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

Dr. Rachel Ball-Phillips credits SMU and Tower Center for enabling international opportunities

Tower Center Blog Originally Posted: Jan 23, 2020 FROM SMALL TOWN TEXAS TO INDIA: HOW AN SMU TOWER CENTER FELLOWSHIP OPENED DOORS Former SMU Tower Center alumna, Dr. Rachel Ball-Phillips, is an adjunct lecturer in History and the Director of National Student Fellowships and the President’s Scholars at SMU. She credits SMU and the opportunities awarded through the Center with opening doors that enabled her to pursue her passion for Indian studies. We spoke with her to learn more about her journey from a small town in Texas, to India, and now professor, writer and scholar at SMU. READ MORE

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-27T10:40:16-08:00 January 28th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, History, Tower Center|Comments Off

SIAM News article on the 2019 Siam-Texas/Louisiana conference hosted by SMU

SIAM News Originally Posted: Jan. 27, 2020 The SIAM Texas-Louisiana Section held its second annual meeting jointly with Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) Department of Mathematics in Dallas, Texas, last November. SIAM contributions—along with two grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF)—helped support the conference and enabled the attendance of students and early career mathematicians. The meeting attracted over 200 attendees, largely from Texas and Louisiana. Topics spanned a wide variety of fields, ranging from imaging to geometry — with two “tracks” devoted to applications of topology and machine learning. The conference consisted of nearly 40 minisymposia, an undergraduate session, and a poster session with over 30 posters (including those from undergraduate participants). A panel also focused on the future of applied mathematics in business, industry, [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-27T18:42:55-08:00 January 27th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Events, Mathematics|Comments Off

OK, boomers, this SMU student body president shows why his generation might be the one that can fix politics

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: Jan. 24, 2020 Raised in the Houston area, Darian Taylor, will graduate in May with a double major in public policy and communications. Regardless of what job he lands next, he intends to make time to replicate his work at SMU by doing community-organizing. READ MORE OK, this boomer decided — as another nasty election cycle tempts me to cower under my bed until 2021 — to instead seek out the opinion of someone who’s about to cast his first vote in a presidential primary. What young person would want to wade into this pigsty? I asked Darian Taylor, a senior at Southern Methodist University. With a smile that lit up the room, he responded, “Yes, that’s me.” This 21-year-old [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-27T10:30:55-08:00 January 27th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Political Science, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Ancient African genomes offer glimpse into early human history

Nature Originally Posted: Jan. 23, 2020 Ann Horsburgh, a molecular anthropologist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, says the study adds little to our understanding of African prehistory. READ MORE The ancient-genomics revolution is finally reaching the cradle of humanity: Africa. Researchers have sequenced the genomes of four children who lived in what is now Cameroon several thousand years ago. Their genomes — the first to be collected from any ancient human in West Africa — raise questions about the origins of a migration that carried languages and agriculture across the continent, and hint at older events in human history, such as the emergence of Homo sapiens and its spread out of Africa. But the findings underscore the yawning gap in scientists’ understanding of African population [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-27T10:24:43-08:00 January 25th, 2020|Anthropology, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences|Comments Off

An SMU Poet Brings a New Form of Storytelling to Your Phone

D Magazine January 2020 For Greg Brownderville, poetry teacher at SMU and editor of the lauded literary journal Southwest Review, making art means elevating the everyday, recontextualizing the routine. How might someone do that with the digital experience people have on their phones? Brownderville’s response: the “go-show,” a new way of storytelling on the small screen. With grants from SMU, he and a team of roughly 35 mainly Texas-based artists, including Bart Weiss, creator of Dallas VideoFest, will launch their first go-show in the days ahead. The go-show is an app that delivers episodes via notifications over the course of several weeks. But unlike, say, podcasts, which use only audio to tell a story, the go-show uses short films, still images, songs, podcasts, text, and [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-22T09:46:26-08:00 January 21st, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, English, Faculty News|Comments Off

The World Languages and Literatures 5th Annual International Film Festival, VOYAGES, takes place in January and February

Screenings are free and open to the public. The list of tentative dates and films are listed here. Unless otherwise noted, all films will be screened at 7 pm in Dallas Hall 306 (McCord Auditorium).

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-18T05:29:47-08:00 January 18th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, World Languages and Literatures|Comments Off

Research Days 2020 – Undergraduate Poster Session

Date: March 24, 2020 Event Location: Mack Ballroom, Umphrey-Lee Time:2-5pm Research Days 2020 will feature poster sessions for Undergraduates (Tuesday) and Graduate students (Wednesday). Presenters compete for cash prizes. Enjoy some refreshments and see innovative research from all corners of campus. Link for more information: https://www.smu.edu/graduate/CurrentStudents/ResearchDays Contact: Adam Neal: asneal@smu.edu

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-17T09:41:51-08:00 January 17th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Events, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Clements Hall: A Window into the Past

Hilltopics Originally Posted: December 13, 2019 Until recently, most students around campus took little notice of Clements Hall. Despite being directly on the main quad, it has remained secluded behind old trees and a rather plain facade. This would have probably remained the case had the windows been measured properly over the summer. Instead, however, Clements has been thrust into the limelight, or rather, the construction lights. In reality, though, Clements has a far more colorful past than its current façade lets on. Back in its heyday, it was actually known as the social center of campus! So, while Clements is getting its windows together, let’s take a moment to see why the university is going to all this effort to restore it. Back in [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-15T09:59:28-08:00 January 15th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, History, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Tower Center features SMU alumnus Denver Nicks

Tower Center blog Originally Posted: November 2019 Denver Nicks, SMU ’07, a Hunt Leadership Scholars recipient and a Tower Center alumnus, is an award-winning journalist, former staff writer for TIME, and contributor to National Geographic Travel, Rolling Stone, Uproxx, and other publications. He is also the author of the books Hot Sauce Nation: America’s Burning Obsession, PRIVATE: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History, and CONVICTION about Lyons v. Oklahoma, a pivotal case in the career of Supreme Court justice and civil rights icon Thurgood Marshall. Currently pursuing a Juris Doctor degree at Tulane Law School, Denver took a few moments to speak with us about his time at the Tower Center and how the professors and programming provided a solid, well-rounded foundation that has [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-13T09:20:33-08:00 January 13th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Graduate News, Political Science, Tower Center|Comments Off

“That’s Fashionating: The History of Israeli Fashion From the Kibbutz to the City”

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 7 pm, DLSB 110 “That’s Fashionating: The History of Israeli Fashion From the Kibbutz to the City” by Liraz Cohen Mordechai, fashion lecturer and blogger with a Master’s degree in Global Fashion Management from FIT, manager of the NY- Israel Fash&Tech Meetup community, and certified stylist in the fashion industry of NYC. Co-sponsored with Hillel at SMU. For more information email: jewishstudies@smu.edu.

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-28T07:48:10-08:00 January 12th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Events, Jewish Studies Program, Jewish Studies Program|Comments Off