News

UNC Charlotte’s Jeanette M. Bennett has been named one of the 10 Must Take Psychology Professors in Charlotte by the online site Careers in Psychology. “Educating the next generation of leaders and scientists has always been one of my primary goals,” Bennett says. “My classroom provides an environment that is open to questions and a safe place to process new student ideas.”

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.

For its broad-ranging “convocation to commencement” approach to advising, the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology has earned the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Academic Advising. The department helps students reach their full academic potential, Provost Joan Lorden said.

In recognition of its focus on teaching and student learning, the Department of Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is the 2015 recipient of the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. The faculty “maintain an intimate sociological community among students in a large and growing university,” said Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Joan Lorden,

UNC Charlotte researcher Beth A. Rubin’s third paper on management citizenship behavior was one of 16 articles worldwide nominated for the 2015 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research. Co-authors are Charles J. Brody and David J. Maume.

UNC Charlotte and Gaston County are working together on an effort to protect and monitor a key portion of the county’s water supply. Funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the “Healthy Wells” program will establish a public digital database of the county’s wells and promote the protection of private well water supplies.

A cadre of UNC Charlotte students this summer worked alongside homeowners and local masons in Ahuachapán, El Salvador to build foundations for new homes, through a partnership with Habitat and with support from donors. The program offered hands-on experience building affordable housing, integrated with academic course content designed to develop deep understanding of complex social problems.

Graduates of the Technical/professional writing program discuss how the versatile nature of the program helps prepare students to succeed when they enter the workforce. The program is offered through the English Department in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

UNC Charlotte’s Morton Shapiro, 84, who retired as a member of the English faculty in 1993, died on September 11, 2015. He was one of the university’s original English Department faculty, and will be fondly remembered by his friends, colleagues, and students.