Library Brown Bag Talks are free and open to UNC Asheville students, faculty, and staff as well as the Asheville community. Feel free to bring your lunch. Light refreshments are always served.
For questions or comments about Library Brown Bag Talks, please contact Gene Hyde, Head of Special Collections and University Archivist, UNC Asheville. ghyde@unca.edu or 828-251-6645
Thursday, August 29
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Florence Akua Mensah, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, University of Winneba, Ghana
"Accessibility to Universal Education to all students"
Education is widely accepted to be a fundamental resource, both for individuals and societies. Roser and Ortiz-Ospina (2019) mention that indeed, in most countries education is nowadays perceived not only as a right, but also as a duty rendering governments typically expected to ensure access to basic education, while citizens are often required by law to attain education up to a certain basic level hence, making universal access to education become a global concern. In the United States for instance, the federal and state government is covering the cost of free public education though this has become a contested topic because of the provision of a clear cut guide line to achieve that thus creating a gap. Similarly Africa is not cut out on this as its being signatories to several opportunities and treaties including Education For All (EFA) amongst the lot thus, has accommodations to offer free compulsory education just like in the case of Ghana and currently all-inclusive education by September 2019 with curricular enhancement and support systems for educators. However, Thirani Bagri (2016) has it that, the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) shows that economic inequality will keep the world from achieving education for all anytime soon. Meanwhile, 2017 World Bank Report on tertiary education has it that, a number of countries have undertaken major restructuring of their tertiary education systems to enhance their reach and effectiveness. However, progress has been uneven. Countries across the world need to ensure that their national policies prioritize equitable access, improved learning, efficient retention, and increased assurance of the success of all qualified students, regardless of background into higher education. Though there is scanty literature on universal education at the higher School level, the Department of Special Education, University of Education, Winneba - Ghana has since over two decades offered support service through Unit Centers to students with special needs and others alike who have gained admission to study in there. This presentation highlights the services offered by the various Centers to students with special needs in the University.
Thursday, September 12
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Anne Slatton, Mass Communication
"Tapping into Creativity: The 48 Hour Film Project"
The 48HFP is the world's oldest and largest timed filmmaking competition. It is a wild and sleepless weekend in which teams make a movie - write, shoot, and edit - in just 48 hours. On Friday night, teams draw a genre from a hat. They are then given a character, prop and line to include in their films. On Sunday night the film is turned in and later screened at a local theater.
Anne Slatton has been the team leader and director of Team UNCA, an ever-changing group of UNCA students and alumnae, since 2007. The team has won many awards over the years, including Best Film, and has gone on to compete in the international competition three times. Come find out about the process, hear some behind the scenes “horror stories”, and see our latest film.
Thursday, September 19
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Jennifer McGaha, Department of English
"Submit It: A Crash Course in Publishing Creative Work in Literary Journals and Magazines"
Publishing stories, poems, essays, and other creative works in literary journals and magazines may enhance your resume and increase your chances of landing an agent, a book deal, or a job. Publishing can also be just plain rewarding. However, with all the options out there, finding the right home for your work may seem daunting. During this hour, we will explore some of the tools available for helping you find the best places for your work. We will also discuss submission etiquette, how to stay motivated through a process that inevitably involves rejection, and some common pitfalls to avoid during the submission process. Writers of all levels are welcome for this discussion.
Thursday, September 26
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Sarah Broberg, Communication and Marketing
Thursday, October 10
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Scott Williams, Department of Philosophy
"Disability in Medieval Christian Philosophy and Theology"
Disability Studies has been growing in several disciplines over the last few decades. We find disability advocacy (a political movement), disability in literature, disability in legal studies, disability in sociology and anthropology, disability in religion and theology, disability in history, and philosophy of disability (often regarding normative questions). In this talk I will introduce a new intersection between philosophy of disability and a history of philosophy and theology, namely, Disability in Medieval Christian Philosophy and Theology. This is the title of a forthcoming book that I have edited (to be published by Routledge) and to which I have contributed a chapter (chapter 3). I will introduce the aims of this book and some of the findings. These findings open up new areas of research in medieval philosophy and theology, and can contribute to contemporary normative debates. Instead of a description of all of the chapters, I give here a list of the titles of the ten chapters that signals the topics that I will discuss.
