CURRICULUM VITA

CONTACT INFORMATION:

OFFICE ADDRESS: UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
4505 MARYLAND PARKWAY
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 89154-5033

OFFICE PHONE: (702) 895-0263

HOME PHONE: (702) 844-5421
OFFICE FAX: (702) 895-4800
E-MAIL: robert.parker@unlv.edu

EDUCATION

1982-86 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN, TX: PH.D. IN SOCIOLOGY

1979-82 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN, TX.: M.A. IN SOCIOLOGY
1977-79 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, EDWARDSVILLE, IL: B.S. IN
SOCIOLOGY

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

SOCIOLOGY OF WORK
GLOBALIZATION
URBAN SOCIOLOGY
SOCIAL INEQUALITY

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

1999-PRESENT PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS

1993-1999 ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNLV
1989-1993 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, UNLV
1987-1989 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DRURY COLLEGE, SPRINGFIELD, MO.
1987-1988 ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, CORPUS CHRISTI STATE
UNIVERSITY
1986-87 LECTURER IN SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN
1984-87 INSTRUCTOR OF SOCIOLOGY, AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE

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COURSES TAUGHT

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY
CLASSICAL SOCIAL THEORY
CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORY
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION/INEQUALITY
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION
INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY
RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS
GENDER INEQUALITY
AGGRESSION AND VIOLENCE
INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
URBAN SOCIOLOGY
COMPLEX ORGANIZATIONS
SOCIOLOGY OF WORK
SOCIOLOGY OF OCCUPATIONS AND PROFESSIONS
SPECIAL TOPICS: UNDEREMPLOYMENT
GRADUATE SEMINAR IN URBAN SOCIOLOGY
SPECIAL TOPICS: URBAN SOCIOLOGY OF LAS VEGAS
LEARNING TO TEACH SOCIOLOGY
GRADUATE SEMINAR IN RACE RELATIONS
GRADUATE SEMINAR IN SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
GLOBALIZATION
WORLD POPULATION PROBLEMS
SOCIOLOGY OF U.S. MILITARISM
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
SOCIOLOGY OF SECRET SOCIETIES
GLOBAL MIGRATION/BORDER CROSSINGS

PUBLICATIONS

1. 1984 “The Media and the Market,” (With David Snow), Pp. 153-72 in Peter
Adler and Patricia Adler (eds.) The Social Dynamics of Financial Markets, JAI
Press Inc. Greenwich, Conn.
2. 1985 “Can Boom Turn to Bust? The Shifting Texas Enterprise,” (With Joe R.
Feagin), The Texas Humanist 7(5):6-12, Texas Committee for the Humanities:
Austin, Texas.
3. 1988 “Work in High-Technology Settings: A Review of the Empirical
Literature (With Randy Hodson), Pp. 1-29 in Richard L. Simpson and Ida Harper

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 Simpson (eds.) Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 4, JAI Press, Inc:
Greenwich, Conn.
4. 1988 “Economic Troubles and Local State Action: Some Texas Examples,”
(With Joe R. Feagin), Pp. 127-53 in Joyce Rothschild and Michael Wallace (eds.),
Research in Politics and Society, Vol. 3, JAI Press: Greenwich, Conn.
5. 1990 Building American Cities: The Urban Real Estate Game (With Joe R.
Feagin), Prentice Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
6. 1990 “A Better Business Climate in Houston, (With Joe R. Feagin), Pp. 216-38
in Dennis Judd and Michael Parkinson (eds.) Leadership and Urban Regeneration,
Urban Affairs Annual Reviews, V. 37. Newbury Park: Sage Publishers.
7. 1991 “Houston: Administration by Economic Elites,” (With Joe R. Feagin), Pp.
169-88 in Hank Savitch and John Thomas (eds.) Big City Politics in Transition,
Vol. 38, Urban Affairs Annual Reviews, Newbury Park: Sage Publications.
8. 1992 “Social Problems in American Cities: Issues in Urban Political Economy,
Pp. 169-84 in Berch Berberoglu (ed.) Critical Perspectives in Sociology. Kendall-
Hunt: Dubuque, IA.
9. 1992 “Military Spending in Free Enterprise Cities: The Military-Industrial
Complex in Houston and Las Vegas,” (With Joe R. Feagin) Pp. 100-25 in Andrew
Kirby (ed.) The Pentagon and the Cities, Urban Affairs Annual Reviews, V. 40,
Newbury Park: Sage Publications.
10. 1993 “The Labor Force in Transition: The Growth of the Contingent Workforce
in the United States,” Pp. 116-36 in Berch Berberoglu (ed.), The Labor Process
and Control of Labor. Praeger Publishers: Westport, Conn.
11. 1993 “Social Problems in American Cities: Issues in Urban Political Economy,”
Pp. 175-92, in Berch Berberoglu (ed). Critical Perspectives in Sociology, Second
Edition. Kendall/Hunt Publishers: Dubuque, IA.
12. 1994 “Problems of Work and Worker Alienation,” Pp. 330-370 in Joe R. Feagin
and Clairece Feagin, Social Problems: A Radical Power-Conflict Perspective.
Fourth Edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
13. 1994 Flesh Peddlers and Warm Bodies: The Temporary Help Industry and Its
Workers
New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. (Part of the ASA’s Rose Monograph
Series).
14. 1994 “Race, Sex, Class: The Contingent Work Force in the U.S.” Race, Sex and
Class 2 (1):145-59.
15. 1994 “Why Temporary Workers Have Become A Permanent Fixture,” Business
and Society, no. 91 (Fall):36-41.
16. 1995 “Disapproval of Interracial Unions: The Case of Black Females” (With
Yanick St. Jean), Pp. 341-352 in Cardell K. Jacobson (ed.), American Families:
Issues In Race and Ethnicity. Garland Publishing, Inc.:New York..
17. 1995 “Las Vegas, Lotteries, and the New Buffalo,” Halcyon/1995, V. 17: 223-
249.
18. 1996 “Why Temporary Workers Have Become a Permanent Fixture,” Pp. 128-

