Pryor Center Launches Research Fellowship Program, Names Inaugural Class

The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History has launched a Research Fellowship Program and named its inaugural class of fellows — eight researchers who will use oral history to document Arkansas history, politics and culture. 

The 2026-27 class brings together three U of A undergraduates; three graduate students from the U of A, Mississippi State University and Yale University; a U of A history instructor; and an independent researcher. The center planned to fund four fellows in the program’s first year but doubled the class to eight on the strength of the applications. 

Their projects range from Black athletic pioneers and campus protest in Fayetteville to the Romanian community in Hot Springs and craft, architecture and outdoor recreation in the Ozarks. 

The Pryor Center has long worked with researchers on campus and at other institutions who use oral history to study Arkansas, and it has often helped fund that work, but always case by case. The fellowship is the center’s first formal program for those collaborations. 

"The Pryor Center is always seeking opportunities to connect our oral and visual history collections to the research efforts of university scholars and other members of the public alike," said John C. Davis, executive director of the Pryor Center. "This effort to train, fund, promote and archive the excellent oral history work pertaining to Arkansas fits perfectly within the mission of the Pryor Center to collect, preserve and share Arkansas stories." 

Pryor Center staff reviewed the applications and chose projects that best fit the center's mission while drawing researchers from a range of academic backgrounds and career stages. The class includes graduate students working on theses and dissertations, undergraduates preparing senior and honors theses, and a faculty member and an independent researcher whose work is expected to lead to journal articles and, possibly, books. 

“I am thrilled to see the high level of interest among students, faculty, and community scholars in participating in this program,” Davis said. “The fellowship program seeks to support researchers who not only utilize our existing collections but also build upon them by collecting oral history interviews as part of their independent research.” 

The work these research fellows are doing will expand and extend the reach of the Pryor Center by utilizing the archives the center already has while also adding new findings. 

“We are a small team with a large mandate: to document and preserve oral histories of our state,” said Brendan Thomas, assistant director of the Pryor Center. “The research our fellows are doing highlights the extensive collections we already have, and often adds to them, bringing new questions, approaches and insights to the work of oral history.” 

The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and community members. Along with reimbursement for research expenses, fellows receive training in oral history methods and technical training, and they can use the center’s audio recorders and other field equipment. Fellows may work from the Pryor Center’s digital archive of oral histories or record new interviews to add to it, on any subject that enriches understanding of Arkansas history, politics and culture. 

“I think the most significant thing we offer is an archival home for the stories that our fellows record,” Thomas said. “This ensures that their research will be maintained for future generations and enriches our archive’s collection of Arkansas oral histories.” 

The Pryor Center's academic home at the U of A is the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Research that goes beyond campus is a priority for the college, and the fellows' projects will carry it across the state, from Fayetteville to Hot Springs.  

“The work these researchers are doing is invaluable to Arkansas,” said Brian Raines, dean of Fulbright College. “The history of our state lives in the memories of Arkansans, and those memories will not last unless they are recorded. The work of these fellows will leave a lasting impact on our state and communities.” 

Each fellow will present a public lecture at the Pryor Center, 1 E. Center St. in downtown Fayetteville. Bianca Martin opened the Fellowship Lecture Series on Sept. 17 with a talk on the Hot Springs Romanian Project. Three more lectures are scheduled: 

• Nov. 19, 6 p.m. — Julia Soule, “Outdoor Recreation in the Arkansas Ozarks” 
• March 4, 2027, 4 p.m. — Michael Anthony, “Playing Across the Color Line: Black Athletic Pioneers and Campus Protest in Fayetteville, Arkansas” 
• April 29, 2027, 4 p.m. — Michael Lynch, “A New Iteration of an Old Punishment: The Return of the Death Penalty in Arkansas, 1976-1990” 

Dates for the remaining lectures will be announced as the projects progress and recordings will be posted on the Pryor Center’s past events page. 

Applications for the 2027-28 class will open in late spring and are due Aug. 1, 2027. Prospective fellows can contact the Pryor Center at any time at pryorctr@uark.edu. 

The 2026-27 Pryor Center Research Fellows 

Michael Anthony, instructor of history, University of Arkansas 

“Playing Across the Color Line: Black Athletic Pioneers and Campus Protest in Fayetteville, Arkansas” 

Anthony, who earned his doctorate at the U of A in 2023, examines the intertwined stories of Louis Bryant and Darrell Brown to better understand Black athletic integration and campus protest in Fayetteville, drawing on KATV footage and Pryor Center interviews. 

Caryline Bradford, undergraduate student in social studies education, University of Arkansas 

“Voices of the Fayetteville Farmers Market” 

Bradford explores the history and significance of the Fayetteville Farmers Market through the memories and experiences of the people who have shaped it and taken part in it. 

Andie Dodson, architecture student, Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas 

“Documenting Ozarks Architecture and Memories of Place” 

Dodson, who is minoring in the history of architecture, pairs oral histories with architectural documentation of surviving early-settlement structures to build appreciation for the historical significance of small-town identity in the Ozarks. 

Joe Hutchison, doctoral student in history, Mississippi State University 

“Ozarks Regional Commission Oral History Project” and “Delta Regional Authority Oral History Project” 

Hutchison, an editorial assistant for the journal Environmental History, seeks to explain the divide in economic prosperity between Northwest Arkansas and the rest of the Ozarks. 

Bailee King, master’s student in art education, School of Art, University of Arkansas 

“On Ozarks Craft” 

King, a second-year master’s candidate who also earned her bachelor’s degree in studio art and psychology at the U of A, asks what can be learned about the experience of being a contemporary craftsperson by looking at the spaces where they work. 

Michael Lynch, undergraduate student in history and psychology, University of Arkansas 

“A New Iteration of an Old Punishment: The Return of the Death Penalty in Arkansas, 1976-1990” 

Lynch explores how Arkansas reinstated the death penalty after changes in national death penalty policy and seeks to understand the reasoning, the timing and the role public perception played in decisions about capital punishment. 

Bianca Martin, independent researcher 

“The Hot Springs Romanian Project” 

Martin, a recent University of Central Arkansas graduate in modern languages, is building an oral history collection on the Romanian community in Hot Springs, which took shape in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

Julia Soule, master’s student, Yale School of the Environment and Yale Divinity School 

“Outdoor Recreation in the Arkansas Ozarks” 

Soule, a 2021 U of A graduate in international studies now pursuing master’s degrees in environmental management and religion at Yale, examines what it feels like to recreate in the Arkansas Ozarks today and how trail use shapes the way people understand nature, themselves and what it means to be in the hills. 

About the Pryor Center: The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, part of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, is an oral history program with the mission to document the history of Arkansas through the collection of spoken memories and visual records, preserve the collection in perpetuity and connect Arkansans and the world to the collection through the internet, TV broadcasts, educational programs and other means. The Pryor Center records audio and video interviews about Arkansas history and culture, collects other organizations’ recordings, organizes these recordings into an archive and provides public access to the archive, primarily through its website at pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center is the state’s only oral and visual history program with a statewide, 75-county mission to collect, preserve and share audio and moving-image recordings of Arkansas history. 

The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the academic heart and soul of the University of Arkansas — where discovery, creativity, and curiosity meet to create a transformational education. Encompassing three schools, 16 departments, and numerous programs and research centers, Fulbright College connects the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences to advance knowledge, discovery, and serve Arkansas and the world. Discover more at fulbright.uark.edu. 

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $3 billion to Arkansas’ economy  through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.