About Our Faculty
MLS students benefit from the the most distinguished faculty members at Southern Methodist University. The SMU faculty members who teach in the MLS program are characterized by their expertise in their fields, and their passion and commitment to teaching. SMU faculty love teaching in this program because of its innovative approach to graduate education, the enthusiasm and motivation of its talented adult students and its small, seminar-style classroom settings.
Adjunct professors in the program represent noted leaders and scholars from the Dallas community and beyond. They are recommended and approved by the MLS Academic Council.
Faculty in the News...
Join
us in congratulating SMU faculty member, Dr. Rick Halperin, Director of SMU's
Human Rights Program, winner of the 2008 National Faculty
Award from the AGLSP - Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs.
Recent MLS Faculty
Dr. G. William Barnard - Associate Professor, SMU
Department of Religious Studies SMU University Distinguished Teaching
Professor
Ph.D. University of Chicago
Dr. G. William Barnard's primary areas of research are the comparative philosophy of mysticism, religion and the social sciences, contemporary spirituality, and religion and healing. In 2000, Barnard won the Golden Mustang Award for teaching and scholarship, and from 2002-2004 he was a member of SMU's Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He has published Exploring Unseen Worlds: William James and the Philosophy of Mysticism as well as an edited volume, Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism. He has also written many journal articles and book chapters on a variety of topics, such as pedagogy in religious studies, the nature of religious experience, and issues in the psychology of religion. He has recently completed a second monograph, Living Consciousness: Reclaiming the Intuitive Vision of Henri Bergson.
Courses Taught:
HUMN 6204/6104 Sacred Places and Spiritual Practices
HUMN 6338 The Fire of Transformation: Exploring the Mystical Life
HUMN 6358 Trances and Dances: Investigations of Aboriginal Religious Life
Dr.
Diane C. Betts-
Adjunct
Assistant Professor, Departments of Economics and History, Southern Methodist
University, June 1992 to the present.
Dr. Betts is a First Vice President for Morgan Keegan & Co., Inc. and a Senior Investment Management Consultant where she provides research and analysis for high net worth individuals, employee benefit plans, and non-profit organizations. Since joining Morgan Keegan in 2000, she has served on the IMCG Advisory Council and is a member of the President's Club. She has been in the field of economics and finance since 1981.
Courses Taught:
SOSC 6344 Contemporary Economic Issues
Dr. Brad Carter-
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
Bradley Kent Carter received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1972. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and has been at SMU since 1970. He has taught in the MLS program for many years.
Carter’s teaching and research interests include political thought, organization theory, American and British politics, and institutional development. He has written on James Madison and Mary Parker Follett.
Mr. Carter has served as President of the Faculty senate and was Chief Marshal of the University for nineteen years. He has received both the M Award and the Willis M. Tate Award and was twice selected as a Rotunda Outstanding Professor.
Courses Taught:
SOSC 6343 Politics of a Capitalist Democracy (FEI) (GLO)
SOSC 6248 The Changing Landscape of Political Thought (GLO)
Dr. John Chavez - SMU Professor of History: US Southwest and Mexican American
Ph.D. University of Michigan
Follow this link for more information about Dr. John Chavez:
http://smu.edu/history/faculty/Chavez.shtml
Courses Taught:
SOSC 6337 Texas and Tejanos
Dr. Edward Countryman - SMU
Distinguished Professor of History
Ph.D. Cornell, 1971
Dr. Countryman has taught at SMU since 1991, after previous
jobs at the Universities of Warwick and
SOSC 6314 American Revolution
SOSC 6316 Farms, Plantations & Towns
SOSC 6327 American Citizenship
SOSC 6350 First-Person American Lives
Silvio De Santis
Professor De Santis received his Ph.D. in Medieval History from the
University of Cagliari (Italy). Before he moved to the United States he taught
graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Tuscia in Viterbo
(Italy) for six years. His interests range from Italy to the Western
Mediterranean during the late Middle Ages. He specializes in agrarian history,
social history, history of nutrition and medieval slavery. His research focuses
on Italian rural and social history from the 11th to 14th Centuries. From 2006
to 2008, he was a member of the Scientific Committee at Istituto Superiore di
Studi Medievali "Cecco d'Ascoli" - Ascoli Piceno. He attended several congresses
and his researches were published in the main Italian historical journals as "Bullettino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo" and
"Rivista di
Storia dell'Agricoltura"or in miscellaneous studies. He recently published a
volume by the "Istituto di Storia e Arte del Lazio Meridionale" (Anagni, Italy),
which offers original insights into land Lordship and agrarian topics on the
border between the States of the Church and the Kingdom of Naples. Professor De
Santis is currently proofing a most noteworthy book that will be issued by the
History Department at University of Sassari (Italy). The book addresses complex
questions on economic sides, social conflicts, colonial policies, family
strategies, agriculture production, men/environment relations, in Italy, its
isles, and the Kingdom of Aragon (11th-14th C).
