For the second year in a row, seven SMU faculty members have received Sam Taylor Fellowships from the Sam Taylor Fellowship Fund of the Division of Higher Education, United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

The Sam Taylor Fellowships, funded by income from a portion of Taylor's estate, award up to $2,000 for full-time faculty members at United Methodist-related colleges and universities in Texas. Any full-time faculty member is eligible to apply for the Fellowships, which support research "advancing the intellectual, social, or religious life of Texas and the nation."

Applications are evaluated on the significance of the project, clarity of the proposal, professional development of the applicant, value of the project to the community or nation, and the project's sensitivity to value questions confronting higher education and society.

The winning professors for 2009-10, and their projects:

• Sarah Allen, Division of Music, Meadows School of the Arts, for research on motor skill acquisition in music learning.

• Jill deTemple Religious Studies, Dedman College, for research in Ecuador on a faith-based women's development organization.

• Robert Hunt, Director of Global Theological Education, Perkins School of Theology, for research in the Indonesian Archipelago on shared Christian-Muslim culture and relations.

• Sheri Kunovich Sociology, Dedman College, to study female political candidates and the voting system in Poland.

• Rubén Sanchez-Godoy Foreign Languages and Literatures, Dedman College, for archival research in Salvador, Brazil, and Peru, on 17th-century representations of slavery.

• Susanne Scholz, Perkins School of Theology, to interview and produce a documentary DVD series on pioneering feminist theologians.

• Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Perkins School of Theology, for her research on identity and faith formation in cross-cultured children of missionaries.

For more information on the Fellowships, including application instructions, contact Kathleen Hugley-Cook, director of the University's Office of National Fellowships and Awards.

• Visit SMU's National Fellowships and Awards homepage

David Blackwell, Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Dedman College, received the 2009 Joseph W. Aidlin Award at the Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) annual meeting in early October. The GRC, the primary professional educational association for the international geothermal community, gives the Aidlin Award each year for "outstanding contributions to the development of geothermal energy." Blackwell's mapping of North American geothermal resources, and his research into using hot wastewater produced from oil and gas wells as a source of electricity, have dramatically expanded the potential for global geothermal energy production.

The G. William Jones Film and Video Collection, Hamon Arts Library, has been awarded a $28,000 grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) for the preservation of Carib Gold (1956), an African-American crime drama set in Key West and featuring Ethel Waters, Cicely Tyson and Geoffrey Holder. The film is notable for its documentation of the Key West waterfront and shrimping fleet as they existed in the mid-20th century. The NFPF funds will allow the Jones Collection to use its print to create a new negative, prints, and videos. The new materials will be available for teaching, research and public viewing.

Elizabeth Johnston, a senior cinema-TV major in Meadows School of the Arts, has won the 2009 undergraduate scholarship presented by Women in Film.Dallas and will receive $2,500 toward her SMU tuition. Every fall, the organization awards two scholarships, one for undergraduates and one for graduate students, to Texas women studying media production. The awards were announced Oct. 8 during the Chick Flicks Film Series and Festival held at the Dallas Studio Movie Grill.

Anthony Cortese, Sociology, Dedman College, has published a book chapter, "Vessels of the Samora Legacy: Mentoring the Third Generation," in Moving Beyond Borders: Julian Samora and the Establishment of Latino Studies, edited by Alberto Pulido, Barbara Driscoll and Carmen Samora and published by the University of Illinois Press (2009).

An SMU speech team took first place in both divisions of its first competition of 2009-10. Fourteen students competed in more than 30 public speaking events including persuasive speaking, extemporaneous speaking and poetry during the event at Tarrant County College Sept. 26. The team took both of the top team sweepstakes awards and won 25 individual awards. Katherine Carr won first place in communication analysis and was the 3rd overall speaker for the tournament. Alex Ehmke was first place in impromptu speaking and extemporaneous speaking. Jessica Huseman took first place in persuasive speaking. Roza Essaw took first place in informative speaking.

In addition, SMU students dominated the limited-preparation speaking events of impromptu speaking and extemporaneous speaking, taking 11 of the top 12 speaking positions in those two events. Christene Dino and Solomon Odom were finalists in the interpretation event of prose. Carr and Solomon took second place in duo interpretation.

The team is coached by Chris Salinas and Ben Voth, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Meadows School of the Arts. Many of the competitors were trained in a curriculum designed by CCPA Chair Mark McPhail.

The Office of Public Affairs received two 2009 Dallas Quill Awards from the International Association of Business Communicators-Dallas at a ceremony Sept. 30. The 2008-09 SMU Parent Calendar received an Award of Excellence in Publications-Special Publications, and the SMU Student Adventures website received an Award of Merit in Electronic and Digital Communication-Ongoing Program (Internal or External Audience).

• Are you starting a new fellowship, speaking at a professional meeting, or awaiting the release of a new book? Share your news about conferences, publications, exhibitions and honors with the SMU community. Send your news to the Forum's For the Record section at forum@smu.edu, with "For the Record" in the e-mail title.

Anita Ingram, Risk Management, has been elected 2009-10 treasurer of the University Risk Management and Insurance Association (URMIA), an organization dedicated to advancing the discipline of risk management in higher education. She and other new officers were inducted at URMIA's 40th annual national conference Sept. 15 in Nashville.

Students in the Division of Journalism, Meadows School of the Arts, have received a 2009 Best of Show commendation from the Center for Innovation in College Media. The news segment "Students Reflect on Chaotic Inauguration Day," originally broadcast by The Daily Mustang on Jan. 21, 2009, was named Best Breaking News Package.

Students Tyler Murray, Jessica Huseman and Reem Tahir won 7 of their 10 debates at the University of Northern Iowa Debate Tournament Sept. 19-21, 2009. The debate topic concerned U.S. policy regarding the use of nuclear weapons. Murray and Huseman argued a unique affirmative case offering a U.S. apology for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was undefeated at the tournament. Tahir finished 3rd in the novice division in her first collegiate debate competition. The SMU debate teams are coached by faculty members Ben Voth and Chris Salinas, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Meadows School of the Arts. Read more from SMU News.

Central University Libraries (CUL) has received a $9,000 grant and $3,000 training stipend from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission's "Train to Share: Interoperability Training for Cultural Heritage Institutions - Texas" program. The program will allow CUL to partner with two other Dallas institutions, representing the North Texas region, to create the "Texas Artists: Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper" digital project. CUL will lead the partnership, which includes the Norwick Center for Digital Services and the Hamon Arts Library's Bywaters Special Collections; the Dallas Museum of Art; and the Dallas Public Library's Texas/Dallas History & Archives Division and Fine Arts Division.

• Visit CUL's 14 digital collections online

Are you starting a new fellowship, speaking at a professional meeting, or awaiting the release of a new book? Share your news about conferences, publications, exhibitions and honors with the SMU community. Send your news to the Forum's For the Record section at forum@smu.edu, with "For the Record" in the e-mail title.

Michael Clarke, International Center, has received a Fulbright Grant to participate in the 2009 Seminar for U.S. Administrators in International Education, to be conducted by the Fulbright Commission in Berlin in October. Only 24 individuals have received Fulbright Grants to participate in the Berlin Seminar.

Beth Newman, English, Dedman College, published "The Vulgarity of Elegance: Social Mobility, Middle-Class Diction, and the Victorian Novel" in Victorian Vulgarity: Taste in Verbal and Visual Culture, edited for Ashgate Press by Susan Bernstein and Elsie Michie. During the summer, she participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar on the Decadent 1890s at UCLA's Clark Library.

Anthony Cortese, Sociology, Dedman College, published a review of The World of Mexican Migrants: The Rock and the Hard Place by Judith Adler Hellman in The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, 2009, Volume 6, Number 2:616-17.

