How do I decide what to major in if I don’t even know what I want my career to be yet?
SMU News Being the first to go to college can be hard. SMU senior, Kaityln, shares her TOP TEN TIPS to help you through the experience. Watch
First in her family, finding her place
SMU News Originally Posted: December 9, 2019 The daughter of a single mom who worked two jobs to support her family, Kaitlyn Contreras was determined to attend college. “I knew I wanted to go to college; I just didn’t know how,” she says. “But I followed the advice of my grandmother. She never went to school and never learned to read or write, but she taught me to always ask questions.” As an eighth-grader, Kaitlyn began asking questions, seeking a more challenging high school than the one in her neighborhood. What Kaitlyn couldn’t know then was that asking questions would open the door to unique opportunities. READ MORE
SMU Saves North Texas’ Archaeological History
D Magazine Originally Posted: Nov. 12, 2019 Remember Sunday Eiselt from our 2017 profile of her? She’s a former Marine, archaeologist, professor, and director of SMU’s Archaeological Research Collections (ARC). She’s also our best chance of saving some of North Texas’ oldest, most important history. Last week I met up with her to tour the ARC facilities, located in Heroy Hall. It’s been a little over two years since our initial interview, and in that amount of time she’s managed an amazing transformation of the three rooms that comprise ARC. What follows is an update, including before-and-after photos. But prior to getting there, give the photo above a look. That’s Eiselt in one of the rooms surrounded by musty brown boxes, each packed to capacity [...]
First people in the Americas came by sea, ancient tools unearthed by Idaho river suggest
Science Magazine Originally Posted: August 30, 2019 About 16,000 years ago, on the banks of a river in western Idaho, people kindled fires, shaped stone blades and spearpoints, and butchered large mammals. All were routine activities in prehistory, but their legacy today is anything but. The charcoal and bone left at that ancient site, now called Cooper’s Ferry, are some 16,000 years old—the oldest radiocarbon-dated record of human presence in North America, according to work reported this week in Science. The findings do more than add a few centuries to the timeline of people in the Americas. They also shore up a new picture of how humans first arrived, by showing that people lived at Cooper’s Ferry more than 1 millennium before melting glaciers opened an [...]
People transformed the world through land use by 3,000 years ago
Eureka Alert Originally Posted: August 29, 2019 DALLAS (SMU) - Humans started making an impact on the global ecosystem through intensive farming much earlier than previously estimated, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Evidence of the earliest domesticated plants and animals dates back to around 10,000 years ago. But findings from a team of more than 250 archeologists, including two from SMU (Southern Methodist University), show that by 3,000 years ago our ancestors had dramatically changed the world to grow food. "Our study shows in detail the progression from the origins of agriculture to its spread around the world," said SMU anthropologist Mark D. McCoy. "It turns out that earth science models are probably too conservative, and intensive reshaping of the environment [...]
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Save the date: Sept 4, Fred Wendorf Distinguished Lecture in Archaeology
Event date: 9/4/2019, Time: 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (CT) Contact: Tiffany Powell The Department of Anthropology and the Boshell Family Foundation are pleased to present Dr. Stephen E. Nash, Director of Anthropology and Senior Curator of Archaeology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. His talk,Stories, Souls, and Silhouettes: A Fantastic Journey through Southwestern Archaeology, discusses the rich tapestry of Southwestern Archaeology. In this lavishly illustrated and humorous lecture, Dr. Nash will take you on a historically-grounded and fascinating journey through the history of Southwestern (and by extension North American) archaeology. All the while, he will keep a firm anthropological eye on what it means to be an archaeologist and student today. Colorful personalities, challenging and changing socioeconomic and political contexts, occasionally bizarre behavior, [...]
Listen: David J. Meltzer, Anthropology, discusses his work on the Meateater podcast
The Meateater Originally Posted: July 23, 2019 Steven Rinella talks to David J. Meltzer and Janis Putelis. Subjects discussed: Understanding radio carbon dates; crossing the Bering Land Bridge; who were the first Americans?; the early human aversion to incest; ecotones, or where a bunch of good shit comes together; glyptodons and 3-ton ground sloths; a big extinction on one fine Tuesday; Rambo; the tidy appeal of the blitzkreig hypothesis; Clovis points; cross examining. Listen
Three Dedman College students receive prestigious fellowships and awards
Dedman College News Originally Posted: June 24, 2019 Congratulations to three accomplished Dedman College students. Megan Brown and Megan Latoya are 2019-2020 Fulbright Fellowship winners and Siddhakshi Solanki won the highly competitive Boren and Gillman Scholarships. According to an SMU press release, Brown and Latoya, both Ph.D. candidates in the Department of Anthropology, “are two of over 2,100 U.S. citizens who will study, conduct research, and teach abroad for the 2019-2020 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, as well as their record of service and leadership potential in their respective fields.” Megan Brown will be going to Monteverde, Costa Rica and Megan Latoya will be going to Recife, Brazil. [...]
Virtual Reality Brings Cervical Cancer Surgery Training to Physicians
Watch "Surgeons in developing countries can more easily get training on the procedure, potentially saving women’s lives," said Dr. Eric G. Bing, who co-authored a study on the simulation and is a global health professor at Southern Methodist University (SMU). Watch SMU’s Lifesaving VR video to learn more.