- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock offers workshops for lifelong learning

Janea Snyder — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 21:27:38 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Extended Education program is offering a series of how-to workshops led by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty and staff. This spring’s schedule includes two writing and communication workshops and one technology session. Workshops will be held at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown, 333 President Clinton Ave. The workshops are taught by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty and staff and are open to the public. is available at ualr.edu/extended. For more information, contact Christine Cotton, director of Extended Education, cecotton@ualr.edu. Spring 2019 Workshops

Saturday, March 23 – Telling your Own Stories, 1-4 p.m., Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor or rhetoric and writing, and Sally Crisp, emeritus professor of rhetoric and writing, $35
Saturday, March 30 – Mastering your iPhone, 9-11 a.m., Ross Owyoung, director of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown, $19
Saturday, April 13 – Writing Family Stories, 1-4 p.m., Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor or rhetoric and writing, and Sally Crisp, emeritus professor of rhetoric and writing, $35

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown opens, announces lecture series

Janea Snyder — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 22:24:41 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock celebrated the opening of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown on Wednesday, Jan. 16, with a reception and unveiling of the historic Joe Jones’ 1935 mural, The Struggle in the South.

Chancellor Andrew Rogerson welcomed more than 200 people who attended the event at the new center at 333 President Clinton Ave., which will host weekly lectures, some non-credit classes, and provide rental space.

“From the beginning of my tenure at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, there was a lot of encouragement for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to develop a visible, engaged presence downtown,” Dr. Rogerson said. “We understand the importance of making our vital urban campus relevant and accessible here in the heart of the city. We wanted a space that honored the past, engaged the present, and imagined the future, and that is what this multi-use space reflects.”

The new center will serve as a bridge to the main campus and will provide university information, student recruitment and promotion of outstanding programs.

“We will have informative and entertaining lectures, lunchtime panel discussions, career-enhancing short courses, and certificate programs of benefit to the downtown community, and a place for our faculty to offer the community highlights of their cutting-edge research,” Rogerson said.

Newly elected Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott, an alumnus of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, spoke at the grand opening and praised ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s efforts.

“I’m so grateful to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for having the forethought to bring this downtown center to fruition,” he said. “A great thriving city must have a great thriving university. This space will connect all areas together.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown Director Ross Owyoung announced the center’s weekly lectures series, beginning Feb. 6, and Extended Learning classes beginning in March. The non-credit extended learning classes include two-day writing workshops, led by Sally Crisp, faculty emerita in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor of rhetoric and writing.

“Telling Your own Stories” will be offered March 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. “Writing Family Stories” will be offered April 13 from 1 to 3 p.m.

The weekly lectures will feature ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty members discussing issues in science, health, community, the arts and other topics. The lectures will be presented on Wednesdays from 6-7 p.m. at . The schedule is as follows:

Feb. 6 – “Tales of A Wandering Microbiologist,” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Chancellor Andrew Rogerson

Before becoming chancellor of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Andrew Rogerson spent 30 years as a researcher and professor in eight universities and two government laboratories. Fascinated by the hidden, and continually engaged in the possibilities of the invisible, Dr. Rogerson has worked on a diverse range of research projects all united by the fact they have involved microbes. Rogerson’s research was funded by various federal agencies including the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This fun lecture requires no prior knowledge of science. Enjoy a rare opportunity to discover the enthralling life of microbes through the life’s work of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s chancellor.

Feb. 13 – “The Art of Positive Communication: How Small Behaviors Create Your Best Moments,” Julien Mirivel, dean of the College of Social Sciences and Communication

This talk is an introduction to the art of positive communication. It is built on the premise that “the spoken word, spoken honorably and well, can make a difference that no other form of communication can equal.” In the talk, I share a simple model to inspire the audience to communicate more positively. With personal examples and stories, the talk will invite everyone to practice concrete behaviors that will have a positive effect at work, at home, and in the community. By the end of the talk, every person in the audience will be able to create their best moments and to connect with others more deeply.

Feb. 20 – “Poverty, Food, and Nutritionism,” Don Willis, assistant professor of sociology

Food is more than its nutritional and caloric content. It can shape our identity, our social relationships, and even act as a resource to blur or distinguish people across social categories. Dr. Willis will discuss a particular form of poverty—namely, food insecurity—and how it impacts lives and health through social, or non-nutritional pathways, such as one’s sense of social positioning in an unequal world. In asking this question, he also grapples with more fundamental questions about the character of food itself, and its role in shaping social experiences such as trust and belonging. Come for a fresh take on the role of food in shaping unequal lives.

Feb. 27 – “Nonprofit Capacity Building Strategies,” Kirk Leach, assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs

Dr. Leach will discussing collaboration and social entrepreneurship in the context of nonprofit capacity building. The goal for the discussion is to engage nonprofits in a shared learning environment, to learn with, and from each other.

March 6 – “Religion and Community Engagement in Little Rock,” Rebecca Glacier, associate professor in the School of Public Affairs

Attendees at this talk will learn about religion, politics, and community engagement in Little Rock. Using data from more than 2,000 congregants and 200 clergy in Little Rock, Dr. Glazier will share information about the benefits of faith-based community engagement and take suggestions for questions and topics for the 2020 Little Rock Congregations Study survey of congregants.