Courses Taught:
SOSC 6319 The Medieval City
Yolette Garcia -
a summa cum laude
graduate of Southern Methodist University, with a Masters of Arts degree in Art
History. She received her
undergraduate degree in Art History from
Yolette recently joined
the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at
Southern Methodist University in
Garcia comes to her position as a veteran public
broadcasting journalist and manager for KERA television and radio, the
Dianne Goode -
Dr. Dianne
Goode has been a member of the MLS faculty since 1981, and has served
multiple terms on the MLS Academic Council. She is an art historian who
regularly teaches courses on Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and
architecture, and modern painting. She
also teaches
two-week summer courses abroad in Italy and France, offering MLS students
an extraordinary and memorable opportunity to experience the magnificent
artworks in their historical and cultural contexts.
Dr. Goode
lectures widely to school, church, and civic groups, most frequently on
Christian imagery. Her research involves multiple aspects of Italian art: Marian
imagery, the relationship between devotional texts and images, the development
of altarpiece imagery, and the role of narrative.
Courses Taught:
SMU Campus:
FNAR 6309 Art of the Italian Reniassance
FNAR 6322 Modern Movements in European and American Painting
FNAR 6115
Manet's
Bar at the Folies Bergere
Abroad:
FNAR 6308 Renaissance and Baroque Art in Italy
FNAR 6323 Modern Painting in France: Paris and Provence
Randy Gordon - B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Kansas; J.D., Washburn; LL.M., Columbia; Ph.D., Edinburgh
Randy Gordon is a partner in the Antitrust Group of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, where he has also served as the Firm's first Professional Development Partner. He is a past Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, an Adjunct Professor of Law and Lecturer in English at Southern Methodist University, a fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Hiett Prize, the largest humanities-specific prize in the U.S. His professional activities include service as Immediate Past Chair of the State Bar of Texas Antitrust & Business Litigation Section, a member of the Professionalism Committee of the Legal Education Section of the ABA, a member and former board member of the Professional Development Consortium, and an elected member of both the Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet and the American Law Institute. Randy is also an Advisory Board Member of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the Hall Center for the Humanities, and the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas and a Key Collaborator in the Beyond Text project at the University of Edinburgh School of Law. A frequent lecturer and writer, he is the Senior Host of “The Writer's Studio,“ a series of interviews with contemporary authors broadcast throughout the country by KERA/National Public Radio. He is recognized in antitrust by both Chambers & Partners and Who's Who Legal. For more information, visit: http://www.gardere.com/Attorneys/Attorney_Bio/?id=1414
Courses Taught:
HUMN 6115/Classic Texts: Marcel Proust and the Modern Tradition: Literature, Philosophy, Art
HUMN 6115/Classic Texts: Discovering Proust: Swann's Way and the Texture of Memory
HUMN 6318 Americans in Paris: The Lost Generation and Its Milieu
HUMN 6378 Literature of the Great Plains: A Study in Environment
HUMN 6390 Law and Literature: Parallel Interpretive Strategies
Dr. Rick Halperin
"There is no such thing as a lesser person."
