News – Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences

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

Want to work for the State Department? Here’s how.

Tower Center Originally Posted: November 25, 2019 Diplomat-in-Residence, Kathryn Crockart, came to SMU to present information on how to apply for a career at the U.S. Department of State. The Department of State is the diplomatic wing of the federal government, handling foreign affairs and the promotion of American foreign policy throughout the world. As the lead foreign affairs agency, the Department of State represents the U.S. at embassies, consulates, and missions to international organizations around the world. With 70,672 employees in 275 posts in 190 countries, the Department of State has many diverse career paths and opportunities; no career is the same. READ MORE

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-13T09:21:05-08:00 January 10th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Tower Center|Comments Off

Teaching Innovation

SMU Stories Tracking history through algorithms – using an iconic childhood toy to demonstrate physics – trading traditional diversity training for real communication skills – storytelling. SMU professors bring innovative tools and techniques to wherever the students are. And it only starts in the classroom. READ MORE

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-07T08:30:21-08:00 January 7th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, History, Physics|Comments Off

Amping up the human factor in hot-button discussions

SMU Magazine Originally Posted: Dec. 6, 2019 Professor Jill DeTemple teaches students how to take topics that drive people apart and reframe the conversation around personal experiences to promote understanding. Through curious questioning and thoughtful listening, students learn they don’t have to agree with their political opposites to understand where they’re coming from. Columnist Sharon Grigsby wrote about the class published for The Dallas Morning News on October 16, 2019. READ MORE EXCERPT: Professor Jill DeTemple, in the religious studies department of SMU’s Dedman College, has developed a discussion tool, dubbed reflective structured dialogue, that she is using in her own classrooms and sharing with professors here and across the nation. The idea is to take topics that drive people apart — gun rights, abortion, [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-07T07:32:04-08:00 January 6th, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, Religious Studies|Comments Off

Alexis McCrossen, History, featured in Time

Time Originally posted: Dec. 27, 2019 “‘Hiring Day’ was part of the larger economic cycle in which most debts were collected and settled on New Year’s Day,” says Alexis McCrossen, an expert on the history of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and a professor of history at Southern Methodist University, who writes about Hiring Day in her forthcoming book Time’s Touchstone: The New Year in American Life. Americans are likely to think of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as a time to celebrate the fresh start that a new year represents, but there is also a troubling side to the holiday’s history. In the years before the Civil War, the first day of the new year was often a heartbreaking one [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2020-01-02T08:34:52-08:00 January 2nd, 2020|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, History|Comments Off

Happy Holidays! SMU is closed December 23 – January 1, 2020

By Katherine Nickles| 2019-12-16T11:25:56-08:00 December 20th, 2019|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences|Comments Off