Teaching & Advising

As part of the effort to advance experiential learning for students, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty and staff learned best practices during a two-day workshop in June with Worcester Polytechnic Institute facilitators. The primary goal of the workshop was to explore how to integrate project-based learning throughout CLAS.

Fans of comic books, graphic novels, and manga gathered on June 15-17 at the Charlotte Convention Center for the annual Heroes Convention. In a “Monday Missive” blog posting, English Department Chair Mark West took a moment to discuss the use of sequential art to tell stories.

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.

A classroom approach in which students seek solutions to problems rooted in real meteorological data; non-traditional teaching techniques to help students grasp organic chemistry; and a focus on students choosing research projects geared to their interests are just some of the innovative, hands-on approaches this year’s CLAS Excellence in Teaching Awards recipients use to challenge students.

UNC Charlotte’s University Writing Program has earned a 2017-2018 CCCC Writing Program Certificate of Excellence, as one of only nine honorees to receive the national award. The UWP serves the entire university and is housed within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

Discerning between real and fake news has become an increasingly difficult task, especially in the digital domain. With a goal of helping students address this challenge, UNC Charlotte — with faculty from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences as leaders — was selected as one of 10 institutions for the pilot program “Digital Polarization: Promoting Online Civic Literary,” sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ (AASCU) American Democracy Project.

In a move designed to deepen and diversify its engagement in professional development for teachers, Charlotte Teachers Institute has formed a new educational partnership with Johnson C. Smith University to support classroom teachers in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Through CTI seminars led by UNC Charlotte and JCSU faculty, CMS teachers learn new content, work collaboratively with other teachers, and develop new curricula for their students.

Michèle Bissière, professor of French, is the golden jubilee recipient of the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence. Presented annually since 1968, the award is one of UNC Charlotte’s most prestigious accolades, recognizing a talented faculty member. Bissière’s outreach has been so diverse and extensive that she is considered the face of French at UNC Charlotte.

Faculty members who demonstrate significant impact within and beyond their classrooms can be recognized with one of UNC Charlotte’s top honors – the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence. Finalists for this award include four College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty. They are Michèle Bissière, Scott Fitzgerald, Kirk Melnikoff and Coral Wayland.

In her book, “Thomas Wolfe and Lost Children in Southern Literature,” scholar Paula Gallant Eckard calls upon Thomas Wolfe’s evocative and autobiographical novella “The Lost Boy” as a touchstone for her analysis of a group of contemporary southern novels. She draws upon her writing and research to enliven learning for her students.