Honors College director chairs panel at conference
Rebecca Oliver, director, Honors College, participated in a panel at the 45th annual conference of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) in Kansas City, Mo., in October. She served as moderator for the panel entitled “Honors Housing: Living-Learning Communities and Creative Programming.” Oliver, along with colleagues from the University of Florida, Western Illinois University, and West Virginia University, discussed their collaborative work with living-learning communities and the students they serve on their respective campuses. The Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC) at Arkansas State University opened in August 2009 as a partnership between Student Affairs (Residence Life) and Academic Affairs (The Honors College).

Dr. Relyea, Dr. Guha, Dr. Fish present article at conference
Dr. Clint Relyea, Management, and coordinator, International Business program, Dr. Gauri S. Guha, International Business and Economics, and Dr. Kelly E. Fish, International Business and Computer Information Technology, recently wrote an article, “Insights Into Undergraduate IB Curriculum Development.” This article was presented in October by Dr. Fish at the International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines Conference held in New Orleans.The IABPAD strives to promote excellence in public administration and all business disciplines including accounting, economics, education, finance, and marketing.

Fowler elected president of association
Dr. Gil Fowler, chair, Journalism, has been elected President of the 1,000+ member Western Social Science Association (WSSA). Founded in 1958, WSSA seeks to foster professional study, to advance research, and to promote the teaching of the social sciences. Each year in April, 750+ social scientists gather for the association's annual conference. At a typical conference held over three and one-half days, participants, organized in some 30 sections and affiliated groups, present 800 papers at 300 disciplinary and interdisciplinary panel sessions. As vice president, Dr. Fowler organized the 2010 conference held in Reno, NV where more than 700 papers in 140 sessions were presented. This year’s conference is scheduled for April 13-16, 2011 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  WSSA draws on scholars and others in some 30 disciplines, or “sections,” from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico; convenes an annual conference; conducts research competitions for faculty and students; and publishes The Social Science Journal, a juried, quarterly research journal, and WSSA News, the Association’s newsletter, three times a year. The theme for the 2011 conference is “The Social Sciences: Addressing Questions that Matter.” Students and/or faculty interested in making individual or group presentations may contact Dr. Fowler for submission information. Deadline for submissions is Dec. 3, 2010.

Dr. Owens publishes article in international journal
Dr. Deborah Owens, Reading, has published an article which will appear in the November issue of the international journal Literacy. The article, "Commercial Reading Programmes as the Solution for Children Living in Poverty," describes Dr. Owens’ research regarding the use of a scripted commercial reading program in classrooms serving low socio-economic struggling readers in kindergarten and first grade demonstration classrooms in Mississippi. The scripted commercial program was found to be inadequate in meeting the needs of the students and suggests the need for educational policy-makers to consider the social and cultural contexts of learners as well as the need to empower teachers to exercise professional judgment when making decisions about what and how to teach their students.

Dr. Brown cited in Slate magazine for research article
Dr. Chris Brown, Economics, was cited in a recent article in Slate magazine. The article, "The United States of Inequality," was part of a series by Timothy Noah. Noah looked at whether race, gender, or the breakdown of the nuclear family affected income inequality. Noah then explored immigration, the technology boom, federal government policy, the decline of labor unions, international trade, America's ultra-wealthy class, and thedecline of K-12 education. In conclusion, Noah explained why income inequality cannot be ignored. See the complete series in pdf. The section, "Inequality isn't Increasing" cites Dr. Brown, along with David Moss of Harvard Business School and Princeton's Paul Krugman. Noah cites Dr. Brown's "Does Income Distribution Matter for Effective Demand? Evidence from the United States" (Review of Political Economy, Vol. 16, No. 3, 291-307, July 2004), in which Brown affirmed  that "inequality can exert a significant drag on effective demand." Reducing inequality, he argued, would also reduce consumer debt. Noah remarks that today, Brown's paper looks prescient.

Dr. Chu edits criminology text in multi-volume set
Dr. Doris Chu, Criminology, published a book in October. The book that she edits is entitled “Crime and Punishment Around the World, Vol.3. Asia/Pacific” (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO). Dr. Chu has edited the Asia/Pacific volume of this multi-volume book set titled “Crime and Punishment around the World” for the past three years.The book set includes a volume for each of four world regions: Africa, Americas, Asia/Pacific, and Europe. General editor for the series is Graeme Newman. The Asia/Pacific volume includes chapters with information concerning crime and punishment covering 61 countries (regions). The chapter entry for each country contains information on historical, legal, and political contexts of the criminal justice system, along with sections on crime (classification of crimes and crime statistics), criminal justice procedures (investigation, trial stages, and sentencing), and punishment (types of punishment, prison and its extent, including statistics; death penalty; alternatives to punishment). Local crimes that have international implications or links to organized crime such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, cross border crime, kidnapping and terrorism are also featured. The volume also includes information of the most challenging crimes faced by individual countries. Importantly, this book fills a gap in the literature. Prior to its publication, there were few, if any, reference sources available regarding international crime and punishment, and certainly nothing this extensive. This series should become an important source of international information about crime and punishment for a wide audience around the world.

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