Good morning on this first Monday in November. We have another week with exciting events ahead.

Dates and Events this Week 

November 6,

• due date Reassignment of Duties & Junior Faculty Development Award please email all applications to chessrdprograms@uncc.edu 

November 7, 

• Witness in Residence Presentation, Robert Robinson “Affordable Housing” 4:30pm Fretwell 113. Register. 
• Engaged Scholarship and Student Impact Symposium, Student Union (pre-registration was required)

November 8

• DEI Ted Talk: “Disrupting and Rebuilding: Humanizing Approaches to Mental Healthcare” 5:30 pm in McKnight Hall. Register
• Survey about new CHESS Bylaws closes 

November 9,

• First Session of Faculty Learning Community-Community Engagement 

November 10,

• due date for nominations for First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal

Looking Ahead

November 13,

• Spanish MA Student Jenn Burke, Thesis Defense, 9:30 am, Mebane Hall 166

November 13-17, 

• International Education Week 

November 14, 

• 12:00-1:00 pm. Brown Bag: Imagining Latinidad: Digital diasporas and  community building among Latin American migrants – by David Dalton, Fretwell 290B or Zoom link

November 16, 

• due date Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence and UNC Charlotte Award for Teaching Excellence online nomination form

November 17, 

• 3:00-5:00 pm. JBusiness Forum
• Nominate a faculty or staff member for the Dubois Award for Accessibility Improvement

November 27, 

• Deadline to submit a paper or panel for SEACS

December 7, 

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

December 15, 

• 3:00 pm. Fall Commencement ceremony 
• applications for Summer Institute on Translation & Global Literacy

December 19,

• Zoom Phone Migration

January 12, 2024

• Nomination for Bonnie E. Cone Early-Career Professorship in Teaching 
• Nomination for Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

January 26, 2024

• LACS Presentation Series – Conversations about AI – Matteo Di Michele “AI and Ethics”, 2:30-3:30 pm, LRC and Zoom

February 16, 2024

• SEACS Conference, 4th floor Mebane Hall 
• LACS Presentation Series – Conversations about AI – Chris Mellinger and Jeff Killman “AI in the Language Industry”, 12:30-2:00 pm, Panel at SEACS, LRC and Zoom

February 17, 2024

• SEACS Conference, 4th floor Mebane Hall

March 29, 2024

• LACS Presentation Series – Conversations about AI – Manuel Perez-Quinones “Conversational Systems and AI”, 2:30-3:30 pm, LRC and Zoom

April 19, 2024

• LACS Presentation Series – Conversations about AI – Bobby Hobgood “AI in the Language Classroom”, 2:30-3:30 pm, LRC and Zoom

Congratulations

Congratulations to Allison Stedman whose book chapter “Stigmata and the Mind-Body Connection in Seventeenth-Century France” (pub. 2022) received a positive review in the Journal of Early Modern History 27 (2003) 463-476.

Kudos to Laura Viale and Susanne Gomoluch (President of SEACS) who have created an Instagram account to promote the SEACS Conference!!! @seacs_conference. Please submit your paper or panel for SEACS at the link. Please also let Susanne or Susana know if you are able to chair a panel. 

Congratulation to the following faculty members who were honored for research productivity in 2022-2023 at the Niner Research Reception on Thursday 11/2:

David Boyd | David Dalton | Susanne Gomoluch | Phil Kaffen | Chris Mellinger | Bianca Potrykus

And congratulations to Carol Hartley for being honored as a Business Services Coordinator at the Niner Research Reception.

Congratulations to Phil Kaffen for co-organizing the presentation of Rani Singh, the Head of Harry Smith Archive on Thursday 11/2. 

