Spring 2007

Gary Buxton received his Ph.D. Degree in Heritage Studies in the May, 2007 commencement at Arkansas State University. Gary's dissertation title is "The Art of the Auctioneer: A Performance Tradition in Ethnographic and Historical Perspective". Dr. William Clements, English & Philosophy, served as Gary's dissertation advisor. Gary is an English/World Literature instructor at Black River Technical College in Pocahontas, Arkansas. Heritage Studies faculty, staff and students extend our sincerest congratulations to Dr. Gary Buxton.

Dr. Gary L. Buxton, Ph.D.

Lisa Perry,

Lisa Perry, Heritage Studies student and graduate assistant, has received a full scholarship to present in the “Just Connections” conference which is being hosted by Ferum College in Virginia on June 8-10, 2007.  The topic of this year’s conference is “Connections to the Future: A Search for Just and Sustainable Community Models”.

Since 1998, Just Connections has brought together community leaders, activists, students, teachers, and scholars to explore and advocate for democratic community models characterized by development and justice. For more information about the conference, please visit www.justconnections.org.  

Lisa’s presentation is entitled “History, Economic Challenges, and Planning for a Sustainable Community Economic Base in Floyd County, Kentucky.”  

 

Simon Hosken, Heritage Studies student, has helped organize a blues and gospel concert at the library (in the park) in West Memphis on Saturday, May 19th. The concert begins with a viewing of the film When I Was Younger, a documentary film about the Beatles by Michael Bowman. Concerts begin at 4pm with The Reel Brothers, a traditional gospel band, a jam session with David Evans at 5pm, and blues music and R&B with The Bluesberry Jam Band at 6:30pm. Refreshments will be available, picknickers are welcome. For more information, contact the West Memphis Public Library-213 North Avalon-West Memphis, AR 72301, 870.732.7590.

           Dr. Brady Banta, Acting Director of Heritage Studies, was recognized for 10 years of service to Arkansas State University on Thursday, May 3rd at the annual Distinguished Performance and Service Recognition Awards Ceremony. The annual ceremony also recognizes employees of the university who have accomplished 20, 25, and 30 years of service, as well as those presented with the Distinguished Performance Awards in the categories of clerical/secretarial, part-time employee, executive/administrator, non-faculty professional, skilled trades, service/maintenance, technical/paraprofessional, and customer service.

Dr. Brady M. Banta, Acting Director of Heritage Studies and University Archivist

Heritage Studies student Lisa Perry has been selected from among over 2,000 applicants to attend the Social Change Workshop at the University of Virginia June 23-29, 2007. The workshop has an exciting line-up of faculty, including David Schmidtz and Gerald Gaus from the University of Arizona, evolutionary psychologist Robert Kurzban from the University of Pennyslvania. For more information about the workshop, please visit www.TheIHS.org/SocialChange .

Heritage Studies student Michael Bowman presented a paper at the sixty-sixth annual conference of the Arkansas Historical Association held in Little Rock, April 26-28. The title of the paper was "A Regional Problem: How Television Framed the Little Rock Central Crisis." The presentation was part of a session titled Arkansas' Path to Integration and Civil Rights moderated by Dr. Joe Key.

Heritage Studies student Simon Hosken organized and presented "Blues In The Schools" in West Memphis as part of the annual Delta Blues Symposium. A new understanding and appreciation for blues music was presented to four hundred students at West Junior High in addition to fifty or so community members who attended the library concert and photo exhibit. A concert was performed by Essie "The Blues Lady" Neal, and several veteran local blues performers showed up to support Essie's concert. Simon, Dr. Gregory Hansen, CArolyn Redfearn and Michael Luster each spoke on different aspects of the blues the day before the concerts as well.

Five Heritage Studies students received recognition and awards at the annual College of Humanities & Social Sciences Honors banquet held on April 10, 2007 in the new student union building. The following awards were presented:

Dr. Francesca Muccini, PhD August 2006

Dr. Katherine Dillion, PhD August 2006

Dr. Gary Buxton, PhD May 2007

Cameron Klein, completion of Candidacy Exam

Glinda F. Hall, completion of Candidacy Exam

Gloria Robinson Boyd, completion of Candidacy Exam

Cindy Grisham was also honored by the department of Political Science as the outstanding student in the MA program.

