Home

10%

Learn Locally, Act Globally

UNC Asheville faculty are making strides around the world

By UNC Asheville

June 15^th, 2021

This summer we're following the stories of UNC Asheville's professors who are making connections all around the globe, from the UK to ancient Rome.

Theological Economics at Cambridge

“What is it that theology and economics together can say, that the two cannot say apart?” asks Robert Tatum, the Cary Caperton Owen Distinguished Professor in Economics at UNC Asheville. It’s a question not many economists would think to ask, but it follows a tradition of looking at economics and economic policy from a different lens in order to make new observations. “Psychology and economics have come together as ‘behavioral economics,’” Tatum explained. “Feminist theory and economics have come together as ‘feminist economics.’ So there's precedent in this.”

Even still, there aren’t a huge number of people in the world studying theological economics. It’s an unusual combination that might surprise some, but Tatum argues there are gaps in economic analysis and policymaking that theology can fill.

Tatum has published several papers and presented his research on theological economics multiple times in Cambridge, UK, with the UK Association for Christian Economics (ACE). At ACE, he’s been able to find scholarly feedback on his work that isn’t ideological, which is important to Tatum’s work.

“We don't want to cherry pick,” Tatum said. “We want to ask, what are some things that are discussed across scripture, such as with regard to rest, debt, creation, work, poverty, inequality, and stewardship. What can we say as a general principle on each of those? It’s not thinking about the Bible as an economics textbook, but asking, are there some principles that can help us think about how we might orient our policies, and then how does economics then support that?”

Tatum’s research has also resulted in a new class at UNC Asheville, Morality and Material Progress, which focuses on whether or not the “good life” can be lived in both moral and material terms.

“The course examines the plurality of ways this question has been answered even within Western tradition, while also providing tools for exploring the associated issues more fully,” Tatum said. “It's a fun class. It starts with the Epic of Gilgamesh and goes through the Hebrew Bible to the Greeks to the New Testament and Patristic writers to Enlightenment-era thinkers, onto some modern economists.”

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented in-person conferences, Tatum’s research continues with his colleagues in the UK at the UK Association for Christian Economics and as a Senior Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge, in part through an interdisciplinary research group that meets virtually once a month. He is also leading the Kirby Laing Centre’s efforts to develop an Economics Research Hub, a disciplinary research group, which will launch in September. He plans to continue producing and publishing papers that will culminate in a book, and to continue encouraging his students to ask big questions.

“It's thoughtful to step back and see what historical writings say on matters we care about in our current life,” Tatum said.

“I'm never seeking to push a viewpoint on my students or in my scholarship, but I do want students to think—whether it is the Bible, or whether it is Plato, or whether it is the Quran, or whether it is a great piece of literature by Dostoevsky—what is it this can say to our modern world?”

A Rare Discovery of Ancient Roman Coins

Since 2010, UNC Asheville Classics Professor and Chair Lora Holland Goldthwaite has been spending her summers among Italian antiquities in an idyllic hillside town in Tuscany.

She is part of a team that has been working on an archeological dig site at Cetamura del Chianti, and for the past six years, her focus has been on researching and cataloging an extraordinary hoard of Roman coins. Organized by Florida State University, and joined by UNC Asheville’s Archaeological Field School for students, the Cetamura del Chianti has been an active site for discovering artifacts of Etruscans, Romans, and Italians of the Middle Ages since the 1970s.

For over 40 years, a team of archeologists and professors have worked alongside visiting students at the Cetamura del Chianti, revealing and documenting artifacts that depicted daily life from ancient Italian cultures. Discoveries across the site have ranged from statues, scattered coins, and objects of bronze, silver, and wood to organic remains like grape seeds.

But then in 2015, an astounding discovery was made. The team had discovered the top of an upside-down vessel lodged next to a wall of bedrock and packed under thousands of years of built-up soil. What would eventually be revealed was a hoard of Roman coins dating back from ca.169 BCE to ca. 27 BCE.

“The area where we were digging had been under investigation for several years,” recalls Holland Goldthwaite. Finds in that spot had consisted “mostly of pieces of tile and pottery, animal bones, fragments of ancient oil lamps, and slag from metal-working. Very few coins, [except for] isolated finds in poor condition, had ever been found in that area of the dig. We were not expecting to find a small pottery jar filled with coins in that area.”

READ THE FULL STORY

Protecting the High Seas

Rebecca Helm, UNC Asheville assistant professor of biology, is leading the charge to call attention to protect the high seas – marine areas beyond national jurisdiction. With oceans covering nearly half of Earth’s surface, and only 1% of the world’s high seas currently under protection, Helm is raising awareness of the urgent need to protect this vulnerable ecosystem by calling on the United Nations to complete the construction of a treaty that will put crucial protections in place. Her message, published in Science, and signed by some of the globe’s most esteemed scientists and marine biologists, is advocating nations to create a framework of protections that will conserve high seas biodiversity and promote sustainable and equitable use of our oceans.

Physalia, the infamous Portuguese man-o-war.

In 2017, the United Nations determined the need for an international treaty that would provide protections and promote sustainable use of Earth’s oceans. Negotiations are currently underway and proposed to complete this year, however, there is an understanding amongst environmentalists that human actions are encroaching further into unexplored marine environments and there is a risk of damaging biodiversity yet to be discovered.

“We have an opportunity to create a system that conserves biodiversity, while also creating an equitable environment for all of humankind,” Helm tells Euronews.

Helm is calling on nations to establish an ambitious plan of ocean stewardship with maximum protections that will protect the high seas for generations to come. She hopes to ensure that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create safeguards for marine life and valuable under-studied ecosystems is capitalized on, and soon.

READ THE FULL STORY

The Global Impact of Black Lives Matter and America's "Woke" Culture

The Waters and Harvey Show, hosted by Darin Waters, executive director of community engagement, and Marcus Harvey, associate director of religious studies, explores the experiences of historically marginalized people and their communities, and considers the influence those experiences have within our increasingly diverse society.

In this episode, Waters and Harvey examine the global impact of America’s racial justice protests, the Black Lives Matter movement, and "woke" culture. Their guest is their fellow UNC Asheville professor Oliver Gloag, associate professor of French.

Button Label

Finding Her Place in the Big Cheese

How UNC Asheville helped Shannon Herlihy transform a passion for food systems, health, and justice into a career supporting small-scale cheesemakers around the world

Read

MAHEC Internship Prepares UNC Asheville Students for Careers in Medicine

Learn Locally, Act Globally

UNC Asheville faculty are making strides around the world

How UNC Asheville helped Shannon Herlihy transform a passion for food systems, health, and justice into a career supporting small-scale cheesemakers around the world

January 26^th, 2026

Senior Chemistry Student Adam Wold Powers Meaningful Change in Sustainability Research

December 2^nd, 2025

An epic journey from UNC Asheville to the prestigious Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program

2025 Alumni-Owned Holiday Gift Guide

How UNC Asheville helped Shannon Herlihy transform a passion for food systems, health, and justice into a career supporting small-scale cheesemakers around the world

January 26th, 2026

Senior Chemistry Student Adam Wold Powers Meaningful Change in Sustainability Research

December 2nd, 2025

An epic journey from UNC Asheville to the prestigious Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program

2025 Alumni-Owned Holiday Gift Guide

January 26^th, 2026

December 2^nd, 2025