan to help provide mental health services to Charlotte’s underserved Latino population.

Graduate students Laura Pierce and Cameron Rifkin presented the plan at the UNC Social Entrepreneurship Conference after being selected as UNC Charlotte’s participants.

 The UNC Charlotte Africana Studies Department will host the 40th annual conference of the National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) from Thursday, March 17, through Saturday, March 19, at the Omni Hotel. The 2016 theme is “Forty Years of Black Studies in the Local, National and Global Spaces: Past Accomplishments and New Directions.”

UNC Charlotte faculty members are asked to encourage their students to enter the 2016 Undergraduate Research Conference, scheduled for Friday, April 22. The deadline to enter this competition is Wednesday, March 23.

This university-wide showcase of research projects completed by undergraduate students of all levels from all colleges and departments will be at the Cone University Center.

Student work submitted for conference presentation can range from in-class projects to year-long honors theses and everything in between.

The North Carolina economy continues to grow, but there are several areas to watch in 2016, UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton reported today in the Babson Capital Management/UNC Charlotte Economic Forecast.

Investigating how to advance the practice of teaching to enhance students’ learning is the impetus for research grants offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Recently, grant recipients for eight funded projects shared their work at the second annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Research Showcase.

“Materialities of Ritual in the Black Atlantic,” co-edited by Akin Ogundiran, professor of Africana studies, was named an outstanding academic title for 2015 by Choice magazine.

In its January issue, Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries published its list of “Outstanding Academic Titles” reviewed during the previous calendar year. According to the magazine, the list represents approximately 10 percent of the some 7,000 works reviewed by Choice in 2015.

A new UNC Charlotte College of Education partnership under way in Union County is allowing a group of teachers to earn a master’s degree in education through a new model that brings that graduate classroom to them.

The pilot program offers 16 teachers in high priority middle and high schools the opportunity to earn a Master of Education at a significantly reduced rate, while collaborating with College of Education professors on site near their home schools.