University of Arkansas at Little Rock

UALR’s Trojan Pep Band and Percussion Ensemble will perform their spring concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 5 in the Stella Boyle Smith Recital Hall of UALR’s Fine Arts Building.

Admission is free and open to the public.

The program will feature members of the Pep Band performing the classic “Fantasy” from Earth, Wind, and Fire, as well as “Birdland” by Josef Zawinul featuring vocalist Kinshasa Hicks. The percussion ensemble will be performing the percussion interlude from Dimitri Shostakovich’s “The Nose” and will present “Sonatina” by Fisher Tull.

Charles Law serves as director of both groups.

For more information, contact the UALR Department of Music at 569-3294.

An exhibition of photographs, including those by UALR art history major Alex Leme opened in New York last week.

En Foco’s New Works #14 features photographers who question the traditional role of documentary photography to bear witness, by investigating its subjective, intimate and personal nature.

Juror Andy Adams, editor and publisher of Flak Photo, selected Leme and fellow photographers Rona Chang, Susana Raab, Daniel Ramos, and Sarah Sudhoff through a national call for submissions.

Another of Leme’s photographs was published last week in first issue of LPV magazine.

He is one of four student finalists in the National Best College Photography Competition for Forum Magazine.. this will be the second year in a row he has been picked to be included in annual publication.

Five UALR students presented at the Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society Convention held in Pittsburgh last month.

Robert Bruno of Little Rock, presented “I Am Not Writing About You: A Collection of Poetry;” Suzi Garcia of Little Rock read from her work, “Unrelating to One Another: A Collection of Poetry;” and Deannah Johnson of North Little Rock, Sam Brown and Aaron Barger, both of Benton, presented “Masculinity Doesn’t Make the Man: Male Characters in the work of S.E. Hinton.”

The 2011 convention included over 125 sessions (nearly 700 papers), featuring the works both of Sigma Tau Delta students and alumni, and of members of Sigma Kappa Delta, the English honor society for two-year colleges.

Sigma Tau Delta’s central purpose is to confer distinction upon students of the English language and literature in undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies. Sigma Tau Delta also recognizes the accomplishments of professional writers who have contributed to the fields of language and literature.

With nearly 800 active chapters located in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, there are more than 1,000 faculty sponsors, and approximately 9,000 members inducted annually in the society.

UALR’s Gallery Program presents three student-centered exhibitions this spring in the UALR Fine Arts Building.

In Gallery I, The Student Competitive exhibition will be on display now through Wednesday, May 4. This juried exhibition highlights artworks created by students taking studio art courses at UALR. A variety of disciplines is represented – graphic design, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, metals, and applied design objects.  The juror and curator of this year’s exhibition was Richard Lou, the art department chair at University of Memphis.

A Different Emily 2011, by Emily Wood. Acrylic and graphite on wood panel, 12″ by 6″.

In Gallery II, Emily Wood’s thesis exhibition will be displayed from Wednesday, April 6 to Thursday, April 21. Wood’s images are painted directly from photographs posted on the social media website Facebook in an attempt to explore how the reading of an image can be altered when it is painted. She paints from these photographs to investigate the significance of images in our culture, which has become saturated with them.

Senior exhibitions continue to be on exhibit in Gallery III.  The works of Katherine P. Monroe (photography/graphic design), Roxanne L. Shelton (photography), Tori L. Johnson (graphic design), and Carmen N. Camp (graphic design) will be on display until Sunday, April 10. The senior talk for their exhibit will be held at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, April 7 in Room 161 of the Fine Arts Building.

The works of Hadeel Abunasrah (graphic design), Kendall L. Thomas (graphic design), Jared C. Teague (graphic design), and Mandy Simino (photography) will be displayed in Gallery III Tuesday, April 12 through Sunday, April 24. The senior talk will be held at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 19 in Room 161 of the Fine Arts Building.

The final senior exhibition will be on display Wednesday, April 27 to Sunday, May 8 and includes the works of Crystal G. Herrman (sculpture), Jessica A. Perren (printmaking), Lucy M. Inserra (painting), Ming Te Cheng (graphic design), and Martice F. Smith (illustration). The senior talk will be held at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, May 3 in Room 161 of the Fine Arts Building.

The galleries are open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Weekend hours are Saturday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sunday 2 to 5 p.m. Exhibits are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Gallery Director Brad Cushman at becushman@ualr.edu.

The UALR Department of Music will present the Guitar Ensemble’s spring concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 25 in Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall of UALR’s Fine Arts Building.

Admission is free and open to the public.

The concert program features a variety of music and ensemble configurations. The program includes “Discantus” and “Brazilliance” by Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida, a Beatles medley arranged by Professor Michael Carenbauer, a transcription of the standard “Bluesette,” and ensemble performances of “Jaco” and “American Garage” by Pat Metheny.

Directed by Carenbauer,  the UALR Guitar Ensemble is the primary ensemble for guitarists involved in music performance study.

For more information, contact UALR’s Department of Music at 501-569-3294.

The UALR Department of English will host Shakespearean scholar, Peter J. Smith, PhD from Nottingham Trent University at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, in the Arkla Room in Ross Hall on the UALR campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Smith, Reader in Renaissance Literature at Trent, will present his lecture “Something Rick and Strange: The Tempest and the Magic of Authority.”

Smith studied at the universities of Lancaster and Leicester and has lectured in Italy, France, Holland, Australia, Poland, and many times in America.  He has been Visiting Professor at Tours, Lincoln-Nebraska and University of Massachusetts.  He is the author of Social Shakespeare (Macmillan, 1995), co-editor of Hamlet: Theory in Practice (Open University Press, 1998) and, most recently, co-editor of a special volume of the journal Shakespeare (Routledge, 2010) on the theory of theatre reviewing.

