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Food for Thought

Enjoy a fine meal and take part in thought-provoking conversations with distinguished Carolina faculty and alumni. Honors Carolina’s intimate Food for Thought dinner events are typically held every month throughout the academic year.

Spring 2013 Schedule

All Food for Thought dinners are held at 6:30pm in Graham Memorial 011, unless otherwise noted.

 

Chris Roush
Topic: Past, Present, and Future of Business Journalism
January 23, 2013

Professor Chris Roush teaches Newswriting and Business Reporting in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.  He is the founding director of the Carolina Business News Initiative and has led business journalism training sessions for media organizations such as the Associated Press, Reuters, The Motley Fool, Media General newspapers, and the Orlando Sentinel. In 2010, the Scripps Howard Foundation and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication named him Journalism Teacher of the Year. He has been heralded as “the expert in business journalism– not just in Chapel Hill, but throughout the country and even in other parts of the world.”

Join Professor Roush for an eye-opening discussion on how the media interacts with and shapes our interpretation of economic trends, corporations, and personal finance. Learn about the role that business journalism has played in our past and its prominence and changing significance in the future.

 

Shai Tamari
Topic: The Israeli Elections and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
January 30, 2013

Shai Tamari is the Associate Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations. He is also a lecturer under the Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Professor Tamari specializes in the history and politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is fluent in Hebrew, and is a continuing student of Arabic. He was also the foreign policy advisor under Congressman James P. Moran (D-VA). Some of his awards include the UNC Rotary Peace Fellowship and the Kathryn Davis Peace Fellowship in 2008.

Join Professor Tamari for an incredible discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from an institutional and political perspective. How do the domestic politics of a nation contribute to international disputes and humanitarian crises? Professor Tamari will examine the history and structure of the Israeli elections and their effect on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 

Sarah Treul
Topic: Polarization in Congress
February 13, 2013

Professor Sarah Treul specializes in American political institutions, with an emphasis on the U.S. Congress and courts. Her research has focused on the voting behavior of U.S. senators, bicameralism, and state delegations in Congress. She is currently working on a project analyzing how a decline in state economic interests has contributed the polarization in Congress.

Join Professor Treul for a discussion of the current state of Congress, the ebb and flow of federalism, and how polarization may impact the country moving forwards.

 

Robin Visser
Topic: Environmental Thought and Praxis in China and Taiwan
February 20, 2013

Dr. Robin Visser is a professor in both the Department of Asian Studies and the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC. She sponsors multiple Asian student associations and clubs on campus. She is currently teaching courses in modern Chinese literature and Chinese Environmentalism Literature, among others. Her current research is on environmental aesthetics in East Asia. Her first book, Cities Surround the Countryside: Urban Aesthetics in Postsocialist China, analyzes the interaction of urban planning, cinema, and art in China at the beginning of the new millennium.

Join Dr. Visser for a discussion about how people in China and Taiwan think about and practice environmentalism. Analyze how media, art, and cinema are incorporating environmentalism into every-day thought and behavior.

 

Karolyn Tyson
Topic: Education Inequality
February 27, 2013

Karolyn Tyson, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies in her department with special interest in the Sociology of Education, Stratification, Research Methods, and Social Psychology.  She was also awarded the Sociology of Education ASA section award for best-published book, Integration Interrupted: Tracking, Black Students, and Acting White After Brown.

Join Dr. Karolyn Tyson for a Food for Thought discussion on the current state of education inequalities, their effects on society, and ways to alleviate them in the future.

 

Benjamin Waterhouse
Topic: Throwing a Tea Party in the 21st Century
March 6, 2013

Benjamin Waterhouse is a historian of American political, economic, and business history in the 20th century. His research centers on political culture and the evolution of ideas and debates over questions related to economics, business, and capitalism. He is currently completing a book called Lobbying America, which examines how CEOs and other business leaders have influenced politics since the 1970s.

Join Dr. Waterhouse to discuss how the ideology of small government conservatism has shaped the most pertinent issues in American politics for the past 30 years. Learn about the Tea Party perspective, and how this political movement has interpreted and reacted to the Cold War, the War on Terror, and the Financial Crisis.

 

Melinda Beck
Topic: The Weight of Obesity on the Response to Influenza Virus Infection and Vaccination
March 27, 2013

Dr. Melinda Beck is a professor in the UNC Public Health Department and the Associate Department Chair for the Nutrition program. With a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Dr. Beck’s past research has focused on the relationship between host nutrition, immune function, and response to infectious disease. Specifically, she studied how deficiency in antioxidants and the overall nutritional health of a host is a key factor in the emergence of an infectious disease.

Join Dr. Beck for a discussion about the role obesity plays in inhibiting responses to flu vaccinations and what this could mean for the future.

 

Greg Gangi
Topic: Energy Policy
April 3, 2013

Dr. Greg Gangi received his PhD in Ecology from UNC in 1999.  He is concerned with the broad scope of the relationship between environment and society. He is trained as a tropical ecologist, but also has a strong interest in conservation and sustainable development. He is concerned with public policy and international studies and has taught a number of courses in these fields.

Join Dr. Greg Gangi for a riveting discussion on how energy production, distribution, and consumption are affected by elements of public policy.

 

Brian Hogan
Topic: Bioterrorism
April 10, 2013

Dr. Hogan is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at UNC. He is the Academic director for the “Scholars’ Latino Initiative,” aimed towards increasing the number of Latino and Latina students graduating in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields. He is also actively involved in promoting literacy in Guatemala, where he has done a substantial amount of field research.

Join Dr. Brian Hogan for a dinner discussion about bioterrorism and learn how chemists are playing a major role in this new dimension of warfare and international conflict.

 

Click here to see previous Food for Thought programs.