NEWS

Photo Note: To download photos of Lensing or Binotti, see end of briefs.

Oil, Islam and issues facing Eurasia to be topics of meetings Thursday-Saturday (April 10-12)

Challenges facing Eurasian nations that previously were part of the Soviet Union will be the focus of a free public conference Thursday through Saturday (April 10-12) at UNC, "Contemporary Security Challenges in Eurasia."

Scholars, government officials and other experts from the region, Russia and the United States will discuss Eurasia’s future and challenges to the security of its nations. Michael Klare, a professor of security studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and author of "Resource Wars," will open the conference with a keynote address at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in 133 Rosenau Hall.

Topics discussed Friday and Saturday will include economic transitions, Islam in the age of jihad and the war on terror, and competition for such natural resources as oil. Countries discussed will be Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Speakers and panelists will include Martha Brill Olcott of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Joseph Presel, former U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Georgiy Mirsky of the Institute of World Economics and International Relations in Moscow, Anara Tabyshalieva of the Institute for Regional Studies in Kyrgyzstan and AbduMannob Polat, director of the Central Asian Human Rights Information Network.

Meetings will be in the Toy Lounge of Dey Hall and the Pleasants Family Assembly Room of Wilson Library. The conference will be sponsored by the UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies and curriculum in international and area studies; the federal Department of Education; the N.C. European, Eurasian and Slavic Studies Association; and the Eurasian Seas Working Group. For a schedule of events, visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/slavic/events/EurasiaConference.html or call 962-0901.

From Stein, Hemingway, to the Beats, expatriates in Paris are focus of exhibit

English-speaking literary expatriates in Paris from 1919 through the 1960s will be the subject of a free public exhibit Tuesday (April 15) through July 15 in UNC’s Wilson Library. Photographs of writers at sidewalk cafes and much more, including images, periodicals and more than 50 books, will be displayed in the Melba Remig Saltarelli Exhibit Room on the second floor.

Dr. Linda Wagner-Martin, a UNC professor of English and comparative literature, will speak at 6 p.m. Tuesday (April 15) at the library. The talk will follow an opening reception at 5 p.m. for the exhibit, "Geniuses Together: Literary Expatriates in Paris from Gertrude Stein and James Joyce to Samuel Beckett and the Beats."

"Paris experienced two major waves of expatriate activity," said Dr. Charles McNamara, curator of the Rare Book Collection in Wilson. The first, in the 20 years after World War I, included the famous authors Stein, Joyce, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Henry Miller.

The second, after World War II, featured holdovers from the first wave, including Beckett, and new writers including African-Americans Richard Wright and James Baldwin and beat writers Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a UNC alumnus.

"The exhibit focuses not only on the expatriates, but also on the environment in which they lived and worked," McNamara said. "The stories of the writers are inextricably interwoven with those of the many small English-language publishers, periodicals and bookstores that grew up after both world wars."

Many Rare Book Collection exhibits have showcased individual writers, but this one broadly samples the collection’s wide range of 20^th-century materials, McNamara said.

"Viewers will see here something of the impressive breadth of our literary holdings," he said. "Taken together, these holdings strongly suggest that Wilson Library has become a very important American repository of primary materials for the study of 20^th-century literary history."

The Rare Book Room in Wilson opens from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, call 962-1143.

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Ehringhaus community wins national residence hall honor

The staff of the Ehringhaus community at UNC was honored in January for making their "Haus" a home. The Ehringhaus staff won the national Community of the Month award from the National Association of College and University Residence Halls. The award recognizes the efforts of a housing staff to knit together their residents, help meet residents needs and make a residence hall a home away from home.

Activities to build a sense of community at Ehringhaus included a successful clothing and money drive. Resident assistants sponsored the drive for a resident whose family’s home was destroyed in a fire.

"The award is an acknowledgement of the extra effort and time the Ehringhaus staff has put forward to develop their community and connect with the students who live there," said Dr. Christopher Payne, director of housing and residential education. "It says a lot about campus housing in general. There are programs of a similar nature and quality that occur on a monthly basis all over campus."

English professor Dr. George Lensing to direct distinguished scholarships office

Dr. George Lensing, the Bowman and Gordon Gray professor of English at UNC, has been appointed director of the office of distinguished scholarships, effective July 1. He succeeds Dr. Robert Greenberg, associate professor of Slavic linguistics, who is serving the current three-year term in the post.

