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

For me, immigration to the U.S. meant “winning the lottery”

Trib Talk Originally Posted: December 13, 2018 In 1996 my parents won the lottery. The prize? Four one-way tickets from my poor, transitional post-communist home country of Albania, to Dallas, with little money and a chance to work hard — actually all the time — to chase down a nugget of the American Dream for my six-year old brother, Igli, and four-year-old me. This wasn’t the Powerball or MegaMillions lottery; it was actually bigger than that, because it breathed hope into our family and individual futures. Albania was in transition, with an uncertain future, and our prospects were bleak. Stunned that he actually won the U.S. State Department’s Green Card lottery to emigrate to the U.S. and get the chance to start anew, my father, [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-13T09:00:39+00:00 December 13th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Tower Center|Comments Off

December Commencement Convocation is Saturday, December 15

SMU News Originally Posted: December 10, 2018 December Commencement is at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 15th. Watch the ceremony live @ www.smu.edu/live. On Saturday morning, the all-University Commencement Convocation assembles degree candidates from all of SMU's schools and professional programs. The ceremony takes place in Moody Coliseum on Saturday, December 15, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. Students and faculty, dressed in academic regalia, enter the coliseum to grand processional music. Each graduate walks across the stage and is individually recognized. Doctoral candidates are hooded, the President confers degrees and a formal address is delivered. The ceremony lasts approximately two hours. READ MORE Schedule of events can be found here: https://www.smu.edu/EnrollmentServices/Registrar/AcademicCeremonies/DecemberCommencement/ScheduleForTheDay

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-10T10:15:51+00:00 December 13th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Events, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Earth Sciences Faculty Remember Star Pupil and Friend Lü Junchang

Dedman College News Originally Posted: December 12, 2018 Faculty in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences were stunned by the sudden death in October of Lü Junchang, one of China’s leading dinosaur experts and a beloved former student who received his Ph.D from SMU in 2004. Writing about his death in Scientific American, writer Richard Coniff called him one of the most important dinosaur researchers in the past half-century. Junchang, 53, was a researcher at the Institute of Geology at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing. Paleontologist Stephen Brusatte, in his 2018 book, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, described Junchang as having curiously accented English because of his Chinese cadence and the Texas drawl he picked up as a graduate student at [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-12T11:11:33+00:00 December 12th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences|Comments Off

SMU alumnus Kelvin Beachum, doing his part to end world hunger

Sporting News Originally Posted: December 5, 2018 Jets left tackle Kelvin Beachum knows what it's like to grow up as a child with parents who need help putting food on the table. Now the 29-year-old wants to do his part to ensure fewer families have to worry about their next meal. “I used to be one of them," Beachum recently told Sporting News. "I was one of those kids that was on fee reduced lunch, and I’ve experienced some of the issues that kids are facing right now. I knew from personal experience how that was and have been able to join the fight for it.” In an article posted last month on the Jets' team site titled, "In My Own Words: Kelvin Beachum on His Fight to End World Hunger," he reflects upon [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-11T19:16:43+00:00 December 12th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences|Comments Off

SMU political science professor will speak at annual University of Louisiana at Lafayette academic symposium

Fox News 15 Originally Posted: December 10, 2018 Anthony and Matthew Wilson will share the podium in New Iberia, Louisiana, at the fourth annual University of Louisiana at Lafayette James Lee Burke Academic Symposium “James Lee Burke and Louisiana Politics” on April 6, 2019. The free event, sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, is part of the Books along the Teche Literary Festival to be held April 5 – 7. The two scholars and brothers, will speak from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. at the Iberia Parish Library’s Main Branch (445 E Main St., New Iberia). Both Anthony and Matthew Wilson bring to their presentations strong credentials as well as their knowledge of Louisiana’s culture, politics and literature. Anthony Wilson, associate professor of English at [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-11T09:10:16+00:00 December 11th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Events, Faculty News, Political Science, Tower Center|Comments Off

The “tea” on the English degree

Daily Campus Originally Posted: December 7, 2018 It is May 2011. SMU’s campus is buzzing with pre-graduation excitement and seniors are restless to begin the next chapters of their lives. Sarah Bennett, now the managing editor for D Home and D Weddings, is among these students. She is happy to complete her degree in Creative Writing finally, but as with many graduating seniors, some anxieties are beginning to grow in the back of her mind. Will she land her dream job? Will she have to settle for a different position? Will she find a job at all? Though these questions are like persistent flies buzzing around her brain, there is one choice she has never questioned: her major in Creative Writing. “I knew I wanted [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-10T10:21:36+00:00 December 10th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, English, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Ever Wonder how Exhibits are Made? Here’s Your Answer

Smithsonian.com Originally Posted: December 7, 2018 On a slow November afternoon at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, exhibit writer Juliana Olsson and intern Myria Perez slipped behind a temporary barrier to sneak a peek at “Sea Monsters Unearthed,” the museum’s newest exhibit scheduled to open the next morning. With the quiet, dramatically-lit space all to themselves, the two reminisced on the years of work that led to this moment. Juliana: A lot of people go through a dinosaur phase as kids, but I think we can safely say that neither of us grew out of it. What was your paleontology journey? Myria: I was definitely that kid. My mom would take me to the Houston Museum of Natural Science growing up, and my favorite part was the paleontology [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-07T11:55:15+00:00 December 7th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News|Comments Off

Dallas novelist’s ‘LitNight’ builds a literary scene in the casual atmosphere of a nightclub

Dallas Morning News Originally posted: December 7, 2018 Dallas novelist Sanderia Faye got the idea of celebrating literature in a bar when she attended Brooklyn's Franklin Park Reading Series, which has hosted the likes of A.M. Homes, Jennifer Egan and Colson Whitehead. Faye thought that same informal atmosphere at the monthly gathering of writers and readers could make literary fiction more approachable in Dallas, too. So in June, she founded LitNight at the Sandaga 813 nightclub in Exposition Park. "It takes the stigma out of literary fiction," says the author of Mourner's Bench, which tells the story of an 8-year-old girl's awakening in 1964 amid the civil rights movement. "You have this camaraderie between the authors but also with the audience. It's a great environment." The next installment [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-07T08:02:37+00:00 December 7th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, English, Events|Comments Off

Coffee Del Rey Serves Coffee With a Conscious

D Magazine Originally Posted: December 2018 Issue Coffee del Rey owner Kimberly Marcaccini graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2013 with a sociology degree. Coffee del Rey owner Kimberly Marcaccini was 8 years old when she had her first taste of coffee. In her Brazilian family, coffee time meant talking and togetherness, and she was eager to join in. She asked her mom for a cup. “It was basically milk with a splash of coffee,” Marcaccini recalls. “But since then, I’ve been obsessed.” After graduating from Southern Methodist University in 2013 with a sociology degree, Marcaccini moved to Korea to teach English. Seoul has more than 18,000 coffee shops, and every day after work, she visited a new one. She was fascinated by the camaraderie and cultural exchange, [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-06T10:04:06+00:00 December 6th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, Sociology, Sociology (Alumni)|Comments Off

Watch SMU Center for Presidential History Director Jeffrey Engel on CNN

Dedman College News Originally Posted: December 5, 2018 Former President George H.W. Bush will be honored with a state funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. this morning. Tune into CNN from 9-11am today to watch SMU Center for Presidential History Director Jeffrey Engel during the ceremonies. More on Jeffrey Engel as he discusses the first Gulf War and George H.W. Bush's legacy in the Middle East with PRI's The World.

By Katherine Nickles| 2018-12-05T07:04:28+00:00 December 5th, 2018|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Events, Faculty News, History|Comments Off