UNC Charlotte Capitalism Studies Program Continues Ginkgo Residential Speaker Series
The College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences is proud to announce the continuation of the UNC Charlotte-Ginkgo Residential Guest Speaker Series for the 2025-2026 season. It is open at no charge to all members of the greater Charlotte Community.
The marquee series occurs monthly at the Independent Picture House, not far from the center of NoDa and is curated by Jurgen Buchenau, Ph.D., Dowd Term Professor of Capitalism Studies. The schedule features thought-provoking presentations led by expert Charlotte faculty members on an array of topics. We hope you will join us for one or all lectures and learn more about the research of our talented faculty.
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September 9
“Where Is The Best Place to Connect With Nature? At Your Door!”
One of the reasons Sara A. Gagné, Ph.D. loves studying urban nature is because it gives her the sense of uncovering a secret every time she learns something new. She has nothing against studying the ecology of places untouched by human influence — although these are becoming few and far between these days — but explains that discovering and describing an ecological pattern in a place obviously dominated by them is not that exciting. Instead, she opts for the thrill of finding a southern two-lined salamander in the stream that drains a major business district near her house or spotting a pair of peregrine falcons checking what’s on the menu in her neighborhood. These observations are unexpected. We’ve all been taught that nature in urban and suburban places is an oxymoron. Where humans appear in great numbers, other species do not.
Join Gagné in exploring how and why this assumption falls far short of reality. Together, you will discover the biodiversity of Charlotte and other vibrant urban ecosystems. With this new knowledge,she will show you easy ways to benefit biodiversity and rekindle a love affair with nature where you live.
Sara A. Gagné, Ph.D., is the author of Nature at Your Door: Connecting with the Wild and Green in the Urban and Suburban Landscape (Stackpole Books, 2023) and Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences. Gagné’s research, teaching, and writing is dedicated to understanding and communicating how people and nature interact in cities. She lives in Charlotte, where she tries to spend as much time as possible looking for otters, salamanders, and other wild neighbors.
Registration link to come.
October 7
“The Societal and Economic Stakes of Widespread Loneliness”
Loneliness is no longer just an individual issue—it is a societal and economic crisis with far-reaching implications. From the boardroom to the hospital ward, from city councils to school boards, the effects of widespread loneliness are reshaping our communities and economies. This lecture delves into the profound societal and economic consequences of loneliness, such as the lack of Gen Z’s future readiness in the workforce, providing attendees with the knowledge and practical actions to drive meaningful change. Loneliness is not an inevitable part of modern life—it is a challenge to address together in the community and broader society. Individuals within society can transform isolation into opportunity and build a future where connection is the norm, not the exception.
Megan Smith, Ph.D. is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Sociology, where she is deeply engaged in student mentorship, research, and curriculum development. She has earned multiple honors for her contributions to teaching, including the Phi Kappa Phi Distinguished Faculty award and a Trailblazer Award. Her research and teaching focus on mental health, loneliness, deviance, and criminology, and she actively involves students in projects on aging, AI in caregiving, and the criminal justice system. Beyond the classroom, Smith is a dynamic public speaker, author, and community educator; her latest co-authored two texts, include Ties that Enable (Rutgers, 2021) and Sociological Insights of Mental Health and Distress (Wiley, 2025). She earned a B.A. in Sociology from NC State, (Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa), her M.A. in Sociology from University of North Carolina Charlotte and her Ph.D. from Emory University in Sociology with a focus on health and criminology.
Registration link to come.
November 11
“A Mystery Memoir: Uncovering the Secrets of an Internment Camp in Postwar Czechoslovakia”
A team of three researchers: Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau, Ph.D., John Sullivan and Jules Geaney-Moore, M.A. set out on an unlikely journey of discovery in 2020. They followed the trace of the initially unknown author of a typewritten booklet that was discovered at an auction in Detroit many years ago. After translating and researching the memoir, the team discovered that the author was the head doctor of a camp for displaced ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia during the years after WWII. This presentation is about the doctor’s distressing story, and what we can learn from it about our own historical moment. At the same time, this research presentation is about the joys of ongoing historical discovery.
Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau, Ph.D. is a Professor of German and currently serves as Chair of the Department of Languages, Cultures and Translation. She was awarded the prestigious Bank of America Teaching Award in 2021 and the Board of Governors’ Excellence in Teaching Award in 2022. She was a nominee for the Carnegie/Case Professor of the Year in 2011 and from 2009-2012 she was honored with the Bonnie E. Cone Teaching Professorship at UNC Charlotte. A native of Germany, Aliaga-Buchenau’s training is in comparative literature. She has served as Professor of German at Charlotte since 2002. In her research, Aliaga-Buchenau focuses on 19th century immigrants from Germany and their literary production. In particular, she is interested in women immigrants to the Americas. She also works on the translation of memoirs and novels from Spanish to English or German to English.
Jules Geaney-Moore, M.A. moved to North Carolina from New Hampshire in 2014 where they obtained a B.A. in Psychology and English at Guilford College. Jules now holds a Graduate Certificate in Human-Computer Interaction and another one in Professional and Technical Writing, as well as an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from UNC Charlotte. Jules works as the Business Services Coordinator at the Department of Languages, Cultures and Translation. The research for this project came up independently as a passion project in 2020 and led to Jules enrolling in the Master of Arts in History program at UNC Charlotte with an expected graduation date of December 2026.
Registration link to come.
January 13
“The State and Genocide”
Why has modernity become the age of genocide? This presentation will argue that genocide is not the result exclusively of only certain kinds of states—say, authoritarian or fascist or repressive ones (although of course this is often true)—but rather a byproduct of the very fact that we have organized ourselves into a global order of states. Genocide is thereby a structural dysfunction, a consequence of the entire system of states that has arisen in the modern period.
