Research News

Effective volunteers are the lifeblood of nonprofit organizations. Without them, nonprofits can wither and even die, so understanding their needs is critical. UNC Charlotte’s Volunteer Program Assessment helps nonprofits understand and respond to their volunteer programs’ strengths and weaknesses. Since 2009, VPA has helped over 120 organizations in 20 states address their needs.

Even as the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 takes place, U.S. education is becoming less diverse. To examine this issue of increasingly segregated schools, researchers from UNC Charlotte joined with educators, legal scholars and practitioners, and social scientists from around the country at a June civil rights conference hosted by Penn State’s College of Education.

Brian Magi, assistant professor of atmospheric sciences in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte, will present a talk titled “Global Environmental Change in the University Classroom” at the Carolinas Climate Resilience Conference on Tuesday, April 29. The conference seeks to provide an opportunity to share information about tools, resources, activities and experiences.

Local communities can expect the number and asset size of philanthropic foundations to increase, due to the rise in health care consolidations driven by health care reform. In the past, assets of this kind may have been underused or even undocumented. A new database created by UNC Charlotte researchers can help bridge this gap.

Death is the end of life – often a difficult topic to discuss. UNC Charlotte Professor Jillian Tullis is working to change that. Tullis uses her personal experiences, combined with the experiences and knowledge she has gained working with hospices and cancer centers, to improve the ways people view and communicate about death. “Attitudes about […]

Heritage Daily has named the finds made this summer at UNC Charlotte’s Mount Zion dig site as among the world’s Top 10 archaeological discoveries for 2013. James Tabor, chair of religious studies in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences; and Shimon Gibson, Israeli archaeologist, fellow at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem and adjunct UNC […]

A vision for a new central park in Reid Park Neighborhood on Charlotte’s west side is moving closer to reality, based on work by UNC Charlotte’s Dylan McKnight, who is pursuing a master’s degrees in urban design and community planning. The Reid Park Neighborhood Association, in partnership with Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department, will […]

In excavating sites in a long-inhabited urban area like Jerusalem, archaeologists are accustomed to noting complexity in their finds — how various occupying civilizations layer over one another during the site’s continuous use over millennia. But when an area has also been abandoned for intermittent periods, paradoxically there may be even richer finds uncovered, as […]

A study of mortality and fertility patterns among seven species of wild apes and monkeys and their relatives, compared with similar data from hunter-gatherer humans, shows that menopause sets humans apart from other primates.

Full understanding of how natural resources relate to rebel forces in the developing world is crucial to U.S. national security policy, and a Department of Defense-funded project at UNC Charlotte is expected to provide greater insights into the impact of those resources.

This summer’s excavation at the Mount Zion dig site in the city of Jerusalem has offered 18 UNC Charlotte students, as well as faculty and staff, a rare opportunity to conduct research at an ancient site with religious and historical significance.

The 60 undergraduate students from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and other colleges at UNC Charlotte who are part of the Charlotte Research Scholars program have started the second half of their 10-week research experience, working collaboratively with faculty mentors.

Academics, policymakers, professionals, students and others concerned with sustainability will come together to consider social sustainability at the inaugural Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS) conference on May 28 and 29 at UNC Charlotte Center City.

Many elementary students’ math performance improves when their teachers collaborate, work in professional learning communities or do both, yet most students don’t spend all of their elementary school years in these settings, a new study by UNC Charlotte researchers shows. The U.S. Department of Education funded the study, which the journal Sociology of Education recently published. […]

One way to understand what motivates and deters burglars is to ask them. UNC Charlotte researcher Joseph Kuhns from the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology did just that. He led a research team that gathered survey responses from more than 400 convicted offenders that resulted in an unprecedented look into the minds of burglars, providing insight into intruders’ motivations and methods.

As the world seeks ways to reduce energy costs and speed access to alternative energy solutions, UNC Charlotte researcher Deborah Strumsky is leading a team that will use modeling to forecast optimal investments for the array of solar energy technologies that are emerging.

Beginning a research project can feel like diving into a vast ocean of information. Students often spend untold hours swimming through a broad research topic, as they seek to address issues that perplex and warrant an answer.

People think of wind as an energy source with few limits, offering an unending power source with distinct capacity advantages over sources that deplete, such as fossil fuel. Yet, new research suggests that the power capacity of large-scale wind farms may have been significantly overestimated.