Category: Events

Major NEH grant allows teachers from community colleges, universities to examine Etruscan culture

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date October 18, 2011

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded the Community College Humanities Association a grant of $201,415, which will allow the association to sponsor the 2012 NEH Summer Institute “The Legacy of Ancient Italy: The Etruscan and Early Roman City.”

P. Gregory Warden, University Distinguished Professor of Art History and associate dean for academic affairs in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, is the major professor and co-director of the Institute, which will be held June 5-25, 2012, in Italy.

The NEH grant makes it possible for 24 college and university teachers to participate in the three-week project in Italy exploring the legacy of Etruscan and early Roman culture. The goals of the institute are to help participants examine the current state of research in the study of these ancient cultures and develop strategies for taking that knowledge to contemporary classrooms.

Grant provides community college teachers with rare research opportunity
According to Warden, the grant also facilitates the dissemination of opportunities in the humanities to teachers in community colleges.

“People who teach in community colleges work so hard and get very little in return. And because they work so hard they get few research opportunities. This is a chance for them to engage in high-level research in a part of the world where they can get a lot out of it,” said Warden. He is co-director of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, an SMU-sponsored archaeological excavation at Poggio Colla, the site of an Etruscan settlement in Italy’s picturesque Mugello Valley.

The settlement on Poggio Colla, about 20 miles northeast of Florence, offers glimpses of Etruscan civilization, which flourished for hundreds of years during the first millennium B.C., before being assimilated by the Romans.

Summer Institute participants, whose selection in a nationally competitive process follows guidelines set by the NEH, will analyze how art, architecture and material culture can illuminate the social terrain of early Italy. Their research will be based on four major Institute themes: archaeology and urban identity in early Italy; Etruscan and Roman urbanization; economy, trade and cultural formation in the early Mediterranean; and the consequences of assimilation, appropriation and conquest of the Etruscans by the Romans.

Three-week program opens window to Etruscan dig, area’s culture
The choice of housing locations is designed to complement research and study. Participants will stay at locations in Florence; Rome; and Orvieto, a famous hill town in Italy known for the Crocifisso del Tufo Necropolis, an Etruscan archaeological site featuring burial chambers arranged along street-like grids.

Participants will also have access to local museums and archives, and excavated Etruscan sites, many of which are generally not open to the public. The three-week program will begin with an informal walking tour of Orvieto with Warden, and include seminars, visits to archaeological sites and the expertise of visiting scholars involved in cutting-edge research in the study of Etruscan civilization and ancient Italy.

Warden will be assisted by Institute co-director Carole Lester, professor of history and humanities at Richland College of the Dallas County Community College District; Institute associate Marsha Anderson, adjunct professor of arts and humanities at DCCCD; and Institute project manager David Berry, executive director of the Community College Humanities Association. — Victoria WInkelman

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Meadows School of the Arts, P. Gregory Warden, Poggio Colla Field School

Culture, Society & Family Events Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news

SMU Experts Discuss Anxiety Disorders April 12 & 19 as part of Godbey Lecture Series

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 8, 2011

Stress and anxiety are the norm for an estimated one in three adults suffering from a serious anxiety disorder. But a number of effective treatments are available, according to researchers in the SMU Department of Psychology.

SMU Anxiety Research & Treatment Program researchers Jasper Smits and Mark Powers will explain how new science is affecting the treatment of such common disorders as post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and social phobia, at the Godbey Lecture Series “lunch-and-learn” sessions April 12 and April 19 at 11 a.m. at Maggiano’s, NorthPark Center.

Tickets are $45 per event for Godbey Lecture Series members; $65 for non-members. Advanced registration is required; contact 214/768-2532 or gls@smu.edu.

For more details on the Anxiety Research & Treatment Program, click here. And for more information about the Godbey Lecture Series, click here.

Tags Dedman College, Jasper A. J. Smits, Mark Powers, SMU Department of Psychology

Events Researcher news

SMU rises in Carnegie Foundation research classification to ‘high research activity’

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 26, 2011

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has raised SMU’s classification among institutions of higher education, reflecting dramatic growth in the University’s research activity since it was last measured in 2005.

