Category: Uncategorized
Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies Supports Travel to Morocco for K-12 Teachers
October 20, 2016“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller,” said Ibn Battuta, a prominent Moroccan traveler and scholar who first set out to complete hajj in Mecca in the early fourteenth century. His initial attempt failed, but the experience inspired Ibn Battuta to spend the next 30 years traversing the world, likely completing the hajj multiple times in his life. A group of K-12 teachers channeled Ibn Battuta’s spirit last summer on an educational tour of Morocco, organized by the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East studies. Over two weeks the group traveled throughout Morocco, exploring the different … Read more
Sharbari Dey Wins Three Legged Stool Award for Promoting Campus Cooperation
October 15, 2016When Sharbari Dey received an email about winning the Employee Forum Community Award—also known as the Three Legged Stool—she didn’t do anything with it. “I was very embarrassed, and I felt like an impostor,” she said. It took some convincing from her colleagues before Dey, who came to the University from Virginia Tech in December 2012, started to believe she had won it. Then she ran into Natiaya Neal, who chairs the Recognition and Awards Committee of the Employee Forum, at an event. Neal asked if Dey had gotten the email. Dey told her she had and reluctantly agreed to … Read more
Cuebas-Colón Finds New Career in Social Work and Reason to Be a Voice for Immigrants and Their Families
October 15, 2016At age 40, Annia Cuebas-Colón knows she’s starting a new career later than most, yet she has never been more certain that she is right where she is supposed to be. “Twenty years ago, I never in my life would have guessed this was going to be my calling,” said Cuebas-Colón, a Tannenbaum Scholar and final-year master’s of social work student in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work’s Winston-Salem Distance Education Program. “Today, being a social worker feels like home to me. For the first time in my life, I can say I really … Read more
UNC Gillings’ Water Institute, World Vision Partnership Will Improve Clean Water Access in 10 African Nations
October 13, 2016A six-year grant by World Vision to the Water Institute at UNC will create a partnership to improve water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in several low- and middle-income countries, with the long-term goal of helping to solve the global water and sanitation crisis by 2030. The partnership between the Water Institute, housed in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, and World Vision builds on long-standing partnerships that World Vision already has established for water and sanitation programs throughout Africa. “World Vision and the Water Institute at UNC share two important things – a desire to make a real, … Read more
Rita Moreno Still a Latina Trailblazer in Her 80s
October 11, 2016The average 84-year-old doesn’t wear a black leather jacket, skinny pants and boots studded with silver, the same color as her big hoop earrings and short hair. But Rita Moreno – one of only 12 entertainers to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award – is no ordinary 84-year-old. “The leather surprised you, didn’t it?” she said, after receiving a standing ovation from about 200 fans in the Student Union’s Great Hall. Moreno, a Puerto Rican-American, came to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Sept. 30 to deliver the keynote address kicking off the campus celebration … Read more
Conference to Explore Islam and Religious Identity, Oct. 14-16
October 10, 2016The inextricable link between religion and culture will be explored in a multidisciplinary conference on “Islam and Religious Identity: The Limits of Definition” on Oct. 14-16 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Recognizing that there is no single definition of Islam, the conference will examine the diversity of cultures around the world that shape religious practice and experience. The conference, convened by professor of Islamic studies Carl Ernst, will bring together scholars working in the disciplines of religious studies, history, literature and anthropology. The event is one of two conferences to be held in academic year 2016-2017 … Read more
UNC’s Tomášková Studies Ancient Petroglyphs to Better Understand Human Creativity
October 10, 2016As far back as 10,000 years ago, the San Bushmen — some of South Africa’s earliest hunters and gatherers — practiced a cultural tradition of carving images into small boulders. Some, perhaps those new to the craft, would use a variety of objects to peck away at the stone. Others created images of animals and geometric patterns by scraping the rocks with sharpened stones. Those with more skill used stone tools or possibly diamonds to produce finer, more detailed engravings. Boulders were just the beginning. They also filled rock shelters, cliffs, and overhangs with vivid, painted images of human figures, animals, … Read more
From One Continent to Six: Harris Hamed’s International Education
October 10, 2016Prior to attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harris Hamed ’17 had never been out of the country. Now, just three years and several passport stamps later, Hamed has traveled to 19 countries and six continents thanks in large part to programs and opportunities offered through the University. The self-proclaimed geography nerd from Fayetteville, North Carolina, grew up with a passion for the world, and was eager to absorb as much knowledge as he could about other people and cultures. Hamed spent two years in middle school on a geography team that competed on the local and … Read more
WHO Collaborating Center at Gillings School Awarded Multimillion-Dollar Grant for Implementation Science
October 5, 2016The World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Research Evidence for Sexual and Reproductive Health, based in the Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs. The WHO Collaborating Center and JSI Research and Training Institute Inc. will serve as the new Family Planning National Training Center for Service Delivery Improvement. The cooperative agreement award, to be administered by JSI, will total about $4 million per year for up to … Read more
UNC Mathematics Professor Consults on Africa STEM Projects for the World Bank
October 3, 2016University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill mathematics professor Idris Assani is traveling to western Africa a part of a World Bank initiative to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research. Assani, who has worked with the World Bank’s African initiatives since 2013, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and his home country of Benin in November to check on the progress of the Africa Centres of Excellence, a project led by the World Bank in partnership with the Association of African Universities. The centers partner with existing universities to strengthen their capacity to deliver high-quality training and applied research and to encourage students to pursue STEM degrees. … Read more