Welcome to the June 2024 Round Up of the Fulbright REVIEW Blog

As we head deeper into this beautiful summer, I hope you and yours are thriving!

Here at our Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, each new season typically brings exciting transitions, and this summer is no exception.

Because it’s time to welcome our new dean, Brian E. Raines who officially starts on July 1!

That means this will be my last message to you as interim dean, which is bittersweet, but also exciting as I prepare to embark on new research adventures soon as a member of our history faculty once more.

In the meantime, I cannot express enough what a great honor it has been to be your interim dean for the past couple of years, and to thank you for letting me serve our amazing college this way.

With Dr. Raines, our Associate Deans, and our other outstanding college leaders continuing to guide the way forward, I know the college is in excellent hands!

And speaking of our phenomenal college, while the academic year may have come to a close, so much is still happening that we can’t wait to share with you – right here in the June 2024 Fulbright REVIEW.

June is also a special time because it’s when we celebrate Pride Month, commemorate Juneteenth, and shine a spotlight on some of our top faculty achievers!

So, let’s dive in together! First, by honoring 16 faculty retirees – whose time in the college totals more than 500 years of combined service.

Then, meet the latest class of rising academics who make up our 2024 Connor Faculty Fellows and an awesome historian whose accolades are nothing short of astounding!

You can also meet one of theatre’s top fight directors, the inaugural Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Fellow, and a musician who builds community ties and relationships though art.

Next, help celebrate the award-winning UATV News journalists whose broadcast was named best in the nation, the latest winners of our college’s Inclusive Excellence Scholarships, and our newest crop of student ambassadors.

Then, see how two alumni are making international study abroad more accessible, and how our latest partnership with NorthWest Arkansas Community College will help create more data scientists.

Afterward, get to know an award-winning student poet, a senior who was awarded a research grant for exploring Hot Springs’ Black community, and a group of anthropology students studying human cultures and their environments.

You can also meet a talented student selected for a prestigious data reporting program, a pair of student-journalists who won National Association of Hispanic Journalists scholarships, and the students who created a new organization dedicated to all things “neuro-nerdiness”!

Our students also explored big questions this month – like “can and should videogames teach sensitive histories?” – and used satellite imagery and archaeological methods to study the African Swahili Coast.

And speaking of cool projects, one of our anthropologists was awarded $630,000 to study tooth and skull evolution, and one of our historians won a third national award for his book on how Native Americans resisted U.S. colonialism.

Other recent faculty accomplishments include this political scientist being elected vice president of an international studies association, and this historian being named the U of A’s new senior vice provost for academic affairs!

If that wasn’t enough excellence, see how several of our fantastic faculty and staff members recently completed the UARK Leaders Program, and one of our team members was named an Employee of the Quarter.

Finally, help us commemorate the life of a beloved French professor who served our college for more than 33 years, garnering many top teaching awards and accolades.

And, if you’d like to learn more about the extraordinary people, initiatives, projects and activities that make up Fulbright College, please visit our Facebook, Twitter / X, Instagram or LinkedIn social media channels. Our handle is @uarkfulbright on all.

As always, we’ll keep providing you with more new stories at fulbrightreview.uark.edu. We hope you’ll stay tuned.

In the meantime, please keep in touch, take care and be well!

Sincerely,

Kathryn Sloan
Interim Dean, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences