Honors & Awards

Tanure Ojaide, Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies at UNC Charlotte, is co-recipient of the 2018 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa for his book, “Songs of Myself.”

Africana Studies outgoing chair Akin Ogundiran will serve as Editor-in-Chief of African Archaeological Review (AAR). This is the oldest continent-wide journal in the field of African archaeology. The five-year appointment will provide students with the opportunity to be part of the editorial process of a major international journal, in addition to providing UNC Charlotte with more visibility as a research university, Ogundiran said.

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Senior Associate Dean Shawn Long has received the Lyman T. Johnson Torch of Excellence Award from the University of Kentucky Lyman T. Johnson African American alumni group, honoring his impact on other people’s lives.

Gregory Mixon, professor of history, recently received the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council Award for Excellence in Research Using the Holdings of Archives. He was honored for the book, “Show Thyself a Man: Georgia State Troops, Colored, 1865-1905.”

Andrea Pitts, an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at UNC Charlotte, has received a six-month Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. With the fellowship, Pitts will work on a book project in fall 2018, analyzing structural racism and linguistic communication.

Joyce Dalsheim, a cultural anthropologist in the Department of Global Studies, has been selected as a 2018 Luce/ACLS Fellow in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs. She will use her ethnographic research in Israel/Palestine to engage in a critical examination of the relationship between sovereignty and liberation, focusing on questions of religion and religious freedom. Her work adds new perspective to a broad set of interdisciplinary conversations on secularism and citizenship in the modern world.

Michele Bissière from UNC Charlotte’s Department of Languages and Cultural Studies in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is among the recipients of the 2018 UNC Board of Governors Awards for Excellence in Teaching.

UNC Charlotte’s nationally accredited Gerald G. Fox Master of Public Administration program has been ranked in the top 21% of 282 public affairs programs nationwide that were included in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best Graduate Schools rankings. “This ranking reflects a top tier program on the rise and is a testament to the quality of our program,” said MPA Director Tom Barth.

UNC Charlotte’s Steven Rogelberg is a pioneering researcher in the field of organizational science. In acknowledgement of his profound, international impact on the discipline, Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has named him a recipient of its prestigious research award.

The Department of English and Chemistry Associate Professor Thomas Schmedake have earned awards of excellence from Provost Joan Lorden for their commitment to students and citizens of the region. Lorden presented the Award for Excellence in Teaching to the English Department and the Faculty Award for Community Engagement to Schmedake.