Martin Shuster, Ph.D. is a Professor of Philosophy and the Isaac Swift Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is also affiliated with the Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights and with the program in Capitalism Studies. In 2023, he founded the Philosophy and Critical Theory Lab (PaCT Lab). He has published books, articles, and essays on topics ranging from political philosophy to ethics to aesthetics to critical theory to philosophy of religion to the history of philosophy. In 2019, Shuster was Visiting Professor at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, while in 2007-2008 he was a visiting fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Registration link to come.
February 10
“Tariffs, Trade Wars, and Boycotts: Between Nationalism and Globalism”
What role has trade played in the history of the modern world, and what role does it play in distributing goods across the globe today? This lecture provides an introduction into the idea of free trade, a foundational idea in the history of capitalism, as well as its criticisms. We will study a number of examples of barriers to free trade across modern history, focusing on tariffs, trade wars, and boycotts in particular. We will end by examining our current moment and what the debate about tariffs reveals about our economy and political system today.
Jurgen Buchenau, Ph.D. is the Dowd Term Chair of Capitalism Studies and Professor of History and Latin American Studies at UNC Charlotte. He earned his Ph.D. in History at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1993. His research interests include modern Mexico, and especially international history, the Mexican Revolution, and the Cold War. His teaching interests feature the history of capitalism, U.S. foreign relations, and Latin American history. He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of thirteen books, including one in production and In the Shadow of the Giant: The Making of Mexico’s Central America Policy (1996); Tools of Progress: A German Merchant Family in Mexico City, 1865-Present (2004); Plutarco Elías Calles and the Mexican Revolution (2007); Mexico, The Once and Future Revolution (2013, with Gilbert M. Joseph); and The Sonoran Dynasty in Mexico: Revolution, Reforms, and Repression (2023). He has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, the U.S. Department of Education, and the German Academic Exchange Service, among many others.
Registration link to come.
March 17
“Schooling, Work, and Shiftwork: Childhood and Migration in the American South”
This talk explores how the distinctions between school and work, children and adults, are made and changed. Berman takes as her case study the example of Marshallese children — native Pacific Islanders who have migrated to the U.S. and whose parents predominantly work night shifts in meat-packing factories in the American South. Through this example, Berman traces not only how adult shiftwork transforms children’s school, but also how children’s schooling has always been closely connected to work and the idea that children are distinct from adults. This talk explores schooling, childhood, and work today and in the past, traveling through accounts of child labor, sibling caretaking, the simultaneous growth of mandatory schooling laws and child labor prohibitions, as well as the cultural and socioeconomic differences in schooling and work today.
Elise Berman, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, studies childhood, language, schooling and migration, particularly among Asian Pacific Islands and also among Jewish Americans. Her main current research focuses on Marshallese immigrant communities in the American South, exploring Marshallese children’s language and cultural practices as well as their experiences, outcomes, and identity in schools. She is also working on a secondary project on Jewish American experiences of inclusion and exclusion, as well as how language and discourse on Israel affects Jews more broadly. Her previous work analyzed Marshallese children’s language and cultural practices in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Berman has developed the first corpus of Marshallese children’s language practices, with data from communities in both the Marshall Islands and the United States. Her work has been published in journals such as American Anthropologist, Current Anthropology, Linguistics and Education, and the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology; her book Talking Like Children: Language and the Production of Age in the Marshall Islands (Oxford University Press) was a finalist for the American Association of Applied Linguistics first book award.
Registration link to come.
April 14
“Climate Change: Media Stories vs. Scientific Evidence. What to Believe?”
We hear a lot about climate change, also known as global warming, in the media and in everyday conversation. Some of the things we hear are confusing or even contradictory. Is it just a natural cycle? Or is it being caused by human activities? Is it causing more storms and extreme weather? Or has the weather always been this bad? Is it causing all temperatures to warm up? Or is it making the warms warmer but the colds colder? Is natural gas and fracking good for the climate? Or bad? And, maybe most importantly, are we humans at risk of going extinct? Or will we adapt and be OK? In this talk, Jack Scheff, Ph.D. will try to cut through the media narratives and give a working atmospheric scientist’s practical perspective on these and many other burning questions about climate change. There will be frequent audience participation.
Jack Scheff, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Geographical Sciences where he has worked since 2017. In his research, Scheff studies the effects of climate change on the water cycle, weather systems, and atmospheric circulation. He teaches courses related to climate variation, climate change, and water. In 2014, he got his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in Seattle, and is originally from the Chicago area.
Registration link to come.
May 12
“A Republic If You Can Afford It: How Much Does It Cost to Administer Elections?”
How much do we spend running elections in the United States? After recent election cycles many people have questions about how elections work, who runs them, and if they are secure. Beyond voting and campaigning, most Americans know little about the behind the scenes administration of elections. After years of data collection, This team of researchers found the answer to that simple question is very complicated. This presentation will shed light on how we run elections in the U.S., how much we are spending across the country on running elections and challenges we face going forward.
Mary Jo McGowan, Ph.D. is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration and the Executive Director of the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies. Her research focus is on public policies relating to elections, running for office, and regulatory policies affecting elections. She chaired the Campaign Finance committee on the Commission on the Future of North Carolina Elections.
Martha E. Kropf, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration. Her research focus is on Election Science (election conduct and administration), Voting Behavior, and Public Opinion. She was a Steering Committee Member, Commission on the Future of North Carolina Elections.
Registration link to come.
Sponsored by Ginkgo Residential and hosted by the Capitalism Studies Program in the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies. Supported by the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences.