This Week in LANG 2/3/2025
In this Edition: Chair Office Hours: T 3-5, W 2-4, R 3-5, Legal Affairs Presentation Wednesday at 11 am, Early Alerts due this Friday, Department Meeting (Agenda )
Dates and Events this Week
February is Black History Month
February 2-4
February 4 – Happy Lunar New Year – Year of the Snake
February 5
Legal Training Session: Register for “Potential Higher Education Legal Implications of the New Presidential Administration,” presented by the Office of Legal Affairs, from 11 a.m. to noon, Wednesday, Feb. 5, via Zoom.
Submit Publications and Awards for CY 2024 here: on this form
February 7
Early Alerts due at 12 pm
Department Meeting 2:30-3:30 pm, LRC, Agenda
6:00 pm, “The Specter of Artificial Intelligence” Keynote by Dr. Chris Mellinger at Ohio State’s Workshop on Integrating Machine Translation,” Register
Looking Ahead Dates and Events Spring 2025
February 20
Poetry Slam
February 20-21
Heritage Language Learning Symposium
February 21-22
SEACS Conference
February 21
Nominations for International Women’s Day close
March 13
2025 Faculty and Staff Achievement Recognition Reception at 4 p.m
March 14
Department Meeting
April 8
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM Project Based Learning Summit, Applications through this link.
April 11
Save the Date for possible Department Meeting
May 1
Reading Day, Department Meeting and End of Year Potluck
Congratulations
Congratulations to Yukiko Yokono who organized a Peace Corps presentation given by an alum of the Japanese Studies program. Giving a presentation was part of the Peace Corps internship program. The presentation focused on Paraguay and the audience of 10 was very engaged in discussion.
Congratulations to MA Fellow, Jaime Ashby, for her presentation at the 1st Annual Carolina Migration Conference: “¡Carajo travestís! (Trans) Afro-Latine Drag Performance as Decolonial Praxis.”
Information for Faculty and Staff
Legal Training Session
Register for “Potential Higher Education Legal Implications of the New Presidential Administration,” presented by the Office of Legal Affairs, from 11 a.m. to noon, Wednesday, Feb. 5, via Zoom. The legal team will address these questions among others: From immigration to Title IX, from research funding to amateurism in athletics, how might the new administration affect your daily work at the University?
Concur Update
Effective Monday, February 3, 2025, the trip dates for Pre-Trip Expense Reports will not need to be changed to match the transaction dates. When the Pre-Trip Expense Report is created from the Trip Request, the Trip Dates will populate from the Trip Request and will not need to be changed. More information about the Concur update here.
Early Alerts
Early alerts are due for all 1000 and 2000-level courses by noon, this Friday, Feb. 7. Learn more about early alerts in this week’s news digest.
CHESS Grants 101 Webinar Series
In collaboration with the Center for Research Excellence in the Division of Research, we are offering a series of webinars for faculty who are curious about applying for external funding and want to learn more about the process at UNC Charlotte. The webinars are open to faculty and staff at all levels, and are geared toward those who do not already have a lot of grant experience. Additional information and a registration link for each session can be found on the CHESS Research website.
Funding Opportunities in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Wednesday, February 26 (11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.)
Niner Research Training
Wednesday, March 26 (11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.)
Preparing Grant Budgets
Wednesday, April 23 (11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.)
New Dean of J. Murrey Atkins Library
Jill Sexton is joining Atkins Library from NC State University Libraries, where she is the associate director for digital and organizational strategy. She will begin on March 15, 2025. Lee Gray, Senior Associate Provost, is overseeing the Library until she arrives.
Project Based Learning Summit
The upcoming Project Based Learning Summit is designed for faculty with intermediate to advanced experience in project-based learning. This Summit is a direct product of insights gained by a small team of professionals from our university (the team of faculty and staff from CHESS, SPS, CTL, UrbanCore, and Undergraduate Education) who attended the Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Project Based Learning Institute. Building on that transformative experience, we aim to bring those ideas and practices to our broader faculty community.
This event will take place on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, held in the Lucas Room, with morning refreshments and coffee available starting at 8:30 AM. Applications can be submitted through this link.
Upcoming Events
Keynote “The Specter of Artificial Intelligence”
Please join Ohio State’s Workshop on Integrating Machine Translation for the workshop’s keynote address delivered by our own Dr. Chris Mellinger on Friday, February 7, 2025. It will be open to the public in-person and streamed live at 6 pm EST. Register here (in person or online)
Abstract: Artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved in the language industry in recent years, with large language models and machine translation challenging many in the language industry to critically re-assess how these technologies are used in translation and interpreting (T&I). In some cases, these tools can be leveraged to support the provision of language services and language access, while in others, researchers and professionals have resisted this technological incursion given an increasing number of ethical and professional issues raised by their uncritical incorporation into T&I workflows. The impact of these tools is undoubtedly far reaching, with many questions surrounding whether the benefits of these tools outweigh the drawbacks. This talk outlines some of these challenges and opportunities while also querying the role that universities and educational institutions might play in the preparation of future T&I professionals to engage with and employ these emerging technologies. The talk poses questions on how these technologies can be used responsibly and interrogates what types of guardrails may be needed to ensure their appropriate and ethical use.
For more information, please visit the heritage language symposium website.
Poetry Slam
Yukko Yokono, Susana Cisneros, Don Cross, Maria Mahaffey and Xiaohong Hu Mueller invite you to the 8th Multi-Language Poetry Slam.
Date & Time: Thursday, February 20, 2025, 7:00–9:00 pm
Location: Fretwell 100
Submission Deadline: Thursday, February 13, 2025, at 11:59 pm
SEACS 2025 February 21-22
Please join us for SEACS 2025 on Friday afternoon, February 21 and all day Saturday, February 22. For more information, visit theseacs.org.
Thank you for all you do.
All the best,
Anabel