Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences – Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences

Politics Are We Ready to Rehabilitate George W. Bush’s Reputation?

Texas Monthly Originally Published: October 2020 Andrew R. Graybill is a professor of history and the director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University. The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum opened seven years ago and anchors the southeastern corner of campus at Southern Methodist University, where I teach history. In late November 2016, I took a tour of the facility with five college friends who were visiting from the East Coast. The recent presidential election was much on our minds as we wandered through the building, contemplating various artifacts from Bush’s two terms in office. Although we were hardly fans of his presidency, one of my pals—fearful, like everyone in our group, of a Trump administration—got misty-eyed [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-09-17T10:32:56-07:00 September 18th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, History, SW Center|Comments Off

Every vote counts

SMU News Originally Posted: September 16, 2o20 DALLAS (SMU) – The upcoming presidential election will be the first opportunity to vote for many SMU students, including Wilson Russ, and the University is lining up opportunities for these new voters to learn more about the process. But Russ is going to learn the election system from a very personal angle – by volunteering to serve as a poll worker on Nov. 3. “I’m very excited to vote for the first time and I’m thrilled for the opportunity to serve as a poll worker during this turbulent 2020 year,” said Russ, a sophomore studying political science, public policy, economics. He answered a call for young volunteers to help fill the gaps left by older Americans who traditionally staff polling [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-09-17T07:59:23-07:00 September 17th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Economics, Political Science, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Latest SMU Updates and Reminders

SMU News Originally Posted: September 15, 2020 SMU has updated our COVID-19 case page with a dashboard and additional reporting details for greater transparency, including adding isolation capacity and quarantine numbers. Individual active and non-active cases continue to be listed as well. The page will continue to evolve as needed. COVID-19 testing is now available at the Health Center on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Appointments are required. To schedule your testing call 214-768-2141. The Dr. Bob Smith Health Center will offer free flu shots for students starting Monday, September 21. For your safety, we will be administering the vaccine at outdoor flu shot stations across campus. Check your email next week for the schedule of dates, times and locations. Due [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-09-15T06:36:09-07:00 September 15th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences|Comments Off

How college students are stepping up to help make returning to classes safe amid COVID-19

USA Today Originally Posted: September 1, 2020 AUSTIN — As a junior at Southern Methodist University, Austin Hickle says the challenge of safely reopening classes amid the coronavirus pandemic and affording young Texans the rewards of the college experience falls directly on the shoulders of students. "This COVID pandemic is one of our generation's defining moments. We have to step up to the plate," said Hickle, who is majoring in political science and economics and is also SMU's student body vice president. "Students have never (before) been asked to carry this (amount of) responsibility." READ MORE

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-09-11T08:11:45-07:00 September 11th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Political Science, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Wildfire Archaeology and the Burning American West

Sapiens Originally Posted: September 9, 2020 As I type, the American West is ablaze with more than 100 devastating wildfires. Many of these are record-setting in both size and intensity. Several, including one in my home state of Colorado, have been so intense they’ve created their own thunderstorms. Science shows that wildfires have been getting more destructive over the last several decades. The question is: Why? Are they getting worse due to climate change? Or is it due to human encroachment on once remote forests? Or, counterintuitive as it may seem, are federal wildfire suppression policies to blame? In the U.S., forest fire management policies date back to the 1880s, shortly after Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872. After a roughly 50-year period in which some [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-09-10T10:26:14-07:00 September 10th, 2020|Anthropology, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News|Comments Off

Virtual Allman Lecture: Why They Marched: Celebrating the Centennial of Women’s Suffrage

Event Date: 09/15/2020 Event Time: 6:00 p.m. CST Event Location: Virtual Lecture held via Zoom The 2020 Allman Family Lecture Series celebrates the anniversaries of the 15th and 19th Amendments with a trio of lectures on Suffrage in America: The Power of the Vote. Susan Ware, a pioneer in the field of women’s history and a leading feminist biographer, will kick off the series with her virtual lecture on Sept. 15. https://smu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJErcOqgrT0qG9CwWW794tMdvHhPK1PR3H80 Event Contact: Elizabeth Fielding

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-09-09T09:53:44-07:00 September 9th, 2020|DCII, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Events|Comments Off

SMU COVID-19 Dashboard

SMU News SMU has a new COVID-19 dashboard. Please use this to stay informed about quarantine numbers and isolation capacity levels. https://blog.smu.edu/coronavirus-covid-19/cases/

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-09-07T06:35:24-07:00 September 7th, 2020|Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Earth Sciences, Economics, English, History, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies, Sociology, Statistical Science, World Languages and Literatures|Comments Off

PerunaPalooza

Event Dates: September 7 - 9 Location: Dallas Hall Lawn Student Foundation welcomes everyone to campus to help celebrate Peruna's birthday. Check out the website for the activities. READ MORE

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-09-04T09:17:40-07:00 September 4th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences|Comments Off

Dinosaurs’ unique bone structure helped them support their large weight

CNN Originally Posted: August 19, 2020 Some dinosaurs were so big the ground would have shaken while they walked. But how did they carry such massive loads? Dinosaurs likely had a different bone structure to mammals and birds that was uniquely capable of supporting huge weights, a new study has found. A team of paleontologists, mechanical and biomedical engineers examined the upper and lower leg bones of duck-billed hadrosaurs and sauropods, long-necked and big-bodied plant eaters, whose fossils have been found on every continent. "The structure of the trabecular, or spongy bone that forms in the interior of (the)bones we studied is unique within dinosaurs," said AnthonyFiorillo, a Southern Methodist University paleontologist and one of the authors of the study that published Wednesday in the [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-09-02T10:35:23-07:00 September 2nd, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News|Comments Off

No one can predict the crises a president will face, so it’s better to vote on character (OPINION)

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: August 30, 2020 Jeffrey A. Engel directs the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News. (OPINION) The Dallas Morning News is publishing a multi-part series on important issues for voters to consider as they choose a president this year. This is the third installment of our What’s at Stake series, and it focuses on presidential leadership. Find the full series here. Surely you predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall? Tiananmen Square? You also expected San Francisco’s World Series earthquake, and anticipated that the Exxon Valdez would choke Alaska’s coast with oil. Of course you didn’t. Neither did President George H.W. Bush, who confronted them all during his first year in [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-08-31T13:21:29-07:00 August 31st, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, History|Comments Off