Steinmetz to chair economic council
FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville chancellor has been named presiding co-chairman for the Northwest Arkansas Council, a regional economic and workforce development group.
Joe Steinmetz, the UA chancellor, will serve for one year in the role, which is an unpaid, volunteer position, Rob Smith, the council's communications and policy director, said in an email. Steinmetz was named to the role during a meeting of the council Wednesday, Smith said.
"My plan is to encourage ways in which the community can collaborate with higher education for mutual benefit," Steinmetz said in a statement.
He takes over for Donnie Smith, former Tyson Foods president and chief executive officer.
Previous UA chancellors G. David Gearhart and John White also have served in this role, according to UA. Gearhart served in 2011-12.
Grant to aid study of music response
FAYETTEVILLE -- A National Science Foundation grant will help a University of Arkansas, Fayetteville music professor study how and why listeners respond to music by imagining narrative stories.
Elizabeth Margulis will receive $294,268 over three years and work with researchers from Michigan State University and Chinese University of Hong Kong.
"It wasn't until students in my classes started telling me that they imagined pirates and thunderstorms while listening to orchestral music that I understood how common it is for music to trigger perceived stories," Margulis, director of UA's Music Cognition Lab, said in a statement.
The project will involve both American and Chinese listeners to test whether unfamiliar music stokes narrative listening.
Researchers will also investigate how narrative listening affects other responses to music.
"Together, our team hopes to uncover some of the mechanisms critical to making sense of music," Margulis said in a statement.
2018 poetry prize goes to Mossotti
FAYETTEVILLE -- Travis Mossotti has won the 2018 Miller Williams Poetry Prize from the University of Arkansas Press.
Mossotti will receive a $5,000 cash prize and publication of a forthcoming poetry collection, Narcissus Americana.
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins selected the winner as well as two finalists: Roy Bentley and P. Scott Cunningham, who will also have their work published by the university press.
The three poets "have readability, freshness of language, and seriousness of intent in common," Collins said in a statement released by the university.
Mossotti teaches at Webster University and also works in a research office for Washington University, according to UA. He has written two previous collections of poetry, About the Dead and Field Study.
Metro on 07/16/2017