For the second year in a row, an SMU data-mining team has placed as one of the top three in the nation in the SAS Data Mining Shootout cosponsored by SAS, Dow and Central Michigan University Research Corporation. The order of finish will be announced at the 2009 SAS Data Mining Conference Oct. 27 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Dedman College Economics graduate students Michael Fulmer, Jingjing Ye and Steven Gregory - along with their faculty sponsor, Tom Fomby - will receive all-expense-paid trips to the conference and the award ceremony. In total, 47 U.S. universities and colleges registered, and 28 provided a final submission for judging.

Are you starting a new fellowship, speaking at a professional meeting, or awaiting the release of a new book? Share your news about conferences, publications, exhibitions and honors with the SMU community. Send your news to the Forum's For the Record section at forum@smu.edu, with "For the Record" in the e-mail title.

Linda Eads, Dedman School of Law, received the 2009 Lola Wright Foundation Award from the Texas Bar Foundation in June, which included $5,000 to donate to the charity of her choice. The award recognizes "outstanding public service in advancing and enhancing legal ethics in Texas." Past recipients include Berry Crowley, James Holmes III, Lloyd P. Lochridge, Jim Sales, Louise Raggio, Guy Harrison, Richard C. Hile, Justice Douglas S. Lan and Scott J. Atlas.

John Attanasio, Dean, Dedman School of Law, participated in a panel of law deans moderated by ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack at the 2009 State Bar of Texas annual meeting June 25-26 in Dallas. Other speakers at this year's meeting included historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, former FBI director William S. Sessions, Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Anthony Cortese, Sociology, Dedman College, served as a panelist to evaluate proposals in sociology, anthropology, American studies, ethnic studies and psychology for the 2009 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships competition in Washington, D.C. He also served as commentator in a special session, "Racial Minorities in Popular Media," at the annual meetings of the Association of Black Sociologists in New Orleans. In addition, he presented "Affirmative Action: Who's Benefitting from it and Why" at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association Aug. 8-11 in San Francisco.

Mary Vernon, Art, Meadows School of the Arts, will present a solo exhibition, Mary Vernon: Still Lifes and Tables, Aug. 28-Sept. 26, 2009, at the Valley House Gallery in Dallas. The show features work inspired by her recent trip to China.

Kamal Saggi, Economics, Dedman College, gave a keynote speech at the Valuing International Trade Rules Conference June 17-19, 2009, near Zurich, Switzerland. The conference was organized by the Swiss National Science Foundation and The World Bank. In addition, he was an invited discussant in the American Law Institute World Trade Organization Case Law Project, which met June 8 at the WTO in Geneva.

SMU finished 10th nationally and first in Texas in the Excellence in Management Cup presented by Texas A&M's Laboratory for the Study of Intercollegiate Athletics. The Cup determines which athletic departments win the most conference and national championships while having the lowest expenses. SMU won five conference championships in 2008-09, including cross country, men's and women's swimming and diving, women's tennis and women's basketball. Read more.

SMU's student chapter of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists has received the national organization's highest honor: the Domestic Student Chapter of the Year. The recognition includes a $1,000 scholarship from oil and gas industry supplier Schlumberger. SMU's was the first AAPG student chapter in the nation; Hamilton Chair in Earth Sciences David Blackwell, Dedman College, is its faculty sponsor. Read more. (Left, student chapter members Jason Bell, Andrés Ruzo and Philip Klintmalm at a Barnett Shale drilling site.)

Darwin Payne, professor emeritus of communications in Meadows School of the Arts, has written Quest for Justice: Louis A. Bedford Jr. and the Struggle for Equal Rights in Texas, published by SMU Press in May 2009. The book tells the story of prominent African American attorney Louis A. Bedford - the first black man to become a judge in Dallas - and the black legal community and middle class in Dallas and Texas during the mid-20th century.

The Office of Public Affairs received three awards in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District IV 2009 competition. SMU Magazine received an Award of Excellence (Silver) in the Visual Design-Illustration category for the feature section "Going Global" that appeared in the Fall/Winter 2008 issue. Integrated Marketing received an Achievement Award (Bronze) in the Visual Design-Logo Design category for the "SMU Unbridled" logo. SMU Forum received an Achievement Award (Bronze) in the World Wide Web Site category. The honors were presented at the 2009 CASE District IV conference, which took place April 4-8 in Oklahoma City.

Jim Copeland, former SMU athletics director, will be inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall Of Fame as part of its 2009 class, the organization announced May 5. Copeland will be among eight administrators joining the Hall. He retired from SMU in May 2006 after 12 years with the University and was the Mustangs' second longest-serving A.D. (Madison "Matty" Bell served 18 years in the position from 1947-64). Read more.

Kylie Quave (top right), a graduate student in archaeology in Dedman College, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Fellowship to conduct archaeological fieldwork and research in southeastern Peru, the heart of the ancient Inca empire. During the 10-month fellowship beginning in August 2009, she intends to excavate residences on the estate of 16th-century emperor Huayna Capac. She hopes to shed light on the Inca elites who lived there and supervised the estate's daily operations, immigrant laborers and land, which had been appropriated by the nobility. Read more.

Cody Meador (lower right), a junior political science major in Dedman College, has been named a 2009-10 Presidential Fellow by the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington, D.C. She is one of 85 students from across the country to receive the honor. She will have the opportunity to interact with high-level government officials involved in the policy-making process and will develop and present a research paper on the consequences of presidential action and inaction on global environmental treaties. Read more.

Alice Kendrick, Temerlin Advertising Institute, Meadows School of the Arts, received the national Billy I. Ross Advertising Education Award from the American Academy of Advertising at its national conference March 27, 2009 in Cincinnati. The award, which recognizes innovative work that advances the field of advertising education, was given jointly to Kendrick and Jami Fullerton of Oklahoma State University for their research and publishing in advertising education and multiculturalism.

Kendrick's and Fullerton's honor marks only the third time the Billy Ross Award has been given since its establishment in 2002.

Sebastien Hurtaud, an Artist Certificate candidate in cello in SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, won 1st prize in the 7th Adam International Cello Festival and Competition in Christchurch, New Zealand. He also won the Bach Prize for best performance of a work by Bach. The honor includes a cash prize, a recording contract with Naxos and a performance contract with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Hurtaud is a student of Andrés Díaz, associate professor of cello and international recording artist.

Hurtaud will present a free recital at 8 p.m. May 3 in O'Donnell Hall (Room 2130), Owen Arts Center. The event is open to all. For more information, call 214-768-1951.

Amy Revier, a senior studio art major and Hunt Leadership Scholar in Meadows School of the Arts, has received a Fulbright Grant to study in Iceland during 2009-10. She will work in the studio of internationally recognized sculpture and textile artist Hildur Bjarnadóttir in Reykjavik, as well as volunteer at the National Gallery of Iceland.

Two journalism majors in Meadows School of the Arts have been honored by the Fort Worth Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Senior Erin Eidenshink and Tiffany Glick ('08) received a 2008 First Amendment Award for In-Depth Reporting for their series on sexual assault, "Invisible Victims." It is the 3rd time in 5 years that SMU students have won the award.

Santiago Nunez, a senior economics major in Dedman College, has received the 2009 Arthur A. Smith Memorial Award Recognizing Student Excellence in Economics for his essay "Lethal Black Gold: Nigeria's Oil Curse and How to Cure It." The DFW Association for Business Economics gives the award annually to an outstanding economics, business or finance undergraduate from an area university. The prize includes a $1,000 cash award.

Marko Pavlovic, a student of Carol Leone in the Artist Certificate degree program of Meadows School of the Arts, won 1st place in the piano division of the 25th annual Young Texas Artists Music Competition. The 3-day event is open to musicians, age 18-30, who are Texas residents or enrolled in a Texas college, university or music school.

Anthony Cortese, Sociology, Dedman College, organized and moderated a session on "Race, Social, and Gender Inequality" at the 2009 annual meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, which took place April 8-11 in San Diego, California.

