News and notes from around the College of Liberal Arts…
ART & ART HISTORY: Several students were recently announced as winners of Creative Quarterly 35: Elena Chudoba, Mary Gibson, Ayla Haynes, Brand’ee Milton, Alexander Reyher, Kevin Bradford and Cindy Breslauer. Their work will be included in the Summer 2014 issue of the art journal. … During the 30th annual Main Street Fort Worth Art Festival last month, more than $4 million of world-class art was on display and available for purchase at the University’s booth. Many of the pieces were from the UTA Glass Studio. … Professor Nancy Palmieri will have her work displayed as part of a “Women In Art & Academia” at Baylor University’s Martin Museum of Art, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported. … Academic Advisor Jessica Rose received an honorable mention as a UT Arlington “Outstanding Academic Advisor” last month. … Senior Lecturer Scott Hilton will spend part of his summer at an NEH Scholar Residency at the American Social History Project in New York, N.Y. … Bongani Mlambo (BFA, ’10) directed Blue October’s most recent music video for “Angels in Everything.” … MFA candidates Jean Fernandes and Morgan Chivers have both been selected as finalists for the Bullseye Gallery’s highly competitive biennial kiln-glass exhibition. The “Emerge 2014” exhibition will run through June 28. … Dozens of art education students participated this semester in a service-learning project at the Evergreen Cultural Arts Center in Fort Worth. Students spent 10 hours volunteering in art education and art therapy. … The UT Arlington Student Film/Video Organization will host the 2014 Underexposed Film Festival at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth on May 7-8. The festival starts at 7 p.m. each night. Tickets are $5-7 and available at the door.
CENTER FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES: The Center hosted its annual recognition reception for students, faculty and community supporters on May 2 in the E.H. Hereford University Center. Marnese Elder, director of human resources administration at Parkland Health and Hospital Systems, was the keynote speaker.
COMMUNICATION: Junior Umair Ali, majoring in communication technology, is a best-selling iPhone ringtone maker, NBC 5 KXAS reported on its website. His latest creation, called “Vine Ringtone: Marimba Hip Hop” is currently sitting in the Top 5 on the iTunes Ringtone Chart. That puts him ahead of artists like Beyoncé and Luke Bryan. … At the 2014 acCOLAdes, Associate Professor Tom Christie and Associate Professor and Department Chair Charla Markham Shaw were both recognized for Outstanding Teaching by a tenured faculty member. Lecturer Julian Rodriguez was honored with Outstanding Lecturer and the Dean’s Accolade Award for “inspiring students to create work of exceptional merit beyond the classroom.” … Several faculty and staff members traveled to Las Vegas in April to represent the department at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in April. Associate Professor Thomas Christie served on a panel entitled, “New Connections: Using Your Radio Station to Create Local Content for a Global Audience.” Associate Professor Andrew Clark served as division officer for a panel entitled, “New Connections: Using Your Radio Station to Create Local Content for a Global Audience,” at the BEA Conference. Clark also serves as the Secretary of Radio and Audio Media Division. Associate Professor Tom Ingram served on a panel entitled, “New Connections: Using Your Radio Station to Create Local Content for a Global Audience.” Radio lecturer Lance Liguez served on a panel entitled, “New Connections: Using Your Radio Station to Create Local Content for a Global Audience.” Broadcast lecturer Julian Rodriguez presented a paper entitled, “Unauthorized Immigrant Population of Texas: Technology Adoption and News Media Consumption” and served on a panel, “Student News Aircheck: Espanol.” Department Engineer Joe Carter served as participating technical expert on panel discussions at BEA. … Associate Professor Eronini Megwa has been selected to act as an external evaluator of the Department of Journalism of the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Megwa will begin his duties in August. … Assistant Professor Dustin Harp‘s research article, “Where are the women? The presence of female columnists in opinion pages,” is now available online. The printed edition of the article Harp coauthored will be available in June in the Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. … Associate Professor Tom Christie will travel to Anaheim, Calif., May 15-18 to present a paper entitled, “Gun Control and the Press after the Sandy Hook