Miliaikeala Heen (Graduate College) is the recipient of the Outstanding Thesis Award for her thesis, "Putting The Microscope On Crime Labs: The Effects of Evidence Complexity And Laboratory Type On Jurors' Perceptions Of Forensic Evidence." She is pursuing a master of arts degree in criminal justice.

UNLV Collegiate DECA Members recently received several awards at the Utah Collegiate DECA's annual Fall Leadership Conference (FLC). Collegiate DECA is a career and technical student organization formerly known as the Distributive Education Clubs of America. Among those receiving awards at the FLC were: Daniel Dinev (Accounting/Global…

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…

Sanford I. Berman Debate Forum, UNLV's debate team, won accolades at its first debate tournament of the 2014-15 season. Four teams represented UNLV at the tournament hosted by the University of Missouri, Kansas City in September. A total of 114 teams from across the nation competed. Sara Beth Brooks and Dan Stanfield finished the preliminary…

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…

Joseph Rhodes (Honors and Communication Studies), along with Nathan Crick (Texas A&M University), co-authored a lead essay in the journal Rhetoric Review. "Death and Eloquence" explores the relationship in Homer's Iliad between coming close to death and delivering eloquent speeches. Crick and Rhodes argue that only those Homeric heroes capable…

David Schwartz (Center for Gaming Research) and 10 graduates of the Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies or School of Communications won awards in this year's Nevada Press Association contest. Schwartz's awards came for his work in Vegas Seven magazine. He was recognized in the Best Local Column category for his bi-weekly "Green Felt…

Ted Greenhalgh (Environmental and Public Affairs) presented "When Hollywood Goes Green, Does It Matter?" at the Midwest Popular and American Culture Association annual conference in Indianapolis. The paper examines movie portrayals of environmental themes, including climate change and sustainability.  

Erika Engstrom (Communication Studies) is co-author of "Television, Religion, and 'Supernatural': Hunting Monsters, Findings Gods" (Lexington, 2014) with Joseph M. Valenzano III of the University of Dayton and formerly of UNLV. Their book examines the text of the CW network television series Supernatural, a program based in the horror genre that…

Erika Engstrom (Communication Studies) wrote an article, "'Knope We Can!': Primetime Feminist Strategies in NBC's Parks and Recreation," which appeared in the November issue of Media Report to Women.

Julian Kilker (Journalism & Media Studies) and Augie Grant, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of South Carolina, cohosted "Beyond Convergence," a conference sponsored by the two journalism schools. More than 50 scholars from across the nation shared their research in the field of technology and…

Karunaratne Hangawatte (Criminal Justice), Sri Lanka's ambassador to France and permanent delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), unanimously was elected vice president of the 37th session of the General Conference of UNESCO in Paris in November. Leading the delegation of Sri Lanka to the biennial…