We currently offer three different Seminar funding models: annually renewable traditional seminars; 2-year problem-based seminars; and 1-year FieldNotes working groups, organized around a shared area of study.

Carolina Seminar on Artistic Work in Education

This seminar consists of educators, artists, and researchers from across campus exploring how hands-on creative work can transform teaching and learning. We’ll discover how artmaking helps both teachers and students engage curiously, as learners who are able to try new things, ask questions, and learn from mistakes. Together, we will share practical ways to use creative projects as tools for understanding the world, thinking critically, and making meaning in any classroom, and we will work towards developing supports for faculty-K12 connections.

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Carolina Seminar on Educational Inequality

The Carolina Seminar on Educational Inequality brings together scholars from Economics, Education, Policy, and Sociology to study the ways in which schools, families, or broader social forces are to blame for educational inequality and whether and under what conditions specific educational policies reduce, or increase, inequality.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/edinequalityseminar/home

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Carolina Seminar on Innovation for the Public Good

The Carolina Seminar on Innovation for the Public Good will play a catalytic role in amplifying the mission of Carolina by providing an educational pathway for our faculty and students to explore modern change-making and practice the skills necessary to contribute toward meaningful change in the world. Participants will explore evidence and promising based creative problem-solving approaches and early, team-oriented, customer/community discovery methods to develop solutions that address pressing human concerns.

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Carolina Seminar on Middle East Studies

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Carolina Seminar on Russia and Its Empires

The seminar brings together scholars interested in Russia and the Russian / Soviet space. Because the Piedmont boasts a high concentration of interdisciplinary scholars in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern European Studies, including a large number of outstanding graduate students, this seminar gives the area’s universities and scholars the time and place to share their research as they are in the process of writing. Conducted basically as a workshop, it offers the particular benefit of giving participants the opportunity to cross disciplinary boundaries while they are still in the middle of their projects. In addition, one or two scholars from outside the region are invited to present work-in-progress that overlaps with that of area scholars.

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Carolina Seminar on Transnational and Global Modern History

Transnational and Global Modern History seminar is rooted in the comparative and connected study of the history of modern empires and its critics, “decolonization”, and the history of movement between and amongst various territorial entities in the modern era. It will explore the transnational study of the ideas and cultures that constituted and transcended national contexts, fashioning global political cultures and intellectual exchanges.

Conveners

Cartography and Chorography

This seminar provides a venue for interdisciplinary conversation relating to the theory and practice of cartography and landscape description in a range of historical contexts. Bringing together faculty and graduate students with different methodological perspectives – archaeological, philological, geographical, and historical – the seminar examines the history and potential of mapping as a process of giving shape to the world, especially in its multi-temporal dimensions. We are interested in the relationship between space and text in historical geographies, as well as in the relationship between historical cartographic and chorographic methodologies and their modern digital counterparts. The aim of the seminar is to foster faculty and graduate student research through the ongoing interdisciplinary exchange, particularly in connection with the Spatial Antiquities Lab, an emerging spatial humanities hub at UNC that will house vertically and horizontally integrated research projects that leverage digital mapping methods for historical projects.

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Central Asia Working Group

The Central Asia Working Group, an interdisciplinary work group seeks to build on growing interest across campus in the societies of Russian Central Asia–and neighboring regions such as Afghanistan, the Caucasus, Chinese Inner Asia, Mongolia, Pakistan, and southern Russia–from an interdisciplinary perspective. Its purpose is to provide a forum for scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates at UNC, and in the surrounding area, to explore and stay abreast of new avenues of research in the study of Central Asia.

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Critical Game Studies

The Critical Game Studies seminar will bring together faculty from UNC-CH, Duke, and King’s College London to investigate the study of games, video games, and gamification. This seminar would provide a platform for growing the scope and reach of game studies research at UNC by supporting transdisciplinary experiments in game studies that integrate humanistic scholarly inquiry with critical design practice. Participants will investigate a range of theoretical and methodological concerns. For example: How do formations of race, class, and gender shape—and are shaped by—games? To what extent do games demand interdisciplinary frameworks for analysis? Can learning to use game design technologies illuminate broader issues within media history and digital literacy? And, what opportunities do games and play afford for experimental research projects?

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Decolonization in the Global South

We investigate self-determination, territorial sovereignty, and mass politics in societies emerging from empires in the second half of the 20th century. Constrained by global capitalism and civil strife, independence struggles waged across the global south bequeathed an ambiguous legacy still with us today.