Killings: The Relationship between Leading National Newspaper Coverage, Public Opinion and Public Policy,” at the American Association for Public Opinion Research’s 69th annual conference. … Assistant Professor Karishma Chatterjee will travel to Seattle, Wash., May 23-26 to present a paper entitled, “Negotiation of competing discourses by primary caregivers of hospice patients,” at the International Communication Association Annual Conference. … Associate Professor Chyng-Yang Jang will travel to Hong Kong from June 2-7 to present a paper entitled, “Small local business on Facebook: An Initial Survey,” at the Corporate Communication International Conference on Corporate Communication 2014. … Assistant Professor Shelley Wigley will attend the 2014 Academic Summit Conference, “Storytelling @ the Speed of Now,” sponsored by Edelman (Social Media Conference for Academics) at the University of Notre Dame and DePaul University in Chicago on June 25-27. … Specialist Roby McEuen recently served as voice-over talent for the introduction to this year’s ADDY Awards. … Posted on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website, a Keller Citizen story quoted Assistant Professor Mark Tremayne on the implementation of Facebook as a virtual town hall meeting place for Trophy Club council candidates. … Associate Professor Thomas Christie received an honorable mention as a UT Arlington “Outstanding Academic Advisor” last month. … Assistant Professor Dustin Harp weighed in on a Yahoo! Movies report about a planned, live-action Barbie film and women’s body issues. … Senior Michael Coleman II, president of UT Arlington’s NAACP chapter, was recently selected to serve on the City of Arlington’s NAACP 13-member panel. Coleman was selected this spring as UT Arlington’s Outstanding Student Leader. … Several students were inducted into the Communication Honor Society during an April 25 department awards event. Inductees include: Avery Anderson, Brittany Anderson, Edrea Au, Gemme Campbell, Raegan Cardwell, Alyxandra Crawford, Monica Davis, Emily Ducote, Vallari Gupte, Lacey Hamel, Tracie Hill, Nicole Jackson, Lindsey Juarez, Derek Kaufman, Megan Kostroun, Esther Lepohe, Valeri Maedgen, Anna Mayer, Mark Mcadams, Alethea McDaniel, Travis Mejia, Maritza Moreno, Brianna Nathaniel, Beverly Newburn, Austan Pierce, Daniel Puente, Vanessa Suarez, Stephen Swindle, Karlee Thormer, Travis Welborn, Christopher Wiles, Aisha Willis and Jorge Zamora. … Several journalism students were recently inducted into the UTA chapter of Kappa Tau Alpha: Elissa Joy Ammon, Gemme Campbell, Shunkecia D. Lewis, Michael Magnus and Alethea Charisa McDaniel. … The department’s sequence coordinators honored outstanding seniors in each of the department’s areas of study: Advertising, Taylor Dodds; Broadcasting, Alyx Crawford; Communication Studies, Gemme Campbell; Communication Technology, Daniel Puente; Journalism, Lindsey Juarez; Public Relations, Katelynn McFarlan. This year’s outstanding graduate student is Kadeth Anderson. … At the department’s annual awards meeting, faculty mentors recognized top students in various student organizations. Assistant Professor Shelley Wigley presented the outstanding Public Relations Student Society of America student award to Brandon Demings. Journalism lecturer Kim Jones presented the Society of Professional Journalism award to Cheryl Kutcher. UTA Radio student of the year, presented by Lecturer Lance Liguez, was awarded to Omar Castillon. Julian Rodriguez honored broadcast students, Angelina Armendariz and Laura Romo, with the outstanding UTA News en Español award. … At the department’s annual convocation event April 25, several students were awarded scholarships. Winners include: Rebecca Pepper (Charles Arrendell Scholarship); Roberto Flores, Mickaela Alves, Emily Nelson, and Cristina DeLeon (Donald & Dorothy Bunnell Scholarship); Tiffany Hamm (Jack Butler Award); Ashli Kaczor (Lloyd Clark Scholarship); Tiffany Hamm (Donna Darovich Scholarship); Matthew Hooks and Roxanna Salmeron (Mark Holtz Scholarship); Aubrey Kenney (Karin McCallum Scholarship); Kathryn Cargo (Neva McMurry Reidel Scholarship); Conner Hammett (Murray & Nona Poston Scholarship); Ryan Wagoner (George W. Proctor Scholarship); Kayla Stigall (Sam Lea Scholarship); Jessica Stroud (Douglas Maples Scholarship); Ashli Kaczor (Phillip Lynn Hall Scholarship); and De’Angela Giles (DFWIMA Scholarship). … John Harden (’01) has accepted a position at The Houston Chronicle after two years serving as a reporter at The Denton-Record Chronicle. … Students David Kline and Alexis Garcia will intern at WBAP/KLIF during the summer. Charlie Vann and Jessica Stroud will also join The Jagger Morning Show on 102.1 FM.
CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Senior Lecturer Rhonda Dobbs and Visiting Assistant Professor Chris Copeland delivered stuffed animals for the Arlington Police Department’s Victim Service annual toy drive. The Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Women’s and Gender Studies program collaborated on the drive. … Dozens of North Texas law enforcement and criminal justice members met with UT Arlington during the department’s annual career fair last month. The event was organized and sponsored by Alpha Phi Sigma Criminal Justice Honors Society. … Fox News mentioned a study by Assistant Professor Seokjin Jeong about bullying. Jeong’s study says that students attending schools that employ anti-bullying education measures might be more apt to be bullied.
DISABILITY STUDIES: Miles Shaffer, Lindsey Anderson and Juan Soto will be the first UT Arlington students to graduate with a minor in disability studies. The students will be feted in a reception at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 8, in University Hall, Room 108. The Arlington Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities will also be onhand to recognize the students.
ENGLISH: Senior Lecturer Peggy Kulesz, director of UT Arlington’s First Year English program, is leading a group of English faculty on an adult learning project for UTA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA. The team’s first document, “Joint UTA/NASA Investigation into Optimum Training Delivery Methods for Adult Learning,” is due later this month. … Professor Stacy Alaimo discussed her new book project regarding ocean ecologies during DePaul University’s Earth Week events last month, according to eNews Park Forest (Ill.). … Associate Professor Kevin Gustafson will present a paper, “City and Empire in Cleanness,” at the Leeds International Medieval Congress in Leeds, England, July 7-10. … Last month, students in Senior Lecturer Joanna Johnson’s young adult literature class video conferenced via Skype with Hollywood producer Gaylyn Fraiche. Fraiche, a Texas native, was co-producer on “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.” … Two graduate teaching assistants have won a 2014 Patricia and Mike O’Neill award: Doctoral student Rachael Mariboho, for “excellence in teaching,” and master’s candidate Sean Farrell, for “academic excellence.” The award is named for Patricia O’Neill, a former assistant vice president for student affairs at UT Arlington. … Senior Cheryl Kutcher has been accepted to Oklahoma State University’s MFA program in poetry with a full scholarship. … Senior Ben Honea will join the University of Kentucky’s new MFA program this fall. … Shaun Hamill (BA, ‘08) has been accepted to the University of Iowa’s writers workshop. … In conjunction with National Poetry Month, author David Shattuck read selected works at an April 30 event hosted by the department.
HISTORY: Associate Professor and Department Chair Marvin Dulaney and Arielle Bentley, vice president of the UT Arlington Black Student Association, were interviewed in KTVT/CBS 11’s coverage of the Civil Rights Summit at the LBJ Library in Austin last month. Both reflected on history and the state of equality today. “We’re still not there yet. Even though we have an African-American president, there are still issues,” Dulaney said. … Dulaney was one of the speakers at an April 25 commemoration of architect William Sidney Pittman, according to a column in The Dallas Morning News. Pittman is known as Texas’ first practicing black architect. … Assistant Professor Oliver Bateman is writing a series of columns for Al-Jazeera America on law and sports. His latest piece focuses on the relationship between universities and revenue generating sports. … Associate Professor Christopher Morris is quoted in a Landscape Architecture magazine article about how words that scientists and policy makers choose can carry with them certain ideas about how ecosystems work. The word disturbance, for example, has affected flood control infrastructure, he said.
