• Aaron Calvert, Art, was included in UALR High Lights from the Permanent Collection catalog and exhibit, was a juror of the Virgina P. Weaver Spring Art Show at the Malvern National Bank, and had his work, bio, and statement included in The Idle Class magazine.
Calvert also had his work chosen for display at the 60th Annual Delta Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock. Calvert received an honorable-mention award with his glazed stoneware sculpture Always Facing South Bear. He was featured in the Tri-Lakes edition of Arkansas Democrat Gazette: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/jun/17/area-artists-show-works-annual-delta-exhibit/ After the show, the Arkansas Arts Center purchased the piece for their permanent collection.
• Paul Glover, Communication, will receive the Distinguished 4-year Broadcast Adviser award from the College Media Association at its convention in October. Michael Taylor, Communication, will receive the Distinguished 4-year Newspaper Adviser award. “It is very rare for two faculty members from the same university to win awards in the same year,” said Dr. Angela Boswell, dean of Ellis College.
Taylor has also received a prestigious award from the National Speleological Society. The 2018 National Speleological Society’s “Spelean Arts and Letters Award” was presented to Taylor Aug. 3 at the NSS annual convention in recognition of his many contributions to the society. The annual convention, held this year in Helena, Montana, is the premier annual gathering of cave explorers in the U.S. In addition to receiving the award, Taylor ran an all-day writers workshop on Friday for those wanting to write about caves, talked with cavers about his book in progress, Hidden Nature, to be published next year by Vanderbilt University Press, and attended some microbiology sessions to seek advice on a joint cave research project he is conducting with Dr. James Engman and his students.
• The paintings of Katherine Strause, Art, were the focus of The Avenue — Art & Wine Dinner in Hot Springs. Strause discussed her work and inspiration with guests who enjoyed both her art and a five-course dinner with wine pairings from Executive Chef Casey Copeland.
Strause has been chosen to exhibit in Woman Made Gallery’s “21st International Open,” an exciting exhibition in Chicago which includes 44 works of art by 40 artists, spanning six countries. These artists explore conceptual and material boundaries through video, photography, mixed medium assemblage, collage, painting and sculpture.
Strause is also the painter behind the the cover of the Little Rock magazine, Soiree, “Bow & Arrow.”
• Fred Worth, Mathematics, served as mentor for Caleb Cornelius, an Arkadelphia High School student, who presented “An additive approach to squaring” at the Mathematical Association of America in Russellville. Worth also presented two papers, “One of baseball’s most dominant pitchers,” and “Some of the worst hitters in baseball history.”
• The newest book of Matt Bowman, History, Christian: The Politics of a Word, was published by Harvard University Press and has earned many good reviews and a feature on Utah Public Radio: http://www.upr.org/post/christian-politics-word-america-matthew-bowman-tuesdays-access-utah
• Rick McDaniel, Engineering and Physics, will work with the Arkadelphia High School First Robotics Team again this year. Last year, he was assistant coach for the team but this year he will be a technical advisor for the team. Last year in the Arkansas Rock City Challenge at the Barton Coliseum, the team placed 23rd out of 55 teams and was the highest ranked rookie team. This year, they look to do even better as they have most of the team returning and they just received a $20,000 grant from the Alcoa Foundation for equipment.
• Dr. Paul Williamson, Psychology, was appointed by Brill Publishers as an associate editor for the new “Brill Research Perspectives” series in Religion and Psychology. Williamson will be responsible for recruiting authors and handling extended articles, each of which will be published in a stand-alone hardback edition in the series.
Williamson had two articles accepted to the journal, Pastoral Psychology. “The experience of Muslim prayer: A phenomenological investigation,” and “The Lazarus Project: A response to Jindra” will both appear in the 2018 volume.
Williamson was also appointed as the new Book Review Editor for the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.
• Randy Duncan, Communication, co-curated the Marvel Universe of Super Heroes, a $3 million exhibit that debuted April 21 at the Museum of Popular Culture in Seattle. The sprawling exhibition is loaded with interactive features, rare memorabilia, life-size statues of Black Panther, The Thing and others items from the world of Marvel films and comics. His work was featured in an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article. Duncan also attended the Comic-Con in San Diego, co-chairing the Comic Arts Conference he helped create there 26 years ago.
• Shannon Clardy, Engineering and Physics, was elected to serve as the Zone X Councilor for the National Society of Physics Students. She will be representing the Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee chapters on the national council in Washington DC for the next three years.