Pia Vogel, Biological Sciences, Dedman College, was co-moderator for panel disussions on cancer biology and career opportunities at a Houston conference, "Frontiers of Cancer Research: Biology, Emerging Technologies and Therapeutics," sponsored by The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas. The Academy was founded in 2004 to provide broader recognition of the state's top achievers in medicine, engineering and science, and to build a stronger identity for Texas as a center of achievement in these fields. Members include Texas Nobel Laureates and more than 200 National Academy members.

The HBO special "Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football," featuring SMU alumnus Jerry LeVias ('69), is one of 8 films being honored April 29, 2009 by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. University Archivist Joan Gosnell, Central University Libraries, helped provide photos and materials from the University Archives for the special. Heritage Hall Chair Gerry York ('58) also helped with research.

Daniel Salta, a junior double major in mechanical engineering and mathematics in the Lyle School of Engineering and Dedman College, has been accepted to the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program for Summer 2009. He will work with Radovan Kovacevic in SMU's Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing in the Lyle School. The national REU program supports the participation of students nationwide in research labs and projects.

Amy Hand, a Dedman College student double-majoring in physics and mathematics, also has been accepted to the NSF REU program for Summer 2009. She will do her research at CREOL - The College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Esmeralda Duran, a December 2008 Dedman College graduate with majors in English and French, has been selected for a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Continuing Scholar Graduate Award. One of the largest and most competitive scholarship programs in the nation, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship provides up to $50,000 per year for up to 6 years of graduate study. Duran held a Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship as an SMU undergraduate.

Pekka Hämäläinen (right) has received a 2009 Bancroft Prize, awarded by Columbia University, for his book The Comanche Empire (Yale University Press, 2008), published in cooperation with SMU's William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies in Dedman College. Currently an associate professor of history and co-director of the Center for Borderlands and Trans-cultural Studies at UC-Santa Barbara, Hämäläinen was the Clements Center's 2001-02 Bill and Rita Clements Fellow for the Study of Southwestern America.

Bonnie Wheeler, English/Medieval Studies, Dedman College, spoke in the Conference of Historical Journals at the American Historical Association's 2009 meeting in January. Her lecture on emerging challenges to the identities of traditional humanities journals was covered by The Chronicle of Higher Education in an article published in the March 27, 2009 issue. She is editor of the journal Arthuriana and president of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.

Cody Meador, a rising senior political science major in Dedman College, has been selected as SMU's 2009-10 Presidential Fellow to the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington, D.C. The University names one Fellow each year who attends two conferences in Washington and writes a policy paper for the Center. Read Cody's summer 2008 service blog at SMU's Student Adventures site.

Ben Manthey, a graduating senior history major and Chinese minor in Dedman College, has received a 2009-10 Fellowship to the Princeton in Asia Program. He will spend the academic year in Beijing. Founded in 1898, Princeton in Asia's mission is to foster cross-cultural understanding between Asians and Americans by giving young people opportunities to live and work in Asia. Read Ben's spring 2008 China blog at SMU's Student Adventures site.

Charles Curran, Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values, has won the 2008 American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE Award) in Theology and Religious Studies for his book Catholic Moral Theology in the United States: A History (Georgetown University Press). Presented by the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers since 1976, the PROSE Awards "annually recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals, and electronic content in over 35 disciplines," according to their website.

Elaine Heath, Perkins School of Theology, has been elected to the Executive Council of the Wesleyan Theological Society.

Randall Griffin, Art History, Meadows School of the Arts, has been named to the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee of the College Art Association for 2009-12. He is also a member of CAA's Board of Directors.

Sherry Smith, University Distinguished Professor of History and associate director of the Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Dedman College, has received a 2009-10 Los Angeles Times Distinguished Fellowship from the Huntington Library. She will spend the next academic year doing research at the Huntington.

Hillsman S. Jackson, University Photographer, Public Affairs, has been named 2009-10 president of the Dallas chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP). Founded in 1944, the ASMP (originally the Society of Magazine Photographers and later the American Society of Magazine Photographers) has more than 5,000 members in 39 chapters nationwide. The organization "promotes photographers' rights, educates photographers in better business practices, produces business publications for photographers and helps buyers find professional photographers."

Linda Eads, Dedman School of Law, has received the 2009 Lola Wright Foundation Award from the Texas Bar Foundation. The honor recognizes "outstanding public service in advancing and enhancing legal ethics in Texas," and recipients are attorneys "to whom professional ethics are paramount." Past recipients include Berry Crowley, James Holmes III, Lloyd P. Lochridge, Jim Sales, Louise Raggio, Guy Harrison, Richard C. Hile, Justice Douglas S. Lan, and Scott J. Atlas. Eads will receive $5,000 to donate to the charity of her choice.

Mary Spector, Dedman School of Law, has been named a 2009 Bellow Scholar by a committee of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Clinical Education, recognizing her project on the impact of debt collection litigation on consumers and the courts. Bellow Scholar awards are made every two years on the basis of "innovative proposals designed to improve the quality of justice in communities, to enhance the delivery of legal services, and to promote economic and social justice." Other 2009 Bellow Scholars are from Harvard, Catholic University and the University of Michigan.

Ben Johnson, History, Dedman College, has received the 2008 Ray and Pat Browne Award for the Best Reference/Primary Source Work in Popular and American Culture from the Popular Culture and American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) for his book Bordertown: The Odyssey of an American Place (Yale University Press). He will accept the award at the PCA/ACA Conference in New Orleans April 10, 2009.

Paul Phillips (left), Music Director, Meadows Symphony Orchestra, will make his debut as guest conductor during the 2009-10 subscription series of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. His program, scheduled for performance Jan. 7-9, 2010, will include the world premiere of a viola concerto by American composer Margaret Brouwer. The soloist will be DSO principal violist Ellen Rose, adjunct associate professor, Meadows School of the Arts. Read more from The Dallas Morning News.

Tony Picchioni, Center for Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management, Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, has cowritten (with Laurence Boulle and Michael T. Colatrella Jr.) Mediation: Skills and Techniques, published by LexisNexis Matthew Bender (2008). The book is the #1 seller of its kind according to tracking by LexisNexis and Barnes & Noble.

John Chávez, Clements Department of History, Dedman College, was keynote speaker for the 6th annual Mexican American Studies Conference Feb. 5-6, 2009 at Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio.

Three members of the SMU Dining Services bakery team won awards for their cakes at the Ben E. Keith Annual Food Show Jan. 14, 2009 in Houston. The competition, the state's largest, was sponsored by the American Culinary Federation. The SMU team competed against almost 90 other entries.

The winning team members include (left to right in photo): LaCracha Holley, who won a silver medal for a novelty cake and another silver for a wedding cake; Maria Perez, who won bronze for her celebration cake; and Tim Whiteside, who won bronze medals for a novelty cake and a wedding cake.

Lori White, Vice President for Student Affairs, has been nominated as a Pillar of the Profession by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and the NASPA Foundation "in recognition of her many years of outstanding service to higher education." She will be honored at the 2009 NASPA conference scheduled for March 7-11 in Seattle, Washington.

Peter Raad, Executive Director, The Guildhall at SMU, has been named to the Board of Directors of the PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA), a nonprofit corporation "dedicated to driving the worldwide growth of PC gaming." Among the organization's goals are to create hardware guidelines, improve consumer experience, and offer guidance to help resolve industry challenges such as piracy, cheating and security. Read more.

Robert Krout (right), Music Therapy, Meadows School of the Arts, spent the month of January volunteering in music and music therapy at the Hope Town School, a primary school in Hope Town, Bahamas. His class, a mix of regular and special-needs students, also put on an outdoor concert for parents.

