NEWS

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s University Center for International Studies, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, is launching a bimonthly seminar series with a discussion of "Growing Up Hyphenated: Seeking Meaning and Identity in the American South" today (Aug. 29) beginning at 7 p.m. in Toy Lounge, Dey Hall.

Dr. Jim Peacock, center director and Kenan professor of anthropology, will moderate the discussion examining how heritage and long-distance nationalism informs the lives of youth as they establish a place for themselves in their schools, in popular culture and in their homes.

"In tune with the recent emphasis placed on the controversy surrounding UNC-Chapel Hill’s summer reading program and translations from the Qur’an, (the center) hopes to link university resources with the local community in order to facilitate open discussions issues affecting immigrant youth," Peacock said.

Featured speakers include Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy, Samia Serageldin, a local novelist, essayist, book editor and community activist, Nolo Martinez, director of the Governor’s Office for Hispanic/Latino Affairs, Maria Palmer, Pastor, Iglesia Unida de Cristo and Roger Spencer, a UNC professor of psychiatry.

All seminars are free and open to the public. Other seminars are scheduled as follows:

· "Language, Identity and the Generation Gap in Immigrant Families"
6:30 pm- 8:30 pm
Sept. 17, Chapel Hill Public Library

· "Fault Lines in Learning: Immigration and the Achievement Gap"
7 pm - 9 pm
Oct. 9, New Century Center, Carrboro

· "On Common Ground: Negotiating ‘Otherness’ Across Campus"
3 pm - 5 pm
Nov. 19, Toy Lounge, Dey Hall, UNC campus

As part of a yearlong program, the UNC center is home to three Rockefeller Humanities Resident Fellows. Each fellow is developing individual outreach projects. Professional photographer Laena Wilder is working with a select group of students at Jordan-Matthews High School in Siler City. Wilder’s project, "Seeing Eye to Eye: A Cross-Cultural Exchange Project," allows students to document their lives and that of their peers through photography and other forms of artistic expression.

Dr. Peter Fulton is working with several local elementary schools in developing a documentary and oral histories of children’s experiences, and that of their families, with migrating to North Carolina. Dr. Gustavo Teran will be exploring cultural pluralism and democracy in the schools of North Carolina while a Rockefeller Resident Fellow.

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A major study of children raised on family farms in the American Midwest, co-written by a UNC sociology professor, has won a prestigious book award from the American Sociological Association.

"Children of the Land," published in 2000 by the University of Chicago Press, was written by Dr. Glen H. Elder Jr., the Howard W. Odum distinguished professor of sociology at UNC, and Rand D. Conger of the University of California at Davis, received the William J. Goode Award from the association's Family Sociology Section.

Elder and Conger followed the lives of 300 Iowa farm children from seventh grade through post-high school education, work and family life. They were compared to about 100 rural non-farm children born at the same time. All of the children were born at the end of rural prosperity in the 1970s and grew up amidst farm bankruptcies and the closing of related industries and commercial establishments in their communities. Despite economic hardship and a declining economy, the farm children turned out to be remarkably successful, both academically and socially.

"This success has much to do with the distinctive lifestyle of Iowa families that have connections to the land," the authors wrote. "They tended to establish resourceful pathways to adulthood through strong intergenerational ties to parents and grandparents, productive roles for youth in work and social leadership, parental and youth engagement in community life, and the developmental social activities of young people in school and church."

The study, known as the Iowa Youth and Families Project, is considered the richest archive of life record data on rural families and children in the United States.

Elder, who spent his high school years on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania, has written extensively on the impact of sweeping social and economic changes on individual human development, and the importance of families in the midst of such changes. He is the author of "Children of the Great Depression," which challenged prevailing developmental theories when it was first published in 1974.

Elder’s work in the 1970s was followed by more than two decades of research into the process by which some young people are able to rise above the disadvantages of their childhoods. He continued to explore the links between strong families, historical change and successful human development in "Children in Time and Place" (1993) and "Families in Troubled Times" (1994).

Elder, who earned a doctoral degree from UNC, has a research professorship in the department of psychology and is a fellow at the Carolina Population Center and the Center for Developmental Science.

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A sociology professor who taught at UNC for more than 30 years has won the American Sociological Association’s Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, one of the highest honors given by the profession’s leading organization.

The annual award honors a "scholar who has shown outstanding commitment to the profession of sociology, and whose cumulative work has contributed in important ways to the advancement of the discipline," according to association.

Dr. Gerhard E. Lenski, Alumni Distinguished professor of sociology emeritus at UNC, is the author of publications including: "Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification" (1966, 1984), about the causes and effects of human inequality and the consequences of political and economic power. The journal American Political Science Review called "Power and Privilege" a "masterpiece of social analysis."

Lenski also wrote "The Religious Factor" (1961, 1977) about the impact of religion on politics, economics and family life. He is co-author, with his late wife Jean Lenski, of "Human Societies, " a major textbook now in its eighth edition.

"During more than 50 years of groundbreaking, interdisciplinary scholarship, Gerhard Lenski has developed social theory that guides concrete research," stated the association’s award citation. "He has made lasting contributions to the sociology of religion, social stratification, evolutionary social theory, and comparative macrosociology."

His most influential work, according to the award citation, is "Human Societies," which introduces students to the theory of societal evolution, emphasizing the impact of technology and the environment on social organization and social change.

"This book has taught generations of college students to see their own society from a new and intellectually challenging perspective, while also inspiring seasoned sociologists in their own research," according to the award citation.

Lenski is a fellow of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served as president of the Southern Sociological Society and vice president of the American Sociological Association. A former chair of the UNC sociology department, he taught at Carolina from 1963 to 1994 and now lives in the Seattle area.

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University Center for International Studies contact: Chad Haines, (919) 962-5374
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid (919) 843-6339