College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences

As people react to the 2020 U.S. presidential election results, we have turned to the animal kingdom to see how animal societies make decisions and resolve conflict. We asked CLAS researchers to consider what we can learn from animal societies. Alan Rauch, an English professor, earned degrees in zoology and literature, and he studies and writes about dolphins. Stanley Schneider, a biologist, studies honey bees and their hive behavior. Anthropologist Lydia Light researches gibbons and other primates.

In “Africa’s International Relations: Balancing Domestic and Global Interests,” Beth Elise Whitaker and co-author John Clark argue that the external relations of African countries are shaped mainly by domestic political imperatives. Whitaker’s research and the book will be the focus of the second talk of the 2020-2021 season in the Personally Speaking published experts series, on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m.

A mentoring program co-led by UNC Charlotte researcher Sandra Clinton that aims to retain undergraduate women in the geosciences is on the shortlist for the international Nature Research Awards for Inspiring and Innovating Science. The program also has received almost $3 million in new NSF funding.

UNC Charlotte Africana Studies associate professor Oscar de la Torre’s first book continues to sweep book prize awards, now recognized with two best book prizes and one honorable mention award.

Dr. Mary T. Harper, who played a pivotal role in mentoring and teaching students at UNC Charlotte, developing African American studies at the university, and in preserving the African American story in the Charlotte community, died on October 1, 2020.

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences mourns the death of Dr. Tyrel (Tink) Moore, professor emeritus in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, who passed away on Sept. 14, 2020 at Northlake House in Charlotte. A scholar of the South, Moore joined the faculty at UNC Charlotte in 1982 and retired in 2017.

This year’s UNC Charlotte Constitution Day event features a talk by Tammy A. Sarver of Benedictine University, discussing women in America’s long struggle to gain the right to vote as a Constitutional right. While that quest culminated in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment, issues of inequality remained and continue to linger today.

The use of combat drones stands out as one of the most critical developments in 21st century military actions. Learn more about this important topic from UNC Charlotte expert James Igoe Walsh, during his Personally Speaking virtual talk on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m.

A multi-discipline, multi-university project housed at UNC Charlotte and led by political scientist Jason Windett seeks to develop an easy-to-search hub of vast amounts of data on life-affecting issues, complete with analytical tools for easy visualization of the data.

As an outstanding leader at UNC Charlotte and in the broader community, Janaka Bowman Lewis has claimed a slot in the Charlotte Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Awards for 2020. Lewis is director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, an associate professor in English, and an affiliate faculty member in Africana studies.