Elaine Heath, Evangelism, Perkins School of Theology, has written Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer, Princeton Theological Monograph Series, Vol. 108. It has been published by Pickwick Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Gillian McCombs (right), Dean, Central University Libraries, is featured in "Stars Over the Metroplex in the Last Decade of the Twentieth Century" - a quilt hand-stitched by SMU alumna Vivian Castleberry and displayed at The Women's Museum in Dallas' Fair Park. The quilt honors 144 prominent women in the Dallas area during the 1990-2000 decade. Each 6-inch-square block is centered by a portrait of the woman, surrounded by a modified star pattern. Several University alumnae also are featured, including Ruth Altshuler, Harriet Miers and Louise Raggio.

SMU President's Scholars Alexandra Hill and Katrina Josephson have been chosen as 2009-10 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars. The Rotary Foundation has sponsored Ambassadorial Scholars since 1947, with key objectives being to "increase awareness of and respect for cultural differences by sending ambassadors of goodwill to study in another country" and to "develop leaders who can address the humanitarian needs of the world community."

Hill, a senior double-major in international studies and electrical engineering in Dedman College and the Lyle School of Engineering, will study at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, Switzerland. Josephson, a senior political science and Spanish double major in Dedman College, will study at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in the Dominican Republic.

The Cox School of Business hosted an economic roundtable for Dallas-area media in November 2008. Participants included Cox Dean Al Niemi, Brian Bruce (Alternative Asset Management Center, Cox School of Business), Nathan Balke (Economics, Dedman College) and Cox adjunct professor Harvey Rosenblum of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Read more from The Dallas Morning News.

Johan Elverskog, Religious Studies, Dedman College, presented "Theorizing Christianity in Mongolia" at the "Contemporary Mongolia - Transitions, Development and Social Transformation" international conference in Vancouver, Canada, Nov. 14, 2008.

Luis Maldonado, Foreign Languages and Literatures, Dedman College, presented "Fidel Castro and the Mediatic Politics of the Body" at London Metropolitan University Oct. 15, 2008.

Jim Hollifield, Political Science, Dedman College, spoke at the 2008 Dallas Institute Festival of Ideas Nov. 8. The lineup of speakers included Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, presidential historian Michael Beschloss, and New York Times columnists David Brooks and Nicholas Kristof.

Larry Palmer, Music, Meadows School of the Arts, played a recital at Harvard University to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its Flentrop organ Nov. 2, 2008, in Busch Hall. The instrument, made famous through broadcasts and recordings by E. Power Biggs, is one of the most influential pipe organs in America. The following evening Palmer presented a program for the Boston Chapter, American Guild of Organists, in Harvard's Memorial Church to mark the centenary of the birth of Hugo Distler, a German Lutheran composer who was the subject of Palmer's first book. In October, Palmer played the dedicatory recital for the C.B. Fisk organ at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, NM, for which he was the consultant.

SMU's departments of Risk Management and Budgets and Information Technology Services have received a 2008 Honorable Mention Award from the International Association of Emergency Managers. ITS was honored in the Public Awareness: Division 2 category for its 2008 SMU Aware calendar. The calendar is part of the University's Security Awareness Program.

Alexa Taylor, Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center, and four current and former SMU students presented a session at the International Dyslexia Association conference in Seattle Nov. 1, 2008. Estee Simpkins, Rachael Russell, Callan Harrison and Matt Tunnell ('07) shared their experiences in being college students with learning disabilities.

Four professors and administrators represented SMU at the 2008 Educause Conference in Orlando, Florida: Anthony Cortese and Dalia Abdel-Hady, Sociology; Paul Toprac, The Guildhall at SMU; and Brad Boeke, Information Technology Services. Educause is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.

Karen Vickery, Learning Therapy, has received a 2008 IMSLEC Innovator Award for Outstanding Educator in a University from the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council. She was recognized at the IMSLEC Council meeting during the International Dyslexia Association conference Oct. 29, 2008, in Seattle.

Three SMU graduate students in Economics are the No. 1 data-mining team in the nation, as announced by the 2008 Data Mining Shootout sponsored by the SAS Institute, Dow Chemical Company and the Central Michigan University Research Corporation. Ph.D. candidates Stefan Avdjiev, Jayjit Roy and Manan Roy won the competition based on their program logic and software solutions to a complex scheduling problem involving a hypothetical airline company operating at three airports and anticipating weather delays and cancellations. Tom Fomby is their faculty sponsor and adviser.

Ada Brown, Law, has been appointed to the Texas Public Safety Commission by Gov. Rick Perry. Brown, a former Dallas County criminal court judge, teaches trial advocacy as an SMU adjunct professor. Read more from The Houston Chronicle.

Ron Wetherington, Anthropology, has been named as one of six members of an expert panel that will review proposed new science curriculum standards for Texas public schools for the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

Kevin Dilliard, Campus Planning and Plant Operations, will receive a Green Star Award for SMU in the Urban Universities category from the Professional Grounds Management Society at the Green Industry Expo Oct. 22-25, 2008, in Louisville, Kentucky. The award recognizes "professional accomplishment and excellence in grounds management" and is the third such award SMU has won during the past 7 years.

Kathy Hargrove, Education and Human Development, will receive the 2008 President's Award from the Texas Association for the Talented and Gifted during its annual conference Nov. 13-14 in Dallas. The award is given to recognize "an individual of influence who has made positive contributions to gifted and talented education."

Linda Eads, Law, has been named one of 30 "Extraordinary Women in Texas Law" in a special edition of Texas Lawyer magazine. The periodical recognized women "licensed to practice law in Texas who have had an impact in the state on firms, government, nonprofits, academia and/or the corporate world within the past five years." Read more from SMU News.

SMU'S Decima chapter of the Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society was honored for excellence at the 2008 Mortar Board National Conference, held in July in Columbus, Ohio. The group was one of 59 chapters to receive the Silver Torch Award, presented to chapters "executing timeliness and dedication while exemplifying the ideals of scholarship, leadership and service." Chapter President Lauren Smyth was present to accept the award.

Junior business major Mercedes Ulibari has been named a member of KPMG LLP's 2008 Future Diversity Leaders (FDL) class. She is among 51 students from across the nation who were chosen "as a result of their commitment to high academic achievement, community and campus involvement and active participation in diversity organizations." The FDL program provides leadership training and financial support for outstanding minority undergraduate business students as part of a continuing effort to increase and support minority representation in the accounting profession.

Metin Eren, a graduate student in experimental archaeology, has done a study slated for publication in The Journal of Human Evolution that uses data on how early humans made tools to determine that Neanderthals were smarter than previously believed. Garth Sampson, Anthropology (Emeritus), is Eren's co-author (along with Aaron Greenspan of Think Computer Corporation) on the paper, titled "Are Upper Paleolithic blade cores more productive than Middle Paleolithic discoidal cores? A replication experiment" (PDF). Read more and find more media coverage at SMU News.

Anthony Cortese, Sociology, presented a paper, "Racial Profiling and Ethnic Stereotyping: Muslim Terrorists and Illegal Aliens," at a Racial Profiling on Borders conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Three SMU graduate students in Economics make up one of three finalist teams in the 2008 Data Mining Shootout sponsored by the SAS Institute, Dow Chemical Company and the Central Michigan University Research Corporation. Ph.D. candidates Stefan Avdjiev, Jayjit Roy and Manan Roy made the top three based on their program logic and software solutions to a complex scheduling problem involving a hypothetical airline company operating at three airports and anticipating weather delays and cancellations.

The team will travel to the 11th Annual SAS Data Mining Conference in Las Vegas Oct. 27-28 for the announcement of the final finish order. Tom Fomby is their faculty sponsor and adviser.

