UNC Charlotte Capitalism Studies Program Continues Ginkgo Residential Speaker Series in 2026-27
The College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences is proud to announce the continuation of the Ginkgo Residential Speaker Series for the 2026-2027 season. The marquee series showcases the research of UNC Charlotte faculty.
Lectures will be held on Tuesdays from 6-7:30 p.m. and are open to the greater Charlotte community at no charge, but registration is requested. Events are held monthly at the Independent Picture House, close to the center of NoDa at 4237 Raleigh St., Charlotte, NC 28213.
The series is curated by Jurgen Buchenau, Ph.D., Dowd Term Professor of Capitalism Studies. 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 15
“The United States and Mexico: Unequal Neighbors”
Despite a significant power imbalance, Mexico’s influence on the United States is just as great as the inverse, and the economy, society, culture, and politics of the two nations have become inextricably linked. Based on Buchenau’s new book, he provides an accessible introduction to the asymmetrical relationship between between the wealthy industrialized nation and a part of the Global South, one of the most formative international relationships in geopolitics today. As the United States continues to assert its considerable geopolitical power, the lecture examines how this trend runs deep in the country’s history, starting with its closest neighbors.
Jurgen Buchenau, Ph.D., is the Dowd Term Chair of Capitalism Studies at UNC Charlotte. His research interests include the history of modern Mexico, and especially U.S.-Mexican relations and the Mexican Revolution. Buchenau has published thirteen books, including Tools of Progress: A German Merchant Family in Mexico City, 1865-Present (2004); The Sonoran Dynasty in Mexico: Revolution, Reforms, and Repression (2023), and The United States and Mexico: Unequal Neighbors (2026).
Registration Link to Come
Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte, NC 28213)
october 20
“Perceptions of Election Integrity in the Wake of Hurricane Helene”
There have been a number of catastrophes such as hurricanes around the time of elections. We study the occurrence of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina about three weeks before early voting for the November 2024 general election. We hypothesize that disaster damage reduces confidence in elections, but unlike much of the existing literature on disaster outcomes, we think that the perceptions of hurricane effects change based on how much damage occurred in your county. Perceptions of damage are affected by “downward social comparison.” Individuals who experience more damage may rate their personal damage as less severe when they are embedded in more heavily affected contexts compared to individuals with similar damage in less affected areas. These perceptions also affect how one evaluates confidence in the counting of ballots for the election. Our findings highlight the importance of considering both individual and contextual measures of disaster exposure when evaluating the effects of crises on political attitudes.
Martha Kropf, Ph.D., professor of political science and public administration and Bonnie Cone Professor of Civic Engagement, is also a core faculty member of the doctoral public policy program. Kropf has been conducting research about elections for more than 25 years and has authored numerous articles and three books about elections. She served as a Steering Committee member of the North Carolina Commission on the Future of Elections sponsored by the Carter Center (2023-2025). Kropf is also a founding board member of the organization Association for Election Science Reform and Administration. Regina Branton is the Marshall A. Rauch Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Arizona, a M.A. in political science from the University of Wyoming, and a B.A. in political science from the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on race and ethnicity politics, marginalized groups, and contentious politics. She has published articles in the Journal of Politics, the American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, and other journals. Her research has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Dirksen Congressional Center, APSA Advancing Research Grants for Indigenous Politics, APSA Fund for Latino Scholarship, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Center of Spanish Language Media at the University of North Texas, and the Immigration Research and Policy Center at the University of North Texas.
Registration Link to Come
Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte, NC 28213)
november 17
“Social Media, Influencer Culture, and the Demand for Authenticity”
For much of social media’s early history, aspirational content dominated the landscape. Influencers offered curated glimpses of lifestyles that felt desirable but out of reach through templated aesthetics. However, the landscape has changed. As platforms have become saturated with bots, AI-generated content, and personas built around what gets likes and views, users have grown more skeptical and more vocal about what they want from the creators they follow. Social media trends point to the reality that authenticity is no longer a stylistic choice and is evolving into a consumer demand. This lecture traces shifts in how social media users relate to content creators.
Shanice Jones Cameron, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at UNC Charlotte. Her research explores the intersection of health and social media with a focus on Black women’s digital advocacy and digital health and well-being cultures.
Registration Link to Come
Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte, NC 28213)
january 12
“'[B]eing torn asunder’: Cesarean Section in Victorian Literature and Culture”
Advancements in the science and safety of surgery dramatically impacted maternal and infant mortality during the nineteenth century. Until the Victorian period, cesarean births remained highly dangerous, almost guaranteeing the death of the mother. Widespread use of anesthetics and antiseptics meant that cesarean births became more commonplace, especially in urban areas where physicians at women’s hospitals had replaced midwives. With the sterilization of equipment and the probability of a stabilized patient, physicians were more likely to perform a cesarean section, which consequently meant the practice of craniotomy became less common. Chloroform was not just used for cesarean births, however; the anesthetic was increasingly employed during vaginal births to palliate patients. This practice was controversial, especially in religious circles, but after Queen Victoria used chloroform during two births in the 1850s, pressure on hospitals abated. George Moore’s 1894 novel Esther Waters contains a particularly harrowing scene at a London maternity hospital. The titular character, abandoned by her child’s duplicitous footman father, experiences a disorienting birth, surrounded by gossipy, cruel nurses. When Esther screams feeling as if “she was being torn asunder,” the nurses rush to her bedside, while the attending doctor declares: “this will not be as easy a case as one might have imagined. I shall administer chloroform.” That Esther does not leave the hospital for three weeks implies she has undergone a cesarean section. This presentation will consider the politics of Moore’s language during this extended scene, particularly Esther’s feeling that “[h]er personal self seemed entirely withdrawn.”
