2012 SUMMER COURSE SCHEDULE

IMPORTANT DATES - click here
Classes, dates, and times are subject to cancellation/change based on enrollment. 
Summer course schedule downloadable pdf.

SUMMER I (DALLAS) May 31 - June 29, 2012

THE ARTICULATE VOICE (CMT)
BHSC 6110
Class # 2201
1 Credit Hour
Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.

This short course is designed to help the student understand and practice the vocal skills that contribute to an effective and pleasant speaking voice, focusing on the processes underlying speech production: projection, articulation, and resonance.  The emphasis in this class is not what you say, but how you say it.  This is a skills course.  Students are graded on individual performances, development, class participation, and improvement.  Students present two oral presentations along with some written work.  Earns one credit hour.

Instructor: Jan Sayers

Jan Sayers has taught communication courses at SMU since 1990.  Her particular areas of interest are public speaking, persuasion, voice and articulation, and oral interpretation of the literature, either through the undergraduate education program or the graduate Master of Liberal Studies (MLS) program in the School of Education and Human Development.   She directed the SMU forensics program for three years including an award-winning team in 1993 and 1995.

READING POETRY (WI- Writing Intensive) or (HUM)
HUMN 6309
Class # 2197
3 Credit Hour
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

This course develops the skills of analytical thinking and reading to make students informed readers of poetry, able to take emotional and intellectual pleasure in the most primal art form in the world: the patterned words, sounds, sensations, and feelings of poetry. It also develops students' skills at writing clear, concise, evidence-based, focused, and analytical arguments of the kind necessary for graduate study.

Instructor: Richard Bozorth

Richard Bozorth is a graduate of Princeton and the University of Virginia, where he received his Ph.D. Since coming to SMU in 1998, he has taught courses in British literature, poetry, modernist literature, and LGBT studies. He is the author of _Auden's Games of Knowledge_ (Columbia UP, 2001), and is currently completing a book on historical consciousness in modern lesbian and gay literature.

OBJECTIVITY AND BIAS IN THE NEWS (AMS) (CMT) (HUM)
HUMN 6311
Class # 2199
3 Credit Hours
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

This course identifies the various forces that critics say bias the news media and looks for evidence of these biases in media products. We will explicate the terms "bias" and "objectivity", as well as examine the different forms of alleged media bias, from the frequently cited partisan or ideological bias to the "structural" bias that often occurs as a result of the way newsrooms operate.

Instructor: Camille Kraeplin

Dr. Camille Kraeplin spent nearly a decade working as a food writer/restaurant critic and features editor for publications including The Dallas Morning News and Texas Monthly. She developed an interest in studying media representations of racial and ethnic groups while working as a newspaper reporter in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her research focuses on the intersection of race, ethnicity, class and gender and how these factors affect both media use and portrayals, especially portrayals of women. Kraeplin also completed one of the first broad-based studies of media convergence. She is the author of a number of journal articles and book chapters and often presents her work at conferences. She enjoys teaching such critical studies courses as "Women & Minorities in the Media" and "Human Rights & the Journalist" for the Journalism Division, and was recently named director of Meadows new Fashion Media minor. She received both her master's and doctorate in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.

Gender and Sex in Prehistory (GEN) (HRJ) (HUM)
HUMN 6315
Class # 2305
3 Credit Hours
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

Sex and gender in past societies have only been seriously studied by archaeologist in the last few decades. How do we recognize and interpret gender in the archaeological record? How do we know what the lives of men, women, and children as slaves, household members, and kings and queens, were like? To what extent have our understandings of women in the past been influenced by the roles and perceptions of women in modern society? This course will explore how and why archaeologists study gender and sexual identities in the past and discover the diversity in these institutions across cultures through time.

Instructor: Michael Callaghan

Dr. Callaghan is an anthropological archaeologist who received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Vanderbilt University in 2008. His research interests include the rise and collapse of complex societies, ceramic analysis, gender in archaeology, household archaeology, ritual, and prehistoric political economies. His primary research area is Mesoamerica and the Maya lowlands of Guatemala but he has also conducted fieldwork in Tennessee and Honduras. He has served as archaeologist, lab-director, and Co-Director of the Vanderbilt Cancuen Regional Archaeological Project located in Cancuen, Guatemala. He performed his dissertation research and served as project ceramicist on the Holmul Regional Archaeological Project in Holmul, Guatemala. Callaghan is now Co-Director of the Holtun Archaeological Project located in the Central Peten Lakes Region of Guatemala. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, and Vanderbilt University.