L-R Cameron Klein, Glinda F. Hall, Dr. Deborah Chappel Traylor, Dr. Gary Buxton, Dr. Katherine Dillion

Dr. Clyde A. Milner II and Dr. Carol O'Connor presented the 2007 Frederick W. Beinecke Senior Fellow's Lecture at Yale University. The lecture was entitled "A Big Western Life: The Challenging Biography of Granville Stuart", and discussed the challenges Dr. Milner and Dr. O'Connor face while writing about a man whose life intersects with so many themes in the history of the North American West. The lecture was presented on Tuesday, March 6th, at the Beinecke Library on the Yale campus in New Haven, CT. Dr. Milner is the 2006-07 Frederick W. Beinecke Senior Research Fellow at Yale University and is currently on sabbatical from his position as Director of the Heritage Studies PhD Program. Dr. Carol A. O'Connor is the 2006-07 Visiting Fellow with the History Department at Yale University and is currently on sabbatical from her position as Associate Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences here at ASU.

Heritage Studies student and Graduate Assistant, Lisa Perry, has been chosen as one of four panelists to participate in the 32nd annual meeting of the Social Science History Association (SSHA) to be held in Chicago, Illinois November 11-15, 2007. In addition to serving as a panelist, Lisa will present her paper entitled "The Great Depression and War in a Model Coal Town." Her paper tells the story of how the community of Wheelwright, Kentucky labored to provide coal to produce the steel which built the infrastructure of an entire nation. For more information about the SSHA annual meeting, please visit their website at www.ssha.org.

 In addition to her participation in the SSHA, Lisa has been selected as a finalist for the USA Funds Access to Education Scholarships. Founded in 1958, Scholarship America has distributed more than $1billion to more than one million students. Scholarship America is the nation's largest nonprofit, private sector scholarship and educational support organization. Their mission is to expand access to educational opportunities by involving and assisting communities, corporations, foundations, organizations, and individuals in the support of students and in the encouragement of educational achievement. (mission statement credit- www.scholarshipamerica.org.)

For more information about the Scholarship America organization, please visit their website at http://www.scholarshipamerica.org.

Dr. Gregory Hansen has published his book entitled "A Florida Fiddler: The Life and Times of Richard Seaman". The book is a musical life history of a 97 year-old fiddler and storyteller from Kissimmee Park, Florida and presents his life history in relation to the stories of local history he related to audiences in the Jacksonville area. The book is available from the University of Alabama Press, http://www.uapress.ua.edu/.

A photo exhibit based on the photography of Dr. Gregory Hansen is on now on display at the ASU Museum. The exhibit portrays hand-carved stones from Indiana's Limestone Belt and the Arkansas Delta. The exhibit provides special attention to the symbolism expressed in Tree Trunk Tombstones. The exhibit will be on display until March 31, 2007.

West Junior High students in West Memphis will learn more about the area's musical heritage with a two-day "Blues in the Schools' program. The program is an outreach of the Arkansas Folklife Program and the Delta Blues Symposium and is being coordinated by Heritage Studies student Simon Hosken. For more information, please visit the Evening Times news article at http://www.theeveningtimes.com/news/.

Heritage Studies student Glinda Hall will present "Inverting the Southern Belle" to the 2007 Popular Culture/American Culture conference in Boston, Massachusetts April 4th-7th. Her submission has been selected as this year's winner of the William Brigham Award and will be published in volume 41, issue 1 of the Journal of Popular Culture. Glinda will be recognized and will receive her award at the general business meeting during the PCA conference in Boston. Congratulations to Glinda!
 

The Middle East Studies Committee announced the recipients of this year's awards at Middle East Studies Night, Feb. 5th in the Grand Hall at the Fowler Center. The awards support academic research focused on Middle Eastern culture and are funded from the proceeds of an endowment established in 1994 by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. The ADHE was the recipient of funds donated by King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, who valued promoting Middle Eastern cultural interests throughout the state of Arkansas. This year's recipents include Fatme Myuhtar-May, a doctoral student in Heritage Studies. Fatme will conduct ethnographic research for her dissertation in Turkey. Her proposal title, "Analysis of the Pomak: Contested Identity and its Impact on their Culture" will permit her to conduct ethnographic research that will be incorporated into her dissertation. She will analyze the implications and processes of identity dispute and formation within the culture of particular Pomak (Bulgarian Muslim) communities in both Turkey and Bulgaria.

credit: University communications Office http://asunews.astate.edu/MiddleEastStudiesGrants07.htm.