SMU is now categorized as a research university with “high research activity,” a significant step up from its last assessment in 2005 as a doctoral/research university. The Carnegie Foundation assigns doctorate-granting institutions to categories based on a measure of research activity occurring at a particular period in time, basing these latest classifications on data from 2008-2009.

“SMU’s rise in the Carnegie classification system is further evidence of the growing quality and research productivity of our faculty. We are building a community of scholars asking and answering important research questions and making an impact on societal issues with their findings,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “In addition to our dedication to outstanding teaching, SMU is becoming increasingly recognized as a vital resource for research in a variety of fields.”

Increased research activity in step with other SMU advances
“The designation of SMU as a ‘high research activity’ university by the Carnegie Foundation is an important step in SMU’s evolution as a strong national university,” said Paul Ludden, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “The faculty, staff, and students at SMU can be proud of this, particularly when paired with our rise in national rankings. The Carnegie Classification recognizes the tremendous efforts by the entire faculty at SMU to expand our research portfolio and address the many questions facing North Texas and the world. Recognition should go to Associate Vice President for Research James Quick and his office for their efforts to support the research activities of our faculty and staff.”

The foundation’s assessment of SMU’s increased research activity occurs as the University is making dramatic advances in other measures of academic progress: U.S. News and World Report magazine gave SMU its highest ranking ever for 2011, placing SMU 56th among 260 “best national universities” — up from 68th in 2010.

Additionally, SMU’s Cox School of Business is one of only a few schools in the nation to have all three of its MBA programs ranked among the top 15, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Applications to SMU continue to rise, as have average SAT scores for admitted students.

Carnegie finds SMU research activity recorded an increase
The Carnegie Foundation analyzed SMU’s research activity in a category of universities that awarded at least 20 research doctorates in 2008-2009, excluding professional degrees such as those leading to the practice of medicine and law. The analysis examined research and development expenditures in science and engineering as well as in non-science and non-engineering fields; science and engineering research staff (postdoctoral appointees and other non-faculty research staff with doctorates); doctoral conferrals in the humanities, in the social sciences, in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, and in other areas such as, business, education, public policy and social work.

The Carnegie Foundation classification of U.S. accredited colleges and universities uses nationally available data from the U.S. Office of Postsecondary Education, the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the National Science Foundation, and the College Board.

“SMU’s rise in academic rankings and research productivity is a strong return on the investment of our alumni and other donors who provide support for research, endowed chairs, and graduate programs and fellowships,” said SMU Board of Trustees Chair Caren Prothro. “SMU students at all levels are the beneficiaries of this distinction as their faculty enliven the classroom with their research and engage students in the tradition of academic inquiry.”

About the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Founded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered the following year by an Act of Congress, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center. Its current mission is to support needed transformations in American education. — Kim Cobb

Tags Cox School of Business, Dedman College, James E. Quick, Lyle School of Engineering

Culture, Society & Family Events Fossils & Ruins Researcher news SMU In The News

The Taos News: Ft. Burgwin founder, SMU’s Fred Wendorf, leads off lecture series

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 15, 2010

The work of SMU archaeologist Fred Wendorf was featured in the Sept. 8, 2010, edition of The Taos News. Fred Wendorf is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at SMU and the author of Desert Days: My Life as a Field Archaeologist, as well as more than 30 other books.

In 1987, Wendorf became the first SMU faculty member elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

The article Dr. Fred Wendorf leads off UNM-Taos/SMU lecture series retells Wendorf’s contribution to preserving the history of Ft. Burgwin as one of the founders and then director of what eventually became SMU-in-Taos.

EXCERPT:
By Tempo staff
History is beneath our feet all over the Taos area, but progress is a constant threat to maintaining this legacy. If it wasn’t for the scientific mind of people like Dr. Fred Wendorf, who knows what the Pot Creek area might look like today? Wendorf is planning to deliver a free lecture titled “Discovering Fort Burgwin” Wednesday (Sept. 8), 7 p.m., at the Taos Community Auditorium, 145 Paseo del Pueblo Norte.

Wendorf’s lecture kicks off the second annual Fall Lecture Series, a 10-week succession of events focusing on the art, history and culture of the Taos area. The lecture series is brought to you through a partnership between Southern Methodist University-in-Taos and University of New Mexico-Taos, the town of Taos and Taos Center for the Arts. All lectures are free and open to the public.

