An archivist with the UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture in the Arkansas Studies Institute has earned two recent distinctions for his contributions to the field of history.

Dr. Colin E. Woodward has won the Violet B. Gingles Award, which comes with a $500 prize and is sponsored by the Arkansas Historical Association.

The award is given for the best manuscript article on any Arkansas history topic. Woodward earned the award for his article, “There’s a Lot of Things That Need Changin’: Johnny Cash, Winthrop Rockefeller, and Prison Reform in Arkansas.”

He also won the F. Hampton Roy award, given by the Pulaski County Historical Association, for his article “The Days before Dyess: Johnny Cash’s Early Arkansas Roots.” The prize was $300 and awarded at the Little Rock Central High School Museum and Visitor Center.

In April, Woodward will receive the Gingles Award at the annual meeting of the Arkansas Historical Association in West Memphis and also present a paper on Jim Guy Tucker and Vietnam.

Woodward holds a doctorate in history from Louisiana State University, where he studied the Civil War era under the direction of prize-winning historian Charles W. Royster.

He is in the early stages of writing a book about Cash’s days in Arkansas.