Dedman College Research – Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences

Andrea Laurent-Simpson: ‘Dog Mom’ and more – we’re living in multispecies families now. Here’s what it means

Fox News Originally Posted: July 30, 2021 WATCH The evidence of new families blended with people and pets arrived long before we considered what to call them. "Multispecies families" captures the scientific essence, but the lifestyle and character of this four-legged/two-legged companion coalescence is far-reaching and even comes with a glossary: Dog Mom; Puppy Child; Baby Doll; GrandCat; Daddy’s Girl. And on and on. The elevated state of companion animals is undeniable, and it’s no surprise family dynamics adjusted. Divorce courts now consider custody of the family pet. Millennial home buyers often pass on a home unsuitable for their dog. It’s become routine that rescue missions for pets occur before demolition of property touched by disaster. WATCH

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-08-01T18:54:41-07:00 August 2nd, 2021|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, Sociology, Sociology (Faculty)|Comments Off

SMU Senior Working With All Wheels Up Advocating For Wheelchair Space On Aircrafts.

Maguire Ethics Center Originally Posted: July 30, 2021 While catching a flight remains a simple part of life for most people, those flying as a wheelchair user may find flying a daunting proposition. While airlines are required to assist in making it possible to fly, it’s often not a pleasant process. Slings, hoists, and slide boards make the whole experience rather undignified, and all too often can end up with wheelchairs becoming damaged or broken, or even the passenger getting hurt. “Airlines need to recognize that each of their passengers need to be treated with dignity,” SMU senior Brady Martin says. “Some call air travel a luxury and believe that we are privileged if we have the opportunity to travel by air. However, in the globalizing [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-07-30T20:44:16-07:00 July 30th, 2021|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Diversity and Inclusion, Embrey Human Rights Events, Political Science, Undergraduate News, World Languages and Literatures|Comments Off

SMU students take first prize in International Statistical Institute competition

SMU News Originally Posted: July 24, 2021 From May 2020 through July 2021, the International Statistical Institute (ISI) launched the International Year of Women in Statistics and Data Science to commemorate the 200thanniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. As part of this year’s celebration, the ISI created its Florence Nightingale Prize for Data Visualization to honor Florence Nightingale’s exemplary use of data visualization to convey statistical information. A team of SMU undergraduates took first prize in the competition for their work: Modeling opioid use using Bayesian methods and understanding drug gateways through network analysis.

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-07-24T08:32:50-07:00 July 28th, 2021|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Events, Statistical Science, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Team Building Spirit

Diversity in Action Magazine Originally Posted: May/June 2021 issue

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-07-24T08:29:17-07:00 July 26th, 2021|Chemistry, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Diversity and Inclusion, Faculty News|Comments Off

On a trek for Arctic dinosaur footprints in Alaska preserve

Washington Post Originally Posted: July 24, 2021 'Did you find one?" Tony Fiorillo yelled to his colleague, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi. The two paleontologists were climbing over dumpster-sized sandstone boulders, scanning the long, rocky beach of Aniakchak National Monument & Preserve at low tide for dinosaur footprints. “I think so,” Kobayashi called back. They have been coming to one of Alaska’s most remote coastlines since 2016 to search for evidence of Late Cretaceous era dinosaurs. Sedimentologist Paul McCarthy is part of the adventure. “I specialize in the mud between the [dinosaur] toes,” McCarthy joked. It’s a quip he once made on a local public radio show. Fiorillo has never let him forget it. “It was one of the few times you were witty,” Fiorillo, an expert on [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-07-24T08:14:23-07:00 July 24th, 2021|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News|Comments Off

Pets on Board: Meet The Multispecies American Family

SMU NEWS Contact: Nancy George, ngeorge@smu.edu July 13, 2021 New book defines trend – pets really are part of the family DALLAS (SMU) – Do you sign your pets’ names to your holiday card? Have you ever sent your dog to day care? Do you shop regularly for cat or dog toys? Welcome to a new breed of American family – the multispecies family. In her new book, Just Like Family: How Companion Animals Joined the Household (New York University Press: 2021) SMU sociologist Andrea Laurent-Simpson asserts what most pet-owners already know – the American family structure is changing to include nonhuman species, and the implications are huge. “American pet-owners are transforming the cultural definition of family,” Laurent-Simpson says. “Dogs and cats are treated like children, [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-07-14T07:35:20-07:00 July 14th, 2021|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, Sociology, Sociology (Faculty)|Comments Off

Stoking the fires of change

SMU News Originally Posted: July 12, 2021 An unusually hot, dry spell bakes the landscape. Ready to say goodbye to summer, friends gather for Labor Day barbecues in neighborhoods surrounded by forest. Winds whip up and embers fly. In the blink of an eye, 1,500 structures are set aflame. That hypothetical scenario cooked up by environmental archaeologist Chris Roos and a friend about a fictional New Hampshire hamlet now plays out too often in places where wildfires were once unknown. “Climate change makes it real for a lot of people,” says Roos, an SMU anthropology professor who has studied wildfires in the Southwest for more than a decade. A blaze was too close for comfort in an iconic photo showing a barefoot man clad in [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-07-12T12:34:37-07:00 July 12th, 2021|Anthropology, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News|Comments Off

Reflecting on the 80th Anniversary of the Nazi Invasion of Russia

History News Network Originally Posted: July 11, 2021 By: Rick Halperin, director of the Human Rights Program at SMU Dallas. Eighty years ago last month Adolf Hitler unleashed almost 3 million soldiers along a 1,500-mile front, with the intent to utterly and militarily destroy the Soviet Union. It was the largest assembled army the world had ever seen. The havoc, destruction, and wholesale slaughter of human beings that ensued in the months and years to come would change the paradigm of World War II and alter world history. Among the death tolls were 2 million Jews and millions of Russian civilians who were murdered. Thousands of towns and villages were destroyed and wiped off the map, art and livestock were plundered and the human psyche scarred [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-07-12T08:23:32-07:00 July 12th, 2021|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Embrey Human Rights Events, Faculty News|Comments Off

Meet the three college students working to preserve McKinney history

Star Local Media Originally Posted: July 2, 2021 For Jordyn Harrell, researching McKinney’s history is like working on a big jigsaw puzzle. The Southern Methodist University student likes to usually have the whole story, details and all, before her, she said, but this summer, she and two others are searching for the pieces themselves. Three students are working this summer to research and find the stories of who made McKinney’s history, particularly focusing on the city’s Black and Hispanic communities. Their work is part of an internship program with Legacy Keepers of Old East McKinney, a consortium focused on preserving and promoting the history of McKinney’s Black and Hispanic communities. For Luisa Piña, an Austin College student, the internship provides an almost full-circle experience: she [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-07-06T06:54:03-07:00 July 6th, 2021|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Diversity and Inclusion, Embrey Human Rights Events, History, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

SMU study shows how a ‘good’ protein can remove a toxic protein related to Alzheimer’s

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: June 29, 2021 While he was in college, James McCormick received bad news: His grandmother had developed Alzheimer’s. “When somebody gets a disease [that] you don’t know much about,” he said, “you want to research it and learn more about it.” He was used to poring through primary research articles, but later, he was surprised to recognize a protein he was already familiar with from his graduate studies at SMU called P-glycoprotein. That protein might have the ability to squeeze another harmful protein associated with Alzheimer’s out of cells. Through his readings, McCormick realized that his own skills in computer modeling could help scientists figure out how that removal process might work. Scientists believe that memory loss, confusion and other [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2021-06-29T12:01:51-07:00 June 29th, 2021|Biology, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News|Comments Off