The UCA Sociology Department hosted the 40th annual meeting of the Arkansas Sociological and Anthropological Association (ASAA) in the Student Center on Nov. 12. More than 50 faculty and students from across the state attended the conference, themed “Organic Communities: Solidarity and Sustainability in a Globalized World.”
Members and students presented research covering deviance, gender and globalization, community and collectivism, self and society, and community-based folklife practice and Ozark sustainability. Dr. Allison Vetter, Henderson State University, ASAA president, presented Dr. Gordon Shepherd, UCA
professor of sociology, the ASAA President’s Award for his outstanding research and contribution to the discipline.
ASAA is the longest running state organization in the fields of sociology and anthropology. Dr. Doug George, UCA assistant professor of sociology, serves as vice-president and Dr. Brian Campbell, UCA assistant professor of anthropology, is the secretary-treasurer.
Dr. Gordon Shepherd, professor of sociology, received the Arkansas Sociology and Anthropology Association’s Presidential Award “for consistent efforts and leadership which impacts upon scholarship and activism and ultimately upon the people and culture of Arkansas” during the association’s November meeting.
Dr. Mary Ruth Marotte and Dr. Paige Reynolds, both assistant professors of English at UCA, along with Dr. Ralph Savarese of Grinnell College, are the editors of the newly-released, Papa, PhD: Essays on Fatherhood by Men in the Academy (Rutgers UP), a collection of 32 essays. Included in the book are essays by two UCA professors, Dr. Charles Bane of the English Department and Dr. Gary McCullough of the Speech Pathology Department.