In the lecture, Wendorf “unlocks the history embedded in the artifacts found at Cantonment Burgwin,” a former pre-Civil War-era U.S. Army post south of Ranchos de Taos on State Road 518. Central to fort’s contemporary birth and development is Wendorf, whose book (with James E. Brooks) titled “The Ft. Burgwin Research Center” (2007 Southern Methodist University) tells the story.

Read the full story.

SMU is a private university in Dallas where nearly 11,000 students benefit from the national opportunities and international reach of SMU’s seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Fred Wendorf, James E. Brooks, SMU Department of Anthropology, SMU-in-Taos

Energy & Matter Events Researcher news

Neutrino data to flow in 2010; SMU hosts NOvA scientists

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 7, 2010

Physicists may see data as soon as late summer from the prototype for a $278 million science experiment in northern Minnesota that is being designed to find clues to some fundamental mysteries of the universe, including dark matter.

But it could take years before the nation’s largest “neutrino” detector answers the profound questions that matter to scientists.

Construction is underway now on a 220-ton detector that is the “integration prototype” for a much larger 14,000-ton detector. Both are part of NOvA, a cooperative project of the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago and the University of Minnesota‘s school of physics and astronomy. The project may ultimately aid understanding of matter and dark matter, how the universe formed and evolved, and current astrophysical events.

A 65-foot by 370-foot hole in the ground outlines the future NOvA detector in Minnesota. Photo: Fermilab

DOE gave “full construction start” approval Oct. 29, 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. There are 180 scientists and engineers from 28 institutions around the world collaborating on NOvA.

About 40 scientists from the international collaboration will meet Jan. 8-10 at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The meeting is the first for the collaboration since DOE’s approval, said John Cooper, NOvA project manager at Fermilab.

Collaboration scientists will hear technical presentations from one another during the three-day SMU meeting, which will refine NOvA’s design, including the technical details of software, hardware and calibration, said Thomas Coan, associate professor in SMU’s Department of Physics and a scientist on the collaboration team.

The integration prototype, known as the Near Detector because it’s at Fermilab, and the larger detector, known as the Far Detector because it’s farther from Fermilab — are essentially hundreds of thousands of plastic tubes enclosing a massive amount of highly purified mineral oil. The purpose is to detect the highly significant fundamental subatomic particle called the “neutrino” and better understand its nature. NOvA, when construction is completed, will be the largest neutrino experiment in the United States.

NOvA detectors showing planes of alternating vertical and horizontal PVC modules. Photo: Fermilab

“The ‘detector prototype’ has two purposes,” said Cooper. “First it serves as an ‘integration prototype’ forcing us to find all the problems on a real device, and second it will become the ‘Near Detector’ at Fermilab.”

The integration prototype will operate on the surface at Fermilab for about a year starting in late summer 2010, Cooper said. Then in 2012 it will move 300 feet underground to become the Near Detector, he said. Construction on the Far Detector project began in June near Ash River, Minn. The detector should be fully operational by September 2013, according to Fermilab.

A hard-to-observe fundamental particle that travels alone, the neutrino has little or no mass, so rarely interacts with other particles.

Neutrinos are ubiquitous throughout our universe. They were produced during the Big Bang, and many of those are still around. New ones are constantly being created too, through natural occurrences like solar fusion in the sun’s core, or radioactive elements decaying in the Earth’s mantle, as well as when the particle accelerator at Fermilab purposely smashes protons into carbon foils.

Our sun produces so many that hundreds of billions are zinging through our bodies every second at the speed of light, Coan said. It’s hoped the new detector can resolve questions surrounding the three different kinds of neutrinos — electron, tau and muon — and their “oscillation” from one type to another as they travel, he said.

Scientists at the new detectors will analyze data from Fermilab’s neutrino beam to observe evidence of neutrinos when the speedy, lightweight particles occasionally smash into the carbon nuclei in the scintillating oil of the detector, causing a burst of light flashes, Coan said.

NOvA is looking for the most elusive oscillation of the muon type of neutrino to the electron type, Cooper said. — Margaret Allen

Tags Dedman College, SMU Department of Physics, Thomas E. Coan

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