Our graduates have gone on to serve in a variety of positions in Northeast Arkansas and the world.
Dr. Sandy Davis-Baltz
May, 2005 HS Graduate
"The Making of a Monument: Social Implications of Arkansas Case Studies" Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta
Employment
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.
Dr. Sherry Laymon
May, 2005 HS Graduate
"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
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.
Dr. Robert A. Franklin
August, 2005 HS Graduate
"Reconciliation And The Elaine, Arkansas Race Riot Of 1919: Forgive Or Forget" Dissertation Director: Dr. C. Calvin Smith
Employment
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.
Dr. Wendy Richter
December, 2005 HS Graduate
"'Swallowed Up In One Gulp': Lost Communities Of The Upper Ouachita River Valley" Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: State Historian and Director of Arkansas History Commission (Little Rock, AR)
Dr. Katherine Gail Dillion
August, 2006 HS Graduate
"Friends Watching Friends: American Television in Egypt" Dissertation Director: Dr. Deborah Chappel
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: English faculty, Harding University (Searcy, AR). Dissertation has been published as a book by Cambridge Scholars Press
Dr. Francesca M. Muccini
August, 2006 HS Graduate
"From Italian 'Cibo' To American Food: The Construction Of The Italian American Identity Through Food" Dissertation Director: Dr. William Clements
Employment
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)
Dr. Gary Lloyd Buxton
May, 2007 HS Graduate
"The Art Of The Auctioneer: A Performance Tradition In Ethnographic And Historical Perspective" Dissertation Director: Dr. William Clements
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Faculty, English, Black River Technical College. Dr. Buxton initiated an undergraduate class in heritage studies at his college. He also is a Church of God minister and cattle rancher.
Dr. Glinda Fountain Hall
August, 2008 HS Graduate
"A Genre Of Our Own: The Cultural Work Of Women's Popular Romance Fiction" Dissertation Director: Dr. Deborah Chappel-Traylor
Employment
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.
Dr. Michael Hugh Bowman
December, 2008 HS Graduate
"In The Eye Of The Beholder: The Little Rock Central Crisis As A Television Event" Dissertation Director: Dr. Clyde A. Milner II
Employment
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.
Dr. Rose Ong'oa-Morara
December, 2009 HS Graduate
"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
Employment at graduation: Faculty member at Egerton University in Kenya.
Dr. Guy Lancaster
May, 2010 HS Graduate
"'Leave Town and Never Return': Case Studies of Racial Cleansing In Arkansas, 1887-1937" Dissertation Director: Dr. Carol O'Connor
Employment
Employment at graduation: Editor, Arkansas Encyclopedia of History and Culture at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock.
Dr. Lenore Shoults
August, 2010 HS Graduate
"Mother-of-Pearls: The Entwined History of Shell and Pearl in Arkansas" Dissertation Director: Dr. Clyde A. Milner II
Employment
Employment at graduation: Assistant Director, Arkansas State University Museum. Present-day: Executive Director of The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas
Dr. Derek Clements
December, 2010 HS Graduate
"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
Employment at graduation to present-day: Faculty at Black River Technical College Paragould, AR
Dr. Simon R. Hosken
May, 2011 HS Graduate
"Conversations with West Memphis: A Sense of Place and Heritage" Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Arkansas State University History Department Adjunct
Dr. Lisa R. Perry
May, 2011 HS Graduate
"Memory, Identity, and Paternalism: Creating an Appalachian Camelot" Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Archival Manager at the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives, in Powhatan, AR, for the Arkansas History Commission.
Dr. Fatme Myuhtar-May
August, 2011 HS Graduate
"Indentity, Nationalism, and Cultural Heritage Under Siege: The Case of Pomaks (Bulgarian-Speaking Muslims) in Bulgaria" Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Arkansas State University History Department Adjunct
Dr. Melany Bowman
August, 2011 HS Graduate
"Home Away From Home: The Assimilation of the Hispanic Population in Jonesboro, Arkansas" Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Arkansas State University Department of World Languages & Cultures Faculty
Dr. Margie Hunter
May, 2012 HS Graduate
"Hope and Despair: the Farm Security administration Photographs in Eastern Arkansas During the Great Depression."
Dissertation Director: Dr. Clyde A. Milner II
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Teaching Advanced Placement World History at West Memphis High School. Serving on Archives Committee for the National Council for the Social Studies. Teaching correspondence courses in World and U.S. history for Arkansas State University.
Dr. James "Kimo" Tichgelaar
August, 2012 HS Graduate
"Preserved in Alcohol: Case Studies of Adaptive Reuse Projects by McNenamins Inc."
Dissertation Director: Dr. Clyde A. Milner II
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Ohio Dominican University, Department of History. Present-day: The Ohio State University College of Engineering, Engineering Education Innovation Center (EEIC.
Dr. Cindy Grisham
August, 2012 HS Graduate
"When Hope Grows Weary: An Arkansas Delta Town in Place and Time"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Carol A. O'connor
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Self-employed historian, genealogist, and writer.
