Centers of Excellence
Improving our campus and community through service, innovation and scholarship.
The College of Charleston is proud to be a catalyst for innovation, economic development and cultural understanding in the region. Much of our work is accomplished through interdisciplinary institutes and research centers. Some examples include:
Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture
The 4,000 artifacts, books and source materials at the Avery Research Center tell the remarkable history of blacks in the South Carolina Lowcountry, from slavery to the rise of Gullah culture and on through the civil rights movement. Part museum, part research facility, the center plays a central role in Charleston’s black community through research opportunities and outreach programs.
The Carter Real Estate Center supports the College’s real estate program in the Department of Economics and Finance. The center is home to three full-time real estate faculty as well as the new Student Real Estate Club and the Real Estate Executive Speaker Series.
Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW)
This multidisciplinary, multicultural academic program studies the city of Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry as part of a larger Atlantic World (Europe, Africa, South America and the Caribbean) tied together historically by the transatlantic slave trade.
The Center for Entrepreneurship directs its resources and energies to providing experiential activities that assist students in developing an entrepreneurial mindset. It helps connect students to the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem encapsulating guest speakers, mentors, judges, etc. This focus ties directly into the College’s strategic plan to provide enhanced “opportunities for experiential learning” and “contribute to the well-being of the region."
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Located in Addlestone Library, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) is a hub for inquiry and collaboration. The center provides support for holistic faculty development by connecting teaching and learning opportunities from across campus. The center's directors aim to cultivate excellent teaching and learning by fostering communities of inquiry, practice and scholarship.
Center for Partnerships to Improve Education
A unit of the School of Education, the Center for Partnerships to Improve Education creates effective collaborations to improve the lives of the students. With a focus on community, higher education, and PreK-12 linkages, the Center enhances the areas of teaching and learning.
The Center for Public Choice and Market Process
The Center for Public Choice and Market Process is designed to examine and stimulate discussion of such topics as the role of government institutions in a capitalist society, relationship between government and the individual, relationship between political and economic freedom and the moral structure of a free market economy.
Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston
The Center for the Study of Slavery examines the impact of slavery and race-related issues at the College of Charleston, in the City of Charleston and the surrounding region, from the late 18th century through the civil rights era. The center also focuses on the continued impact and legacy of slavery in the present.
Center for Sustainable Development
The Center for Sustainable Development is a collection of students, staff and faculty who are concerned about and invested in addressing the many problems that plague today’s society. The center's focus is on applied research, experiential learning, operational management and public engagement – on campus and in the greater Charleston community. It is also home to the Sustainability Literacy Institute, which manages and directs the College's Quality Enhancement Plan (Sustainability as a Bridge to Addressing 21st-Century Problems.)
The College of Charleston at Stono Preserve
Stono Preserve is a majestic 881-acre property along the Stono River and the Intercoastal Waterway. The myriad ecosystems include long-leaf pine forests, wetlands, savannahs, tidal marshes, as well as brackish, saltwater and fresh-water ponds. College of Charleston students and faculty of multiple disciplines – from marine biology to forest management and historic preservation - utilize this vibrant living laboratory. Stono Preserve enables the College of Charleston to educate its students in an unparalleled natural setting; inspire collaboration across campus, industry and governmental agencies; and prepare students and faculty to be leaders in today’s environmentally volatile, global society.
Global Business Resource Center
The Global Business Resource Center (GBRC) supports continued development of international education opportunities so students may gain the necessary international business skills, cross-cultural experience and foreign language proficiencies needed to compete effectively in today's globalized economy. To help ensure that the international business knowledge conveyed in the classroom is up-to-date and relevant, the GBRC also supports faculty development and international business research.
Established in 1955, the laboratory is a core facility in support of the undergraduate and the graduate degree programs in marine and environmental sciences at the College of Charleston. The lab supports research in marine sciences conducted by faculty members and students.
Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art
Part of the School of the Arts at the College of Charleston, the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art is the public face of artistic life at the College. In addition to exhibiting some of the finest contemporary art in the Southeast, HICA sponsors lectures, film series and publications, and serves as an inspiring living laboratory for undergraduate art students.
Lowcountry Hall of Science and Math
A collaboration between the College of Charleston's School of Sciences and Mathematics and School of Education, Health, and Human Performance, the goal of the Lowcountry Hall of Science and Math is to advance the study of math, science and technology through outreach to Lowcountry schools and through training of future math and science teachers.
John Edward Mroz Global Leadership Institute
The John Edwin Mroz Global Leadership Institute is a collaborative partnership between the School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs and the EastWest Institute (EWI). The Mroz Institute builds on EWI’s framework of conflict resolution through education and dialogue by positioning the College as a national leader in cross-curricular international education. The partnerships formed and the scholarship nurtured will have a profound and lasting impact on the students, campus and greater community.
N.E. Miles Early Childhood Development Center
A partner of the School of Education, Health and Human Performance, the ECDC offers a creative, student-centered education for children two to five years old. This fully accredited institution is also a demonstration program for the innovative approaches to early childhood education taught in the College’s undergraduate and graduate teaching programs.
Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Center for Livable Communities
Home to the undergraduate program in urban studies and the graduate program in public administration, the institute is a regional focal point for the study of urban environments and their associated problems and potential. Named in 2001 after Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., the institute is both an academic and community resource for issues concerning urban planning, low-income housing, crime reduction and economic development.
South Carolina Space Grant Consortium
Through NASA-sponsored fellowships and scholarships, undergraduate and graduate students at the College of Charleston (and 13 other colleges and universities) can work alongside NASA mentors on real aerospace research projects. Faculty from these schools can also apply for generous grants to support student-focused, hands-on research into projects like high-altitude balloons.
Sustainability Literacy Institute
The Sustainability Literacy Institute (SLI) is the physical, pedagogical, virtual and institutional hub for sustainability literacy efforts at the College. The purpose of SLI is to foster positive social, economic and environmental change by way of a sustainably literate campus community. The institute encourages the development of new academic courses that can help achieve this and manages several student-focused programs such as its SLI Scholars program and its SLI Ambassadors program.
Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Center
The Sylvia Vlosky Yaschik Jewish Studies Center is the center of Jewish activity at the College of Charleston. Located in the heart of the historic campus, the Center houses the administrative offices for the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program, a lounge and office for the Jewish Student Union/Hillel and the offices of the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, as well as offices for some of the professors that teach in the Jewish Studies Program.