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 133 in Annual Editions:Microeconomics 96/97. (Reprinted from Business and
Society).
Dushkin Publishing Group: Guilford, CT.
19. 1997 “Urban Growth Management in Southern Nevada,” Pp. 201-214 in Dennis
Soden and Eric Herzik (eds.) Towards 2000: Public Policy in Nevada.
Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company: Dubuque, IA.
20. 1997 “Military Spending and Urban Form in Southern Nevada: A Political
Economy Perspective,” Pp. 135-58 in Research in Urban Sociology, V.4 (New
Directions in Urban Sociology, Ray Hutchinson (ed.) JAI Press: Greenwich,
Conn.
21. 1997 “Life Quality in the Colorado River Basin: Key Indicators for Evaluating
Sustainable Development,” (With Joan Rozzi). Journal of the Southwest
39(2):267-286.
22. 1998 “Temporary Clerical Workers,” Pp. 447-459 in Amy Wharton (ed.)
Working in America: Conflict, Continuity and Change: A Reader for Sociology of
Work. Mayfield Publishing Company.
23. 1999 “Las Vegas: Casino Gambling and Local Culture,” Pp.107-123 in Dennis
Judd and Susan Fainstein (eds.) The Tourist City. Yale University Press: New
Haven, Conn.
24. 2002 “Labor, Capital, and Changes in the Nature of Contingent Work: The
Global Economy and Transformations in the Labor Force Structure,” Pp. 177-205
in Berch Berberoglu (ed.) Labor, Capital and the State. General Hall, Inc.: Dix
Hills, New York.
25. 2002 “The Social Costs of Rapid Urbanization in Southern Nevada,” Pp. 126-
144 in Hal Rothman and Mike Davis (eds.) The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales
From the Real Las Vegas. University of California Press: Berkeley.
26. 2004 “The Urban Real Estate Game: Traditional and Critical Perspectives,”
(With Joe R. Feagin), Pp. 198-212 in Steven Gerardi (ed.) A Brief Survey of the
Sociological Imagination. Kendall-Hunt: Dubuque, IA.
27. Parker, R. E., & Achaval, V. G. (2017). The Myth of Increasing Life Expectancy
and Its Social Policy Implications. Journal of Sociological Research, Macrothink
Institute. 8(2):17-31.

ADDITIONAL PUBLICATIONS
(EXCERPTS, BOOK REVIEWS, COMMENTARIES AND MISCELLANEOUS)

1. 1986 Instructor’s Manual with Tests (With Clairece Feagin). A Teaching

Supplement for Joe R. Feagin, Social Problems, Second Edition. Prentice-Hall,
Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ
2. 1986 “Guiding Questions for Class Lecture and Discussion, and Class Projects,”
in Joe R. Feagin, Social Problems. Second Edition. Prentice-Hall, Inc.

