University of Arkansas Press Book Wins Joel Polsky Prize

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Jennifer Webb, a professor of interior design at the University of Arkansas, has been awarded the Joel Polsky Prize for Just Below the Line: Disability, Housing, and Equity in the South, a book by Webb and colleagues Korydon H. Smith and Brent T. Williams.

The $1,000 prize is given by the American Society of Interior Designers Educational Foundation and “recognizes outstanding academic contributions to interior design through literature or visual communication.”

The University of Arkansas Press, in collaboration with the Fay Jones School of Architecture, published Just Below the Line ($49.95 spiral-bound hardback) in May 2010. Smith (architecture), Webb (interior design) and Williams (rehabilitation education) are associate professors at the University of Arkansas.

“I am absolutely thrilled with this award, in part because awards of any type are rare in interior design education and research. More specifically, I am excited because this publication truly demonstrates the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration,” Webb said.

Entrants for the Polsky Prize should “address the needs of the public, designers, and students on such topics as educational research, behavioral science, business practice, design process, theory, or other technical subjects,” according to the society’s website. Just Below the Line – a book for policymakers, designers, builders, real estate agents, advocates and housing consumers – discusses how reworking the policies and practices of the housing industry in the South can serve as a model for the rest of the nation in meeting the physical and social needs of aging baby boomers and people with disabilities.

Just Below the Line is 312 pages, with 102 color images.

The University of Arkansas Press has also collaborated with the Fay Jones School of Architecture to distribute the DVD Sacred Spaces: The Architecture of Fay Jones ($19.95, 60 minutes), written and produced by Larry Foley and Dale Carpenter, both journalism professors at the university.