This Week in LACS 1/29/2024

January 29, 2024
Categories: Community Events, General Events, General News Tags: 2024, chinese, french, german, graduate, heritage, japanese, spanish
This Week in LACS

Happy Monday!

Dates and Events this Week

January 29, 

  • 5:00pm New Deadline for Annual Evaluation Materials
    • Please complete the Annual Evaluation Form in your personal folder
    • Please upload an updated CV in your personal folder

January 30

  • Chair Office Hours in person 1:00-3:00 pm

January 31

February 1

February 2

Looking Ahead

Dates and Events

February 5

Neurodiverse Workforce Video application deadline, Apply Here

February 5-6

February 8

  • Poetry Slam, After Hours, Cone Center, 7:00-9:00 pm

February 9

February 16

February 17

February 19

  • Deadline for O. Max Gardner Award nominations, emailed to Jen Knight 

February 22-23

February 27

  • Workshop: Recruiting and Supporting Employees with Disabilities, 12:00-1:30 pm, Please register

March 2

March 15

  • Department Meeting 2:30-4:00 pm, LRC 

March 29

April 12

  • Department Meeting 2:30-4:00 pm, LRC 

April 19

April 30

  • Department Meeting 10:30 am-12:00 pm, Party 12:00-2:00 pm 

Congratulations
Congratulations to Mónica Rodríguez-Castro for being awarded a Faculty Research Grant “A Corpus-based Discourse Study of Mental Health Representations: Linguistic Choices in Colombian and Spanish News” in December 2023.

Congratulations to Ryan Augustyniak for organizing the panel “Rethinking the Modern Language Curriculum: SLA, Technology, Culture,” with Alexis Finet for the Northeastern Modern Languages Association Convention, March 7-10, 2024 at Villanova University, Philadelphia, PA.

Thank you 
Thank you to all of you who came in person or via Zoom to the Conversations on AI presentation on Friday. Matteo Di Michele presented “AI and Ethics” and talked about his book “Artificial Intelligence: Ethics, Risks and Opportunities.” In case you missed this presentation, please find a recording here: Di Michele “AI and Ethics” Presentation.

Stay tuned for the next presentations in our Conversations about AI series. On Friday, February 16, Jeff Killman and Chris Mellinger will present a Roundtable Discussion: Artificial Intelligence in Interpreting: Possibilities and Limitations, 12:30-2:00 pm, in a session of the SEACS Conference. 

Announcements & Updates

Self-Study Update
Please find the entire itinerary here: External Reviewers Itinerary. We still need escorts. Please sign up for escorting.

CHESS Associate Dean for Curriculum and Student Success Search
The search for the Associate Dean for Curriculum and Student Success in the CHESS Dean’s office is now accepting applications which can be submitted at this link which simply asks candidates to upload a CV and a statement of purpose that outlines the challenges and opportunities you see for the college with respect to the position’s main areas of responsibility. Greg Weeks will be chairing the search committee, joined by Joanne Maguire (RELS), Terry Shirley (GES), and Tanya Hunt (CHESS Advising Center).  Here is the position description for the Associate Dean for Curriculum and Student Success which is open to any tenured faculty member in the college. Please note that while the position formally starts on 1 July 2024, we plan to have the new incumbent join the Dean’s office team (with a stipend) as soon as the search is concluded. Review of applications will begin on February 9th, but the position remains open until filled. 

CHESS Teaching Awards
The Selection Committee for the CHESS Award for the Integration of Teaching and Research has begun its nomination process. This award recognizes faculty who incorporate their research/creative activity into the classroom in meaningful ways so that students learn successfully and are exposed to and/or participate in the practice of research and/or creative activity.  If you are interested in being considered for this award, please contact me. Nominations are due on February 2, 2024. 

CHESS is also seeking nominations for two further teaching awards: the CHESS Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Full-Time, NTT Faculty Member.  Submit your nominations here:  NTT Nomination Form  and the CHESS Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Part-Time Faculty Member.  Submit your nominations here:  Part-Time Nomination Form by February 9, 2024.

Academic Affairs
Learn more about the upcoming public presentations of candidates for the associate provost for undergraduate education and dean of University College via the UCOL Dean search website. Following each candidate interview, we encourage you to provide feedback via the Candidate Evaluation Form. The form will be available until 8:00 am on Tuesday, February 6.

SEACS Conference
The annual SEACS (Southeastern Association of Cultural Studies) Conference will be hosted at UNC Charlotte. President Susanne Gomoluch, invites you to attend the conference Friday, February 16 and Saturday, February 17. Please find information as well as the program on the SEACS Website. 

