Dedman College Research – Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences

SMU History Professor Paves a Digital Path to the Past

SMU News Originally Posted: January 17, 2019 How the daughter of a Texas Instruments engineer injected technology into her love of history to write one of the most influential books in the past 20 years SMU history professor Jo Guldi’s book, The History Manifesto (Cambridge University Press, 2014), recently was named one of the most influential books of the past 20 years by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Writing with Harvard’s David Armitage, she argues that historians need to shed their enthusiasm for micro-history and return to examining history’s big picture to better influence the future. Guldi and Armitage propose that historians embrace new technology as the key to analyzing the grand scope of history in ways that were not possible before. Supercomputing capable of [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-18T06:33:37+00:00 January 18th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, History|Comments Off

Government shutdown freezes Dallas scientists’ work — and paychecks

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: January 16, 2019 The 25-foot-long swimming lizards sit alone in the dark. A few weeks ago, they drew thousands of visitors a day at the Washington, D.C., National Museum of Natural History, where they helped tell the story of shifting continents, evolution and life on Earth. Now the museum is closed, a casualty of the partial government shutdown. "It just makes no sense," said Louis Jacobs, a paleontologist at Southern Methodist University who spent months assembling the exhibit with a team of colleagues and students. The show was a career highlight for Jacobs, who retired from SMU last May, and a source of pride for his team and the school. It showcases 85-million-year-old fossils that Jacobs and colleagues unearthed along the coastal cliffs of West Africa starting [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-17T09:41:36+00:00 January 17th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News, Graduate News|Comments Off

2018: Another great year at SMU

https://youtu.be/sqwcqp8v-tA

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-16T08:16:42+00:00 January 16th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Events, Faculty News, Graduate News, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Christopher Roos, Anthropology, Jemez Pueblo offers centuries of valuable fire lessons

Albuquerque Journal Originally Posted: December 22, 2018 BY: CHRISTOPHER ROOS / ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGIST, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT SMU DALLAS The wildland fire tragedy in California underscores the risk of living on a flammable planet. In 2017, co-occurring outbreaks cost dozens of lives in both California and Portugal. Australia also endures waves of deadly fire. Even places we do not typically associate with wildfire appear among the rolls of devastated communities. We have global wildfire problems that are varied, urgent and deadly. As an environmental archaeologist, I know that these flammable landscapes have long human histories, too. I look to this history for examples of successful coexistence between human societies and fire. I have been working with the Native American community at Jemez Pueblo, whose ancestors [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-14T10:43:45+00:00 January 15th, 2019|Anthropology, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News|Comments Off

Fulfill your Second Language Requirement Abroad!

Event Date: January 24, 2019 Location: Collaborative Commons (Fondren Starbucks) Time: 10 am - 2 pm (drop-in any time) Students interested in fulfilling their second language requirement abroad in Summer 2019 are encouraged to stop by the info table on January 24 to find out more about the following programs and meet program directors: SMU-in-FRANCE (July 6 - August 10), SMU-in-TUSCANY (July 2 - August 5), SMU-in-COSTA RICA (May 27 - June 28). www.smu.edu/international/abroad/programs/summer. Applications are due Feb. 1

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-11T06:32:03+00:00 January 11th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Events, Undergraduate News, World Languages and Literatures|Comments Off

A Framework for the Future: The Tower Scholars Program

Dedman College News Originally Posted: Jan. 1, 2019 Fourth year Economics major Zach Miller describes how the Tower Scholars Program has shaped his understanding of the world. A few years ago I walked into a store to buy a frame. As a chronic procrastinator (and a good one at that), I had planned to buy one for months. But despite having already spent heavily to secure its eventual contents, I just hadn’t gotten around to it. Those contents would be delivered soon enough, but in the meantime, I couldn’t help but get distracted by all the other shiny products on the shelves. When the time came to choose a frame, it was among the most emotionally and intellectually taxing decisions I’ve ever made. ‘Do I choose the [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-03T08:51:33+00:00 January 11th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Tower Center, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

The New Southwest Review: SMU’s Literary Magazine, One of America’s Oldest, Reinvents Itself

Dedman College News Originally Posted: Jan. 1, 2019 Under the leadership of Professor Greg Brownderville, Southwest Review continues to embrace new voices while recognizing a rich history. I recently took over the editorship of America’s third-longest-running literary quarterly, Southwest Review (SwR), which was founded in 1915 and is published under the aegis of Southern Methodist University. As the new editor, I’m determined to broaden the magazine’s reach and readership, and I aim to start right here at home, with the SMU community. Let me paint you a picture of what SwR has been and what it is rapidly becoming. The last issue of 2017 marked an important event in the history of the magazine: our first redesign and relaunch since the 1980s. We enlisted the help of a firm called [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-03T08:47:58+00:00 January 10th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, English, Faculty News|Comments Off

Building Foundations for a Data-Driven Future

Dedman College News Originally Posted: Jan. 1, 2019 Vince Miller, a student in the M.S. in Applied Statistics and Data Analytics (MASDA) program graduating this fall, fills us in on his journey to data science, what it’s really like to study in the program, and how data science will continue to shape our world. For more information about Dedman’s MASDA program, including a program overview, requirements, and more from students, visit the MASDA program website. Tell us a little bit about yourself! Where are you from? What do you like to do for fun? What led you to data science? I grew up in Ohio and attended The Ohio State University for my undergrad, where I studied chemical engineering. I love adventure, especially outdoors, and [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-03T08:38:23+00:00 January 8th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Graduate News, Statistical Science|Comments Off

SMU Students Explore Research Avenues at the Library of Congress

Dedman College News Originally Posted: Jan. 1, 2019 Dr. Joseph F. Kobylka, Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor, leads a Supreme Court seminar of 12 undergraduates every other spring, which allows these exceptional students to conduct research using the papers of Supreme Court justices in the Library of Congress. Read on to learn more about how the class came to be and experiences from some of his students. Dr. Kobylka on the origins of the Supreme Court Seminar: I have been doing research in the Library of Congress since the mid-1990s as a part of the research for my biography of former Justice Blackmun. In addition to uncovering a wealth of previously unknown-to-the-public information, working in the case files of Justices Marshall, Brennan, Blackmun, and White and [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-03T08:42:14+00:00 January 7th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Events, Faculty News, Political Science, Undergraduate News|Comments Off

Returning to the Hilltop to Shape a New Generation of Scientists

Dedman College News Originally Posted: Jan. 1, 2019 Dr. Heather DeShon, Associate Professor in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, describes how her love of science as a child led her to pursue a career in academia, her return to the Hilltop as a member of the faculty, and how women are making progress in the sciences. How did you first discover your passion for geophysics? In elementary school I always chose the earthquake or volcano for class projects and loved to camp and be outdoors with my family, and I remained very interested in all things science throughout junior high and high school. My mother made me read her National Geographic magazine so she could have someone to talk to about the articles, and that [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-01-04T08:01:52+00:00 January 4th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Earth Sciences, Faculty News|Comments Off