Humanities

As a student attending rural North Carolina grade schools and a Raleigh high school that is majority white, Candace Silver saw just a few other Black faces in her classes, if any. Lessons and books paid little attention to telling Black people’s stories, she recalls. Now, as the inaugural recipient of the new Gregory Mixon-Sonya Ramsey Black Lives Matter Scholarship, Silver continues to grow her understanding and appreciation for a broader view that includes the contributions and struggles of Black people throughout history.

Tanure Ojaide, Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies at UNC Charlotte, has received a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship from the Institute of International Education to share his expertise with students and faculty in Africa.

Nancy A. Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte, has been elected chair of the North Carolina Humanities Council Board of Trustees for 2019-2020. The Board of Trustees seeks to make the humanities accessible statewide.

Being an informed citizen in a democracy necessitates understanding the people who make, and will be affected by, community decisions. The Civic Eats project seeks to help create a better informed Charlotte citizenry through a focus on the connective potential of foodways – or why we eat, what we eat, and what it means.

The aromas and tastes of the holiday season call forth memories of traditions and of times spent with family and friends. Hot chocolate is a particularly special drink, building connections among people worldwide. We invite you to pause for a moment to consider historical, botanical, and cultural aspects of this comforting drink. We also hope you will take a moment to savor this special time of year with those you cherish.

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.

For her transformational impact on international education at UNC Charlotte, Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau, associate professor of German, is the 2018 recipient of the International Education Faculty Award. Notable contributions include a keen focus on expanding opportunities for students to study, work and intern abroad, with a parallel focus on growing community partnerships to support students. She also has grown academic offerings and community outreach.

UNC Charlotte students in Karen Cox’s public history class learned about the magnitude of a historic schoolhouse’s place in history and its value to the local community. Through their hands-on research about the school, built in the early 1900s to educate African-American children, they are contributing to the planning process for the building’s potential preservation.

The Charlotte Museum of History has named UNC Charlotte alumna Adria Focht as its new president and CEO, effective Nov. 27. Focht comes to the museum from the Kings Mountain Historical Museum, where she was director and curator.

Located just outside Uptown Charlotte, near Wilkinson Boulevard and Tuckaseegee Road, is Camp Greene. Opened originally in September 1917, Camp Greene was named for the Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene. Associate Professor of History Heather Perry and her students are part of a University-community partnership to help history come alive.