Meet Our Graduates

Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program Graduates

 

May, 2005 HS Graduate
Dr. Sandy Davis-Baltz
"The Making of a Monument: Social Implications of Arkansas Case Studies"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta

Employment at graduation to present-day: Faculty, Fine Arts and History, Black River Technical College (Pocahontas, AR). Also does graphic design and historic restoration work.
May, 2005 HS Graduate
Dr. Sherry Laymon
"Pfeiffer Country: The Tenant Farms and Business Activities of Paul Pfeiffer in Clay County, Arkansas 1902-1954"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Clyde A. Milner, II

Employment at graduation: Archivist at Ouachita Baptist University (Arkadelphia, AR)

Present-day: Freelance writer and author of "Fearless: John L. McClellan, United States Senator" to be released on November 22, 2011;
Her revised dissertation was published in spring 2009 as a book by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies with distribution by the University of Arkansas Press;
Her articles have won the Arkansas Historical Association's Violet B. Gingles Award in 2010 and 2011.
August, 2005 HS Graduate
Dr. Robert A. Franklin
"Reconciliation And The Elaine, Arkansas Race Riot Of 1919: Forgive Or Forget"
Dissertation Director: Dr. C. Calvin Smith

Employment at graduation: Director, KASU public radio and assistant professor of radio and television at Arkansas State University. His dissertation included a fifty-five minute video documentary that has been distributed and viewed across the United States and abroad.

Present-day: Director of Media Operations, School of Communications, University of Nebraska at Omaha.
December, 2005 HS Graduate
Dr. Wendy Richter
"'Swallowed Up In One Gulp': Lost Communities Of The Upper Ouachita River Valley"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta

Employment at graduation to present-day: State Historian and Director of Arkansas History Commission (Little Rock, AR)
August, 2006 HS Graduate
Dr. Katherine Gail Dillion
"Friends Watching Friends: American Television in Egypt"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Deborah Chappel

Employment at graduation to present-day: English faculty, Harding University (Searcy, AR). Dissertation has been published as a book by Cambridge Scholars Press
August, 2006 HS Graduate
Dr. Francesca M. Muccini
"From Italian 'Cibo' To American Food: The Construction Of The Italian American Identity Through Food"
Dissertation Director: Dr. William Clements

Employment at graduation: Faculty of Italian and coordinator of student and faculty exchange programs to Italy, University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS)
Present-day: Tenure-track faculty, Department of Foreign Languages, Belmont University (Nashville, TN)
May, 2007 HS Graduate
Dr. Gary Lloyd Buxton
"The Art Of The Auctioneer: A Performance Tradition In Ethnographic And Historical Perspective"
Dissertation Director: Dr. William Clements

Employment at graduation to present-day: Faculty, English, Black River Technical College(Pocahontas, AR). Dr. Buxton initiated an undergraduate class in heritage studies at his college. He also is a Church of God minister and cattle rancher.
August, 2008 HS Graduate
Dr. Glinda Fountain Hall
"A Genre Of Our Own: The Cultural Work Of Women's Popular Romance Fiction"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Deborah Chappel-Traylor

Employment at graduation: Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith
Present-day: First Year Programs Faculty, ASU
Published article related to dissertation, “Inverting the Southern Belle: Romance Writers Redefine Gender Myths,” Journal of Popular Culture (February 2008): 37-55. Her dissertation has been published by Edwin Mellen Press.
December, 2008 HS Graduate
Dr. Michael Hugh Bowman
"In The Eye Of The Beholder: The Little Rock Central Crisis As A Television Event"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Clyde A. Milner II

Employment at graduation to present day: Director of Distance Learning, Arkansas State University.
Previously appointed: Interim Dean of Regional Programs at Arkansas State University. Dr. Bowman is revising his dissertation for publication as a book.
December, 2009HS Graduate
Dr. Rose Ong'oa-Morara
"One Size Fits All: The Interplay of Kanga, Makawa, Swahili Poetry, and Taarab in the Communication of Zanzibari Women"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Erik Gilbert

Employment at graduation: Faculty member at Egerton University in Kenya.
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May, 2010 HS Graduate
Dr. Guy Lancaster
"'Leave Town and Never Return': Case Studies of Racial Cleansing In Arkansas, 1887-1937"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Carol O'Connor

Employment at graduation: Editor, Arkansas Encyclopedia of History and Culture at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock.
August, 2010 HS Graduate
Dr. Lenore Shoults
"Mother-of-Pearls: The Entwined History of Shell and Pearl in Arkansas"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Clyde A. Milner II

Employment at graduation: Assistant Director, Arkansas State University Museum.
Present-day: Executive Director of The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas
December, 2010 HS Graduate
Dr. Derek Clements
"Preservation and Growth Strategies for the Randolph County Archives of Oral History: Using the Oral History Evaluation Guidelines to Improve a Pre-Existing Program"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta

Employment at graduation to present-day: Faculty at Black River Technical College Paragould, AR
May, 2011 HS Graduate
Dr. Simon R. Hosken
"Conversations with West Memphis: A Sense of Place and Heritage"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta

Employment at graduation to present-day: Arkansas State University History Department Adjunct
May, 2011
Dr. Lisa R. Perry
"Memory, Identity, and Paternalism: Creating an Appalachian Camelot"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta

Employment at graduation to present-day: Archival Manager at the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives, in Powhatan, AR, for the Arkansas History Commission
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May, 2011
Dr. Fatme Myuhtar-May
"Indentity, Nationalism, and Cultural Heritage Under Siege: The Case of Pomaks (Bulgarian-Speaking Muslims) in Bulgaria"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta

Employment at graduation to present-day: Arkansas State University History Department Adjunct
May, 2011
Dr. Melany Bowman
"Home Away From Home: The Assimilation of the Hispanic Population in Jonesboro, Arkansas"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta

Employment at graduation to present-day: Arkansas State University Department of World Languages & Cultures Faculty