News and notes from around the College of Liberal Arts…
ART & ART HISTORY: KDAF/CW 33 featured Stephen Lapthisophon, visual artist and senior art lecturer, in its new segment, “Fit the Cliché.” Lapthisophon, who is legally blind, recently won the 2012 Moss/Chumley Artist Award. He said being a vision-impaired person gave him “a drive to not be defeated by it.” … Work by Adjunct Assistant Professor Justin Ginsburg (MFA, ’11) was recently accepted into the 2013 New Glass Review, an international publication by the Corning Museum of Glass. More than 3,000 works from 48 countries were submitted; only the top 100 entries were selected. Ginsburg’s work was also selected in 2011. … Carlos Donjuan (BFA, ’05), artist and adjunct assistant professor, participated in a panel discussion on art last month at a Dallas Museum of Art event. … Glass artist Renee Culler visited the Studio Arts Center earlier this month, working with glass students and offering daily lectures on new techniques. Working in glass for more than 30 years, Culler recently completed a Fulbright Research Award to South Korea, studying historical ceramic forms and their relationship to contemporary glass. Her visit was featured in a news video by The Shorthorn. … Assistant Professor Sedrick Huckaby will present a slide lecture of his work Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. at Park Cities Presbyterian Church as part of that groups “Art + Spirit” series. Huckaby’s work will also be on display later this year at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, as part of the Romare Bearden exhibition.
COMMUNCIATION: Lecturer Julian Rodriguez will represent UT Arlington in a regular segment, “Expresate Bien,” on the Univision-Dallas newscast. The one-minute segment, which will explore new and emerging media technologies, is expected to debut this month. Rodriguez is news director of UTA News in Espanol. … Rebecca Aguilar, an Emmy award-winning broadcast and multimedia veteran reporter, will speak to students about social media in a Society of Professional Journalists student chapter meeting slated for noon Feb. 25 in Room 258 of the Fine Arts Building. … Dr. Shelley Wigley, assistant professor, looks at the phenomenon of “stealing thunder,” whereby an individual breaks his own bad news, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in a syndicated story by Salary.com. The article was about why people should be transparent at work. … Dr. Dustin Harp (Assistant Professor) will present a joint research project on female columnists and U.S. newspaper at the International Communication Association’s annual conference in London this June. … Dr. Erika Pribanic-Smith (Assistant Professor) recently had a paper accepted to American Journalism, the journal of the American Journalism Historians Association. The manuscript, “Conflict in South Carolina’s Partisan Press of 1829,” is scheduled to be published in the Summer 2013 issue. … Dr. Mark Tremayne (Assistant Professor) and graduate student Milad Minooie have had their paper, “Opinion Leadership in Social Networks: Preferential Attachment versus Reciprocal Linking,” accepted for presentation at the International Communication Association annual conference in London this summer. … Communication lecturer Mike Putnam is lending his time and talents volunteering at the upcoming UTA Career Center’s Job Fair on Feb. 20. … Jennifer Cathcart (’99) and her husband, Michael, were recently featured in the UTA Alumni Association’s February newsletter. Cathcart is currently serving as chair of UTA’s Distinguished Alumni Gala and has served on the Alumni Board of Directors since 2006. … Broadcast major Victoria Reyes is currently serving as an intern for the Red Balloon Network at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. … Josh Greenlee (’11) was recently hired as a weekend DJ for 95.9 FM The Ranch in Fort Worth. … Jose Enriquez was recently hired as a reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise. … Journalism major Travis Merrell is currently working in a broadcast internship this semester at CW-33. … Students in Dr. Brian Horton’s Spring 2012 Human Computer Interaction class completed the first stage of a marketing, mobile-enhanced website for service-learning client, DigIt! Development, a Dallas real estate development company. To see the work and learn about the project, visit the website at http://thegalleriesonhickory.com.
CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE: A Houston Chronicle story about a crime dip in Houston quoted Dr. Alex del Carmen, professor and department chair. “It could also be that citizens are not reporting crime as much. It could also be that certain types of crimes are moving to other parts of the city or outside of the city,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that citizens in Houston are safer.”
ENGLISH: Dr. Jackie Stodnick (Associate Professor) presented her Center for Theory Colloquia lecture “Virgin Agents in Anglo-Saxon England” at noon today in University Hall, Room 432. … Diane Bueno is one of 16 UT Arlington students named to the 2013 McNair Scholars Program. She will work this summer on a McNair Research Internship project. … Dr. Wendy Faris, Professor and department chair, published an article, “’We, the shamans, eat tobacco and sing’: Figures of Shamanic Power in U.S. and Latin American Magical Realism,” in the collection Moments of Magical Realism in U.S. Ethnic Literatures. She also recently gave a keynote talk address at the symposium on Mexican culture at the University of Dallas. … Dr. James Warren (Assistant Professor) just published an article, “Rhetorical Reading as a Gateway to Disciplinary Literacy,” in the February issue of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. … Dr. Michael Federico (Lecturer) saw the world premiere of “On the Eve,” a musical for which he wrote the story and book, debut late last year at the Margot Jones Theater in the Magnolia Lounge in Dallas’ historic Fair Park. … Several graduate students presented papers at the Far West Popular Culture Association conference this month: Meghan Self, “Traversing the Lacanian Fantasy in the film Being John Malkovich;” Lindsey Barlow, “From Teacher to Drug Lord: Breaking out of the Symbolic in ‘Breaking Bad’;” Kate E. Morgan, “The Mimetic Nature of Meme;” and Johansen Quijano, “Procedural Rhetoric as a Narrative Device.” … Author Shaun Hamill (’08) was featured in a recent article in Carve magazine.
HISTORY: The Department of History and the Center for Greater Southwestern Studies presents the 48th annual Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lecture Series on March 7. This year’s theme is “Contested Empire: Rethinking the Texas Revolution” and will include scholars from the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of St. Andrews, Pennsylvania State University and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. All lectures will be held in various room of the E.H. Hereford University Center. … Dr. Gerald Saxon (Associate Professor) will receive the 2013 John H. Jenkins Research Fellowship in Texas History next month at the Texas State Historical Association’s annual meeting in Fort Worth. … The Dallas Morning News interviewed Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney, associate professor and department chair, about racism in America 50 years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. … Lisseth Campos is one of 16 UT Arlington students named to the 2013 McNair Scholars Program. She will work this summer on a McNair Research Internship project. … The Center for Greater Southwestern Studies will host a seminar and workshop March 6, from 1-3 p.m. in Nedderman Hall, Room 601 (Rady Room). “The Pronunciamiento and Insurrectionary Politics in Independent Mexico, 1821-1858” will be presented by Will Fowler (University of St. Andrews).
LINGUISTICS & TESOL: The Department of Linguistics and TESOL rolled out their new website last month. Check out their news and events at www.uta.edu/linguistics. … The 20th annual UTA Student Conference in Linguistics and TESOL (UTASCILT) will take place Feb. 21-22. Participants are student scholars from across the globe, with monetary awards given for the best presentations, thanks to the Yumi Nakamura Memorial Endowment. This year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Robert Fiorentino (University of Kansas). Further details of the conference can be found at http://www.uta.edu/linguistics/current-students/lingua/conference/20-utascilt-2013/index.php. … Dr. Ben Slade (Senior Lecturer) gave an invited talk at the University of Utah last week. … Dr. David Silva, Professor of Linguistics and Vice-Provost, began serving as interim Dean of the Graduate School last month. His donations to the university, and memories of his home department, are represented in a brick at the new College Park Center. … Dr. Laurel Smith Stvan, Associate Professor and department chair, will take part in a DFW-area Digital Humanities Colloquium later this month. She will present “Antconc for Humanities Students” at UT Dallas on Feb. 27. … In collaboration with two O’odham community experts, a storyteller and a language and culture teacher, Dr. Colleen Fitzgerald (Professor) had a refereed book chapter, “Contemporary Storytelling in Tohono O’odham,” appear in Inside Dazzling Mountains: Contemporary Translations of Southwest Native Verbal Arts (University of Nebraska Press).