Part 1: Theoretical Frameworks
Chapter 1 “Plurality in Medieval Concepts of Disability”
Part 2: Disability in this Life
Chapter 2 “Medieval Aristotelians on Congenital Disabilities and their Early Modern Critics” Chapter 3 “Personhood, Ethics, and Disability Before and After Original Sin”
Chapter 4 “The Imago Dei/Trinitatis and Disabled Persons: The Limitations of Intellectualism in
Late Medieval Theology”
Chapter 5 “Deafness and Disability”
Chapter 6 “Intellectual Disability, Spanish Colonialism, and the Disappearance of a Medieval
Account of Persons who Lack the Use of Reason”
Chapter 7 “Taking the ‘Dis’ out of Disability: Martyrs, Mothers, and Mystics in the Middle Ages”
Part 3: Disability in the Afterlife
Chapter 8 “Separated Souls: Disability in the Intermediate State”
Chapter 9 “Disability and Resurrection”
Chapter 10 “Relative Disability and Transhuman Happiness: St. Thomas Aquinas on the Beatific
Vision”
Thursday, October 17
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
"Community & University Archivists: The Western North Carolina LGBTQIA+ Oral History Project"
Amanda Wray, Department of English; Gene Hyde, Special Collections; Rachel Muir, Asheville Pride; and English Department Interns Simon Brooks, Horace Vanderbilt, Libby Ward, and Jeremiah Maitri
Please join Amanda Wray, Gene Hyde, Rachel Muir, and English Department interns we introduce the LGTBQIA+ Oral History Archive project. In short, we’ll address: What is oral history and why is it so important to marginalized communities? Amanda and her interns will provide an overview of the research project, which included an oral history training session for 25 community members, and Gene Hyde and Simon Brooks will showcases some of the (10 boxes of) archival material that has been donated to Special Collections as a result of this project.
The LGBTQIA+ Oral History Archive Project is a collaboration of the Blue Ridge Pride Center, YMCA of Western NC, and UNC Asheville. Together, we aim to document a richer, fuller, and more inclusive history of our region by recording the stories and memories of individuals who have spent much of their lives in the South. We hope, too, that these interviews will contribute to a large-scale needs assessment and asset mapping for LGBTQIA+ communities in our area. The interviews will be stored in UNC Asheville Ramsey Library’s Special Collections. Where permissions allow, we plan to create an interactive media platform and to feature outtakes and articles on Blue Ridge Pride Center’s soon-to-be-launched WNC virtual LGBTQIA+ Center.
Thursday, October 24
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Michael Ruiz, Department of Physics and Astronomy
"Two Real-World Physics Applications: Road Mirages and Eyeglasses for Myopia"
Photos and videos will be shown to illustrate road mirages and virtual images formed by eyeglasses for myopic eyes. The road mirage angle for a mirage of an orange sign on a highway will be calculated with data obtained from a video taken during the ride in the car. Then, the eyeglass prescription for actor Joe Pantoliano will be estimated from a scene in the movie "Memento" (2000) where he talks to Guy Pearce. This research was undertaken to analyze interesting real-life applications of physics for students. Two papers will appear in the international peer-reviewed academic journal Physics Education, published by the Institute of Physics Publishing, United Kingdom.
Thursday, October 31
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
"Bulldog Athletics 101 with Janet Cone and Brenda Kirkpatrick"
Join Athletic Director Janet Cone and Women's Basketball Coach Brenda Kirkpatrick for "Bulldog Athletics 101!"
CANCELED - Will be rescheduled during the Spring 2020 semester
Thursday, November 14
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Jacob Butera, Department of Classics
"Reconstructing Ancient Battles: History, Topography, and Technology"
Using historical accounts, new mapping technologies, and on-the-ground topographical studies, this talk will discuss the reconstruction of the ancient battles of Phillipi and Pydna, inviting audience members to attempt their own reconstructions and interpretations.
Thursday, November 21
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Lori Horvitz and Rachel Hanson, Department of English
"So What if it Really Happened? (Or Didn't?)"
Two creative nonfiction writers--Rachel Hanson and Lori Horvitz--will share their latest work and speak about issues/concerns about translating real-life events into art.