His essays and reviews have appeared in Shakespeare, Shakespeare Survey, Shakespeare Bulletin, Review of English Studies, Critical Quarterly, and The Upstart Crow.  He is on the editorial boards of Shakespeare and Cahiers Elisabethains and regularly reviews books and theatre productions for Times Higher Education. He is a trustee of the British Shakespeare Association.

Currently, he is finishing a book on scatology and writing a stage history of Twelfth Night.

For more information, contact the Department of English at 501.569.3161 or go to ualr.edu/english.

Israeli journalist Gil Hoffman,chief political correspondent and analyst for the Jerusalem Post, will present a lecture, “What the Future Holds: An Insider’s Look Middle East Politics,” at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 31, in UALR’s Engineering and Information Technology Building’s auditorium.

The event, hosted by UALR’s Middle Eastern Studies Program and the Jewish Federation of Arkansas, is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Joshua Thomsen.

Well-connected to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Hoffman has interviewed every major figure across the Israeli political spectrum, has been interviewed by top media six continents and is a regular analyst on CNN, Al-Jazeera, and other news outlets.

Called “the most optimistic man in Israel” by Israeli Television, Hoffman’s writing and television appearances provide a behind-the-scenes look at the intrigue and humor in the Israeli political arena.

Raised in Chicago, Hoffman graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University’s School of Journalism and wrote for the Miami Herald and Arizona Republic before moving to Israel. A reserve soldier in the Israeli Defense Force’s Spokesman’s Unit, he has lectured in seven countries and 36 U.S. states. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two children.

UALR’s Department of Music and the Office of Campus Life will celebrate Robert Boury’s thirtieth year as UALR resident composer with a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 17 in Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall of the UALR Fine Arts Building.

The concert is dedicated to Boury’s original compositions, performed by the composer and several guest artists.

Admission is free and open to the public.

The program includes “Sonatina” performed on piano by Norman Boehm of Hendrix College, along with “Two Love Songs” and “To Dream Again” performed by composer Boury on piano and featuring soprano Misook Yun. The composition, “Monarch’s Journey,” will be performed by Boury and the DDG Double Reed Trio, which includes Leanna Booze and Lorraine Duso on oboe and Beth Wheeler on English horn.

A special feature will include projected images of Arkansas moths photographed by Don Simons from Lori Spencer’s “Arkansas Butterflies & Moths” and turned into an art enhanced animated video by Arkansas artist Warren Criswell. The pianist for “Secret Designs” will be Kristina Marinova, UALR piano faculty member. To end the program, Boehm will perform “Portrait of Chopin” and “Jesse James Rag” on piano.

For more information, contact the music department at 501-569-3294.

The UALR Department of English will host English professor Thomas Leitch from the University of Delaware at 7:00 p.m, Monday, April 4, in the Donaghey Student Center, Room C. A reception will follow the lecture, both of which are free and open to the public.

Leitch’s talk, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change: Revising the Classics, looks at adaptations of classic written texts. The lecture is in conjuction with the UALR Cooper Honors Program in English special seminar “Twicetold Tales.”

Leitch is a literary critic and film studies specialist. He obtained his Ph.D. from Yale and is now director of the concentration in Film Studies at the University of Delaware where he teaches courses in American film, as well as literary and cultural theory.

Since 1989, he has reviewed mystery and suspense novels for Kirkus Reviews, where he is senior editor. He has published articles on Dickens, Henry James, Donald Barthelme, and Hollywood genres from musicals to whodunits to slasher films.

Leitch’s books include What Stories Are: Narrative Theory and Interpretation, Find the Director and Other Hitchcock Games, The Encyclopedia of Alfred Hitchcock, Crime Films and Perry Mason, and Film Adaptation and Its Discontents. He is a past president of the Literature/Film Association.

For more information about Leitch’s lecture, contact the English department at 501.569.3161.

Jess Porter, UALR history assistant professor of geography, will present “Public Perceptions of the Dust Bowl” as part of the Evenings with History series at 7:30 p.m. on April 5, at the Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. 3rd Street in Little Rock.

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s has been examined through the years by a diverse group of academics, literary authors, and popular cultural voices. At the same time the general public’s perception of this historic event has not been assessed, mapped, or analyzed.  This presentation details Porter’s own efforts to fill this void. Drawing on his interviews with Great Plains residents, he shows how analysis and application of geographic information system mapping methods reveals striking differences in how respondents of varying age and place of residence perceive this catastrophe and also suggests an erosion of spatial and historical understanding of the Dust Bowl among young people living in the Great Plains. The work raises concerns about how that diminished understanding of human-environment dynamics will affect the future of a region prone to recurrent drought.

The Evenings with History series is sponsored by the University History Institute, which is a non-profit organization of private citizens interested in history and supporting UALR.

An individual can subscribe to the series for $50 annually, which includes admission to all six lectures. A joint subscription to the series, at $90 annually, offers savings of $10 to couples and friends.

At $250 annually, a Fellow of the Institute receives the previous benefits, plus an invitation to special presentations for fellows exclusively, including private evenings with noted authors. The institute also offers a life membership at $1,000 that can be paid in installments. Subscriptions and donations to the institute are tax deductible as allowed by law.

Subscribers to the series help support historical research. Presenters donate their time, and the University History Institute uses all proceeds from the series to encourage research at UALR. In recent years, annual institute grants, made possible by the Evenings with History series, have made major purchases of historical research materials for UALR.

For more information, contact the UALR History Department at 501-569-3225.