• The work of current and former Art faculty members, Beverly Buys, Aaron Calvert, Margo Duvall, Gary Simmons, Katherine Strause, David Warren, was featured in“Teachers Are Artists Too!” an art exhibit showcasing artwork created by Henderson State University, National Park College, and Arkansas School for Math, Science, and Art’s past and current art instructors at the Landmark Building,
• Many faculty members helped with the Upward Bound Camp this summer, including: Cindy Fuller, Biological Sciences, who coordinated the Biology activities; and Shannon Clardy, Engineering and Physics, who demonstrated astronomy. Maryjane Dunn, Spanish, Torri Ellison, Communication, and others also assisted the program.
• Doug Heffington, Geography, led two special hikes for 66 park visitors as part of the National Trails Day Statewide Hike Initiative at Radnor Lake. Heffington who has assisted in overseeing the historical, geographical and cultural landscape research over the past 15+ years provided a short powerpoint presentation overview of the cultural and historical research he has overseen at Radnor Lake and interpretation of the Historic Valve House. Both presentations concluded with a hike to the Historic Valve House Trail from the Walter Criley Visitor Center.
• Margarita Peraza-Rugeley, Spanish, published a book chapter in an edited volume: “Amor con amor se paga, lo demás con dinero: las mujeres en la Autobiografía del campesino Rubentino Ávila Chi” Escrituras locales en contextos globales 3: (Re) presentaciones de la historia, edited by Claudia Hammerschmidt, Postdam: INOLAS Publishers, 2018. pp. 187-202. (“Love is Paid with Love, the Rest with Money: Women in the Peasant Rubentino Ávila Chi’s Autobiography” Local Writings in Global Contexts 3: Historic (Re)presentations)
Perez also organized, chaired, and presented a panel at the Latin American Studies Association, in Barcelona, Spain,: Panel: “¿Y nos volvimos más interesantes?: la perspectiva global en la literatura latinoamericana” (Did We Become more Interesting?: A Global Perspective on Latin American Literature) Paper at this panel: “De Mambrú de R. H. Moreno Durán a Hallyu la ola coreana en Latinoamérica: presencias en intercambio” (From R. H. Moreno Durán’s Mambrú to Hallyu the Korean Wave in Latin America: Presence in Exchange”)
• Maryjane Dunn, Spanish, published “Women’s Words About Pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, 1890 – 1920” in the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage.
• Michael Lloyd, Statistics, represented Henderson at the Oklahoma-Arkansas Section meeting of the Mathematical Association of America in Russellville. He presented a paper entitled “Assessing Statistical Models for a Stress Hormone in Saliva” in the applied mathematics session using data obtained with the assistance of Emily Belzer, Aneeq Ahmed, Holly Morado, David Bateman, and others. The paper assessed various models for predicting cortisol concentration in psychology students’ saliva based on light absorbance values. Lloyd also participated in the executive officer meeting and business meeting, and was re-elected Communications Director for another three-year term.
• Barbara Hansen, Sociology, presented at two international conferences this summer. In mid-June, she presented a 25-minute talk based on her original research study on weight-loss surgery stigma. The paper was presented at an international sociology conference focusing on obesity stigma, the 6th Annual Weight Stigma Conference at Leeds Beckett University in Leeds, England. She had the opportunity to meet other health stigma researchers, including faculty from Stanford, Brown, and University of California-San Diego. According to Hansen, “this was their first time to hear of Henderson State University.” In mid-July, she presented at a roundtable on health and medical sociology focused on her research in affiliate stigma and caregiver burden in intractable epilepsy. This research was presented at the ISA World Congress of Sociology in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This international sociology conference is held once every four years and showcases sociological research from around the world. In addition to being accepted for presentations at these prestigious conferences, Hansen’s exceptional research has also been recognized by the American Sociological Association: her dissertation has been nominated for best dissertation from original research in mental health.
• David Warren, Art, received a grant from the Arkansas Arts Council for his Studio Teen Workshop for June 17-21, 2019.
• Martin James, Political Science, has published the Third Edition of his Historical Dictionary of Angola, an installment in the Historical Dictionaries of Africa series.
• Stephanie Barron, English, presented a paper, “Margaret Fuller’s Borderlands,” at the College English Association conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, on April 6.
• Nydia Jeffers, Spanish, attended the Latin American Studies Association Conference in Barcelona, Spain. She presented a paper to show that Silvestre Balboa, in his colonial work Mirror Patience, reverses the social and moral roles of white and black protagonists in the Spanish empire.