MODERN LANGUAGES: The Department of Modern Languages Graduate and Faculty Symposium will be held March 1 in Trimble Hall,, Room 200. The theme for this lecture event is “Cultural Constructions V: 21st Century Pedagogies.” The all-day symposium will include guest speakers Jason Wallach and Norma Guillard as well as a screening of “Maestra,” a documentary about the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign. The bi-annual symposium is sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, the Center for Mexican American Studies, The Charles T. McDowell Center for Critical Languages and Area Studies, the Festival of Ideas Global Research Institute, and Women’s and Gender Studies. For more information, contact Dr. Sonja Watson at swatson1@uta.edu.
MUSIC: Associate Professor Tim Ishii will perform and discuss jazz music during a Focus on Faculty event at noon, Feb. 27, in the Central Library Sixth Floor Parlor. … A review of vocalist Jason Awbrey (’99) appeared recently in the Dallas Morning News.
POLITICAL SCIENCE: Politic365 featured a story about attorney and Professor Dr. Ángel Gutiérrez, whose contributions to the Chicano movement are being introduced to a new audience through El Activista, a book meant to highlight Gutiérrez’s life. Gutierrez was also recently appointed to serve on the American Political Science Association committee to award the E.E. Schattschneider prize for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of American government. … KDFW/FOX 4 interviewed Dr. Rebecca Deen, associate professor and department chair, about First Lady Michelle Obama and how she will likely use her husband’s second term in office to leave her own legacy. “I think that one thing that’s been clear about Mrs. Obama is that she has wanted to focus on issues that are important to working women. And I would see that she would continue that,” Deen said. … Dr. Brent Sasley, assistant professor of political science, wrote a column in Duck of Minerva blog about how Western analysts are misreading Israeli election results. Sasley also wrote an article for 972 Magazine, arguing that academic programs on Israel are fair. … Dr. Mark Cichock, professor of political science and director of the Charles T. McDowell Center for Critical Languages and Area Studies, was invited to participate in next month’s UT Austin’s symposium on secession in Europe. Cichock will be a member of the panel examining secessions from Georgia by Abkhazia and Sout Ossetia in 2008. … Assistant Professor Dr. Heidi Hardt has been invited to share her research at the International Security Forum, an invitation-only conference held every two years. The conference is an opportunity for scholars, practitioners, diplomats, military personal and NGO workers to share their expertise and experiences related to international security.
SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY: The Buffalo (NY) News interviewed Dr. Krystal Beamon, assistant professor of sociology, about Super Bowl-bound Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who despite being linked to a double murder in 2000, is highly celebrated and often commended for his Christian faith. “We adopt this narrative that he’s reformed and he loves the Lord and he’s a better man,” Beamon said. “We want to believe that. That’s how important sports are in our society and how much we want heroes.” … Dr. Susan Gonzalez Baker, associate professor of sociology and director for the Center for Mexican American Studies, was quoted in several recent articles about President Barack Obama’s immigration plan. Baker said the White House appears to be testing the public’s temperament on immigration by rolling out changes that, just a few years ago, would have been more strongly opposed. “It allows the administration to implement some policies that demonstrate the world is not going to end if immigration reform includes benefits, not just walls and more enforcement,” she said. … A book by Dr. Ben Agger, professor of sociology, “Oversharing,” was recently adopted for two classes at Arizona State University. … Brandon Butler and Gabriel Escobedo are two of 16 UT Arlington students named to the 2013 McNair Scholars Program. They will work this summer on a McNair Research Internship project. … “Blacks and Whites in Christian America,” co-authored by Dr. Jason Shelton (Assistant Professor of Sociology), recently won the 2012 C. Calvin Smith Award at Southern Conference on African American Studies (SCAASI).
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