Our graduates have gone on to serve in a variety of positions in Northeast Arkansas, and the world.
Dr. Rachel M. Miller
August, 2014 HS Graduate
"Our Town: Redefining Cultural Diversity Through Community Dynamics in Eureka Springs, Arkansas."
Dissertation Director: Dr. Deborah Chappel Traylor
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Museum Educator for the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. Part-time faculty for Pulaski Technical College, Fine Arts and Humanities.
Dr. Antoinette F. Johnson
May, 2014 HS Graduate
"Exploring Architecture, Ornament, Social and Cultural Heritage Through Interior Decoration"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta
Employment
Employment at graduation to present-day: Volunteer work in historic preservation including serving as a commissioner on the Little Rock Historic District Commission, is a member on the Board of Directors for the Quapaw Quarter Association, and an advisory board member of Main Street Arkansas. She runs her own historic interior design and historic preservation consulting firm, Johnson Consulting, which specializes in creating sympathetic interiors for historic buildings and re-creating historic interiors. The firm also surveys historic buildings and writes nominations for the National Register of Historic Places.
Dr. Ammar A. Alobiedat
May, 2014 HS Graduate
"The Impacts of Heritage Tourism on Gadara, Northern Jordan."
Dissertation Director: Dr. Erik O. Gilbert
Dr. Moriah C. Istre
August, 2013 HS Graduate
"'Music is the Voice of a Culture': Cajun and Creole Musicians Speak about the Power of Music to Preserve, Represent, and Celebrate South Louisiana's French Heritage"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta
Dr. Elista D. Istre
August, 2013 HS Graduate
"'Honey, We's All Creoles': Exploring South Louisiana's Creole Identity, Culture, and Heritage"
Dissertation Director: Dr. Brady M. Banta
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.
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. Margie J. 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: 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. Present-day: Adjunct for the ASU History department instructing correspondence courses through distance learning, U.S. History and World Civilizations.
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. Fatme Myuhtar-May
August, 2011 HS Graduate
"Identity, 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. 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: Archival Manager at the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives, in Powhatan, AR, for the Arkansas History Commission. Present-day:
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. 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. 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. 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. 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 O. Gilbert
Employment
Employment at graduation: Faculty member at Egerton University in Kenya.
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: Director of Distance Learning, Arkansas State University. Present-day: Arkansas State University Assistant Professor of Radio-Television beginning Fall 2012. Previously appointed: Interim Dean of Regional Programs at Arkansas State University. Dr. Bowman is revising his dissertation for publication as a book.
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. 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. 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: Associate Professor of Italian, Coordinator of the Italian Program,and Co-director of Italy Study Abroad at Belmont, and also the representative of the Italian Consulate of Detroit in Tennessee.
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. 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: State Historian and Director of Arkansas History Commission (Little Rock, AR). Present employment: Associate Professor and Archivist at Ouachita Baptist University.
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. 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. 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.
