2012 – 2013 Personally Speaking Series

Four UNC Charlotte College of Liberal Arts & Sciences scholars explored an array of topics during their talks in the 2012-13 Personally Speaking Series, presented in partnership with J. Murrey Atkins Library.

“We support the University’s mission to serve as a resource to the greater Charlotte area, and this signature series is an excellent way to share with the community the knowledge and expertise of our faculty,” says Nancy Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

The series further connects the community with college faculty and their research. The authors consider contemporary issues addressed in their books. A reception provides a chance to continue the dialogue in an informal setting. The events in 2012-13 were provided complimentary to the community and began at 6:30 p.m. The talks were:

  • Richard Leeman, The Teleological Discourse of Barack Obama, September 18, 2012, UNC Charlotte Center City.
  • Kent Brintnall, Ecce Homo: the Male-Body-in-Pain as Redemptive Figure, November 13, 2012, Atkins Library.
  • Joyce Dalsheim, Unsettling Gaza: Secular Liberalism, Radical Religion and the Israeli Settlement Project, February 12, 2013, UNC Charlotte Center City.
  • Tanure Ojaide, The Beauty I Have Seen, March 26, 2013, Atkins Library.

Leeman is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies. His areas of interest include rhetoric, public address, political communication and African American oratory. His book offers an in-depth analysis of President Barack Obama’s speeches and writings to explain the power of the 44th president’s speaking. This book argues that, from his earliest writings through his latest presidential speeches, Obama has described the world through a teleological lens.

Brintnall is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies. He teaches courses in feminist and queer theory, literary theory, masculinity studies, visual and popular culture and the Christian tradition. His book draws on perspectives from a range of disciplines—including religious studies, gender and queer studies, psychoanalysis, art history, and film theory—and explores the complex, ambiguous meanings of the enduring figure of the male-body-in-pain.

Dalsheim is an assistant professor in the Department of Global, International and Area Studies. She studies nationalism, religion and the secular, and conflict in Israel/Palestine. Her book is an ethnographic study based on fieldwork in the settlements of the Gaza Strip and surrounding communities during the year prior to the Israeli withdrawal. The book poses controversial questions about the settlement of Israeli occupied territories in ways that move beyond the usual categories of politics, religion, and culture.

Ojaide is a professor in the Department of Africana Studies. His specialties are African, Pan-African/black, Caribbean and non-Western & post-colonial literatures; folklore and oral literatures of Africa and the African Diaspora; and creative writing (poetry). His book comprises three phases in a poetic journey, ranging from the poet as a public figure, a traveller and observer of humanity, to one grounded in the landscape and fate of his native land. Ojaide received the Cadbury Prize for Poetry from the Association of Nigerian Authors for the book.