Library Brown Bag Talks will be offered via Zoom during the Fall 2022 semester. An email will be sent to the UNC Asheville community during the week of the talk with information about logging into Zoom.
All Library Brown Bags are free and open to UNC Asheville students, faculty, and staff. Several select Brown Bags will be open to the larger community and will require registration.
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, September 8
12 - 1 PM
Via Zoom - login information will be sent via email a few days before the talk
Ann Dunn, Humanities, Arts and Ideas
"The Effect of Master Narratives on Trauma-Creation: 'Coriolanus' – a Case Study"
Stoicism, Social and Cultural Theory, Philosophical truths embedded in Literature – crossing genres to formulate good questions.
In “Coriolanus”, Shakespeare challenges two interconnected master narratives: the story of the perfect and righteous polity (Rome), and the story of the perfect and indestructible masculinity (warrior hero), both of which powerful myths root themselves in invented and selective history and are perpetuated by self-interested power-hungry individuals, and both of which fabrications contain within them the seeds of their own demise – which becomes apparent when held up to reality. Neither of these idealistic illusions allows room for the nuances of polities or of human nature. In the end, Coriolanus does accept the nuances of being human, and thus accepts his own imminent mortality; in so doing, he also saves his beloved Rome – not as an ideal but as a city full of fellow flawed humans – and he does so not with the sword but with his tongue. By crossing the genres of literature and psychology, I attempt to show, as I believe Shakespeare does, the tragic trauma that master narratives cause in those who foster and/or embrace them: men and women, adults and children, individuals and communities, yesterday and today.
Thursday, September 15
12 - 1 PM
Via Zoom - login information will be sent via email a few days before the talk
Angel Kaur, Neuroscience Program, Chemistry & Biochemistry (Project PI)
"Using Science Communication Instruction to Improve Undergraduate Science Literacy Skills"
This session will share information about the SciComm Scholars Institute, a faculty development program designed to improve students' science literacy and communication skills in core STEM courses. With funding from the National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program, this project offers support for faculty interested in revising an existing course using evidence-based teaching practices aimed at increasing student motivation and engagement. Attendees will learn more about the program and hear from participants from the 2022 cohort about their experience with SSI. Eligible faculty interested in applying for the 2023 or 2024 cohorts are encouraged to attend.
Thursday, September 29
12 - 1 PM
Via Zoom - login information will be sent via email a few days before the talk
James Michiemo, Web Developer, ITS
"Intro to Simple Message Service"
Commonly known as texting, SMS is a system used on most mobile phones. This presentation will briefly explain SMS and various ways programmable SMS can be used as a web service with examples. Code snippets of implementations will be shared for technical audiences and real world SMS experiences will be shared for the wider audience of mobile phone users.
Thursday, October 20
12 - 1 PM
Via Zoom - login information will be sent via email a few days before the talk
Evan Gurney, English
“'For a scholar and vagrants': Tales of Early Modern Poor Relief from the Huntington Library’s Archives"
What does one do in the face of widespread inflation, rampant contagion, and climate disaster? How does one navigate precarious health and economic disadvantage amid the depredations of exploitative markets and a burgeoning surveillance state? Such was the general condition of life for the poor in the 16th- and early 17th-century England. This presentation will draw on research from a month-long fellowship at the Huntington Library and its rich archive of parish accounting books, churchwarden records, petitions for relief, and other materials that tell a complex (sometimes uplifting, often dispiriting) story of individuals and communities responding to economic crisis.
Thursday, November 10
12 - 1 PM
Via Zoom - login information will be sent via email a few days before the talk
Ellen Holmes Pearson, History Department (Project PI)
Victoria Bradbury, Department of New Media (Project co-PI)
"UNCA Puts the Humanities in the Digital: Undergraduate Research and the Digital Humanities."
This session will share information about “Digital Fluency and Experiential Learning: Promoting Digital Humanities in Undergraduate Research,” a three-year NEH funded initiative designed to facilitate the creation of a Digital Humanities Undergraduate Research (DHUR) track for UNC Asheville’s Undergraduate Research Program. The grant will facilitate faculty development to increase the number of courses across the campus that employ humanistic methods of inquiry and digital tools in undergraduate research projects. At this session, we will discuss the faculty development and pedagogical opportunities related to this grant. This opportunity is open to faculty in non-humanities and humanities disciplines who would like to experiment with digital tools and humanistic modes of inquiry in undergraduate research. We invite attendees to share ideas and suggestions for course themes and pedagogical collaborations that will help to infuse the digital humanities across disciplines.
Thursday, November 17
12 - 1 PM
Via Zoom - login information will be sent via email a few days before the talk
Allison Ormsby, Environmental Studies
David Todd and Dan Croisant, Facilities
"Carbon Commitment - Climate Action Planning at UNC Asheville"
David Todd (Associate Vice Chancellor of Campus Operations), Dan Croisant (Project Manager, Facilities Mechanical Engineer, and Building Automation System Administrator), and Alison Ormsby (Co-Director of Sustainability) will present the results of five months of pro bono consulting assistance for our campus climate action plan. Learn about which projects we may undertake on our road to campus carbon neutrality, and what efforts are already underway.