March 13 – “Deviant Mobs of the Internet: Bots, Trolls, and Misinformation,” Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Science.

Social media platforms are widely used for sharing information, but they can also be used to disseminate propaganda, hoaxes, and fake news to influence the public. The availability of inexpensive and ubiquitous mass communication tools has made such malicious acts more convenient and effective. This talk will touch upon various research efforts that demonstrate how disinformation campaigns work and examine the critical link between blogs and other social media platforms ( YouTube, Twitter, Facebook). Using socio-computational models that leverage social network analysis and cyber forensics, leading coordinators of disinformation campaigns are identified. The talk also will highlight tactics, techniques, and procedures used by groups to propagate disinformation. Prominent cases of massive disinformation campaigns in the Baltic region and NATO’s military exercises will be discussed.

All lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Ross Owyoung, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown director, at 870-501-2700 or rlowyoung@ualr.edu.

More information is available online.

Photos by Benjamin Krain

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to offer workshop on writing family stories

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 17:03:11 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is offering a workshop to teach participants how to preserve their family history by writing up their family’s most compelling tales. The workshop, “,” will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Reynolds Business Building room 104. The writing workshop is great for those who are starting family history research, in the midst of a writing project, or looking for story starters and inspirational ideas. It offers strategies and provides opportunities for developing texts that tell stories about participants’ family members, preserving family history, and discovering ancestors through artifacts, locations, and family members Dr. Sally Crisp, faculty emerita in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and Dr. Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor of rhetoric and writing, will teach the workshop as an offering from the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Extended Education office The cost of the workshop is $59, which includes lunch and a copy of the book, “Telling Your Arkansas Story.” by Aug. 3.

Alumnus gives back by joining Dean’s Science Council

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 14:23:55 +0000

Growing up in the 1970s, Chad Fitz has fond childhood memories of visiting the planetarium at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. It’s one of the things that got him interested in science as a child. “As a child, I would love to go to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to visit the planetarium,” Fitz said. “It was quite the school trip. The planetarium was always a way for kids to connect the dots to science.” Fitz, now a senior client relationship and delivery manager for FIS, is giving back to his alma mater and helping encourage math and science education through his work on the Dean’s Science Council. Council members advocate on behalf of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences and garner community support for science programs. Their efforts include raising funds for faculty and undergraduate research, the Fribourgh Award receptions, and the Science Olympiad. Fitz has been volunteering with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock since 2010, when he worked at Acxiom, which had a committee that partnered with the university. “I am in an industry where it is really important for us to have close working relationships with the local universities, particularly in the area of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics),” Fitz said. “I have always had an interest to work closely with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, to work for opportunities for interns, to provide feedback in terms of what we are looking for in graduates. The Dean’s Science Council really fits in well with that.” Fitz attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1990 and later earned a Master of Arts in Technical and Expository Writing in 1992. At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, his mentors were Pat Moore, associate professor of English, and Sally Crisp, faculty emeritus of rhetoric and writing. Fitz feels that his ��Vlog��ý Little Rock education, which provided a strong basis in both liberal arts and science and technology, helped him go far in his career. Thanks to the encouragement from his professors, he had good internships and graduated with a great portfolio. “I would tell students to really think about where they want to end up in terms of a job and try to shape their curriculum to point them in that direction,” he said. “I would also recommend good internships. There is potential to turn an internship into a job, and for me that is an obvious progression. You’ve got something to put on a resume and you have built some contacts.” He got his first full-time job at Biotechnical Services, Inc. in North Little Rock through an internship program at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and worked there while earning his master’s degree. “I clearly remember that I liked writing and I liked technology. I wondered how I could put it all together,” Fitz said. “It was this connection to the notion of technical writing. All of a sudden there was a track of people who made a living by understanding complex things and writing about them. Pat Moore helped me tie these things together. Pat had applied experience in the field and created a curriculum based on industry knowledge and real-world examples that allowed me to develop and hone my skills to step into a commercial role and contribute right out of college.” Fitz worked as a technical writer at Alltel Information Services, which later became FIS, and soon found himself immersed in the world of software development. “I liked writing, but I was open to stepping into other roles,” Fitz said. “Then I started documenting systems but ultimately got involved in other areas of software development, such as project management, business analysis, and quality assurance. That’s where I got started. My background is in liberal arts, but most of my career has been in the sciences and technology. Coming into that field back then, the aspect of being able to communicate effectively, it was a good time to transition.” In 2000, Fitz joined Acxiom, a global marketing technology and services company, as a business unit leader in software development, where he led development of a real-time marketing solution and successfully implemented it at key customer sites for the financial services industry. He left Acxiom in 2012 as a vice president of product management and now works at FIS, where he is responsible for delivering digital banking services and operations for retail banking clients. Fitz lives in Little Rock with his wife, Julie, and their children, Sullivan and Josie.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock offers workshops for lifelong learning

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown opens, announces lecture series

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to offer workshop on writing family stories

Alumnus gives back by joining Dean’s Science Council

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock offers workshops for lifelong learning

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown opens, announces lecture series

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to offer workshop on writing family stories