In 1999, Donna became the first faculty member hired with a full-time appointment to the UCA Honors College. She became Associate Director in 2000, and Associate Dean in 2010. Her training in philosophical theology and religious studies has led to a scholarly career focused on process theology and Reformed theology, especially the work of Alfred North Whitehead and Karl Barth. She is the author of The Divine Decision: A Process Doctrine of Election (Westminster John Knox, 2002) and co-editor of Handbook of Process Theology (Chalice Press, 2006) and Cosmology, Ecology, and the Energy of God (Fordham University Press, 2011). Since 2007, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Religion.

Donna’s current research investigates the theological underpinnings and manifestations of the Prayer Shawl Ministry movement, with a larger constructive project on the theology of domesticity also in the works. She is an active critic of popular culture, publishing as a contributing writer on The A.V. Club. Her interdisciplinary teaching draws from these diverse competencies, encompassing courses on popular and material culture and their theological intersections. In addition to courses taught in the Honors College, Donna has also taught upper-level seminars for the Department of Writing and the Department of Philosophy and Religion. She frequently delivers presentations on technologically-enabled pedagogies at regional and national conferences.

In and out of the classroom, Donna is an avid knitter and participant in social media. Along with her husband, a freelance writer and widely respected critic of popular culture, and her two children, she embraces the Southern life to which she was born and bred.

 

 

I am Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Director of Undergraduate Research in the Honors College at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA). In addition to a wide variety of administrative duties, I coordinate effort on more than two hundred undergraduate research projects on the UCA campus each year. I teach seminars on the Search for Self, the Search for Community, the Artificial Other (robotics, artificial intelligence, and society), Art & Technology, Oral History and the Study of Memory, the History of the Life Sciences, History of Medicine, History of Science, History of Engineering, Technology and the Law, Virtual Worlds and Online Communities, and Senior Seminars on Economic Globalization, Transhumanism, and Futuristics. I also teach courses on research and writing across the disciplines.

Specialties: My primary domains for teaching and research are science and technology studies, oral history, intellectual history, and technology in education. My publications are mainly in the history of medicine and public health, the history of computing, the history of expertise and the professions, and Honors education. I am currently working on a book manuscript documenting the history of health informatics called “Calculating Care: Evidence, Computers, and Medicine in the 20th Century.”

 

 

As a geographer, any place I’m in is a source of endless fascination. Why does this place exist? Why does it look and operate the way it does? How is this place linked to other places? How is it separated? How is it similar to and different from other places? Why? The answers to these questions provide an endless stream of information about the world we live in.

I am particularly fascinated by the “mundane” surroundings of everyday American lives – the strip malls, homes, farms, highways, and factories we interact with daily. When we ask questions of these unassuming landscapes, the answers we receive reveal our society and culture at work. The landscapes we create reflect our past and aspirations, our values and biases, our economic and political systems; they also actively shape individual and community identities, and direct interactions between people.

It’s difficult to distinguish between my “academic” and “personal” interests. For when I’m not in my office I’m happiest exploring the American scene with my husband on our Suzuki Burgman 400 Scooter, or on our road bikes. And my love of cooking with local foods is a stationary - and tangible - way of exploring my surroundings.

 

Rick Scott joined the UCA faculty in 1983 with the Department of Sociology. He began working with the Honors College in 1985, becoming chief administrator following a national search in 2002. The UCA Honors College, now approaching its thirtieth anniversary, has been hailed nationally for its “innovative curriculum” and “out-of-the-box programming” and is one of the most fully developed in the United States. Dr. Scott is recognized as a national leader in developing honors programs.

As a scholar, Dr. Scott has two careers—one as a sociologist studying poverty and hunger. He has published numerous articles and presented dozens of papers at national conferences on these topics. Working with the United States Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dr. Scott helped devise the official index of hunger and food insecurity now used by the federal government. His other area of expertise is educational theory. He has been invited to give many presentations around the country on pedagogy and curriculum development and has published on the direction of collegiate honors education nationally. He is Vice President of the National Collegiate Honors Council and a former member of its board and former.Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Southern Regional Honors Council.

Rick is obsessed with the good things in life, namely, Brenda (his wife), his daughter and her two children, his Australian Shepherd, writing-playing-recording-listening to rock music, gardening, cooking, wine, and the Nebraska Cornhusker football team. Don’t ask him about any of these good things unless you have some time on your hands.

 

 

 

Lanita is the Administrative Specialist for the Honors College. She joined our staff in Spring 2011, and handles reception and purchasing.

 

Tom Bertram is the information technology wizard for the UCA Honors College. He is tasked with the development and upkeep of HCIS (Honors College Information System, a database tracking administrative and academic information), HCOL (Honors College OnLine, the virtual community of UCA Honors with social and academic components), and the Web site. He also provides technical support in hosting the website of the Southern Regional Honors Council, and works with faculty to prepare the electronic reader that is part of HCOL.

In addition, Tom assists with technical aspects of UCA Honors publications such as the VINO as well as brochures and other graphical documents, and supports equipment upkeep in the Ethnography Lab and faculty and staff computers.

 

Patricia Smith directs student engagement, working with recruiting, student advising, residential life, and study abroad and internships. She is a graduate of UCA and the Honors College and is past president of the UCA Staff Senate. Patricia is responsible for organizing the Freshman Retreat, coordinating the TAG/URGE program, and advising the Mentors and Honors Council. She also teaches courses from time to time. Patricia likes chocolate.