Lensing will be responsible for recruiting and developing student applications for prestigious national scholarships, including the Rhodes, Truman and Churchill awards. As acting director of the office last fall, he worked with numerous outstanding scholarship candidates. Seven Carolina students have won distinguished scholarships this year, including Rhodes, Truman, Churchill, Luce and Goldwater awards.

Lensing has advised honors students in the English department for more than 30 years. He also has served on the central selection committee for the Morehead and Robertson scholarships, the university’s top merit awards. UNC partners with Duke University in the Robertson program.

"George Lensing has a long and outstanding record of teaching, advising and mentoring undergraduates," said Dr. Risa Palm, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, where the office is based. "By his example, he has shown students how to serve and lead. He will continue to be instrumental in recognizing the potential of bright students who may be able to reach new heights through distinguished scholarships."

Since 1974, Lensing has been a member of the Committee on the Chancellor’s Awards Ceremony for recognizing outstanding undergraduates in academics, leadership and service. He also has been assistant dean of honors, secretary of the faculty and chair of the division of humanities. Since 1979 he has been a faculty sponsor of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a campus honorary society.

Lensing has received two university honors for undergraduate teaching excellence: the Tanner Award (1984) and the Sanders Award (2001). He also teaches graduate students how to instruct undergraduates. He has written three books on American poetry, including, most recently, "Wallace Stevens and the Seasons" (2001).

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Dr. Lucia Binotti of romance languages to direct first year seminars program

Dr. Lucia Binotti, a UNC associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in UNC’s Romance languages department, will serve as associate dean of first-year seminars and academic experiences beginning July 1. She succeeds history professor Dr. Sarah Shields, who is serving the current three-year term in the post.

Dr. Risa Palm, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, appointed Binotti, calling her "a dedicated teacher, scholar and administrator (with) the ideal combination of knowledge, experience and leadership ability to build on the success of this vital program."

Binotti also will develop new initiatives in other areas of the first-year experience, collaborating with administrators of other programs that are designed to enhance the intellectual climate of the university. Those include the offices of undergraduate research and undergraduate admissions, the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence and orientation programs.

Last fall U.S. News and World Report ranked Carolina’s first-year programs fourth among public universities nationwide and 10th among all universities, tied with Harvard. The UNC program allows incoming students to study complex issues with senior faculty in classes of no more than 20 students each.

The program began in 1998 in response to the report of the Chancellor’s Task Force on Intellectual Climate. It has grown from offering 65 seminars the first year to more than 100 last year, reaching 1,800 students or about half of the incoming class. Seminars have been taught by faculty in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural and applied sciences, business, journalism and medicine.

At UNC since 1990 Binotti has taught two service learning courses and organized studies abroad. Recently she was elected to the UNC Educational Policy Committee. She is writing a multimedia textbook on the history of the Spanish language.

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Buckwalter’s lecture to address gerontological nursing

Dr. Kathleen Buckwalter, co-director of the Hartford Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence and associate director of the Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center, will present "Gerontological Nursing: A Rich Tradition and an Exciting Future" on Saturday (April 12).

The lecture, free to the public, will be held at 3 p.m. at the Carolina Inn on Pittsboro Street. Parking will be available for a fee.

Buckwalter is recognized internationally for her research in psychiatric nursing, aging and long-term care. She has a sustained record of private and federal support related to the evaluation of clinical nursing interventions for gero-psychiatric populations.

Her current research interests center upon behavioral management strategies for caregivers of persons with dementia and the effectiveness of community programs to prevent and minimize psychiatric problems in the rural elderly.

Buckwalter also serves as the University of Iowa Foundation distinguished professor of nursing and the university’s associate provost for health sciences and co-director of the UI Center on Aging. She served as a visiting professor at Duke University School of Nursing in 1991.

A reception will immediately follow the lecture to honor Dr. Carol Hogue, former UNC associate professor in nursing and associate director for research at the UNC Institute on Aging, for her years of service to the university and the nursing profession.

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Photo urls: To download a photo of Lensing, click to http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/lensing_george.jpg. To download a photo of Binotti , click to http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/binotti_lucia.jpg

Contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu