Dr. Nada Shabout, Regents Professor of art history and coordinator of UNT's Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative, received the Kuwait Prize for Arts and Literature from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. Known regionally as the "Arab Nobel Prize," the award recognizes Dr. Shabout's lifetime contributions to the study and teaching of modern Arab visual art. She is one of the world's leading scholars in modern Arab art, wrote a prime text used in its teaching and is working on several other books. At UNT, she introduced one of the world's first university art history classes on the subject. And her research on artwork burned and looted during the Iraq War became part of the Modern Art Iraq Archive, an open-access digital resource she created with The Alexandria Archive Institute through a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. I will celebrate Dr. Shabout's unparalleled contributions to her field by awarding a President's Citation at State of the University on Sept. 21.

UNT's Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing is on its way to becoming one of the most advanced research, education and training facilities in Texas. The Texas Legislature appropriated $10 million to launch the center in 2019 and recently renewed funding through 2023 with an additional $10 million. The center's researchers — from engineering, science, business, and information science — are impacting everything from medical implants to next-generation drones, encouraging new industry and global collaborations, and ensuring a highly skilled and diverse workforce for additive manufacturing in Texas.

Some UNT students are helping Lewisville make sure every resident has a park within a 10-minute walk of where they live. Dr. Lauren Ames Fischer in the Department of Public Administration and her undergraduate urban policy and planning students are working with the Lewisville Parks and Recreation Department and its director, Stacie Anaya, to create a park from the ground up. In a collaboration between the city of Lewisville and UNT's Advanced Environmental Research Institute, the team is working with a 2-acre property provided by the city that would serve about 4,500 residents. This video discusses their process of conducting environment and land use analyses, monitoring air quality, and identifying innovations in park development and design. In the coming year, they'll organize meetings and focus groups with the neighborhood residents to plan features for the park.

UNT experts in the news

• Fort Worth Magazine dished all about Eagle Landing, our first standalone dining hall where seven restaurants are located under one roof. The dining hall, pictured, features fresh, made-from-scratch food and recipes crafted by our in-house culinary team. Modeled after Legacy Food Hall in Plano, Eagle Landing is pushing boundaries within the industry and was featured in Food Management. Come join us for a meal!
• D Magazine recently published a highlight on alumna Milan Merlo's female-led digital platform, The Honey, which helps hyper-local DFW musicians cultivate exposure and market themselves without being in New York or Los Angeles.
• Dr. Courtney Cecale, assistant professor of anthropology, discussed how high temperatures disproportionately harm low-income and communities of color in a recent Dallas Observer piece. She called air conditioning a "clear, easy way to prevent death."
• Those catchy songs we just cannot get out of our heads often use repetition to be the most singable and memorable tunes on the radio. Dr. David Heetderks, assistant professor of music theory, discussed earworms with the Dallas Observer.
• A Fort Worth Star-Telegram article on pandemic-related child abuse featuring expertise from Dr. Lauren Matthews, associate professor of educational psychology, was picked up by Yahoo News.
• Dr. Lauren Fischer from the College of Health and Public Service discussed the Dallas-Fort Worth region's population growth with CBSDFW and WBAP, and Adjunct Professor of Real Estate Marc Moffitt talked about soaring rent and grocery prices with NBC DFW.
• Assistant Professor of Political Science, Dr. Leslie Finger spoke with the The New York Times about the political shift related to COVID and the role of schools in democracy.
• Professor of Anthropology Dr. Christina Wasson talked with the Financial Express about Zoom and virtual interactions.
• A recent BBC Radio "Buy Less Stuff" segment featured Dr. Jana Hawley, dean of the College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism.