Nine University of Arkansas Professors Receive SEC-Supported Faculty Travel Grants

Nine University of Arkansas Professors Receive SEC-Supported Faculty Travel Grants
Photo Submitted

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — For the second consecutive year, the University of Arkansas has awarded travel grants to faculty who plan to conduct research at other institutions in the Southeastern Conference.

The SEC Visiting Faculty Travel Grant Program is intended to enhance faculty collaboration that stimulates scholarly initiatives among the conference’s 14 member universities. It gives faculty from one SEC university the opportunity to travel to another SEC campus to exchange ideas, develop grant proposals, and conduct research.

The travel grants — funded by the SECU academic initiative — are available to each university for visiting faculty to use during an appropriate period, such as a sabbatical leave, the summer or a designated university break. The visiting faculty member may consult with faculty and/or students, offer lectures or symposia, or engage in whatever activities are productive for the visitor and host campus.

All areas of research and scholarly activity were eligible for support. The U of A faculty selected for travel grants are: Caree Banton, history; Kameri Christy, social work; Jamie Hestekin, chemical engineering; Angie Maxwell, political science; Roy McCann, electrical engineering; Xuan Shi, geosciences; Joshua Smith, English; Peter Ungar, anthropology; and Lia M. Uribe, music.

Banton, an assistant professor of history, will visit the Smathers Library at the University of Florida, where she will make use of the library’s extensive collection for the study of Caribbean history. Banton, who has a joint appointment with the Department of History and African and African American Studies Program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, specializes in race, slavery and abolition in the Caribbean. 

Christy, a professor of social work, will travel to Texas A&M University with Sabrina Billings, an associate professor in the U of A’s Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures, to discuss institutional research at Texas A&M related to promoting women in academic careers.

Hestekin, who holds the Jim L. Turpin Endowed Assistant Professorship in Chemical and Biochemical Separations in the Department of Chemical Engineering, will travel to the University of South Carolina to work with John Monnier, an internationally recognized expert in industrial catalysis, on catalyst development and design, He will also be able to give a seminar on his work.

Maxwell, the Diane D. Blair Professor of Southern Studies in the Department of Political Science, will travel to the University of South Carolina to participate in a series of interdisciplinary academic events, including a public lecture on her new book, The Indicted South: Public Criticism, Southern Inferiority, and the Politics of Whiteness and a brown-bag lunch presentation, “Linked Fate: Black and White Southerners and the Future of Southern Politics.”

McCann, a professor of electrical engineering and associate director of the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission (NCREPT) at the U of A, visited to the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of South Carolina earlier this month and explored new research opportunities with faculty members Andrea Benigni and Roger Dougal. They emphasized new collaborative efforts that would build on the strengths at the University of South Carolina and the laboratory test facilities at NCREPT. These collaborative efforts will lead to further modernization of the electric utility grid and increase the use of renewable energy resources.

Shi, an assistant professor of geosciences, will travel to Louisiana State University’s Department of Geography and Anthropology, where he will exploring potential research initiatives on data mining, knowledge discovery, and big data science in public health and policy study and present a research paper at the department’s Friday Forum, among other things.

Smith, an assistant professor of English, will visit the University of Mississippi, where he will collaborate with Lindy Brady, an assistant professor of English, on a project concerning border writing in medieval Britain. Smith and Brady are also creating a consortium of scholars in the South working in Irish, Welsh, and other Celtic languages and cultures. The U of A and the University of Mississippi are the only Southern schools to regularly offer courses on Welsh and Irish and Smith and Brady will also explore ways to share resources in order further graduate education in Celtic studies at both institutions.       

Ungar, a Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology, will travel to the University of Florida to establish a collaboration with anthropology Professor David Daegling’s skillset and resources in biomechanics research with the University of Arkansas’ facilities and expertise in microscopic tooth wear analysis. Ungar and Daegling will develop new ways to understand how teeth are worn on the microscopic level when we eat different sorts of foods, allowing the researchers to tie specific dental wear patterns to foods eaten and, ultimately, to better reconstruct the diets of past peoples and fossil species from their teeth.

Uribe, an assistant professor of bassoon, will visit the University of Georgia and the studio of bassoon professor Amy Pollard. Her activities will include a master class for the university’s bassoon students and a recital that will feature pieces written for the bassoon, including “Contemplation” a piece for bassoon, rainstick and piano by U of A music Professor Robert Mueller. 

The SEC Visiting Faculty Travel Grant is one of several programs of the SECU academic initiative. SECU, headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., sponsors, supports and promotes collaborative higher education programs and activities involving administrators, faculty and students at its member universities.

More than 100 participants from all 14 SEC universities will travel throughout the academic year, and every SEC campus will host a participant. 

The U of A is hosting six visiting faculty members through the grant program this year. They are:

  • Nancy Balach, associate professor of music, University of Mississippi
  • Lauren Cunningham, assistant professor of accounting, University of Tennessee
  • Margaret-Mary Dowell, associate professor of literacy and urban education, Louisiana State University
  • Adam Estes, assistant professor of music, University of Mississippi
  • Eric Giannini, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, University of Alabama
  • Amanda Johnston, associate professor of music, University of Mississippi
Contacts

Chris Branam, research communications writer/editor
University Relations
479-575-4737, cwbranam@uark.edu

Headlines

The World as a Classroom: The Executive M.B.A. Program at U of A

The program, offered through the Sam M. Walton College of Business, blends online learning with face-to-face interaction and applied studies in a real-time international immersion trip.

Keri Blakinger, Author of 'Corrections in Ink,' to Speak at Fayetteville Public Library April 22

Blakinger, an award-winning journalist now at the Los Angeles Times, will talk about her memoir and her work as a reporter at 6 p.m. April 22 at the Fayetteville Public Library's Walker Community Room.

Visit With University Libraries and Pat Walker Health Center's Medical Services at Carnival Today

Employees are invited to meet fellow workers from units across campus including the University Libraries and the Pat Walker Health Center at today's Making Your Day Work Carnival at the Arkansas Union.

Farewell Reception April 3 for Fulbright College's Lisa Summerford

The campus community is invited to celebrate Summerford's achievements and to wish her well during a drop-in retirement reception from 3:30-5 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, in the Fulbright College Dean's Office in Old Main 523.

Rachel McGathy Retiring After 25 Years

There will be a reception to celebrate McGathy's retirement from 2:30-4:30 p.m. Friday, March 29, in the downstairs breakroom at Uptown East.

News Daily