Kamal Saggi, Economics, has been appointed to the World Bank's Steering Committee of the Global Trade and Financial Architecture Project (Phase II): Meeting the Challenges of Economic Integration for Poor Countries. The project is supported by the Department for International Development, a part of the UK Government that manages Britain's aid to poor countries and works to get rid of poverty. The project will identify priorities of international cooperation that can help support the process of globalization by enhancing its inclusiveness and sustainability. The Committee will be chaired by the former President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo.

Alice Kendrick, Advertising, was named the 2008 Distinguished Advertising Educator by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The award recognizes "the best advertising professors in the country."

C. Michael Hawn, Sacred Music, was named a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada at its annual meeting July 13-17, 2008, in Berkeley, CA. The honor recognized "his international work as a troubadour of congregational song and his significant contributions to The Society."

Santanu Roy, Economics, organized a two-day conference on economic theory July 19-20, 2008, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He presented a paper on problems of trading over time in markets for durable goods where buyers are less informed than sellers about the quality of goods to be traded.

Roy also delivered a lecture, "Non-classical Economic Growth Theory: Some Lessons," to social and environmental scientists in the research division of the Environmental Defense Fund on Aug. 11, 2008, in New York. In addition, he presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Canadian Economic Association, June 6-8, 2008, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The paper analyzed questions related to inferring product quality from prices and the effect of strategic competition between firms.

Ali Alibhai, a graduate student in medieval studies, has received a Fulbright Scholarship to study art and architectural history in Morocco in 2009. He will study religious lamps and the evolution of lighting in medieval Islamic societies. He hopes to examine and catalog the few surviving church bells captured by Muslims during the Middle Ages and transformed into lamps for mosques, where they still hang. Read more from SMU News.

Brittney Titus, a junior corporate communications and public affairs major, was named 2008 Intern of the Year as part of the ExxonMobil Community Summer Jobs Program for her work as the junior volunteer coordinator at Methodist Dallas Medical Center. During her internship, Titus supervised 65 high school volunteers, planning all aspects of their placements from training to activities, fundraisers and educational field trips.

Ellen Buie Niewyk, Central University Libraries, has received a 2007 CASETA Publication Award from the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art for her 2007 book, Jerry Bywaters: Lone Star Printmaker (SMU Press). The book was published in conjunction with the major Meadows Museum exhibition of the same name. CASETA awards the prize annually to the individual who has made "the most important contribution to the published literature on early Texas art" during the previous calendar year.

SMU student volunteers participated in the grand opening of The Bridge, Dallas' new 24-hour homeless assistance center, on May 20, 2008. Read more from Pegasus News.

Paige Ware, Education, has been selected to receive a 2008 Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Academy of Education (NAE). The fellowship, underwritten by the Spencer Foundation, is the largest and most prestigious in postdoctoral educational research and supports outstanding researchers in the pursuit of critical education research projects that are expected to make significant scholarly contributions to the field. Read more.

Anthony Cortese, Sociology, presented a paper, "Racial Profiling and Ethnic Stereotyping: Muslim Terrorists and Illegal Aliens," at the Racial Profiling at Borders Conference hosted by Kwantlen University College in Surrey, British Columbia, April 25, 2008.

Kamal Saggi, Economics, presented his research on the relative merits of bilateralism and multilateralism as alternative routes to global trade liberalization in an invited lecture at the University of Missouri in Columbia April 25, 2008. His research shows that the relationship between the two types of trade liberalization might be more complementary than is generally recognized.

SMU Panhellenic raised more than $113,000 for cancer research with its 2008 Relay For Life in April.

Deanie Kepler, Student Life, received the Susan E. Brown Award at the Administrators Promoting Parent Involvement Conference in Boston in March 2008. The award honors her "outstanding contribution to programs and services for parent and families of college and university students."

The SMU pom team took first place in the open dance division for the second time in three years at the National Dance Alliance Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida. SMU's cheerleaders captured second place in the Small Co-Ed Division I category. Read more.

Kenneth Hamilton, History (at left in photo), was keynote speaker at Tuskegee University's 91st annual Founder's Day Convocation April 6, 2008. The convocation honored the school's founder, Booker T. Washington, and others who have helped the historic institution progress since its 1881 inception. Read the full text of Hamilton's speech (PDF format).

Kamal Saggi, Economics, presented his research on the relative merits of bilateralism and multilateralism as alternative routes to global trade liberalization in an invited lecture at Georgia Tech's Conference on Advances in International Trade April 11, 2008, and in an invited lecture at Sam Houston State University's Conference on Regional Trade Agreements, Migration and Remittances With Special Focus on CAFTA and Latin America on April 13, 2008.

More than 550 SMU students who have achieved a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 and above were recognized during the University's 18th annual Minority Academic Awards. The event drew nearly 200 students, family members and faculty and staff to the Hughes-Trigg Theater. Read more and see a slide show.

Tom Fomby, Economics, spoke on the application of cointegration to the analysis of the relationship between influenza and non-perforating appendicitis in the Distinguished Speaker Series at UT-Southwestern Medical Center March 20, 2008.

Kamal Saggi, Economics, presented his research on the relative merits of bilateralism and multilateralism as alternative routes to global trade liberalization at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business April 9, 2008.

The SMU Office of Public Affairs received three awards in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District IV 2008 competition. SMU Research received an Achievement Award (Bronze) in the Visual Design-Illustration category for its 2007 cover; SMU Magazine received an Award of Excellence (Silver) in the Magazine, Four-Color Throughout category; and SMU Forum received a Grand Award (Gold) in the E-newsletter category. The honors were presented at the 2008 CASE District IV conference April 5-9 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

David Weber, History, has been chosen to receive the 2008 Lon Tinkle Award for "excellence sustained throughout a career" from the Texas Institute of Letters. He will accept the award at a ceremony April 19 in the Hall of State, Fair Park.

Isaac Mbiti, Economics, gave a presentation on the impact of cell phones in Africa at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) conference on African Development Successes Feb. 22, 2008. He also presented a paper on the relationship between marriage markets and female labor markets in India at a seminar at the Population Studies Center of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor March 10, 2008.

Santanu Roy, Economics, presented an invited paper at the International Conference of Economic Theory at Kyoto University, Japan, March 9-10, 2008. His talk focused on the effect of technological and other uncertainty on economic growth and, in particular, on the possibility of severe depletion of capital and eventual extinction as a result of adverse economic shocks over time.

Shlomo Weber, Economics, co-wrote a paper (with Victor Ginsburgh, University of Brussels) that has been cited as a reason for the resolution of the parliament of the French-speaking community in Wallonia, Belgium, that all television interviews in a language other than French should be subtitled.

Tony Cortese, Sociology, presented a paper, "Faces Seen, Hearts Unknown: Mexican Immigration to the United States," at the Southwest Sociological Association annual meeting March 12-15, 2008, in Las Vegas.

Kamal Saggi, Economics, presented his research on preferential trade agreements such as NAFTA in the University Seminar on Regionalism and Global Economic Development at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, on March 11, 2008.

M.F.A. student in sculpture J. Neil Lawley has received a 2008-09 Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, awarded to students of "superior ability, achievement, and promise" for study at the doctoral or M.F.A. level in selected fields of arts, humanities and social sciences. The fellowship provides tuition and fees, and a living stipend of up to $30,000.

Soumya Awasthi, a 2007 Ph.D. graduate in biological sciences, has received a postdoctoral fellowship in the Harvard Medical School Division of Neurosciences. She will conduct research on Herpes Simplex viral vectors for gene-delivery and expression in the developing brain.

Ph.D. student in psychology Angie Berry has received a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School's McLean Hospital.

Warren C. Seay Jr., a Hunt Leadership Scholar and sophomore political science major, has been chosen as a member of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship's Class of 2009. The Institute selects 24 students nationally to participate in its intensive two-summer program.

Carolyn Smith-Morris, Anthropology, has been named to receive the 2008-09 Maguire Teaching Fellow Award from SMU's Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility. She and graduate student in medical anthropology James Kennell will design a course tentatively entitled "Globalization, Society, and the Human Condition."