LINGUISTICS & TESOL: Assistant Professor Joey Sabbagh is one of eight invited speakers to present research at a workshop entitled “Prosodic evidence for the structure and constituency of verb-initial languages” at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada on May 8-10. … Doctoral student Lori McLain Pierce has just been awarded a $3,000 external grant from the Jacobs Research Funds, hosted by the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Wash. The grant will support her dissertation fieldwork on the Choctaw language. … Pierce and Assistant Professor Cynthia Kilpatrick have had an article accepted for publication in the summer issue of Foreign Language Annals; the article is entitled “Focused instruction in Spanish syllabification.” … Kilpatrick and Yujeong Choi (Ph.D., ’12) have an article coming out this summer entitled “Hypothesis Testing in Task-Based Interactions” in the journal Applied Language Learning. … Professor David Silva has been voted by national headquarters to be a distinguished member of UT Arlington’s honor society of Phi Kappa Phi for having served the society and the local chapter in an outstanding manner since its founding in 2007. … Professor Colleen Fitzgerald gave two talks last month at the Conference on Language Revitalization: Sleeping and Awakening Languages of the Gulf South at Tulane University in New Orleans. … On May 18-24, Fitzgerald and Mary Linn (University of Oklahoma) are co-directing the 2014 Oklahoma Breath of Life Workshop, funded by the National Science Foundation. A number of UT Arlington graduate and undergraduate students will be participating as mentors or as the project support team. … Associate Professor and Department Chair Laurel Smith Stvan has received funding from the University of Birmingham to continue research this summer on second language acquisition of the English article system. She will visit the Centre for Advanced Research in English (CARE) in Birmingham, England. … Last month, Stvan won the College of Liberal Arts Graduate Mentor award. In addition she was one of the nine inaugural recipients of Research/Creative Activity Endowment Awards from the College of Liberal Arts. … This year, two research awards were distributed to linguistics students from the Edmonson Endowment grant, an award set up by Professor Emeritus Jerold Edmondson. Winners were Kent Rasmussen, for his project on languages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iya Khelm, for her work studying the comprehension of Russianrelative clauses by speakers in Russia. In addition, an alumni grant, established by Robin Lombard, (Ph.D., ’97), was split by two students: Libby Tatz, for work on a dialect of the native American Cree language, and Juyoung Lee for work on phrasal verbs in Korean. … Doctoral student Iya Khelm received the Burquest Award for Excellence in Teaching Linguistics, named for emeritus professor Donald A Burquest. … In April, Adjunct Professor Keith Maurcie, Who is director of UT Arlington’s English Language Institute, led a site review for UCIEP (the University and College Intensive English Program consortium). … Eun Jung Brown, instructor in the ELI, has had another book published in South Korea on practical English for Koreans. … Robert E. Longacre, emeritus professor of Linguistics at UT Arlington, passed away on April 20. Longacre was a pioneer in discourse analysis, scholar of the Triqui language of Mexico, and esteemed scholar at SIL International (formerly, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc.) … The Native American Languages Lab is participating in a workshop this week at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., where attendees can learn to use free dictionary-making software, Native American Times reported. The software can be used to create teaching materials for native language preservation.
