College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences

Jason Black, chair of the Department of Communication Studies, in early 2020 received a Fulbright award in support of a cross-cultural study of the indigenous mascotting controversy in Canadian and U.S. cultures of sport. Black was based at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, when the COVID-19 pandemic cut his trip short. Yet, he’s stayed on track to publish his second book on mascotting issues.

With its portrayal of the difficulties of frontier life, The New York Times Book Review has just named “All God’s Children” by novelist and UNC Charlotte English Associate Professor Aaron Gwyn as one of The Best Books To Give This Year.

Megan Bird, a UNC Charlotte senior from Charlottesville, Virginia, was a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the world’s most prestigious graduate fellowships. While she ultimately was not chosen as one of the 32 American Rhodes Scholars, announced on Nov. 21, her selection as a finalist is a significant achievement.

Despite the critical nature of authorship to researchers, their institutions and the public, just 24% of U.S. doctoral-granting universities with very high or high research activity have published institutional authorship policies, UNC Charlotte researchers Lisa Rasmussen and George Banks and their colleagues have discovered.

John R. McNair, professor emeritus in the Department of English at UNC Charlotte, died on November 3, 2020, in Wilmington, North Carolina. McNair played an instrumental role in founding the English Department’s offerings in technical communication.

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.