Rick Halperin is Director of the Southern Methodist University Human Rights Education Program (http://www.smu.edu/humanrights/), and teaches courses at SMU including: America's Dilemma: The Struggle for Human Rights; America and the Age of Genocide; and America Enraged: From Brown to Watergate, 1954-1974.
Halperin has served on the Board of Directors of
Amnesty International USA from 1989-1995, and from 2004-2009; he served as Chair
of the Board from 1992-1993 and again from 2005-2007. He is also a member of
the National Death Penalty Advisory Committee, the National Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (serving
as President from 2000-2006 and from 2007-2008).
Halperin has been involved in many human rights monitoring projects, including
an Amnesty International delegation which investigated the conditions of the
Terrell Unit (Texas death row facility) in Livingston, Texas. In 1998, he was
eyewitness to a lethal injection execution in the death chamber in Huntsville,
Texas. Halperin also participated in a U.N. Human Rights delegation and
inspected prison conditions in Dublin, Ireland, and Belfast, Northern Ireland
for a report by the Irish Prison Commission, and he participated in a human
rights monitoring delegation in El Salvador in 1987.
In addition to his work against the death penalty, Halperin is also active in
other areas of human rights. He works with a variety of organizations which
seek improvements in human rights on behalf of women, children, gays and
lesbians, indigenous persons, survivors of torture, imprisoned political
prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders, journalists, and healthcare
professionals who are under non-stop assault by governments around the world.
Halperin leads groups of interested persons, including students, faculty, and
community members, on human rights educational journeys three times each year
to places such as Argentina, Cambodia, Rwanda, South Africa, El Salvador,
Bosnia, and numerous Holocaust sites across Europe. Every December he takes a
group to death camps and other Holocaust sites in Poland for two weeks. These
trips are designed to pay tribute, in part, to those men, women and children who
were destroyed in the camps, as well as to honor those who survived the
experience. (http://smu.edu/newsinfo/stories/rick-halperin-trip-dec2006.asp)
It was, and remains, necessary to remember that the human spirit is capable of
enduring and vanquishing the most unimaginable horrors that humanity can
produce.
Halperin received his Ph.D. from Auburn University, his M.A. from Southern Methodist University and his B.A. from George Washington University. He is frequently interviewed on television and radio as well as by print media, and he speaks nationally and internationally on a wide range of human rights issues including genocide and the death penalty.
Courses Taught:
SOSC 6309 Struggle for Human Rights
SOSC 6355 America: Integration-Watergate
SOSC 7303 In the Camps
SOSC 7316 Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
SOSC 7317 Human Rights: Japan
Dr. Adam L. Herring
Adam L. Herring is an art historian who has received fellowships from the Jacob K. Javits Foundation, Dumbarton Oaks, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1999, his doctoral dissertation won Yale University's Frances Blanshard Prize. His book, Art and Writing in the Maya Cities, AD 600-800: A Poetics of Line was published by Cambridge University Press in 2005, and won the Dallas Museum of Art's Vasari Award that year. Herring's primary areas of research are art and writing of the ancient Americas, colonial Latin America, and cultural history and theory. he has taught undergraduate and Cultural Institute courses at SMU-in-Taos for ten years.
Courses Taught:
FNAR 6101/6201 Art in Hispanic New Mexico
FNAR 6310 Art of the Maya
FNAR 6321 Great Books of Art History
Dr.
Leroy Howe
Leroy 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.
Courses Taught:
HUMN 6323 The Significance of Dreams
HUMN 6340 Psychoanalysis and Religion
Dr. Robert Hunt-
Director of Global Theological Education
Robert Hunt was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1955. After attending school in Austin and Richardson, he majored in History at the University of Texas in Austin. After completing a Master of Theology at Perkins School of Theology (SMU) he served as associate pastor of the Bethany United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas. He and his wife Lilian were married in 1979. Lilian is a native of Sarawak, Malaysia who attended Martin College, SMU, and the University of Texas. She is a music therapist practicing in the Dallas area. They have two children. Naomi is a graduate of Boston University and the Diplomatic Academy of the University of Vienna and is currently working in Vienna. Elliott is a graduate in Middlesex University and works in London.