Clayton Tarr, Ph.D., assistant professor of English, specializes in nineteenth-century British literature. His books, “Personation Plots: Identity Fraud in Victorian Sensation Fiction,” (SUNY 2022) and “Victorian Legs: Degeneracy, Disability, Decorum, Desire” (Manchester 2025), examine the dynamic contexts of the Victorian body. He is advancing this interest in a recently completed monograph on surgery in the Victorian novel and has begun writing a new book on industrial body horror in Victorian culture.
Registration Link to Come
Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte, NC 28213)
February 9
“Civil War Photo Forensics: Investigating Battlefield Photographs Through a Critical Lens”
In Civil War Photo Forensics, professor and author Scott Hippensteel reconsiders iconic photographs from the American Civil War in a completely new light, questioning everything we have been taught about the images and their significance. Employing new scientific techniques to investigate the timing, location, and authenticity of photographs taken by Alexander Gardner, Mathew Brady, Timothy O’Sullivan, and their contemporaries, Hippensteel provides fresh insights into the motivations behind these pioneers in battlefield photography.
Scott Hippensteel, Ph.D., is a professor of earth sciences at UNC Charlotte. He is a member of the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Geographical Sciences, where he has taught geology and paleontology classes for more than twenty years. He has published four books about the intersection between the natural and military sciences, including the award-winning “Sand, Science, and the Civil War: Sedimentary Geology and Combat.” His research interests focus on using microfossils to solve environmental and geoarchaeological problems, including investigating the fate of the famous Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley.
Registration Link to Come
Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte, NC 28213)
march 16
“Latino Families in Charlotte: Work & Family Life”
Over the past few decades, Latino families have become an increasingly important part of communities across the United States, including here in Charlotte, where Latino children make up a significant share of the young population. Many families come seeking opportunity, yet face challenges related to work and access to affordable, reliable childcare. Latino parents are highly engaged in the workforce, but often work long hours in low-wage, unpredictable jobs that create financial strain and limit time with their children. Drawing on local family experiences, this talk highlights these challenges and points to practical ways communities can better support families and expand opportunity for the next generation.
Stephanie Potochnick, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology and Public Policy, researches immigration policies’ impact on immigrant families, focusing on economic and health inequities. She collaborates with community partners to enhance services for immigrant families, recently addressing employment and early care and education access challenges for Latino immigrant parents. Potochnick also directs the UNC Charlotte Center for Migration and Diaspora Studies.
Registration Link to Come
Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte, NC 28213)
april 13
“Buddhist Prosperity: Letting Go and Getting Rich”
The Buddha famously taught that desire leads to suffering and that freedom lies in letting go. Buddhist monks and nuns vow to not handle money. All kinds of Buddhists around the world practice being unattached to material possessions. Yet the Buddhist tradition is full of celebrations of rich donors and instructions about how generosity in this life leads to wealth in the next. This presentation focuses on the Pali Canon, the foundational collection of texts for the Theravada school of Buddhism, to understand the earliest Buddhist teachings about both letting go and getting rich.
Alexandra Kaloyanides, Ph.D., associate professor of religious studies, is a scholar of Asian religious history. Her research focuses on religion and material culture in Burma/Myanmar. Her first book is “Baptizing Burma: Religious Change in the Last Buddhist Kingdom,” which was the winner of the Columbia University’s Claremont Prize. Her current book project investigates Burmese religions and the environment.
Registration Link to Come
Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte, NC 28213)
may 11
“American War Machine: The US Military-Industrial Complex from Eisenhower to Trump”
In January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his farewell address to the nation, in which he famously warned of the potential dangers of the “military-industrial complex.” Eisenhower’s words resonate decades later, at a time of new wars, new global rivalries, emerging technologies, and a new breed of tech-sector weapons contractors. This talk draws on a wealth of new research to sketch the history of this sprawling defense complex from the end of World War II to today. It explains how privatization and financialization have transformed the business and politics of war since the 1950s, and how these changes reflect shifting attitudes among the nation’s leaders about the proper balance between public and private power.
Mark R. Wilson, Ph.D., is a professor of history at UNC Charlotte, where he has been teaching for more than two decades. His new book, “American War Machine: The US Military-Industrial Complex from Eisenhower to Trump,” will be published in 2027 by Princeton University Press. His previous books include “Destructive Creation: American Business and the Winning of World War II,” and “The Business of Civil War: Military Mobilization and the State, 1861–1865.”
Registration Link to Come
Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte, NC 28213)
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.