Congratulations to Paloma Fernández Sánchez for having her class featured in a video on the University’s YouTube Channel. The university has been working on making a video about the daily life of Mark Mistreta (Student in my SPAN3222) for GivingTuesday, a donor campaign to get more funding for programs like the Jamil Niner Student Pantry, research, and overall educational benefits. During the interview, they asked Mark about a current class he looks forward to attending each day that has pushed his boundaries of learning, and he chose to speak about the Spanish 3222 Spanish for Medical and Health Care Professionals taught by  Paloma Fernández Sánchez. As part of the video, they recorded part of the SPAN 3222 class.

Congratulations to Susanne Gomoluch and Bianca Potrykus for organizing a super successful German Campus Week funded by the German Embassy. The week “Ohrenfutter – Food for your Ears” included three events. On Monday, 10/30 the visiting guest, rapper Spax from Hannover, Germany, gave a presentation on rapping and then proceeded to bring down the house by rapping in German. Please watch the VIDEO OF SPAX RAPPING HERE. 

A screening of the Movie “We Almost Lost Bochum,” which details the story of a German rap group with a lively Q&A session followed on Tuesday 10/31.

Finally, on Friday 11/3, Spax gave a workshop for students to create their own rap in German. Hear the amazing Student German Rap Here. 

Congratulations to Susana Cisneros and Laura Viale who helped organize the Día de los Muertos celebration together with Multicultural Mental Health & Equity, the Latinx/Hispanic Faculty and Staff Caucus, and the Office of Identity Equity and Engagement to provide students with the opportunity to create Ofrendas, and share time and space together while enjoying Pan de Muerto. 

Announcements & Updates

CHESS Updates

• Bylaws

The Ad Hoc Committee on Bylaw Revisions has finished and unanimously approved its proposed revision of the College bylaws and is encouraging your feedback once again via this Google form recently shared with the College Faculty. You are encouraged to comment on the current draft – specific edits and in general – and to offer additional suggestions for future discussion. The survey will close on Wednesday November 8, 11:59pm, so the Committee can discuss any last edits on November 10 and present the final proposal at the next CHESS Faculty Council on November 17. 

• Cluster-Hire 

Lobbying the provost, the College has been able to secure permission to undertake a cluster hire for two (and hopefully three ) new tenure track positions for faculty working on social and environmental justice with a preferred research focus in one of the four areas that have emerged as areas of interdisciplinary strength for the college: Social mobility, Environmental resilience and impact, Migration and diaspora, Health disparities.

• Dean Search

The position description for the founding dean of the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences is available and posted to the search website.

Organizing an Event: Share your Registration Information

This information is now being reported by the Colleges to University Advancement.  To help put our College in the best light: remember to forward your registration/attendance spreadsheets, however you have set them up, to chess-events@charlotte.edu. As you plan, it would be helpful if you follow the format shown in this sample collection sheet when you set up future registration.

Announcing LACS Presentation Series | Spring 2024

Conversations about AI

Student Achievements

Spanish MA student Jenn Burke (LLC concentration) will defend her MA thesis on Monday, November 13, at 9:30am in Mebane Hall 166. The title of her thesis is “What’s in a Name? Exploring Language Ideologies through the Names of the Spanish Language.” The committee members of this MA thesis are: Javier García León, Concepcion Godev (Chair), and Olga Padilla-Falto.

Students in FREN 4201 – “Introduction to French Literature from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution” performed Jean Racine’s classical tragedy “Andromaque” (1667). 

Spanish students in CEPA (Club de Español Para Amigos) together with Susana Cisneros and Laura Viale participated in the Día de los Muertos celebration hosted by the Latin American Coalition and the Levine Museum on Saturday 11/4. The students offered face painting in keeping with the theme of Día de los Muertos. This is the 5th that CEPA students offer face painting at this celebration for Día de los Muertos.

If you missed an event, information about a deadline or workshop or just want to refresh your memory, please find here all past “This Week in LACS” newsletters for your reference. The recent issues can be found on the Department website under the News feature on the Home Page. 

As always, thank you for everything you all do. Please consider submitting more events/news via the This Week in LACS form for next week’s issue.

All the best,

Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau