February 5

Students often seek our assistance as members of a shared community. Most of us are not counselors, but we still want to help. It’s okay not to know what to say. Students may have questions that we can’t answer, but we can at least show them that we’re in this together. GUIDE training helps staff and faculty to be present with students and effectively and empathically engage in problem solving to determine steps toward helpful solutions. In this three hour session, educators will:

• Learn how to identify & contextualize student needs.
• Participate in an iterative, supportive feedback process designed to prepare you for your next student interaction.
• Test, explore, and refine empathic communication skills.
• Learn how to integrate GUIDE into your interactions with students.

The training will occur on Thursday, February 8, at 9:00 a.m at the Dubois Center. Register to attend. Contact Terrence Harper for more information.

Religion and education, when considered together in the context of juvenile education, have produced an enduring sense of tension in American culture, and across its political spectrum. Imagine the effect on a society when the relationship is proscribed by an outside culture, such as when the United States and other Allied nations played an active role “reconstructing” Japan to meet the norms of Western nations. Jolyon Thomas, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania adopts a supranational approach to this analysis when he tracks the fallout of the 1947 Settlement, a post-World War II agreement that ostensibly clarified the relationship between religion and education in the new society. Instead, the settlement elicited considerable confusion and fueled debate over patriotic ritual, moral instruction, vocational training, and sex education. Thomas also upends some conventional narratives about late twentieth-century “secularization,” while showing how religious studies offer indispensable tools for understanding some of the most vexing legal and political dilemmas of our time. Learn more.

• Thursday, February 15, 6:00 PM (reception at 5:00 PM), Dubois Center (Register)

The College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences is hosting a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) application writing workshop on Friday, February 23. Faculty, graduate students, and staff from UNC Charlotte and other regional universities and organizations are invited to attend. Facilitated by Dr. Landy Watley from the NEH Division of Research, the workshop will provide an overview of NEH programs and initiatives, explain strategies for writing competitive applications, and present a mock panel review. The event also includes a networking lunch and an opportunity to meet separately with the NEH program officer. More information is available on the website and registration is required.

The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce that UNC Charlotte’s Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) 2024 abstract submission form opened on Monday, January 22. Students can submit their research abstracts until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 1. More details.