MODERN LANGUAGE: Lecturer Klaus Driessen received the President’s Award for Excellence in Distance Education Teaching at last week’s UT Arlington faculty awards event. … The Department of Modern Languages handout several faculty and student awards in its annual awards ceremony April 23. Arabic student awards were given to: Vickie Karam, Polly Deanne Roark, Heather Roney, Anas Muhammad Shahid, Tiffany Jackson, Tazeen Syeda Jafri, Ian Menikos, Stephen David Wilkes, Aidan Daniel Wright, Hind Yousef, Juan Echeverría López and Tarek M. Elmougy. Chinese student awards went to: Karin Fanley, Anh-Viet Nguyen, Munira Alihussein Dalal, Abigail R. Warner, Sabian Barron, Ashlynne Shulammite Macnee, Howard Scott Clemens, Marlene Reeders, Matthew Allen Boone, Lisa B. Pham, Elizabeth S. Lin and Verena J. Scott. French awards were handed out to: Jennifer Cox-Seals, Mikayla Hixon, Isabella Jordan, Steven Long, Jackie Presley, José Enrique Angulo, Casey Boone, Benjamin Chebaa, Patrick Emmons, Miguel Méndez-Paredón, Dionisius Tjahjono, Marcos Arellano, Athena Brindle, Rachel Lewis, Kiayra Spights, Lindsay Ann West, Chelsea Pagan, Breeanne Soteros, Shirlynn Tran, Nicholas Watson, Anna Marie Mayer, Robert Morgan, Elizabeth Oren, Leopold Montgomery, Benoit Thiercelin, Yves Atumisi, Maris Reid, Elin Andersson, Jeanne Djihi Quenum, Maris Reid, Adrienn Illesh, Helen Hulme. Brooke Cunningham-Koss was named “Outstanding Lecturer in French.” German student awards went to: Sara Lueckenhoff, Grant Milliken, Glorya Werner, Meghan Zavitz, Alaina K. Behan, Scott McWilliams, Crittenton Aaron Rivera, Shelby Boone, Megan Kostroun, Andrew Ormerod, Laura Walters, Lillith Erin Ferguson, Rachel Smith, Chase Tremaine, David Justen Woody, Hannah Bradley, Marek Pesicka, Sven Stricker and Timothy Hoang. Korean student awards were given to: Peter Le, Maira Janet Olivares, Cindy Arellano, Ashley Williamson, Mary Thi Nguyen and Alberto Wences. Portuguese students awards were handed to: Kelsey N. Griffith, James Lee Skidmore, Jesús Omar Chávez Zúñiga and Benjamin M. Hernández, Gabriela Hernández-García. Outstanding Student in Portuguese Minor was Mario Sánchez. Russian awards went to: Roger Miller, Abdulilaah Monier, Christina Walther, Cherith Naig, Sarah-Gail Permantier, Amberly Prykhodko, Nonna Shlygina, Michael Feizmohammadi, Bailey N. Williams, Elizabeth Oren and Gennadii Prykhodko. Spanish awards were given to: Jonathan Bates, Sun Cho, Isabella Jordan, Austin Perryman, Mary Roberts, Kevin Strehl, Ryan Trowbridge, Sean Fuller, Chelsea Hanson, Kelsey Hill, Laura Lieser, Yasmin Malik, Sarah Sassaman, Ellorie Wilkins, Jae Hwan Tak, Kayla Jo Long, Brady Reeder, Alyxandra Crawford, Melody May, Clay Newby, Jesús Aragonés, Sandy Piedra, Tania López, Christian Cross, Fernando Ruiz, Edith Díaz, Jefry Lema, Sarah-Gail Permantier, Naomi Carlton, Marjorie Conejo Baldi, María Crawford, Eugenia del Pinal, Rocío Juárez, Pamela Luyo, Cleide Mathews, Verónica Morales, Melissa Muir, Bárbara Naranjo, Christian Nisttahuz, Gustavo Robles, Patricia Sandoval-Malagón, Teresa Reséndiz White, Charles Corrigan, Angela Marie Ward, Billy Grimes, Reid Kisielewski, Blake Lemons, Lía Suárez, Janet Bell, Guillermo Ríos, Ilieana Hernández, Helen Klopfenstine, Omomayowa Olawoyin, Maris Reid, Rachel Gamarra and Verónica Morales. Outstanding Volunteer Service Award (Ford Grant): Marjorie Conejo Baldi, Eugenia del Pinal, Marisol Gómez, Jessica Isch, Nicholas Matthews, Rubén Mauricio, Jr., and Verónica Morales. Tony Litsey Memorial Scholarship Recipients: Jesús Omar Chávez Zúñiga, Eugenia del Pinal, Gloria Martínez Reséndiz, Miguel A. Méndez, Teresa Reséndiz White (Spring 2014); Sarah-Gail Permantier, Jeanette C. Rogers (Summer 2014); and Christian