UCA this week is hosting the annual ArkaText Literary Festival from March 2 through 6. Each year, the festival brings noted Arkansas writers in various genres to campus for public readings and workshops with students. This year, the festival will feature Mark Jackson (creative nonfiction) and Graham Gordy (screenwriting). The first annual Exquisite Corpse Annual Reading will also be featured. … [Read more...]

Ryan Fisher, assistant professor of choral music education in UCA's Department of Music, recently had his article, "Debating Assessment in Music Education" published in Research and Issues in Music Education. Fisher also recently presented his research project, "Effect of Ethnicity on the Age-of-Onset of the Male Voice Change" at the Texas Music Educators Association research poster … [Read more...]

UCA assistant professor of writing Garry Craig Powell will give a public reading of his works in the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock on Sunday, March 1 at 3 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Powell also recently had a story selected for Best American Mystery Stories 2009, which will be published by Houghton Mifflin. The story, titled "Kamila and the King … [Read more...]

Research conducted by four UCA College of Business professors was recently profiled in a news story by a local Little Rock television station. Drs. Mark E. McMurtrey, James P. Downey, Steven M. Zeltmann, and William H. Friedman published their article "Critical Skills of Entry-Level IT Professionals: An Empirical Examination of Perceptions from Field Personnel" in the Journal of Information … [Read more...]

UCA marketing major Kris Allen is among the 36 finalists in the current season of American Idol, and he will compete for votes from viewers on Wednesday night to make it to the final round of 12. See his performance at 7 p.m. CST on the Fox television network (Fox 16 affiliate in Central Arkansas). His fan page is available at voteforkrisallen.com. For more information, visit americanidol.com. … [Read more...]

Internationally known soprano and UCA alumna Kristin Lewis returns to campus to perform and teach with UCA's Spring 2009 Artists in Residence Program on Feb. 26-27 and Mar. 2. "It is important that those (students) who strive for the same things that she has achieved can see the example of someone who, a decade ago, was sitting in the same classroom in which they are sitting, practicing in the … [Read more...]

Stephanie Vanderslice, associate professor in UCA's Department of Writing, last month was guest editor of College English, along with her frequent collaborator, Dr. Kelly Ritter of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. College English is a leading national professional journal for the college scholar-teacher. CE publishes articles about literature, rhetoric-composition, critical theory, … [Read more...]

The Chronicle of Higher Education this week features UCA's extraordinary efforts to promote world-class culture for its campus and surrounding community, calling UCA an "academic incubator for the arts." Full article here: University Strives to Be a Cultural Hub in Central Arkansas By CAROLYN MOONEY Conway, Ark. You might not immediately think of this city of 55,000 as an arts hub. Just a … [Read more...]

Soon after the opening of the new UCA College of Business building next spring, a new business lecture series will be introduced as a result of a generous gift from the Davis family of Conway. Longtime Conway residents Milton and Claudia Davis, along with their son and daughter-in-law, Granger and Jan (Preuitt) Davis, have committed $50,000 to endow the Davis Family Lecture Series and the Davis … [Read more...]