Global Reach

Surrounded by the sprawl of a modern city, the dense forest grove of Osun-Osogbo in southwestern Nigeria has long stood as a silent sentry guarding the mysteries of the ancient past. Those secrets are now revealed by UNC Charlotte researcher Akin Ogundiran, whose work has upended long-held views of how West Africa became a global economic player.

History graduate students Marissa Nichols and Chris Kinley went back in time when researching abroad this academic year in Greece and Mexico, while also taking important steps forward. As recipients of the Buchenau-Pharr Graduate Research Award, their research abroad allowed them to access on-site archival research and develop cultural credibility in their chosen disciplines.

Scott Fitzgerald, associate professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, is the 2016 recipient of the International Education Faculty Award, presented at the 22nd annual International Education Celebration. During the celebration, scholarship recipients and writing competition winners also were acknowledged.

A documentary that recounts the Cold War struggles of Mario Röllig, UNC Charlotte “CLAS Eyewitness in Residence” will premiere this week during the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. The film includes scenes filmed during a visit Röllig made to UNC Charlotte in 2014.

A semester in Spain taught UNC Charlotte political science major and Odyssean scholar Emma Frantz that exposure to different political and cultural practices can broaden the mind.

The UNC Charlotte Model United Nations team continues to build its legacy after successfully competing in two conferences last semester, earning top awards at each. These successes and expansions in the program continue a winning record and set the stage for the future.

Amidst the rolling hills of the Covadonga Valley in Spain, UNC Charlotte history major and Odyssean Scholarship recipient Keegan Cary came to understand the serendipity of encounters with people from different walks of life.

Sixty UNC Charlotte students who are enrolled in Spanish language classes caught a glimpse of what it means to live in poverty in a foreign country, struggling to survive with limited language skills through a simulation organized by Spanish lecturer Susana Cisneros.

Atrocities can start with seemingly insignificant acts. UNC Charlotte students have learned this painful, yet powerful lesson through their in-depth study of the Holocaust. As scholars in the course “Bearing Witness to the Past: A Journey to Auschwitz,” they have traveled to the death camps of Auschwitz and Krakow. They have studied the photographs of the dead and read their names. They have seen the mute mountains of surrendered belongings – the shoes, the battered suitcases, the eyeglasses.

Allegations of brutal torture and abuse of suspected terrorists by the CIA and the U.S. military have heightened the debate about the effectiveness, morality and frequency of torture in the face of terrorist threats. Research centered at UNC Charlotte offers important insight into the agencies that engage in torture and the conditions under which they do.