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 Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
3. 1989 Book Review of Taking Care: Understanding and Encouraging Self-
Protective Behavior, by Neil E.Weinstein (ed.) in Contemporary Sociology, V.
18(2):246.
4. 1990 Book Review of Controversial Issues in Crime and Justice, Joseph E.
Scott and Travis Hirschi (eds.), American Journal of Police, V.9 (1):174-177.
5. 1990 Instructor’s Manual with Tests (With Clairece Feagin and Kelly Riddell).
A Supplement for Joe R. Feagin, Social Problems, Third Edition. Prentice-Hall,
Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
6. 1990 “A Temporary Worker in Manual Labor,” Pp. 348-349 in Randy Hodson
and Teresa Sullivan, The Social Organization of Work. Wadsworth: Belmont,
CA.
7. 1993 “Social Policy and the Good Business Climate in Nevada,” Sociological
Abstracts, August 1993, Supplement 172, p.71.
8. 1995 “A Temporary Worker in Manual Labor,” in Randy Hodson and Teresa A.
Sullivan, The Social Organization of Work, Second Edition, Pp. 377-379,
Wadsworth: Belmont, CA.
9. 1995 “Social Indices and Trends: Well-Being and Quality of Life,” Pp. 12-13,
and p. 62 in Kathleen Truman, Christine Chairsell, and James Deacon (eds),
Challenges to Natural Resource Sustainability in the Colorado River Basin. Las
Vegas: President’s Council on Sustainable Development.
10. 1995 Book Review of Rob Shield’s Places on the Margin. Social Forces
11. 1995 Book Review of Barbara Garson’s All the Livelong Day in Labor History.
12. 1995 Book Review Essay of Louise B. Simmons Organizing in Hard Times and
Teresa Amott’s Women and the U.S. Economy Today, in Labor History.
13. 1996 “The Rise and Fall of Mass Rail Transit,” (With Joe R. Feagin), Pp. 385-
390 in Garth Massey (ed.) Readings for Sociology. Second Edition.
W.W.Norton: New York.
14. 1996 Book Review of Samuel J. Eldersveld, Lars Stromberg, and Wim
Derksen’s Local Elites in Western Democracies in Urban Studies 33(7):1223-
1224.
15. 1996 Book Review of Richard B. Freeman and Lawrence F. Katz’s Differences
and Changes in Wage Structures in Labor History, V. 37(4):543-544.
16. 1997 Book Review of Kevin D. Henson’s Just A Temp in Social Forces 74
(December).
17. 1998 “Aw, Go Play in the Wash,” Pp. 12.13 in Las Vegas Life Magazine
(February).
18. 1998 “Speculation,” Entry in Willem Van Vliet (ed.) The Encyclopedia of
Housing, Pp. 553-554. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.
19. 1999 “Book Review of D.W. Livingstone’s The Education-Jobs Gap:
Underemployment or Social Democracy, in Contemporary Sociology,
V.28(4):429-430.
20. 1999 Book Review of Randy Hodson (ed.) Research in the Sociology of Work,

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 V. 6: in The Globalization of Work In Contemporary Sociology V. 28(3):311-
312.
21. 1999 “Underemployed,” Commentary in City Life, June 24, Pp. 16-17.
22. 1999 “Tension in Tourist Town,” Commentary in City Life, August 5, Pp. 14-
15
23. 1999 “Stranglehold on Free Speech,” Commentary in City Life, August 26, Pp.
20,22.
24. 1999 “Growing Up in Las Vegas,” Commentary in City Life, September 23, Pp.
24, 25, 27.
25. 1999 “Conform or Be Cast Out,” Commentary in City Life, December 2, P.23.
26. 1999 Book Review of David Littlejohn (ed.) The Real Las Vegas: Life Beyond
the Strip, in Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, V. 42 (Winter):296-298.
27. 2000 “Ranking Las Vegas,” Commentary in City Life, January 6, P. 24.
28. 2000 “Toil and Trouble,” Commentary in City Life, January 27, Pp. 27-29.
29. 2000 “The Urban Elite,” Commentary in City Life, March 16, P. 14-16.
30. 2000 “A Touch of Class,” Commentary in CityLife, April 27, P. 14-16.
31. 2000 Book Review Essay of Mark Gottdiener et al. Las Vegas: The Social
Production of an All-American City, and David Littlejohn (ed.) The Real Las
Vegas: Life Beyond the Strip in Urban Affairs Review V.35(6):899-902.
32. 2000 Book Review of John Hartigan, Jr. Racial Situations: Class Predicaments
of Whiteness in Detroit, in Urban Studies, V.37:(July) 1067-1068.
33. 2000 “Partial Victories,” Commentary in City Life, May 5, P. 28.
34. 2000 “Numbers Game,” Commentary in City Life, July 6, P. 18.
35. 2000 “Less Isn’t More,” Commentary in City Life, December 7.
36. 2000 “Visions Shatter Facts,” (With Randall Shelden and Jerry Kurelic),
Commentary in City Life, December 21, P.16
37. 2000 “The Rise and Fall of Mass Rail Transit,” (With Joe R. Feagin), Pp. 423-
426 in Garth Massey (ed.) Readings for Sociology. Third Edition. W.W.Norton:
New York.
38. 2002 “Working as a Temporary,” Pp. 366-367 in Randy Hodson and Teresa
Sullivan’s The Social Organization of Work. Wadsworth Publishers, Belmont,
CA.
39. 2002 “Las Vegas in 2001,” Lands and People, Grolier Publishers.
40. 2002 Book Review of Sally Denton and Roger Morris’ The Money and the
Power: The Making of Las Vegas and its Hold on America, 1947-2000, in
Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 45(3):165-167.
41. 2003 “The Rise and Fall of Mass Rail Transit,” (With Joe R. Feagin), Pp. 421-
426 in Garth Massey (ed.) Readings for Sociology. Fourth Edition. W.W.
Norton: New York.
42. 2005 “The Rise and Fall of Mass Rail Transit,” (With Joe R. Feagin), Pp. 290 -
296 in Garth Massey (ed). Readings for Sociology. Fifth Edition. W.W. Norton:
New York.
43. 2008 “Working as a Temporary,” in Randy Hodson and Teresa Sullivan’s The

