UNLV Opera was named a finalist in the National Opera Association Collegiate Opera Scenes Competition, which takes place in Greensboro, N.C., in January. UNLV Opera is a finalist in both the graduate and musical theatre divisions.

Erika Engstrom (Communication Studies) presented "'Let Us Plan Your Happily Ever After': Disney's Princess Brides in the Wedding Utopia" at the Midwest Popular and American Culture Association's annual conference in Indianapolis. This research explores the implications of Disney's fairy tale weddings and the place of the "princess bride" in a post…

Aurore Giguet (Marjorie Barrick Museum) recently was elected to the Nevada Museums Association's Board of Directors.

Linda Lister (Music) is the 2014 winner of The American Prize in Directing, for Sancta Susanna and Suor Angelica. She was selected from applications reviewed this summer from across the United States. The American Prize is a series of new, non-profit competitions unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing…

Vicky Albert (Social Work) was invited to present her co-authored paper with Ron Haskins (Brookings) on the "Responsiveness of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program during the Great Recession" at the London School of Economics in May 2015. She also will be presenting some of the empirical research she performed on her own in this…

Kwang Kim (Mechanical Engineering) just published a paper in Scientific Reports. The title of the paper is "Nanothorn Electrodes for Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Artificial Muscles."

Timothy Erwin (English) was asked to serve on a British literature evaluation panel this summer at the National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C., and later spoke at the triennial meeting of the International Association for Word and Image Studies hosted by the Scottish Word and Image Group at the University of Dundee, Scotland. He…

Ross Bryant (Veteran Services), Tracy Johnson (Wilson Advising Center), and Allison McSwain (Admissions) made presentations at the 2014 NSHE Southern Nevada Diversity Summit. Bryant and Johnson presented "Keys to Veteran Success and Retention: A UNLV Model." The office of veteran services and the Student Veterans & Military Family Services…

Maurice Finocchiaro (Philosophy) has just published his fourteenth book, The Trial of Galileo: Essential Documents (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2014). It is a collection of the most important writings leading to the 1633 Inquisition's condemnation of Galileo, who was suspected of heresy for defending Copernicus's…