Nisttahuz (Fall 2014). Charles T. McDowell Center for Critical Languages and Area Studies Scholarship Recipients: Courtland D. Alexander, Juan Echeverría López (Arabic); Matthew Allen Boone, Verena J. Scott (Chinese); Lillith Erin Ferguson, Stephanie L. Lowther (German); Kelsey N. Griffith, James Lee Skidmore (Portuguese); and Bailey N. Williams (Russian). Bart Lewis Memorial Scholarship Recipients: Jesús Omar Chávez Zúñiga, Marjorie Conejo Baldi, Rebecca Elaine Goerdel, Robert Tyler Morgan, Shane McQuiston Sloan, Teresa Reséndiz White (Spring 2014); Sarah-Gail Permantier, Maris A. Reid, Jeanette C. Rogers (Summer 2014); Christian Nisttahuz and Amberly R. Prykhodko (Fall 2014). Modern Languages Endowed Scholarship Recipients: Alejandra Méndez Gallegos, Miguel A. Méndez Paredón, Christian Nisttahuz and Pearl Rachel Reyna-Molina (Fall 2014). GTA/Lecturer of the Year Award in Modern Languages: Gillian Walker. … At the department’s annual awards meeting, officers for student group, La Société Francophone, were rcognized: Bao-Ngoc Le (President), Jennifer Menez (Treasurer), Elin Andersson (Promotional Coordinator), Hanna Barakat (Secretary), Andrew Leonardo (Events Coordinator), Christine King (Fundraising Coordinator), and Daisy Castro (International Week Coordinator). Officers for the German Language Society were also announced: Brian Trietsch (President), Giovanni Macias (Treasurer) and Rachel Smith (Event & Food Coordinator). The newest members of Clube de Português are Cárolin Campos Sepúlveda, Courtney Pilgrim and James Lee Skidmore. Officers for the 2014 Russian Culture Society Council are: Adrienn Illesh (President), Bailey N. Williams (Secretary), Nonna Shlygina (Minister of Culture), Zachary Dayton (Minister of Propaganda), Marina Lyashkova (Minister of Propaganda) and Rozalina Akopyan (Treasurer). La Sociedad Hispánica officers: Mayra Gutiérrez (President, Fall 2013), Porfirio López (President, Spring 2014; Vice-President, Fall 2013), Pamela Luyo (Vice-President, Spring 2014), Cecilia Ventura (Treasurer), Nancy Nájera (Secretary), Cárolin Campos Sepúlveda (Web Liaison) and Nubia Colmenares (Web Liaison).
MUSIC: Michelle Blair (MM,’12) was recently awarded a P.E.O. Scholar Award. She is currently pursuing a D.M.A. in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Houston. … The UT Arlington Jazz Combo, Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Orchestra performed on the main stage at the 30th annual Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival last month. The University was a festival sponsor.
PHILOSOPHY: An East Dallas art gallery, owned and operated by former student Kevin Jacobs, was featured in an online story.
POLITICAL SCIENCE: The online sports publication Grantland featured Associate Professor Allan Saxe in a post-Final Four story about Arlington and its identity as a sports destination. “Arlington’s always had an identity crisis,” Saxe said. “It has been on the psychiatrist’s couch for 100 years.” … Saxe was also quoted in an Al Dia article about U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, filing a comprehensive immigration bill in Congress within the next several weeks. … Professor Victoria Farrar-Myers was featured in a Watertown Daily Times (New York) story about whether a junior member of Congress can have influence. … The Department of Political Science recently announced several student scholarship winners. The honorees are Mariam El-Rayes (Katsikas Scholar), Olivia Roberts (Dawson Scholar) and Christopher Nguyen (Dawson Scholar). … Professor Tom Marshall was recently awarded faculty development leave for 2014-15. … Associate Professor Brent Sasley contributed to an article on a London School of Economics blog.
SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY: Associate Professor Dana Dunn (Sociology) has been named provost of the University of North Carolina Greensboro, the Greensboro News & Record reported. Dunn has served UT Arlington as provost and vice president for academic affairs (2003-2007), as well as special advisor to the president and provost. … Assistant Professor Jason Shelton (Sociology) was interviewed during KXAS/NBC5 coverage of last month’s civil rights summit at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin. … U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, expects to file a comprehensive immigration bill in Congress within the next several weeks, Al Dia reported. In the article, Associate Professor Christian Zlolniski (Anthropology) said Latino voters and the immigration issue are becoming increasingly important to Republicans. … Professor Ben Agger (Sociology) commented on selfies and viral content in an article for Crisp magazine as well as Polish news website. … Agger also commented on the issue of powdered alcohol in an article from the Christian Science Monitor. … Assistant Professor Ritu Gairola Khanduri (Anthropology) will present a paper on comic books in India titled, “‘Yeh dil maange more’ (This heart asks for more)” at the inaugural Association for Asian Studies (AAS) conference to be held at the National University of Singapore in July. … Graduate student Christopher Shelton (Anthropology) has been awarded a Betty and Roger Ruch Study Abroad Scholarship for archaeological research this summer. He will be working with his advisor, Assistant Professor Naomi Cleghorn on the investigation of a new Late Pleistocene site, Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1, on the southern coast of South Africa. … Graduate student Lukas Szrot (Sociology) was recently hired as a global intern for the Telos Journal. Szrot presented his paper, “Origins of Life, America Divided: A Sociological Examination of the Creation-Evolution Controversy,” at the annual meeting of the American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences in Las Vegas, Nev., last month. … Graduating master’s candidate Jaala Robinson (Sociology) has been admitted to the doctoral program in sociology at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she received a graduate assistantship and the Othmer Fellowship. Robinson presented a paper, “Outsourcing Single Parents’ Household Labor,” at the North Central Sociological Association annual meeting in Cincinnati in April. She also presented a paper based on her master’s thesis at the Southwestern Social Science Association meetings in San Antonio last month. … Stephanie Mastromoro (MA, ’13) and Professor Beth Anne Shelton (Sociology) presented a paper, “Gender Cues in Job Ads,” at the Southwestern Social Science Association meetings in San Antonio on April 19.
THEATRE ARTS: Professor Andrew Christopher Gaupp has been invited and confirmed to direct the premiere of the play “Mi Princesa Pefecta” by Marco A. Piña for the New Play Development Workshop (NPDW) of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education in Scottsdale, Ariz., this July. It will be the ninth year that Gaupp has been selected nationally as one of only eight directors for the NPDW. He is also slated to direct the musical “Into the Woods” for UT Arlington’s Maverick Theatre Company in the spring of 2015. … Specialist Michelle Harvey designed “Sweeney Todd” for Uptown Players/Turtle Creek Chorale, a show that opened April 24. … Senior Lecturer Julienne Greer is working at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth on the play, “The Other Place,” and was interviewed by A + C‘s Editor in Chief Nancy Wozny. … Assistant Professor Anne Healy will present at the 9th Annual International Song, Stage and Screen Conference in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, June 24-26. … Healy will present at the 2014 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference 2014 in Scottsdale, Ariz., July 24-27. At the conference, she will be the assistant director for the SETC/ATHE 2014 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award Development Workshop and Staged Reading. … Junior Bentleigh Nesbit was recently cast in “Shrek the Musical,” a summer production of the Kids Who Care (an iconic Fort Worth Children’s theatre program). … Sophomore Catherine Tran was cast in a UTA Yoga promotional video. The video will be shown at all New Maverick Orientations to encourage students to take advantage of the wellness and yoga programs offered on campus. … Senior Jean Gonzales was hired as the assistant master electrician at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and accepted a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) position at the University of Houston in the Design MFA program. … Senior Jailene Torres is headed to the Illinois Shakespeare Festival as a stitcher. … Senior Raul Luna will be a stitcher at PCPA Theatrefest. … Junior Adrien Vasquez was offered a GTA position at Northern Illinois University Theatre Technology MFA program.
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