Ping Gui, Electrical Engineering, will spend summer 2008 with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. She will work with its microelectronics group designing next-generation data acquisition systems for CERN's particle physics experiments.

Jana Jones, Learning Therapy, will receive the Excellence in Education Award from the Dallas Branch of the International Dyslexia Association (DBIDA) for "outstanding contributions in the field of education." DBIDA will present the award Feb. 8 at its 2008 conference in Dallas.

SMU's School of Engineering will induct three outstanding alumni into its Hall of Leaders during ceremonies Mar. 28 at the Dallas Museum of Art. The 2008 honorees are Aart de Geus ('85), chairman, CEO and co-founder of Silicon Valley electronic design automation company Synopsys; Karen Shuford ('70), Dallas civic leader, volunteer and charitable trust consultant for the Bank of America Private Client Group; and Richard Ru-Gin Chang ('85), founder, president, CEO and executive director of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation in Shanghai.

Robert Frank, Music, was one of three composers nationwide to receive a Special Distinction citation in the 2008 ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize competition. The Nissim Prize is presented annually by The ASCAP Foundation in New York, to an ASCAP concert composer for a work requiring a conductor that has not been performed professionally. Frank was recognized for his composition Fast Falls the Eventide, a 12-minute orchestral work in one movement written for, and premiered by, the Meadows Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Phillips in 2004. The competition, which is judged by a jury of professional conductors, drew more than 315 entries from around the United States.

Anthony Cortese, Sociology, has published the third edition of his book Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising (Roman & Littlefield, 2008).

Nathan Cortez, Law, discussed the growth and risks of "medical tourism" - traveling overseas for needed health care - with National Public Radio Nov. 14, 2007.

Alexa Taylor, Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center, offered exam-time study tips for students with learning differences in The Dallas Morning News Dec. 10, 2007.

Daniel Howard, Marketing, discussed the holiday bargains late shoppers can expect in the final weeks of the shopping season with The Hartford Courant Dec. 11, 2007.

Cal Jillson, Political Science, discussed Texas Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul's use of the Internet to create grassroots support in an article that appeared in USA Today Nov. 30, 2007.

Matthew Wilson, Political Science, talked about the importance of the abortion issue to the Republican Party's conservative Christian base, and how it may affect the 2008 election, with Reuters. The article appeared in Swiss Radio International Nov. 28, 2007.

Daniel Howard, Marketing, talked about why gasoline demand has remained steady against increasingly higher prices in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Nov. 25, 2007.

Ed Fox, Marketing, discussed the ebb and flow of holiday shopping crowds and the retail industry with The Contra Costa Times Dec. 5, 2007.

Scott MacDonald, Finance, demystified the subprime mortgage crisis in Cheryl Hall's business column in The Dallas Morning News Dec. 2, 2007.

The Guildhall at SMU was featured in a story on the growing gaming-industry job market in The Dallas Morning News Dec. 3, 2007.

Gwen Beauchamp, Cox School of Business, is a finalist in the 2008 Pillsbury Bake-Off for her Toffee Banana Brownies recipe. She was featured in an article in The Dallas Morning News Dec. 3, 2007, and will compete for the Bake-Off's $1 million grand prize in Dallas in April.

Richard Nelson, Theology, Brent Sumerlin, Chemistry, and Matthew Wilson, Political Science, have received Sam Taylor Fellowships from the Division of Higher Education, United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Nelson's Fellowship will support his research at the University of Cambridge, England, on the Book of Judges as a resource in public policy debates. Sumerlin's Fellowship will allow local high school students, along with undergraduate and graduate students, to participate in his research developing new synthetic "smart" materials in biotechnology. Wilson's Fellowship will support his research on public opinion toward Catholicism and its role in national elections, one part of a larger book project.

Mark Roglán, Meadows Museum Director, talked about the future and educational mission of the Meadows Museum with The Dallas Morning News Nov. 26, 2007.

The Dedman School of Law's Mock Trial team has earned a spot in the American Bar Association's national competition in January. Nefeterius McPherson, Sally Pretorius, John Roberts and Michael Thomas took first place in the regional competition and will represent the region in Chicago Jan. 26-27, 2008.

Erin Krafft, a graduate student in SMU's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, struck a $60,000 bargain on NBC's "Deal or No Deal" Nov. 16, 2007. Read more.

Ed Fox, Marketing, helped design a survey of major grocery chains in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for The Dallas Morning News. He is featured in an article on the survey's results that appeared in the Morning News Nov. 11, 2007.

John Attanasio, Law Dean, discussed the mission of the law school in an article on the growing number of Christian-based law schools in the Houston Chronicle Nov. 9, 2007.

Elaine Heath, Theology, and Mark Chancey, Religious Studies, have received Sam Taylor Fellowships from the Division of Higher Education, United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Heath's Fellowship will support her research on emerging neo-monastic communities in the United States, which will result in a book to be published next year. Chancey's Fellowship will support travel to archaeological sites in Galilee and the Golan Heights to research his upcoming book on the archaeology of Palestine in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, from Alexander the Great through Constantine.

George Martinez, Law, discussed an Irving, Texas lawsuit to force the adoption of single-member City Council districts and what it may mean for minority representation with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Nov. 8, 2007.

Dennis Cordell, History, was lauded for receiving SMU's 2006-07 Faculty/Staff Volunteer of the Year award in the Summer/Fall 2007 issue of LifeLines, the newsletter of AIDS Arms Inc. He is chair of the agency's Program Services committee, which oversees programs including operation of its medical and legal clinic, maintenance of testing and counseling centers, and partnerships with Latino and black community services.

Senior music major Tihda Vongkoth (right) has won the 2007 Keroupe Zildjian Concert Percussion Scholarship. College undergraduate percussionists worldwide participated in the competition, sponsored annually by the Zildjian Company, a renowned maker of cymbals and percussion instruments. Vongkoth is a student of Douglas Howard, Kalman Cherry and Drew Lang; she performs with the Meadows Percussion Ensemble, the Meadows Symphony Orchestra and the Meadows Wind Ensemble. Read more.

Two SMU mock-trial teams took first place at the Billinger Barrister Invitational in St. Louis Oct. 13-14, 2007, finishing undefeated at 7-0-1. Sophomore Jessica Wikstrom also won a Best Witness Award. About 22 teams from 11 different schools participated in the competition, which was sponsored by St. Louis University.

Kim Cobb, Public Affairs, has received a 2007 Outstanding Alumni Award from the Texas Tech University College of Mass Communications. Cobb, who graduated from Tech in 1979, joined SMU in June as director of national media marketing after a lengthy career as a journalist, including more than two decades as a national writer for the Houston Chronicle. She and four others were honored Oct. 27 in Lubbock. Read more from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Gail Hartin, Teacher Education, discussed what makes a good teacher with Park Cities People Nov. 2, 2007.

President R. Gerald Turner, co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, talked about private money and "booster interference" in college sports with The Chronicle of Higher Education Oct. 26, 2007.

Barnaby Fitzgerald, Art, has created a new exhibition, ...complexions of the avatars..., which will open with a reception 6:30-8 p.m. Nov. 9 at Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden. The exhibition runs through Dec. 8. (Left, Fitzgerald's Gnomen (2006).)

Patricia Alvey, Advertising, on how ad makers attempt to tap into viewers' visceral responses in The Dallas Morning News Oct. 30, 2007

Jeorg Rieger, Theology, discussed the United States and "empire theology" in William McKenzie's column in The Dallas Morning News Oct. 24, 2007.

Bruce Bullock, Maguire Energy Institute, discussed the implications of the price of crude oil hitting above $92 a barrel in Asia in USA Today Oct. 26, 2007

Jeffrey Kahn, Law, provided commentary for an article on the mistrials in the Holy Land Foundation prosecutions in The Houston Chronicle Oct. 22, 2007.