The Psychological and Religious Significance of Dreams  (HUM)
HUMN 6323
Class # 2198
3 Credit Hour
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

Do dreams contain important insights, and even messages, about human life and destiny? Or are they merely accidental byproducts of brain activity, of no real importance to the psyche and to human development? This course explores the meaning of dreams in human experience, with particular attention to the integration of psychological and religious understanding of dream material. This study includes a close look at what several orientations in psychology, and one ancient religious tradition, have to say about the significance of dreams in human experience. Opportunities are provided for students to learn basic principles of dream interpretation, which they can apply to their own dreams.

Instructor: Leroy Howe

Dr. Howe is Professor emeritus of Pastoral Theology at SMU's Perkins School of Theology, where he taught courses in theology and pastoral care and counseling, including dream interpretation, for 30 years. He now teaches regularly in the MLS program. Dr. Howe's published writings include eight books and numerous articles and reviews in academic, professional, and general audience journals and magazines. His website, HoweAbout.com, contains twice monthly articles on faith, theology, and everyday living.

Our Stories, Ourselves (CRW)
HUMN 6376
Class # 2200
3 Credit Hours
Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

How we see ourselves, how others see us: these are not just a matter of looking in the mirror. For better or for worse, self-image is embedded in the stories we tell about ourselves, both in our own heads and in the course of our dealings with others. Use journal-writing as a means of bringing your life-stories into focus, making them more tools for change, growth, and understanding and, it is hoped, enabling us to live more effective and happier lives.

Instructor: John Lewis

Dr. John Lewis - After undergraduate and graduate studies in English and American Language and Literature at Harvard, where he was a member of Lowell House and a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows, John Lewis joined the SMU English Department in 1970, specializing in American Literature. From the first he has been heavily involved in the design and teaching of general education courses at SMU, and this involvement has led him to broaden his interests to include work in Western cultural and intellectual history from the Greeks forward, with a speccial interest in early modern America and Europe. He has also designed and taught courses in poetry, creative and expository writing, and linguistics. His current course offerings in the MLS program include "Shakespeare from Page to Stage," "The Muse in Arms: War and the Literary Imagination," "A Book of Begettings: the Bible and Literature," "Remembering the Sixties," "Tell About the South: Voices in Faulkner's Novels," "Our Stories, Ourselves: Journaling as a Path to Self-Discovery," "Reading Darwin: An Introduction to his Major Works," and "Writing and the Search for Self." His current research interests center on the nineteenth-century roots of American modernism and the contemporary writer Thomas Pynchon.

The Culture of Rock and Roll (ACT) (AMS) (HUM)
HUMN 7303
Class # 2369
3 Credit Hours
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

This courses the pre-history and history of Rock and Roll as a means to explore American and trans-national histories. Topics include the Black Diaspora, minstrelsy, the Great Migration, the Black Atlantic, youth culture, the sexual revolution, student uprisings, The Civil Rights Movement, consumerism, and Rock as oppositional in culture.

Instructor: Bruce Levy

Dr. Levy has published articles on late nineteenth century American Literature and Culture and the history of American social reform. He is currently completing a book on the Midwest and American Modernism, and is at work on a new book on the idea of economic freedom within American culture. At SMU, he directs the Center for Academic-Community Engagement, which involves students in coursework that engages them as well in community work. He teaches courses on Adolescence in America, Social Class and Democracy, the idea of "community" as both a lived and imagined experience, and the literatures of minorities.

Living through the American Revolution (AMS) (HRJ) (HUM)
SOSC 6314
Class # 2370
3 Credit Hours
Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

This course explores the social history of the American Revolution and what the Revolution meant for the many different people who experienced it. Focusing on one stage in the historical process of becoming "American," the course shows how these people took part in a set of large-scale transforming events that changed both the course of history and the people themselves.

Instructor: Ed Countryman

Dr. Countryman has been teaching at SMU since 1991. He's been involved with this program almost that long and has thanked classes in book acknowledgements. Best known as a scholar of the American Revolution, he's currently writing a short book on African-Americans and the revolutionary era. His strong interest now is Woodland Indians in the age of their encounter with Europeans and Africans. He's working on a large book about the Oneida Nation's long-term relationship with New York State. He loves classical music, opera, art galleries, and hiking. He's also a keen distance runner, a member of the Dallas Running Club, and coaches with the Runwell Training Program.