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Decolonizing Methodologies and Interdisciplinary Participatory Research

Across UNC’s campus, faculty, students, and community experts are pursuing collaborative, horizontal knowledge production about the theory, practice, and ethics of decolonizing research. This seminar seeks to to update and re-envision interdisciplinary inquiry into the problems, politics, and promise of participatory research. Of primary interest is how approaches to working with communities to generate knowledge can inform and shape critical social theory, and vice versa.

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First Friday Microbiome Seminars: Microbiome Research Across Disciplines and Its Impact on Health and the Environment

The First Friday Microbiome Seminars connect microbiome researchers engaged in studies of complex microbial populations that are important to human and animal health and plant and environmental studies. Microbiome research feeds on diverse fields including microbiology, biology, engineering, and biomedical sciences.

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French History and Culture

This seminar hosts lively discussions of new scholarship in all areas of French history, culture, literary studies, and art history, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research. Topics of recent and/or frequent discussion include French social movements and their legacies, the French empire, and French-American intellectual exchanges, among other subjects.

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Global Indigeneity and American Indian Studies

This seminar provides a forum for faculty, students, and visitors engaged in American Indian and Indigenous Studies to discuss critical issues, hear presentations, and read and critique one another’s work. These interdisciplinary collaborations often include but are not limited to individuals in the fields of American Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, Education, English, History, Law, Religious Studies, and Romance Studies.

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Higher Ed Working Group

The Higher Ed Working Group will consider challenges currently facing colleges and universities. We will focus on issues of access and success, the growing disconnection between universities and the public at large, and the nature of regulation by university governing bodies.

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Health Humanities Grand Rounds

Higher Ed Working Group

expand title=”Conveners”]

Dane Emmerling, Health Behavior, dane.emmerling@unc.edu

Membrane Trafficking: From Mechanism to Disease

Membrane trafficking is a basic biological process that underlies the complex internal membrane architecture that is a hallmark of eukaryotic cell biology. This area has received renewed focus in recent years as it is becoming clearer that dysregulation of membrane trafficking is linked to diseases ranging from cancer to neurodegeneration. However, understanding the etiology of diseases linked to membrane processes is a monumental task, requiring an understanding of the biophysics of lipid bilayers, the mechanism of proteins that bend and shape membranes, and the systems-level networks that regulate the exchange of vesicles between a dozen or more distinct cellular compartments. As such, there is a dire need for an interdisciplinary effort to tackle this important question in cell biology. The proposed Carolina Seminar series, titled “Membrane Trafficking: from Mechanism to Disease”, is an effort to bring together scientists across campus and from diverse fields, but with a focus on interfacial processes at membranes. The co-organizers represent a diverse set of research interests and technical expertise. The Baker lab uses biophysical and structural techniques to understand the allosteric consequences of membrane binding by peripheral membrane proteins. The Gladfelter lab uses state-of-the-art imaging to study membrane curvature sensation and membrane-less organelles. The Bear lab studies actin-based motility and its role in the onset and progression of cancer. More broadly, there is a vibrant research community at UNC focusing on membrane-based processes, from theoretical modeling of lipid bilayers to proteomics and systems biology of mitochondrial diseases. We aim to bring these scientists together to stimulate conversations around the biggest and most important questions in the field of membrane biology and membrane trafficking. In particular, we aim to connect those studying basic mechanisms of membrane biology in silico and in vitro, with those who have a more direct focus on human disease.

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Margins of the Classical 

The pursuit of the Moral Economies of Medicine is to investigate the problem of how to create new, critical conversations about global health that may bridge the liberal arts-professional divide both in terms of scholarship and pedagogy.

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New Directions in Film Studies

The North Carolina Jewish Studies Seminar offers a stimulating and exciting forum for academic engagement on Jewish history, culture, and religion.   Since its inception in 2001 under the name Duke-UNC Jewish Studies Seminar, the seminar has brought together faculty, graduate students, and internationally renowned scholars to discuss cutting-edge work in Jewish Studies.  Meetings are held monthly, and papers are distributed in advance for all to read.  The Seminar is a collaborative partnership of Duke, NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest, with participants coming from universities and colleges across North Carolina.  Closely coordinated with the NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill public lecture series in Jewish Studies, the seminar enriches the scholarly climate in the area and strengthens the Jewish Studies programs in the local universities.