In 1984 Robert and Lilian became missionaries with the General Board of Global Ministry. In 1985 they moved to the Philippines and then Kuala Lumpur, where they taught at the Seminary Theology Malaysia. At STM Robert was the director of extension education, and taught a wide variety of courses. He was also an editor of the current Malay translation of the Bible. He received a Ph.D. in History from the University of Malaya in 1993, focusing on the history of Bible translation and Christian Muslim relations. From 1993 to 1997 Robert and Lilian taught at the Trinity Theological College, where Robert taught world religions and directed the education by extension and field education programs. From 1997 to 2004 he was pastor of the English Speaking United Methodist Church of Vienna, and an adjunct professor at Webster University in Vienna in Religions and International Studies. Dr. Hunt is presently Director of Global Theological Education at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. He lectures on World Religions, Christian missions, and Islam. He is author of books on Malaysian Church history, and more recently works on Islam including: Islam in Southeast Asia, Muslim Faith and Values: What Every Christian Should Know and Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World. He has also published articles in a number of journals and reference works. His current projects include a study of Christian identity in religiously plural contexts, a study on the relationship of Muslim identity to power-sharing in secular societies. He participated in diverse conferences on Christian Muslim dialogue in Malaysia, Indonesia, Austria, Macedonia, Spain, and the United States.
"The focus of my professional life, as a teacher and pastor, has been interpretation: helping people understand one another, their history, different cultures and religions, and themselves. I believe that every person, culture, and society has something valuable to offer to others, and that we discover this through critical and appreciative study, open dialogue, and a willingness to learn."
Courses Taught:
HUMN 7312 Islam, State &
Society
Dr. Karl Kilinski - University Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Art History, Southern Methodist University
Dr. Kilinski specializes in Classical Art, Greek myth and art and Egyptian Art.
He attended the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece
(1973-74); Ph.D. (1974) and M.A. (1972) in Classical Art History and Archeology,
University of Missouri; B.A. (1969) in Anthropology, Indiana University; land
and underwater excavations in Greece; great curatorships and symposia organizer
of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Classical art, and Classical mythological subjects in
Western art; grants and fellowships from the American Council of Learned
Societies, National Endowment fort he Humanities, Samuel H. Kress Foundation,
Ford Foundation, Texas Committee for the Humanities, among others; public
lectures at museums and universities in Europe, Canada, and across the United
States (including lecture tours for the Archeological Institute of America,
1984-1998).
Courses Taught:
Dr. Bruce Levy - PhD in American Studies from Brown University
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.
Courses Taught:
HUMN 6397 Troubled Youth: Educating the Young in America
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 special interest in early modern America and Europe. He has also designed and taught courses in poetry, creative and expository writing, and linguistics. His current research interests center on the nineteenth-century roots of American modernism and the contemporary writer Thomas Pynchon.
Courses Taught:
HUMN 6106 Reading Darwin: An Introduction to his Major Works
HUMN 6310 Tell About the South: Voices in Faulkner’s Novels
HUMN 6313 Shakespeare from Page to Stage
HUMN 6328 The Muse in Arms: War and the Literary Imagination
HUMN 6335 A Book of Begettings: the Bible and Literature
HUMN 6354 Remembering the Sixties
HUMN 6374 Writing and the Search for Self
HUMN 6376 Our Stories, Ourselves: Journaling as a Path to Self-Discovery
Dr.
Nancy Cain Marcus -
Dr. Brian McCall -
A long-time civic community volunteer, McCall is founder
and Chairman of the Board of The Empowerment Project, a non-profit organization that has sent
over ten million dollars worth of math and science books to disadvantaged
schools in the
Representative McCall is President of Westminster Capital Corporation, a venture group which focuses on strategic acquisitions in the middle market. He is an advisor to Quest Network Business Solutions and operates Snow Hill Farm with his brother, David.
McCall holds a Bachelors degree from
Dr.
Alexis McCrossen - has been on SMU's faculty since 1995, when she
joined the history department as an assistant professor. That same year she
received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in the History of American
Civilization.
