UA Little Rock Names Paige Blair as 2025 Whitbeck Award Winner

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has named Paige Blair, a first-generation college student from Twin Groves, Arkansas, as the recipient of the 2025 Edward L. Whitbeck Memorial Award, the university’s highest honor for a graduating senior.

Blair is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and a Certificate of Proficiency in Applied Archaeology. She has distinguished herself as a scholar, researcher, and community volunteer who has made significant contributions to both the university and the field of anthropology.

“I feel very honored to have been selected out of all the amazing candidates that were eligible for this award,” Blair said.

Established in memory of Edward Lynn Whitbeck, a senior at Little Rock University who passed away in 1965, the award was created by Frank L. and Beverly Whitbeck to recognize exceptional academic achievement and leadership. Recipients receive a plaque, a monetary award, and deliver a speech at the spring commencement ceremony.

Blair’s academic journey is a testament to perseverance and passion. After graduating high school in 2009, she attended community college but had to pause her education while raising her daughter as a single mother. She returned to higher education and earned her associate degree from the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton in 2021 before transferring to UA Little Rock in spring 2022.

“It’s been a long journey,” Blair said. “It’s very bittersweet. I’m glad to be graduating, but at the same time, I don’t want to leave. I’ll miss it because I really felt at home here. I felt like I fit in. I’m excited for the next chapter.”

During her time at UA Little Rock, Blair was a driving force in revitalizing the Anthropology Club after the COVID-19 pandemic and completed a variety of impressive internships and research projects. She interned at the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory in fall 2022, becoming the first anthropology student from UA Little Rock to do so.

“Paige was the first anthropology major to intern with the State Crime Lab in the Office of the Medical Examiner,” said Dr. Kathryn King, associate professor of anthropology and interim co-director of the School of Human Inquiry. “This has led to an ongoing program where the anthropology department places an intern with that office every semester. It has resulted in many of our graduates becoming employed there.”

At the crime lab, Blair conducted a research project, “Sex and Ancestry Determination Based on Human Mandibular Measurements,” which she presented at the crime lab and the 2023 UA Little Rock Research and Creative Works Expo.

She is the only two-time winner of the Mark Hartmann Student Fieldwork Award from UA Little Rock, using it to attend a forensic anthropology course at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and to work on artifact collection and research at the Meador Site in St. Francis County. Her paper, “Late Woodland Occupations at the Meador Site, St. Francis County, Arkansas,” was co-authored with Dr. Robert Scott of the Arkansas Archeological Survey and presented at three different conferences.

She also participated in the Arkansas Archeological Survey Training Dig in DeQueen in summer 2022, which she described as one of her favorite college experiences.

“We camped there for two weeks,” she recalled. “There were four tents on one site. We had so much fun together. It was good to have people with you who knew what you were going through. That is something I will never forget.”

Blair has been actively involved in archaeological work throughout the state. She volunteered with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program for cemetery preservation workshops and assisted the Arkansas Archaeological Survey in a metal detection survey of the Prairie D’Ane Battlefield in Prescott. These efforts help locate and document Civil War-era artifacts to preserve the historical integrity of the battlefield.

Since November 2024, Blair has interned with Dr. Maureece Levin, assistant professor of anthropology, on the UA Little Rock Garden Site Archaeology Project, a community-oriented excavation near the Campus Garden. Blair learned excavation techniques, mapping, artifact cataloging, and public engagement through the project.

“Her work involves technical skills like archaeological fieldwork and lab work, social skills like working with our other interns and volunteers, and creativity like designing outreach materials,” Levin said. “She was specifically interested in being involved in this project because of the public aspect of bringing archaeology to the broader community. Paige is uniquely inquisitive, intelligent, and extremely capable. She is the type of student who may come through a program maybe once every several years.”

For Arkansas Archaeology Month in March, Blair helped organize and lead a community open house for the project, educating visitors on archaeological techniques and the site’s historical context. She also helped curate a display of artifacts from the dig that is now on exhibit at UA Little Rock’s Ottenheimer Library.

In 2024, Blair also conducted an ethnographic study in collaboration with a local Catholic church, exploring how changes in Catholicism have influenced traditional Mass practices. This project earned her the F. Brent Knutson Memorial Award for Excellence in Religious Studies.

After graduation, Blair and her family will relocate to Florida, where she plans to gain field experience before applying to graduate school in 2026 to study historical archaeology.

“My best piece of advice to other students is this: If there isn’t an opportunity that you want, make one,” Blair said. “That Meador site project started from a thought I had on the way to work. I just asked how I could make it happen. Take advantage of every opportunity or create your own.”

Blair leaves UA Little Rock with a perfect 4.0 GPA, the Most Outstanding Graduating Senior in Anthropology Award, and the distinction of being the first graduate of the university’s Applied Archaeology Certificate program.