SUMMER II (PLANO) July 2 - August 3, 2012

Exploring Human Potential (ORG)
BHSC 6311
Class # 2310
3 Credit Hours
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m. (Plano Campus)

This course will help graduate students broaden their understanding of how our basic assumptions regarding how we learn and develop, and our perceived limitations to our learning and development, are influenced by our perceptions, experiences, collectives/organizations, and culture. The course introduces students to cutting-edge perspectives and research across the communities of brain sciences, cognitive and social psychology, and cultural anthropology. Graduate students will apply the knowledge and experience from this course to shape their personal learning and development journey within MLS, their organizations, and beyond.

Instructor: Charlotte Barner

Charlotte Barner received an Ed.D. in Human & Organizational Learning from The George Washington University.  Her master of education in Curriculum Design & Instructional Technologies is with honors from George Mason University; and her undergraduate degree in Business & Human Resources Administration is from Barry University. Charlotte has over 20 years of experience in the area of human and organizational learning and development. Prior to joining SMU, she held senior corporate leadership positions responsible for creating and implementing development strategies and systems. Most recently, she established and lead Organizational Effectiveness for one of North America's top sales and marketing companies with clients such as AT&T, Best Buy, Disney, HP, Microsoft, and Wal-Mart, as well as the major movie and gaming producers.

SUMMER II (DALLAS)  July 2 - August 3, 2012

the art of public speaking  (cmt)
BHSC 6302
Class # 2215
3 Credit Hours
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

This course focuses on training in speech performance and speech evaluation skills. The major aims of the course are to make the student a more effective public speaker and a more discerning consumer of public communication. Students will begin by studying historical speeches, then learn both theory and practical applications related to the formulation, presentation, and evaluation of public speeches.

Instructor: Jan Sayers

Dr. Jan Sayers has taught communication courses at SMU since 1990. Her particular areas of interest are public speaking, persuasion, voice and articulation, and oral interpretation of the literature, either through the undergraduate education program or the graduate Master of Liberal Studies (MLS) program in the School of Education and Human Development. She directed the SMU forensics program for three years including an award-winning team in 1993 and 1995.

Creating the Memoir (repeatable for credit) (CRW)
FNAR 6315  
Class # 2207
3 Credit Hours
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

The memoir, a sub-genre of Creative Nonfiction, explores the methodologies from writing about the self (an artful autobiography). Through the analysis of existing memoirs, suggested strategies for such writing, and a "hands-on," workshop setting, this seminar will enable students to write in the direction of a rigorous "telling of their stories." What better gift for the self and loved ones?

Instructor: Gary Swaim

Dr. Swaim received his A.B. in English from the University of California at Riverside and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Philosophy from the University of Redlands and Claremont Graduate University in California. He has taught broadly in literature and creative writing. A playwright (with plays produced in California and Texas), a widely published poet, and a published writer of short fiction, Dr. Swaim concluded his eight years of teaching graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2010. Dr. Swaim has been selected as a Minnie Stevens Piper Professor of Excellence for the State of Texas.

CLASSIC TEXTS: ARISTOTLE (HUM)
HUMN 6115
Class # 2211
1 Credit Hour
Mondays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

This is a one-credit-hour seminar focusing on a single, seminal text in the humanities: Artistotle/Nicomachean Ethics. The class will consist of close, directed reading of the text, seminar discussion, and the completion of a term paper.

Instructor: Benjamin Petty

Benjamin A. Petty is a native of New Orleans who graduated with honors in English from Tulane University. Subsequent schooling earned him a Master of Divinity degree from Emory University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University. He began teaching at SMU in 1953 in the undergraduate Religion Department. Soon he taught also in the Philosophy Department and in time became its Chairman. Dr. Petty was among the first teachers in the MLA (now MLS) program.

CLASSIC TEXTS:  Mrs. Dolloway & The Hours  (HUM)
HUMN 6115
Class # 2320
1 Credit Hour
Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

This one-hour course focuses the student's attention on a single, seminal text in the Humanities through close, directed reading, seminar discussion, and a final paper. 

