Graduate students Kristena Merritt and Victor Moya won top honors at the College of Social Science and Communication’s 2018 Showcase on February 26-27, 2018.
M.A. Student Kristena Merritt with faculty mentor Dr. Londie Martin
Kristena Merritt won the Best Graduate Creative Works Presentation Award for her presentation “Powerfemme Conversations.” Powerfemme Conversations is a digital narrative to empower women by providing an inclusive space where all expressions of female sexuality can heal themselves through storytelling. In these conversations, women speak about their inner struggles with embracing our true selves while we begin to uncover the deep-seated misogyny that our society has imposed on us and discuss the ways women embrace personal femininity through inner and outer expression.
Merritt’s digital narrative used WIX to visually represent each participant’s ideas using quotes and audio selections from the interviews.
Merritt is a Little Rock native and UALR alumna with a BA in Professional and Technical Writing. She will graduate in December 2018 with a MA Professional and Technical Writing with a focus on tech writing. She is interested in social media writing for business and is looking for ways to incorporate design and photography into her work. She hopes to become a social media writer or freelancer and travel across the country, maybe in her dream job as a writer for the Audubon Society.
Victor Moya wins the CSSC Showcase Community Engagement Award
Victor Moya won the Community Engagement award at the CSSC Showcase for his presentation “Little Rock and the Homeless.” Victor created this research project in RHET 7300: Research Methods with Dr. Brian Ray, and he previously presented his work at the New Voices Graduate Student Conference at Georgia State University in Atlanta GA February 1-3, 2018.
Victor’s work studies homelessness in Little Rock with a goal of identifying ways that community leaders and local government can combine their resources to combat homelessness in the city.
Victor is an MA student in Professional and Technical Writing. Victor was born in the Dominican Republic in a small town called Altamira. In 1964 his family immigrated to the United States, and Victor spent the next few years in New York where he attended junior high and high school.
In 1969, Victor joined the US Air Force. He and his wife Milca spent 25 years raising their family and traveling to locations like Germany, Spain, Panama, and Japan. Victor has worked as a Project Manager for the Brown and Root Corporation and at the City of Little Rock, as well as for the General Services Administration (GSA) as a Project Manager and Roofing Engineer. Victor is now retired and he says that “learning, writing, attending classes and spending time with my grandchildren make me feel alive and happy.”
Congratulations to Kristena and Victor! They are shining examples of the good work our graduate students do every day in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing!