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 Social Organization of Work, Wadsworth Publishers, Belmont, CA.
44. 2011 “Downing Mass Transit” (With Joe R. Feagin) in Robert Grantham and
Levon Chorbajian, Urban Society: The Shame of Governance. Sloan Publishing
Company, Cornwal-on-Hudson, NY.
45. 2017. Book Review of Migrant Professionals in the City. Contemporary
Sociology 46: 697-698.
46. 2018 Book Review of Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick’s What Slaveholders Think: How
Contemporary Perpetrators Rationalize What They Do. International Sociology
Reviews (ISR), 33, 579-583.
47. 2019 Book Review of Samuel A. Culbert’s Good People, Bad Managers: How
Work Culture Corrupts Good Intentions. The Social Science Journal. Vol. 56
(2): (In Press).

PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCE ACTIVITY

1. 1982 Delivered paper, “Management control and temporary work,” at the

annual meeting of the Union of Radical Political Economics, at Chevy Chase,
Maryland.
2. 1986 Delivered paper: “The expanding roles of temporary workers,” at the
Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Sociological Association, San Antonio, TX.
3. 1988 Delivered paper: “At What Cost: defensive gun use to deter crime” (With
Randall R. Beger and Michael D. Matthews). Presented at the Annual Meeting of
the American Society of Criminology, Chicago, Il.
4. 1989 Delivered paper, “A growth coalition in Springfield” (With Mick
Simmons) Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Sociological
Association, Little Rock, AK.
5. 1989 Delivered paper, “Private-Public Partnerships and Urban Regeneration in
Houston,” at the Conference on Political Leadership and Urban Regeneration,
Sponsored by the Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Liverpool,
Liverpool, England.
6. 1990 Delivered paper, “Economic impact of military spending on the urban
environment in Southern Nevada,” at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific
Sociological Association, Spokane, WA.
7. 1991 Delivered paper, “The effect of land speculation on affordable housing” at
the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Sociological Association, Des Moines, IA.
8. 1991 Delivered paper, “The social costs of rapid urbanization in Southern
Nevada,” San Antonio, TX. at the Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Social
Science Association.
9. 1992 Delivered paper, “The Growing Transition Toward Contingent Work in
the U.S.,” at the Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association,
Austin, TX.

