College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences

As temperatures spike each spring, mosquitos start to swarm. They bring with them an increased risk of mosquito-borne diseases and a need to understand how to guard against these pesky – and at times dangerous – insects. Researchers at UNC Charlotte and the Mecklenburg County Health Department are collaborating on a study to determine which factors in the environment lead to hotspots of mosquito activity, in a project led by doctoral student Ari Whiteman.

Heather Smith, professor of geography and earth sciences and director of the doctorate in Geography and Urban Regional Analysis, is the 2017 recipient of the Harshini V. de Silva Graduate Mentor Award. She was honored at a ceremony on Thursday, March 30, at the Harris Alumni Center at Johnson Glen.

Hollywood writer and producer Calvin Brown Jr. is serving as the 2017 Africana Studies Artist-in-Residence from March 13-March 23, 2017. Brown, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate and native Charlottean, Brown will guest lecture in classes, meet with students in a brown bag question-and-answer session, and work with select students to produce a short film on the history of the Africana Studies Department.

For his leadership in foreign language education throughout North Carolina and nationally, UNC Charlotte’s Bobby Hobgood has received a “lifetime achievement award” as the recipient of a Foreign Language Association of North Carolina Honorary Life Member Award.

Nancy Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte, has been named a trustee of the North Carolina Humanities Council for a three-year term. The organization provides ways for North Carolinians to engage with one another through the humanities. All the programs support lifetime learning in North Carolina through the humanities, especially literature, history, art, music and philosophy.

Allison Stedman, associate professor of French at UNC Charlotte, has received a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to complete a book project with relevance for understanding mind-body connections, the history of medicine, miracles, mysticism, holism, and metaphysical theology. The year-long fellowship will support the outcome of in-depth research to be conducted at the Arsenal Library and the French National Library in Paris, France for a book she is writing.

Drug use is the main motivation for women who burglarize, while money ranks as the top motivation for male burglars, new UNC Charlotte research has found. The study, published in the January 2017 Journal of Drug Issues, was led by Criminal Justice and Criminology Professor Joseph B. Kuhns and is one of the few that interprets data from both male and female burglars.

A Confucius Institute will open at UNC Charlotte in summer 2017 to broaden the University’s outreach and support for language instruction and cultural opportunities in the Charlotte community. UNC Charlotte will establish the Confucius Institute within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences in the Department of Languages and Culture Studies.

UNC Charlotte alumna Brenda Tindal, who is Levine Museum of the New South staff historian, sees history as a way to build community, while deepening our understanding of the past’s persistent influence. Tindal takes seriously her role as one of the most prominent public historians in the Charlotte region and the role the Levine Museum plays in community conversations.

Navigating the world’s oceans of data can prove daunting. It is not enough to simply amass and access vast quantities of data; researchers have learned the importance of understanding and using data in purposeful ways. To make the most of these opportunities, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences earlier this year joined the UNC Charlotte Data Science Initiative.