On April 5, 2007, at 2pm in International Students building, room 251, Heritage Studies Graduate Assistant Lenore Shoults will present her lecture, "Fairy Godmothers of the Ozarks" as part of the HSS Brown Bag Lecture Series. Lenore will show her documentary film about the Committee of One Hundred for the Ozark Folk Center and its impact on the preservation of folk culture in Mountain View, Arkansas. The series will feature six speakers, and will include one speaker from outside the university community. All lectures will be held in the International Students building, Room 251, at 2pm. Scheduled dates for the lecture series are as follows:

February 1--Dr. Sarah Wilkerson-Freeman will discuss her recent exhibit on historical photographs from the city of New Orleans

February 27--Dr. Ross Haenfler will present his research on the role of culture in the new youth social movements

March 8--Dr. Wayne Narey will present the use of metaphors and narratives in the Book of Genesis

March 29--Dr. Patrick Williams will discuss his work on contemporary fantasy and video games

April 5--Lenore Shoults, documentary film and discussion of Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, AR

April 19--Dr. Lawrence Salinger will present a lecture on the relationship between culture and Middle Eastern terrorism

For additional information, please contact Dr. Chris Wienke, Assistant Professor of Sociology at cwienke@astate.edu.

Fall 2006

"Several years ago, I met Simon Hosken, who is doing very significant research on the history of West Memphis, including its rich musical history. I believe he is doing some of the most important blues research in the world right now--potentially the subject material for a great book that could make all of Arkansas proud. There's an amazing story there, if only Hosken had the resources to dig it up. Alas, as I understand it, Hosken has been doing his work largely on his own, without outside funding. That's a shame, though it's typical for scholars of vernacular music such as blues and country-western. We never seem to get the respect that so many foreigners are willing to accord to this music. I and many other blues researchers would be grateful if someone could help Hosken with his vitally important project--the unknown history of the beginnings of modern music in West Memphis. What he is doing could help not only blues researchers, but also West Memphis. Hosken's work could lead to a robust tourist trade in West Memphis if the civic leaders there, like the bigger city just across the river, are willing to recognize their rich, potentially world-famous cultural heritage.

credit: Mark Hoffman, November 29, 2006

For additional information about Hoffman's book Moanin' At Midnight, please visit the official website at www.howlinwolf.com  For additional information about the history of West Memphis Arkansas, please visit Simon's website at http://www.westmemphishistory.com/ .

Dr. Clyde Milner II, Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program, and Dr. Carol O'Connor, Humanities and Social Sciences, will spend this academic year at Yale University.  The Beinecke Library has appointed Milner as the Frederick W. Beinecke Senior Research Fellow, and O'Connor as Visiting Fellow. Their joint research will focus on Granville Stuart, a quintessential 19th-century pioneer of the American West.  The library houses many of Stuart's letters and diaries. Their proposed book on Stuart is under contract with Oxford University Press.                                   

credit: Arkansas Council of Social Studies
 

Dr. Robert Franklin, recent graduate of Heritage Studies, has been honored with the 2006 Society of Professional Journalists--Television category award for his documentary "Reconciliation and the Elaine, Arkansas Race Riot: Forgive or Forget." The Society of Professional Journalists is dedicated to the perpetuation of a free press as the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty. For more information, please visit their website at http://www.spj.org.

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to kick off the planned construction of Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site's new Visitor Center and the City's 50th Anniversary Commission's 500-Day countdown until the 50th anniversary in September 2007.

The event will take place Saturday, May 20, 2006 at 10am at the historic site, which is located at the intersection of South Park Street and Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive.

Join Senator Mark Pryor, Congressman Vic Snyder, Mayor Jim Dailey, 50th Anniversary Commission representatives, members of the Little Rock Nine, and others to celebrate this event.

The mission and planned events of the City's 50th Anniversary Commission will be announced, and the National Park Service will break ground at the site where the new Visitor Center will be located. Construction of the new Visitor Center is scheduled to begin in June 2006 with the grand opening anticipated in September 2007, coinciding with the 50th Anniversary commemorative events.

The new visitor center will help accommodate the growing number of people who are interested in learning more about civil rights and the Little Rock desegregation crisis. Visitation at the historic site has increased from 21,084 in 2001 (the year the National Park Service assumed operation of the visitor center) to 44,293 in 2005. The new facility will have about 3000 square feet of exhibit space, which is almost six times the space the current visitor center has. The new visitor center's opening in 2007 will allow the NPS to convert the current visitor center, which is housed in the historic Mobil Gas Station, into an education center. Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site is one of 388 units of the National Park System, and one of only 76 National Historic Sites across the country. For more information about the historic site, phone (501) 374-1957 or visit us on the web at www.nps.gov/chsc.

For additional information, please contact Spirit Trickey, NPS at (501) 374-1957 or Scott Carter, City of Little Rock, at (501) 374-4421.