S
he has written a book about the history of Sunday in the United States (HOLY DAY, HOLIDAY: THE AMERICAN SUNDAY, Cornell University Press, 2000), edited and contributed to a volume about consumer culture in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands (LAND OF NECESSITY: CONSUMER CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES-MEXICO BORDERLANDS, Duke University Press, 2009), and is finishing a book about timekeeping and time consciousness in the United States (MARKING MODERN TIMES: KEEPING TIME IN THE UNITED STATES, 1840-1940, University of Chicago Press, forthcoming).An associate professor of history since 2001, Professor McCrossen teaches the following courses for the MLS program: the history of consumer culture in the United States and the history of cultural institutions in the United States. In addition to her busy research and teaching agenda, Professor McCrossen serves on the SMU Faculty Senate, SMU's History Department's graduate committee, SMU's Clements Center for Southwest Studies executive committee, and SMU's Ethnic Studies advisory board.
Courses Taught:
SOSC 6307 History of Consumer Culture in the United States
Dr. Njoki McElroy -
A graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans, she received her masters and PhD from the School of Speech at Northwestern University.Dr. McElroy taught at Northwestern for 35 years and developed Black Literature courses. She began teaching in the Master of Liberal Studies program in 1987. Dr. McElroy has enriched the MLS program for many years with her background and passion for teaching. A noted folklorist, storyteller and published author and playwright, Njoki has performed throughout the US, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. With a strong concern for outreach cultural programs for underserved communities, McElroy founded the "Back Home Folk Festival" an annual folk art festival for Texas and Illinois. Her plays explore the historical and sociological experiences of African Americans as entertainers. She recently completed a memoir of her life growing up in Texas during the Jim Crow years, coming of age in New Orleans and migrating to Chicago during the Great Migration period.
Courses Taught:
HUMN 6330 Wit and Humor In African America Literature
HUMN 6350 The Art of African American Storytelling
HUMN 6351 Interpretation /Performance of African American Poetry
HUMN 6352 The Influence of Folklore on African American Fiction
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Vicki Meek -
Ms. Meek's work is included in numerous private collections and part of the public collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Connecticut, and the African-American Museum in Dallas. Although she no longer works actively as an artist in the public art arena, she continues to serve on numerous national selection panels for public art projects.
Vicki Meek adds to her career a long history as an independent curator. Having curated over sixty exhibitions, she served as an Adjunct Curator for the African American Museum in Dallas. Ms. Meek also writes cultural criticism for ArtLies: A Texas Art Journal where she also served as board secretary. Ms. Meek is currently the Manager of the South Dallas Cultural Center.
Courses Taught:
FNAR 6302 The Black Aesthetic in the Visual Arts
Annette R. Patterson
- M.S., C.G.C.
Annette Patterson is a cancer genetic counselor with a
background in biochemistry research and a special interest in medical ethics.
From 2000 to 2007 she worked in cancer genetics at the UT Southwestern
Medical Center, functioning in both clinical and research capacities.
She is currently employed as a cancer genetic counselor at
Courses Taught:
SCCL 6305 Genetics and Ethics (WI)
Dr. Darwin Payne - a professor of communications emeritus at Southern Methodist University, where he taught journalism for thirty years.
He holds a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a master of arts degree in history from Southern Methodist University, and a Ph.D. in American Civilization from the University of Texas at Austin.
He has written several books on Dallas history, the most prominent being Big D: Triumphs and Troubles of an American Supercity in the 20th Century (Three Forks Press, 1994 and revised in 2000. Others include As Old As Dallas Itself: A History of the Lawyers of Dallas, the Dallas Bar Associations, and the City They Helped Build (Three Forks Press, 1999), From Prairie to Planes: How Dallas and Fort Worth Overcame Politics and Personalities to Build One of the World's Biggest and Busiest Airports (Three Forks Press, 1999, with Kathy Fitzpatrick), Dallas: An Illustrated History (Windsor, 1982), Dynamic Dallas: An Illustrated History (Heritage, 2002), and Dallas Citizens Council: An Obligation of Leadership (2008).
