Libraries Present Graduate Student Speaker Sarah Riva Next

University Relations

Sarah Riva

The University Libraries are hosting a graduate student speaker series in collaboration with the Graduate School and International Education. Students will present research they have conducted using materials from the Libraries' Special Collections department. Doctoral candidate Sarah Riva is scheduled to be the final presenter for the fall 2018 semester, and a question and answer session will follow her presentation. Light refreshments will be served. This series is free and open to the public. 

Riva will present "Overthinking the Dissertation: One Grad Student's Story of the Research Process" at 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, in the Special Collections reading room. 

Her dissertation, "'Freedom, Freedom, Freedom Now:' SNCC and the Search for Equality in Arkansas," is based on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and focuses on their work to integrate public facilities and register African Americans to vote in the Arkansas Delta in the 1960s. 

"Special Collections was the first major archive I used for my dissertation research," said Riva. "I found the archivists particularly helpful in finding relevant materials in not-so-obvious collections housed there, which have strengthened my dissertation argument." 

Speakers for the spring 2019 semester include Alex Marino and Michele "Scout" Johnson. Marino will present "The United States and the Angolan Revolution: Southern Segregation, Black Nationalism, and the Cold War in Africa" at 4 p.m. Feb. 7. Johnson will present her research on the women's KKK movement in Arkansas in the mid-20th century at 4 p.m. March 7. 

Graduate students from all majors who are interested in presenting on the research they have done using Special Collections materials are encouraged to visit the speaker series webpage.