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Poetry and Disorientation

Postdoc Research Café (FieldNotes)

The Postdoc Research Café is a public-facing, cross-disciplinary seminar series dedicated to improving science communication and fostering connections between postdoctoral scholars and the broader community. By equipping postdocs with the skills to clearly and engagingly share their research, the series addresses the critical challenge of public skepticism and builds trust in science. Held every two months at the Chapel Hill Public Library, the Café features paired presentations from postdocs across UNC and nearby institutions, followed by discussions and informal networking. This initiative not only enhances postdocs’ professional development but also strengthens university-community ties by making research accessible and relevant to the public. Co-sponsored by the UNC Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and the Postdoctoral Association, the series exemplifies Carolina Seminars’ mission to promote interdisciplinary dialogue and public engagement.

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Race and Affect Workshop

The Race and Affect Workshop (RAW) will develop an intellectual community at UNC and beyond for faculty, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates (juniors and seniors) engaged in research and creative practices at the intersection of race and affect studies. We define race to include related concepts like ethnicity, nationality, indigeneity, and immigrant status. We define affect studies to include the study of affect, emotions, intimacy, and interpersonal relationships. A main goal of the workshop is to develop fluency in a variety of approaches to studying affect and race, including approaches drawn from the humanities, social science, and natural science. Additionally, RAW would welcome scholars who are interested in other vectors of power, such as gender, class, sexuality, and religion, along with race, in their study of affect. RAW would consist of three components: monthly workshops where faculty and students share their work-in-progress, semesterly invited speakers who give a public lecture, and occasional creative events such as screenings, listening sessions, etc. that educates the public on the role of affect and race in everyday life. The Workshop would partner with other units across campus and beyond to put on events to create an even greater network of race and affect scholars.

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Religion and Theory Reading Group

This group brings together area faculty, graduate students, visiting scholars, and others to discuss important new texts in religious studies and recent critical theory. It aims to foster multidisciplinary and critical engagement with the role of religion in contemporary cultural politics.

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Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice

Situated between China and India, Southeast Asia sits at a crossroads of ancient and ongoing global commerce, cultural flows, and political influences. Via informal conversations, a speaker series, and cultural events, this seminar aims to lend visibility to the importance and interdisciplinary of Southeast Asian studies.

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The STEMM Education Research Collaborative

Triangle Early American History Seminar (TEAHS)

This seminar is a group of early American historians from multiple North Carolina colleges and universities who meet to discuss pre-circulated papers. The Triangle Early American History seminar is on the cutting edge of early American History scholarship. The group pushes the geographic boundaries of the field to include regions far beyond the original United States, spanning both North America and Latin America, recognizing that early modern peoples saw the region as overlapping localities. Major themes include race, gender, and empire.

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Triangle Health Economics Workshop

The Triangle Health Economics Workshop (THEW) is a multi-departmental seminar series organized by faculty in the Departments of Health Policy and Management, Economics, and Public Policy at UNC. Held approximately bi-weekly during the academic year, the seminar brings together health economists from across the Triangle to discuss current research by invited speakers in economics, medicine, and public health.

website: http://thew.web.unc.edu/

Conveners

Triangle Intellectual History

The Triangle Intellectual History Seminar brings together the Triangle area’s exceptional concentration of historians who practice intellectual history or who work in closely related fields such as literature and the history of science. This seminar focuses on new trends in global intellectual history, discusses papers by graduate students as well as area faculty colleagues, and invites guest presenters from outside North Carolina. Participants offer diverse perspectives on innovative works in progress and explore the connections between social contexts and ideas.

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UNC Criminal Justice and Health Working Group

The Criminal Justice and Health Working Group (CJHWG) engages a wide range of topics at the intersection of the criminal justice system and health. Our membership includes faculty, staff, and students from multiple disciplines, departments, and institutions as well as participants from the surrounding community. Most seminars feature a research presentation followed by a group discussion. We also promote networking and collaboration on criminal justice/health-focused research projects.

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Working Group in Feminism and History

This seminar includes historians based at Triangle universities who meet to discuss gender-related topics that cut across regional and temporal specializations.

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Youth, Families, and Addiction

The Youth, Families and Addiction seminar will bring together students and faculty across UNC Chapel Hill and neighboring institutions (e.g., Wake Forest, UNC Greensboro) to discuss how to move forward in addressing the problem of youth substance use. Problematic substance use and disorders are a devastating public health concern across the lifespan leading to a high burden of disease, injury, premature mortality, and economic costs. Risk for and consequences of substance use are particularly high among youth, as youth are especially vulnerable to the neurobiological and social consequences of substance use. Therefore, investigating risk and protective factors that relate to youth problematic substance use is important for developing supportive intervention efforts. Additionally, we will explore meaningful differences within traditionally identified groups of at-risk youth to tailor approaches to prevention and intervention programs. We will also discuss methodological approaches to identify individual differences in risk for substance use among youth.

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