Instructor: Martha Satz

Martha Satz exploits her dual background in philosophy and literature and experience in trans-racial culture to teach and write about a diversity of topics. She teaches courses in minority literature, most notably African American and Jewish American literature, ethics and children's literature, literature and disability, and ethics and literature. She is on leave fall 2006 to complete a work on literature, culture, and trans-racial adoption.

love and transformation  (act) (ams) (gen) (glo) (hum)
HUMN 6328
Class # 2208
3 Credit Hours
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

The transforming and transformative power of love has generated great literature throughout history. In this course we will study a number of works, from plays to poetry to novels to philosophical texts, from the ancient Greek world to modern American literature, in order to analyze and understand how authors in different times, cultures, and places use the concept of love to inspire, motivate, and reconfigure their characters' lives and the worlds they live in.

Instructor: Marsha McCoy

Marsha McCoy has degrees from Bryn Mawr College, Oxford University, Harvard University, and Yale University, and has taught at Harvard, Yale, New York University, and elsewhere. She has held a Fulbright Fellowship at the University in Munich, Germany, and a Mellon Fellowship at New York University, and has received scholarships for study at the American School of Classical Studies, Athens, Greece, as well as at the American Numismatic Society in New York City. She has been a finalist numerous times for the National Collegiate Teaching Award of the American Philological Association.

remembering the 60'S: CULTURE AND CHANGE (ACT) (AMS) (GLO) (HUM)
HUMN 6354
Class # 2209
3 Credit Hours
Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

Was it the decade that America came unraveled, or was it the dawning of the Age of Aquarius? This course examines eyewitness accounts, participants' recollections, and fictional and film representations of our most controversial decade in order to discover how mass media influence our cultural perceptions, and how later commentators on this era have constructed nostalgic or demonized versions as ammunition in continuing contests over values.

Instructor: John Lewis

Dr. John Lewis - After undergraduate and graduate studies in English and American Language and Literature at Harvard, where he was a member of Lowell House and a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows, John Lewis joined the SMU English Department in 1970, specializing in American Literature. From the first he has been heavily involved in the design and teaching of general education courses at SMU, and this involvement has led him to broaden his interests to include work in Western cultural and intellectual history from the Greeks forward, with a speccial interest in early modern America and Europe. He has also designed and taught courses in poetry, creative and expository writing, and linguistics.

gay and lesbian literature  (gen) (HRJ) (HUM)
HUMN 7320
Class # 2212
3 Credit Hours
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

This three-hour course focuses on the manifold ways same-sex love and desire has been represented in literature from the ancient world through the present. Tracing the persistence of classical and biblical views and the rise of modern models of sexuality, the course follows how ideas from Plato, the Bible, medieval poetry, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and Freud, frame the work of gay and lesbian writers today.

Instructor: Rick Bozorth

Dr. Richard Bozorth is a graduate of Princeton and the University of Virginia, where he received his Ph.D. Since coming to SMU in 1998, he has taught courses in British literature, poetry, modernist literature, and LGBT studies. He is the author of _Auden's Games of Knowledge_ (Columbia UP, 2001), and is currently completing a book on historical consciousness in modern lesbian and gay literature.

classic texts in the Social Sciences: Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention (AMS) (HUM)
SOSC 6115
Class # 2210
1 Credit Hour
Wednesdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.
 
This one-hour course focuses the student's attention on a single, seminal text in the social sciences through close, directed reading, seminar discussion, and a final paper.

Instructor: Jody Potts

Dr. Potts' research and teaching focus on the biographical aspects of the American experience. Through the writings of key Americans, her course Ideas Shaping the American Character explores the ideas-political, economic, religious, social, intellectual, and artistic-that shaped the American character from the Puritan Era through the twentieth century. An additional research interest involving left and right brain learning concepts resulted in Dr. Potts' creation of an MLS course titled The Lively Mind: Creative and Critical Thinking, as well as left/right brain seminars for public school faculties nationwide. Dr. Potts has served as University Spokesperson on the Texas Council for Social Studies Textbook Adoption Review Committee and as a member of the TCSS curriculum committee. She is on the University of North Texas Department of History Advisory Council and is a past member of the Presidents' Circle of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2001 she was honored as an outstanding alumna of the University of North Texas.

The History of Racial Thinking to 1850  (HUM) (HRJ)
SOSC 7355
Class # 2372
3 Credit Hour
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

This course examines the history and development of racial thinking from the the ancient world to the beginnings of Western anthropology in the first half of the nineteenth century. Students will analyze early racial thinking from a rigorous historical perspective and according to a particular set of traditions and cultural circumstances. This course may be applied to the following curricular field concentrations: Humanities and Human Rights and Social Justice.

