Community Calendar

Why has modernity become the age of genocide? This presentation will explore the idea that genocide is a byproduct of organizing ourselves into a global order of states and therefore a structural dysfunction. Featuring Martin Shuster, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy and the Isaac Swift Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte│capitalismstudies.charlotte.edu
Tuesday, Jan. 13; 6 p.m. at Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte);

Speaker: Dr. Larry Leamy

Dr. Leamy will explain the origin and classification of the three groups of amphibians. Participants will also learn the characteristics and adaptations of frogs and be introduced to the nine frog and four toad species found in the Carolina Piedmont. Dr. Leamy’s presentations are always fun and approachable. Just for the Wing Haven audience, Leamy will share about the characteristics of the Red Earred Slider Turtle in honor of Wing Haven's resident turtle, Ruby.

Photo credit: Betty Thomas

Author David Rahahę·tih Webb (Tuscarora Indians of Kahtenuaka Territories) decolonizes the history of Carolina’s Indigenous peoples and presents the full histories of four ethnolinguistic groups. These nations adapted to colonization through ethnogenesis, forging new alliances, intermarrying with traders, and navigating shifting political landscapes. In time, once-powerful nations were reduced to stateless, English-speaking refugee communities, and aside from groups like the Catawba and Tuscarora, their distinct tribal identities faded into the generic label, “Indian.” Finally, in recent decades, they revitalized their governments and reclaimed their identities.

Presented in person and virtually. To attend via Zoom, register via this link: http://bit.ly/4rG2BAg

Garden symposium with presentations from celebrated bestselling author and distinguished horticulturist Brie Arthur with “Seeds of Enchantment - The Art of Creating Gardens from Seed” and “Ultimate Plant Combinations”, ecologist and native plant aficionado Dr. Carrie DeJaco with “Extending the Pollinator Season in Your Landscape” and highly regarded owner of Renfrow Hardware (and Garden Center) David Blackley with “Sensible Gardeners Use ALL Their Senses”

Using research from Cooperation and Hierarchy in Ancient Bolivia: Building Community with the Body, Sara Juengst, Ph.D. discusses how ancient Bolivians organized their communities through several notable sociocultural and environmental changes, as reflected through disease, diet, and trauma on human skeletal remains. This Personally Speaking lecture asks, how can burials and skeletons teach us about the lives of past people and how their societies shifted in the face of environmental, social, and economic change? │ chess.charlotte.edu

5:15 p.m. with a reception at 4:15 p.m.

Discover the foundational principles of sustainable landscape design and planning with Clemson Cooperative Extension Agent Abigail Taylor. This session also includes a hands-on activity where attendees apply design concepts to small growing spaces. Held as part of the Cultivating Connections Garden Program Series, this new initiative is designed to be a unique living classroom, bringing the community, faculty, staff, and students together to learn hands-on skills while exploring traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge.

Tools and materials will be provided for all activities, but participants are welcome to bring their own small hand tools such as gloves, trowels, clippers if they prefer.

To register, contact us at (803) 313-7172 or email usclnasp@mailbox.sc.edu. Please direct any questions or comments regarding the series to program organizer and facilitator Professor Claudia Y. Heinemann-Priest at chpriest@mailbox.sc.edu.

Free and open to the public; reservations are strongly encouraged!

The final Personally Speaking series event of the year explores how down-on-their-luck messiahs and wandering poets in the sixteenth-century Afghan highlands challenge us to rethink what we know about Afghanistan, the history of Islam, and our relationship to the past and to language. Using research from the recently published Singing with the Mountains: The Language of God in the Afghan Highlands, William E. B. Sherman explores a remarkable Muslim movement known as the Roshaniyya—or the ‘illuminated ones’—who believed not only in following the word of God, but in making their own words divine and revelatory. │religiousstudies@charlotte.edu

5:15 p.m. with a reception at 4:15 p.m.