Bruce Bullock, Maguire Energy Institute, discussed the implications of steady prices for gas at the pump even as crude oil prices rise in The Chicago Tribune Oct. 17, 2007.

George Martinez, Law, discussed an unusual twist in a recent North Texas head-injury case with The Dallas Morning News Oct. 16, 2007.

Joan Gosnell, Central University Libraries, discussed some little-known facts about the J.C. Penney story, including information culled from SMU's JCPenney Collection, with the Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner Oct. 6, 2007. (Right, an image from an early J.C. Penney Company Christmas catalog.)

Craig Flournoy, Journalism, has been recognized by the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation at the University of Texas at Austin as one of eight Texans who helped improve the lives of those who live in their communities. Read more.

Three music professors in SMU's Meadows School of the Arts have been selected for 2007 ASCAPlus Awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in New York. José Bowen, Robert Frank and Simon Sargon received the cash awards, whose purpose is to reward composers "whose works have a unique prestige value for which adequate compensation would not otherwise be received, and to compensate those whose works are performed substantially in media not surveyed by ASCAP."

Caroline Brettell, Anthropology, is co-author (with her graduate student Kristoffer Alstatt) of "The Agency of Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Biographies of the Self-Employed in Ethnic and Occupational Niches of the Urban Labor Market," published in The Journal of Anthropological Research, 63 (3), 2007. A book she co-edited with James Hollifield, Political Science - Migration Theory: Talking Across Disciplines - has entered its second edition.

Kamal Saggi, Economics, has been appointed an associate editor of the Indian Growth and Development Review. He will present a paper at the Conference on the Economics of Competition and Innovation Oct. 26-27 at the University of California-Berkeley.

Beth Newman, English, read a paper titled "The Vulgarity of Elegance: Social Mobility, Middle-Class Language, and the Victorian Novel" at the North American Victorian Studies Association conference in Victoria, British Columbia. The paper was excerpted from an essay that will appear in a collection titled Victorian Vulgarity, forthcoming from Ashgate Publishing.

Mark Vamos, Journalism, talked about the rollout of the FOX Business Network in The New York Daily News Oct. 12, 2007.

Peter Vogel, Law, discussed the increasing lack of usefulness of e-mail disclaimers in The Dallas Morning News Oct. 10, 2007.

Marianne Piepenburg, Development, discussed the tax benefits and other considerations involved in bequeathing a house or other real property to an alma mater through a retained life estate in the July 2007 issue of Kiplinger's Retirement Report.

Edward Countryman, History, discussed the history and potential benefits of open immigration in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Oct. 8, 2007.

Cal Jillson, Political Science, talked about Texas' high intake of federal dollars versus its "pork-barrel libertarianism" in The Houston Chronicle Oct. 9, 2007.

Peter Rose ('04), a Geological Sciences alumnus and student of Louis Jacobs, has identified bones found on a ranch near Glen Rose, Texas, during the 1990s as a previously unknown species, which he has named Paluxysaurus jonesii. A previous, incomplete examination of the bones identified them as those of a pleurocoelus, resulting in the species being named the Texas state dinosaur in 1997. The official designation now may be reassigned to the paluxysaurus. Read more from The Dallas Morning News. (Left, Rose, now studying at the University of Minnesota, as photographed by David Joles of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune.)

Randall Griffin, Art History, has received the Dallas Museum of Art's Vasari Award for the second time in three years. He was chosen for the 2007 award for his book Winslow Homer: An American Vision (Phaidon). The Vasari Award is given annually to an author working in Texas "whose book provides insight into works of art or aspects of art history and theory that enriches the understanding of visual arts." Griffin's 2007 co-winner is Anthony Alofsin, the Roland Gommel Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture and Professor of Art and Art History at UT-Austin. (Left, Winslow Homer's Eight Bells, which will appear in the Meadows Museum's "Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s," opening Nov. 30.)

Shlomo Weber, Economics, is the new academic director of the International School of Economics in Tbilisi, Georgia. He will visit during the coming year to work with students, faculty, staff and other community members.

Tatiana Zimakova, Russian Area Studies, has been nominated for a Lone Star Emmy Award in the category of Magazine Program-Feature/Segment for her Dallas Schools Television program, "A Taste of Russia." The show aired on WFAA Channel 8 and KERA Channel 13 in spring 2007 and features urban elementary and middle school students who are studying the Russian language and learning about Russian culture, history and food. "A Taste of Russia" focuses on the interdisciplinary aspect of the students' studies and the students' performance at SMU's 2007 Russian Festival 2007 last March. Lone Star Emmy winners will be announced at a ceremony Oct. 27 in Dallas.

Jasper Smits, Psychology, has received the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies' 2007 President's New Researcher Award for his paper entitled "Cognitive Mechanisms of Social Anxiety Reduction: An Examination of Specificity and Temporality." Two co-authors on the award-winning paper also are from SMU Psychology: Renee McDonald and David Rosenfield.

Anthony Cortese, Sociology, has been appointed to a three-year term on the Advisory Panel for the newly established Center for the Study of Latino/a Christianity and Religion in the Perkins School of Theology.

William May, Ethics (emeritus), has been named Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in American History and Ethics at the John W. Kluge Center, Library of Congress. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington appointed May for a three-month tenure from September to December 2007.

Rita Kirk, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, discussed the media campaigns that will determine the fate of a planned toll road inside the Trinity River Corridor's levee walls in The Dallas Morning News Sept. 18, 2007.

Matthew Wilson, Political Science, discussed the politics behind Texas State Rep. Kirk England's switch to the Democratic Party in The Dallas Morning News Sept. 20, 2007.

William J. Bryan III, Theology, talked about the "Sunday-night slump" in church attendance that has led to growing cancellations of evening services in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Sept. 21, 2007.

Rick Worland, Cinema-TV, talked about the history and legacy of the film Easy Rider in The Dallas Morning News Sept. 12, 2007.

The men's and women's swimming and diving teams volunteered Sept. 22 at the 2007 Tour des Fleurs, a 10K/20K run benefiting the Dallas Arboretum. Nearly 50 student-athletes manned 6 water stations along the race route.

Hector Rivera, Teacher Education, has received a research grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) to address the needs of at-risk newcomer adolescents with limited English proficiency through professional development and English as a Second Language certification for middle and high school math and science teachers. Read more.

Paige Ware, Teacher Education, has received a research grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) for Project Connect, a collaboration with the Irving and Grand Prairie Independent School Districts to create a model of integrated professional development that trains teachers to provide higher-quality education for students with limited English proficiency. Read more.

Dennis Grindle, Cox Career Center, discussed "How an MBA Mom Can Return to the Work Force" in the Sept. 11, 2007 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Bruce Bullock, Maguire Energy Institute, discussed the trends that helped oil prices on Sept. 12 briefly reach historic highs of $80 per barrel. His comments appeared in the Sept. 13, 2007 edition of the Chicago Tribune.

Cal Jillson, Political Science, discussed Congressional Democrats' plans to revise the alternative minimum tax in the Sept. 17, 2007 edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Stephen DePaul, International Center, has been invited to serve on the Standards Committee of the Forum on Education Abroad. The committee will focus on the development of a code of ethics that will support the Forum's Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad.

William Finnin, Chaplain's Office, presented a paper, "Reconsidering the Covenant: Kenneth Underwood's Prophetic Inquiry as Integral to University Ministry," at the biennial gathering of the United Methodist Campus Ministry Association July 25-28, 2007 at TCU. He has received the 2007 Donald Shockley Award for Intellectual Contributions to the Profession of Ministry in Higher Education, presented by the United Methodist Campus Ministry Association and the General Board of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church. Finnin also received the 2007 Bishop James Baker Graduate Fellowship for summer study focusing on the interfaith character of university chaplaincy.