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10. 1993 Delivered paper, “Job Creation and the Gaming Economic Development
Strategy,” at the Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association,
New Orleans, LA.
11. 1993 Delivered paper, “The Sociological Aspects of Growth,” at the Annual
Meeting of the American Public Works Association, Las Vegas, NV.
12. 1993 Delivered paper, “Social Policy and the Good Business Climate in
Nevada, “ at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association,
Miami, FL.
13. 1994 Delivered paper, “The New Buffalo: Indian versus corporate gaming,” at
the Annual Meeting of the Mid-West Social Science Association, St. Louis, MO.
14. 1994 Delivered paper, “A critical look at growth management strategies in
Southern Nevada,” at the Annual Meeting of the Western Social Science
Association, Albuquerque, NM.
15. 1994 Moderator, Session on Contingent Workers, Structural Vulnerability, and
Sexual Harassment”, at the Annual Meeting of Sociologists Against Sexual
Harassment, Los Angeles, CA.
16. 1994 Organizer and Presider, Session on Work and the Workplace, at the
Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Los Angeles, CA.
17. 1994 Delivered paper, “Life quality in the Colorado River Basin: key social
indicators for evaluating sustainable development,” at the Colorado River
Regional Workshop of the President’s Council on Sustainable Developmen,. Las
Vegas, NV.
18. 1995 Delivered paper, “Hate groups in America,” at a Forum sponsored by the
Las Vegas chapter of the Black Panther Party, Las Vegas, NV.
19. 1995 Delivered paper, “Urbanites in Southern Nevada: myths and realities,” at
the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Social Science Association, April, Chicago,
IL.
20. 1996 Delivered paper, “Military spending and urban form in Southern Nevada,”
at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, Seattle, WA..
21. 1996 Delivered paper, “Military spending and urban form in Southern Nevada,”
at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, Seattle, WA.
22. 1996 Delivered paper, “The threat to sustainable development in the Colorado
River Basin,” at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association,
Seattle, WA.
23. 1996 Delivered paper, “From sin city to the all-American city (and back),” at
the Second Annual “What is a City,” conference held at the University of
Missouri–St. Louis, MO. Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities.
24. 1997 Participant at the “Preparing Graduate Students to Teach: a Workshop at
Stanford, Stanford University, CA.
25. 1997 Delivered paper, “Organizing contingent workers: legal and other
considerations,” at the Tenth Annual Southern Labor Studies Conference,
William and Mary College, Williamsburg, VA.
26. 1997 Delivered public talk, “The social impact of gambling in rural

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 communities,” at the Center for Community Development, Delta State University,
Cleveland, MS.
27. 1998 Delivered paper, “Recent developments in the corporate use of contingent
workers,” at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, San
Francisco, CA.
28. 1998 Delivered paper, “The ideological evolution of white supremacy in the
U.S.: from Know-Nothings to armed militias,” (With Pete Simi), at the Annual
Meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA.
29. 1998 Organized the “Urban Sociology” session for Annual Meeting of the
Pacific Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA.
30. 2000 Delivered paper, “Urban resistance movements in Las Vegas,” at the
Annual Meeting of the Western Social Science Association, San Diego, CA.
31. 2000 Moderated the “Shaping Urban Growth” session at the Annual Meeting of
Western Social Science Association, San Diego, CA.
32. 2008 Delivered paper, “Social inequality in (and) Las Vegas”, at the Annual
Meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association, Las Vegas, NV.
33. 2014. (With Jason Holley) Delivered Paper: “Official Reality: the Socio-Histor
ical Evolution of the Bureau of Labor Statistics” ISSOBR Fall 2014 Conference.
October 13.
34. 2014. (With Jason Holley). Delivered Paper: Conspiracy Theories in the Soci
ology Classroom. Presented at the International Organization of Social Sciences
and Behavioral Research Fall Conference. Las Vegas, NV. October 13
35. 2015 (With Jason Holley) Delivered Paper: Relative Risks Surrounding the
Home Defense Firearm. Presented at the WSSA Annual Conference, April 9.
36. 2015. (With Jason Holley). Delivered Paper: The Impact of
Technological Au tomation on the Growing Instability of Contemporary
Media Work. Presented at the What is Journalism? Conference, Sponsored by
the School of Journalism and Communications, University of Oregon, April 9-11.
37. 2016. (With Vianett G. Achaval). Delivered Paper: The Myth of Increasing Life
Expectancy and its Social Policy Implications. Presented at the IOSSBR
Fall Conference (October 31, 2016 - November 1, 2016), San Antonio, TX
38. 2017. Delivered Paper: The Social Impact of Increasing Class Inequality on Life
Expectancy. Presented at the 20th Annual American Association of Behavioral
and Social Sciences Conference, Las Vegas, January 31.
39. 2017. Social Pathology in Sin City: A Sociological Analysis. Paper – presented at
the Fall Conference of the International Organization for Social Science and Be
havioral Research, Las Vegas.
40. 2018. Delivered Paper: “A Day Without Immigrants in Nevada,”. Presented at
the Spring Meeting of the American Association of Behavioral and Social
Sciences Conference, Las Vegas.

AWARD NOMINATIONS

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1995 Nominee for Outstanding Scholar of the Year in the Liberal Arts College, University of
Nevada, Las Vegas.
1998 Nominee for Outstanding Teacher of the Year in the Liberal Arts College, University of
Nevada, Las Vegas

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