The Center for The Study of the New South will convene a panel discussion of Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture, by Dr. Karen Cox, on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 3:30 in the Halton Reading Room, in the J. Murrey Atkins Library. 

Participants will include David Goldfield (history), Richard Leeman (communication studies), Debra Smith (Africana Studies), and Mary Newsom (Urban and Regional Affairs). Sonya Ramsey (History) will serve as moderator.

This campus event will be the precursor to the Center for the Study of the New South’s annual lecture, on Tuesday, March 13, at the Levine Museum of the New South. This year’s distinguished speaker will be Dr. Cox.

Nationally acclaimed artist and illustrator Barbara Higgins Bond will serve as the 2012 Africana Artist-in-Residence at UNC Charlotte. During her residency from Feb. 13 to Feb. 17, Higgins Bond will participate in a student-focused seminar titled, “Interrogating Self: Redemption of Memory and Meaning in My Art” and will lead a faculty seminar on “The Place of Visual Arts in the Africana Studies Curriculum.”

She also will deliver a public talk, “The Making of National Icons: African-Americans on Postage Stamps,” on Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. in Fretwell Building, Room 113.  Information on visitor parking can be found at http://pats.uncc.edu.

“Higgins Bond is an accessible everyday artist,” said Akin Ogundiran, chair of the Africana Studies Department in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “Yet, her creative oeuvre has profoundly influenced us through books and magazines, postage stamps, and through those recesses of visualscapes around us.

"For close to 40 years, she has consistently demonstrated the communicative power of iconography in self-reflection and self-understanding at the national and international levels,” Ogundiran said. “Her residency will enrich our curriculum and raise new awareness about the intersections of the arts and Africana Studies.”

Distinguished Professor Jonathan Boyarin from UNC Chapel Hill will deliver the UNC Charlotte 16th annual Alice Tate Lecture in Judaic Studies on Monday, March 12, 2012.  The lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Sam Lerner Center for Cultural Arts at Shalom Park, 5007 Providence Road in Charlotte.

Boyarin will speak about his new book, Mornings at the Stanton Street Shul: A Summer on the Lower East Side, just published with Fordham University Press. The cultural importance of the Lower East Side to both Jewish life in America and American culture more widely is legendary. Boyarin’s book is already receiving rave reviews.

Global diplomat, peace negotiator and leadership expert George Mitchell spoke to a capacity crowd on "Turmoil in the Middle East and its Effect on American Policy” at UNC Charlotte Center City on February 1 at 6 p.m. The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences was the host college for the event, which was the inaugural lecture in an annual series.

Close to 300 students, faculty and staff from UNC Charlotte and members of the public gathered for the remarks by former U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Mitchell.  In addition to the public lecture, Mitchell held an earlier question-and-answer session with UNC Charlotte students.

“Former Senator Mitchell has had significant influence on many issues of national and global importance,” said Nancy A. Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. "We were honored to be the host college for this inaugural lecture, and we were thrilled so many people from our university and community could join us."