SMU student athletes (left) collected almost $1,500 in donations during Monday's football game for the survivors and families of those killed during a mass shooting at Virginia Tech last spring. Virginia Tech has received more than $7 million in contributions.

Kamal Saggi has been invited to speak at the biennial International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property Forum in Singapore, Oct. 4-6, 2007

Geoff Orsak, School of Engineering, has written an op-ed, "America Needs a New Formula for Success in the Sciences," published in The Austin American-Statesman Aug. 24, 2007.

Anne Peterson, DeGolyer Library, wrote the introduction to "Neiman Marcus: 100 Years of Style" published in the September 2007 issue of D Magazine. The tribute features photos from DeGolyer's collections. (Right, Sophia Loren and Stanley Marcus activate a recreation of the Villa D'Este fountains during the department store's 1975 Italian Fortnight.)

Ling Hua, Chemistry, cowrote a paper recognized by publisher Elsevier Ltd. as one of the Top 50 Most Cited Articles published in Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 2004-07. The paper, "Evaluation of substituent effects on activity and enantioselectivity in the enzymatic reduction of aryl ketones," was published originally in Volume 16, Issue 8 (2005).

Scott MacDonald, Southwestern Graduate School of Banking, discussed bank security and the credit crisis with business columnist Pamela Yip in The Dallas Morning News Aug. 27, 2007.

Noah Simblist, Art, has been named the winner of the 2006 Moss/Chumley Artist Award. The award, which carries a cash prize of $1,500, is given annually to an outstanding North Texas artist who has exhibited professionally for at least 10 years and who has a record of community advocacy for the visual arts. Simblist was honored at a private evening reception at the Meadows Museum.

David Freidel, Anthropology, is a featured expert in "The Maya: Glory and Ruin," the cover story of the August 2007 National Geographic magazine. In addition, he discussed the recent discovery in Ceren, El Salvador, of a 1,400-year-old harvested Maya manioc (cassava) field with The Los Angeles Times for the Aug. 21, 2007 edition.

Linda Eads, Law, received the 2006-07 President's Award from the State Bar of Texas for her work as co-chair of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct Committee. The annual award is presented to the member judged to have rendered outstanding service to the State Bar. Eads led the committee in the review and revision of the group's disciplinary rules.

Carolyn Macartney, Cinema-TV, received a 2007 Kodak Faculty Scholarship Award during the national University Film & Video Association (UFVA) Conference hosted by the University of North Texas in mid-August. She received $4,000 to support her proposed documentary project Wanda the Wonderful, which will chronicle her grandmother's life as a Wild West sharpshooter. In addition, Macartney's film There Goes the View won the award for Best Experimental Film in the juried competition.

Pam Elder, Cinema-TV, is one of 20 professors, chairs or deans of film-TV departments nationwide chosen to participate in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' annual Faculty Seminar to be held in Los Angeles in November. The seminar includes meetings and lectures on new media, cable television, legal issues, the changing demands of production and other topics with studios and major production companies.

Kelli Herd, Cinema-TV, was named Filmmaker of the Month by Women in Film-Dallas and is featured in an interview in the WIFD August newsletter. She is co-writing a textbook called The Language of Screenwriting.

Jose Santos, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology, has returned from a year of research in Guatemala undertaken with a Fulbright grant and funds from the National Science Foundation. His work was recognized by Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, who read his praise for Santos into the Congressional record.

Michael Adler, Anthropology, discussed the SMU-in-Taos program as a featured guest on KTAO 101.9 FM Radio July 24, 2007.

Al Armendariz, Environmental and Civil Engineering, wrote an op-ed, "We Can't Wish Our Smog Away," published in The Dallas Morning News July 25, 2007.

Alan Brown and Chris Logan, Psychology, have edited The Psychology of the Simpsons: D'oh!, a collection of essays by professional psychologists exploring "the functions and dysfunctions of the show's characters." The book was published in July 2007 by Independent Publishers Group.

Steve DePaul, International Center, was featured in a Robert Miller article on SMU's Education Abroad program in The Dallas Morning News Aug. 5, 2007.

Shubha Ghosh, Law, spoke with CBS-11 TV about the impact on consumers of a June 2007 Supreme Court ruling that struck down a nearly 100-year-old Texas ban on price fixing.

Rick Halperin, History, guided SMU students, faculty and local community members on a tour of the landmarks of apartheid in South Africa Aug. 2-12. Halperin, director of the SMU Human Rights Education Program and chair of the Amnesty International USA Board, took the group to Soweto, scene of widespread rioting in 1976; Cape Town's District Six neighborhood, where residents were forced out of their homes to create a "whites only" zone in 1965; and the Robben Island Prison, where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner for 27 years.

Kathy Hargrove, Education and Human Development, discussed how children can be taught to think like geniuses with WFAA-TV Channel 8 Aug. 14, 2007.

James Hollifield, Political Science, was a featured guest along with former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich on the KERA-TV talk show "McCuistion" in a July 29, 2007 episode on "Ideology, Politics and Partisanship."

Daniel Howard, Marketing, discussed the origins and usefulness of the "personal branding" trend with The Dallas Morning News July 15, 2007.

Robert Hunt, Theology, discussed the film "Evan Almighty" and the enduring appeal of the Noah story in the June 16, 2007 edition of The Dallas Morning News.

Jeffrey Kahn, Law, discussed with KERA 90.1 and National Public Radio the Dallas-based federal trial involving the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim charity accused of ties to terrorism, for which jury selection began July 16, 2007.

Glenn Linden, History, has cowritten Disunion, War, Defeat and Recovery in Alabama: The Journal of Augustus Benners, 1850-1885 with his wife, Virginia Linden. The book, a chronicle of more than three decades in the life of a plantation owner in ante- and postbellum Alabama, was published in July 2007 by Mercer University Press.

Geoffrey Orsak, School of Engineering, talked with CBS-11 TV and CBS News' "The Early Show" Aug. 3, 2007, about the United States' crisis-level backlog of structurally deficient bridges.

Tony Pederson, Journalism, discussed the ramifications of media mogul Rupert Murdoch's recent purchase of The Wall Street Journal with SMU News Aug. 5, 2007.

Anne Peterson, DeGolyer Library, spoke with U.S. News & World Report about controversies surrounding the work of Civil War photographer Mathew Brady for the magazine's July 2, 2007 cover story, "Secrets of the Civil War." In addition, she gave a presentation on "Alexander Gardner and the Photographically Illustrated Book" to the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) at its annual conference in Minneapolis July 11-14, 2007.

Kamal Saggi, Economics, has been named Dedman Distinguished Collegiate Professor of Economics.

SMU Panhellenic has been awarded the National Panhellenic Conference Progress award for campuses with 6-10 chapters for the 2005-2007 biennium. The honor is presented to one college Panhellenic that "has shown significant strides related to member education, new member programming, recruitment, and scholarship."

Harold Stanley, Political Science, spoke with Mercedes Olivera of The Dallas Morning News about immigration issues and Latino voters for the July 8, 2007 edition.

Rev. Page A. Thomas, Bridwell Library, was the subject of an article in The Dallas Morning News July 21, 2007, recognizing his 46 years with Bridwell -- the longest term of service in a single posting for any Methodist minister.

Gregory Warden, Art History, and his work at an ancient Etruscan settlement in Poggia Colla, Italy, were the subjects of a Robert Miller column in the Aug. 12, 2007 edition of The Dallas Morning News.

Jerry White, Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, discussed how the credit crunch is affecting small businesses with The Dallas Morning News Aug. 11, 2007.

Matthew Wilson, Political Science, spoke with Reuters in June 2007 about the Religious Right and Jerry Falwell's legacy, and with The Dallas Morning News about Tom Leppert's mayoral victory in the June 17, 2007 edition.