Future of Neurodiverse Workforce Video
The University Career Center and the Office of Disability Services invites neurodiverse students and faculty and staff to share about their experiences through being part of a fun and educational short video. If interested in being part of this, apply today and we will notify you by February 8th. What does Neurodiverse mean?  This refers to an individual who “processes, learns, and/or behaves differently from what is considered ‘typical’.” This can range from “ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Epilepsy, OCD, Parkinson’s, TBI, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, Dyspraxia, Tourette’s, learning differences, and more.” Application Timeline 

  • Application closes on Feb. 5th Apply Here
  • Applicants notified by Feb. 8th  
  • Filming will take place on campus Feb. 14th from 2:30-5:00 pm. 
  • Video will be released on March 11th

Workshop: Recruiting and Supporting Employees with Disabilities
This workshop will take place on Zoom, February 27, from 12:00-1:30 pm, led by Lee Anne Tourigny, Coordinator for Disability Outreach.
The format of the workshop will be:

  • 12:00-12:20 pm: An overview of working with individuals with disabilities 
  • 12:20-1:00 pm: Group activity and discussion
  • 1:00-1:30 pm: Q&A on DEIB events through the UCC with Lee Anne Tourigny and Jessica Kim (Visit https://career.charlotte.edu/identityatwork to learn more about our events and initiatives) 

This workshop will allow participants to brainstorm ways to create more inclusive work environments and process through questions to bring to the Niner Diversity Panel. Please register.

Plagiarism Detection in Times of AI
The Turnitin plagiarism detector no longer detects AI-generated content in assignments. Faculty can alternatively use ZeroGPT as a free AI detection tool. The top three recommended tools for educators as of January 2024, include ZeroGPT (not to be confused with GTPZero), Winston AI, and CopyLeaks, but each should be used with caution due to differences in accuracy and reliability, false positive classifications, and word or page limitations. The Center for Teaching and Learning recommends using ZeroGPT. It is the only free option that can be leveraged for extended use in higher education.

O. Max Gardner Award Call for Nominations
The call for nominations is now open for faculty nominees for the 2025 O. Max Gardner Award. This award is given annually by the UNC Board of Governors to “that member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina who, during the current scholastic year, has made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race.” Nominees can be of any rank, “including instructors, engaged in teaching in any unit, institution or branch of service” in the University system. Past UNC Charlotte recipients of the award include Pinku Mukherjee, Department of Biological Sciences, and Diane M. Browder, Department of Special Education.  More details about previous campus nominees can be found on the Office of Academic Affairs website. Linked here is the UNC System announcement of the 2023 winner, Dr. H. Shelton “Shelley” Earp, from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Please forward the names of nominees to Jen Knight by 5:00 pm on Friday, February 19. Include in your nomination the individual’s name, rank, and department/unit. Please provide a brief description of this ind

ividual’s specific contribution(s) or achievement(s) and why they would make a good nominee.

Teaching Symposium
We’re organizing a teaching symposium between BCOB, COS, and CHESS on Friday, April 26th at 12:00 pm. Last fall about 110 faculty and grad students registered for the event which included 6 short talks (about 8 minutes) and then a short Q&A. Faculty members who might have a fun teaching innovation they’d like to share, should let me know. I would then recommend you to George Banks, the organizer of the symposium.

Annual Poetry Slam
The Multi Language Poetry Slam is back! Please come and enjoy poetry by students, faculty and staff. Or sign up to volunteer at the event. Join us at After Hours in the Cone Center, on Thursday, February 8, 7:00-9:00 pm. Please submit your intention to attend, volunteer or present at the event here: Poetry Slam Submission. 

Alumni Recognition
Two of our alumni were honored in the 10 under Ten Awards. 

Emily Francis ’10, ’12, ’13 M.Ed. is a nationally recognized English as a Second Language teacher at Concord High School in Concord, NC. Originally from Guatemala, she is a native Spanish-speaker. Francis serves as a professional development facilitator, motivational speaker and keynote and served as teacher liaison to the Cabarrus County Board of Education as Teacher of the Year 2016. She is the author of If You Only Knew: Letters from an Immigrant Teacher and serves the UNC Charlotte Cato College of Education’s Advisory Board. Francis completed a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the College of Humanities and Earth & Social Sciences, a gradate certificate in teaching and a master’s degree in education from the Cato College of Education.

Hannah Javidi ’18 is a scholar, psychologist, educator, advocate and engaged community member working in adolescent sexual health promotion. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Indiana University’s School of Public Health, where she is continuing Ph.D. research aimed at developing and implementing effective intervention strategies to ultimately enhance adolescents’ sexual health and quality of life. Javidi’s passion is sexual consent education and working to reduce sexual violence on a broad scale, specifically among LGBTQ+ youth, and recently received a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to support her work in this area. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from the College of Humanities and Earth & Social Sciences and a Ph.D. in applied social and community psychology from N.C. State University. 

Thank you for all that you do. 

All the best,

Anabel