Academic Leadership

We discuss previous conversations on leadership from the faculty fellows of the IAH’s Academic Leadership Program (ALP), including Peter Mucha, Tanya Shields, Morgan Pitelka, and Terry Rhodes. Applications for the ALP are due Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017.

Kathleen DuVal, Professor of History, and Elizabeth Carbone, UNC alumnae

History Professor Kathleen DuVal And UNC alumnae Elizabeth Carbone, Class of 2017, discuss their work as recipients of the IAH Honors Carolina Collaboration Grant. The award is given to pairings of IAH fellows and Honors Carolina students working together on humanistic research.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is the president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP and pastor of the Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Goldsboro. He delivers the 2017 Weil Lecture on American citizenship on Oct. 11, 2017 on campus at Hill Hall. Barber discusses voter rights and the Forward Together Moral Movement (Moral Monday’s protest) in Raleigh and the history of citizenship in North Carolina and the nation following the Civil War.

Sam Amago, Department of Romance Studies Chair

Sam Amago is Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Romance Studies Department. He discusses metafiction and Spanish film, particularly that of Pedro Almodovar, whose body of work leads to an examination of garbage and its cultural representations in 20th century Spain.

Mark Katz, IAH Director and Professor of Music

IAH Director and Music Professor Mark Katz discusses his book about music technology and his progress on his second book about hip hop diplomacy, which “helps create communities and bring people together.” Having recently returned from research leave, he also discusses the crucial impact of faculty taking time off from teaching at a research university.

Jennifer Gates-Foster, Assistant Professor Of Classics

Jennifer Gates-Foster conducts research primarily in the art and archaeology of the Near East and Egypt in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. She discusses her archaeological dig in Israel over the summer. She also talks about a book that helped her understand the complexity of her home state of Mississippi.

Nelson Schwab III, IAH Advisory Board Chair

Nelson Schwab III (’67) discusses his days at Carolina and why it is so important to support faculty for the university’s continued success. “IAH Founder Ruel Tyson’s vision was to create something that would support and foster really good professors… The better prepared, the better trained, the happier the professors are here, the better off the experience will be for the students. It creates a great learning environment. I just thought that made sense.”

Peter Mucha, Professor Of Mathematics and IAH’s Chairs Leadership Program Director

Peter Mucha is a Professor of Mathematics and Applied Physical Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and new Director of the IAH’s Chairs Leadership program. Professor Mucha discusses the circumstances that led to his career as a mathematics scholar, from journeying through interdisciplinary fields in his university education to becoming a post-doctoral instructor in Mathematics.

Spring 2017 Highlights

Communications Specialist M. Clay and Coordinator for Faculty Programs Philip Hollingsworth share highlights from their favorite podcasts.

Morgan Pitelka, Associate Professor Asian Studies

Morgan Pitelka’s parents had a big influence in his scholarship. his father was a potter so he became interested in

He discusses his love of Japanese film, particularly, the work of Hidden Fortress was the inspiration for Star Wars.

Beverly Taylor, Professor of English

Beverly Taylor discusses her road to her life of research on poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “Feminist scholars in the 1960s and 1970s uncovered the feminist and abolitionist politics in Barrett Browning’s poetry. Taylor also talks about how the book To Kill a Mockingbird served as a lesson on teaching in Mississippi in 1969.

Molly Worthen, Assistant Professor of History

Before becoming an academic, Molly Worth

Lien Truong, Assistant Professor of Art

Faculty Fellow Lien Truong is a dedicated, renowned artist. She discusses how she was drawn to art as a teen. “It became an outlet for working out issues in the world.” She scoped out the faculty at Carolina before deciding to become a faculty member here. “One of the draws for me at the UNC’ art department, was I looked at the faculty and I really appreciated the work that they were making… work that really examines the political, social structure, and history within our experience.”

Gabriel Trop, Associate Professor, German Studies

Gabriel Trop discusses how philosophy and literature led him to the scholarship of German aesthetics, especially the one professor who inspired and challenged him. He branched out to study the Classics to better understand German poets and philosophers, such as Hölderlin, Novalis, Brockes, Hagedorn, and Gleim. During his Faculty Fellowship he works on a project exploring attraction and indifference.

Tanya Shields, Associate Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies

Tanya Shields is an Academic Leadership Program Fellow and director of undergraduate studies in her department. She discusses her latest work as dramaturge for the production of Plantation Remix at Houston-based Progress Theater. “The trauma and violence that people tour and enjoy, they want to disrupt that.” She is “helping build the context for the structure of the play as an advisor to the playwright. I am also learning how a play is created.”