Instructor:  Michael Keevak

Dr. Michael Keevak received his B.A. (English and History) from Columbia and his Ph.D. (Renaissance Studies) from Yale, and since 1992 has been teaching in Taiwan, where he is a Professor of Foreign Languages at National Taiwan University. He has published four books, including three on the history of Western perceptions of the Far East. His most recent publication is Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking, published by Princeton University Press in 2011.

SUMMER III (DALLAS) May 31 - August 3, 2012

(NEW) The Impact of the Arab Spring on Israel and the Middle East  (GLO) (HRJ) (HUM)
SOSC 7324
Class # 2371
3 Credit Hours
Mondays, Wednesdays — 6:30-9:20 p.m.

The purpose of this course is to analyze the impact of the Arab Spring on the Islamic legal system, the Muslim religion and social order, and its impact on Israel, the West, and international law. This course will explore numerous areas of Islamic and Israeli law, international law, culture, crimes and punishments, economic developments, fundamentalism, and moderation. The course will also discuss and focus on human rights in the Islamic legal tradition and in all countries of the Middle East and North Africa in light of international human rights standards. In addition, this course will examine the “Arab Spring” in light of historical and present Islamic thought. This course may be applied to the following curricular field concentrations: Human Rights and Social Justice, Global Studies, and Humanities.

Instructor: John Vernon

John M. Vernon is a practicing attorney, licensed in Texas, Utah, and the District of Columbia, with The Vernon Law Group, PLLC, who advises and counsels clients on cross-border international and domestic transactions, international trade, and international franchising. He has taught seminars and spoken as a guest lecturer at law schools both in the US and in many other countries. Mr. Vernon is also adjunct faculty to the SMU Dedman School of Law.

SUMMER II (TAOS) July 1- 8, 2012

WILDFLOWERS OF THE SOUTHERN ROCKIES  (ENV) (GLO)
SCCL 7205
Class # 2217
2 Credit Hours
July 1 - 8 , 2012
(both sections req)

An intense introduction to plant identification and collections using field collected or observed specimens from the SMU in Taos campus and from surrounding areas. Students will learn the botanical language, plant names and classification. Students are required to learn 24 families, and collect plants from 20 plant families and press them. Students enrolling in this course for credit must enroll in both SCCL 7205 and SCCL 7105 for a total of 3 credit hours.

TERM PAPER ON A MEDICINAL PLANT OF THE SOUTHERN ROCKIES  (ENV) (GLO)
SCCL 7105
Class # 2218
1 Credit Hour
July 1 - 8 , 2012
(both sections req)

Instructor: Dr. John Ubelaker

Dr. John Ubelaker, is a Professor Biological Sciences and is highly recognized as an outstanding teaching Professor at SMU. In 1993 the University recognized Dr. Ubelaker as an Altschuler outstanding lecturer by awarding him a Distinguished Lecturer Award of the University. He has taught on the Taos campus for the past 20 years and knows the area extremely well. He is currently working on several monographs of plants from this region of New Mexico.

STUDY IN TAOS - click here for additional information.

STUDY AWAY PROGRAMS

MODERN PAINTING IN FRANCE  (ACT) (GLO) (HUM)
fNAR 6323
Class # 2219
3 Credit Hours
June 10 - June 23, 2012

Instructor:  Dr. Dianne Goode

international organization collaboration: dublin, ireland   (glo) (hum) (org)
BHSC 7352
Class # 2220
3 Credit Hours
June 17 - 24, 2012

Instructors:  Charlotte & Robert Barner

Click here for more information.

RELIGION AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION: FLORENCE, ITALY   (GEN) (GLO) (HUM) (HRJ) (ORG)
BHSC 7351
Class # 2221
3 Credit Hours
June 24 - 30, 2012

Instructor:  Richard Blackburn

Click here for more information.

human rights field experience: rwanda   (gen) (GLO) (HUM) (HRJ)
SOSC 6300
Independant Study Contract Required
3 Credit Hours
August 3-13, 2012

Instructor:  Rick Halperin

STUDY AWAY PROGRAMS - click here for additional information.

Contact Us:
Email: mls@smu.edu 
Phone: 214-768-4273
Fax: 214-768-2104
Postal Mail: Master of Liberal Studies, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750253, Dallas, TX 75275-0253

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