His most recent publication is Quest for Justice: L.A. Bedford Jr. and the Struggle for Equal Rights in Texas, published by SMU Press in 2009.
He was one of the researchers who helped prepare information and gather archival materials for the Old Red Museum.
His biography of Sarah T. Hughes, entitled Indomitable Sarah: The Life of Judge Sarah T. Hughes, published by the SMU Press, won the Texas State Historical Association's Liz Carpenter Award for the best book on women's history for 2004, and was a finalist in the Texas Institute of Letters' for the best non-fiction book of the year. His biography of the writer Owen Wister entitled Owen Wister: Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East, published in 1985 by the SMU Press, won the Texas Institute of Letters' award for best scholarly book of 1985.
His biography of the historian and editor Frederick Lewis Allen (The Man of Only Yesterday), was published by Harper & Row in 1975. His biography of Dallas' first African American judge, Quest for Justice: Louis A. Bedford Jr. and the Struggle for Equal Rights in Texas, will be published in February 2009 by the SMU Press.
Courses Taught:
SSOSC 6311 Seminar in Dallas History
Tony Pederson -
received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism/communication from Baylor University and a Master of Arts in journalism from Ohio State University.Pederson
holds the rank of professor and is the Belo Distinguished Chair in Journalism at
Southern Methodist University. In
that position he chairs the Division of Journalism in the Meadows School of the
Arts. Before assuming the Belo
chair in June of 2003 he was senior vice president and executive editor of the
Houston Chronicle.
His teaching at SMU focuses on
media ethics, and he has written extensively on the subject and serves as a
local resource for media in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
He lectures and speaks frequently on mass media issues, especially
relating to converging media. In the
MLS program he teaches HUMN 6380:
News Media in Contemporary Society.
He is a longtime activist in First Amendment issues and international press freedom issues, especially in Latin America. He was president of the Inter American Press Association in 1999-2000.
Courses Taught:
HUMN 6380 News Media in Contemporary Society
Morton D. Prager, Ph.D.
Dr. Prager served as professor of Surgery and Biochemistry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center where he taught medical students and graduate students seeking the Ph.D. degree in a basic science related to medicine. His teaching included courses in biochemistry, immunology and medical ethics. He conducted a research program which for many years was focused on problems related to cancer. In later years his research involved studies of biomaterials and their application in medical practice. He has lectured widely across the United States and in 11 foreign countries which include Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Germany, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Israel, and Japan. He published more than 100 scientific manuscripts and made a still larger number of presentations at national and international scientific meetings. Dr. Prager has been a member of 12 learned scientific societies. He was Visiting Professor at Texas Christian University and has taught courses dealing with the impact of science on issues of ethical concern at both Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas. Dr. Prager was a board member and chairman of the American Chemical Society, Dallas-Ft. Worth section. He has served on numerous boards for Jewish organizations, both locally and nationally. He is a frequent lecturer on scientific and ethical issues.
Courses Taught:
SCCL 6310 Science/Ethics Concerns
SCCL 6101 Matters of Life and Death
Dr. William Pulte
Dr. William Pulte received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin. His major research interest is Native American linguistics, and is the co-author of two volumes in Cherokee linguistics: The Cherokee-English Dictionary, and An Outline of Cherokee Grammar. A third volume, Cherokee Narratives is near completion. Dr. Pulte is familiar with the cultures and languages of a number of Native American tribes in addition to Cherokee, including Chickasaw, Kiowa, and Cheyenne. His other interests include body language and the various functions of language and paralanguage in conversational settings. Dr. Pulte has received 15 grants at SMU, including 14 training grants for teachers of bilingual education and a National Science Foundation grant for Cherokee language research and worked with the Otomi in the state of Hildalgo, Mexico.
Courses Taught:
BHSC 6314 Native American Heritage
BHSC 6324 Language, Culture, and Beliefs
BHSC 6325 Speech & Body Language
Sara Romersberger - SMU Associate Professor of Theatre
M.A., University of
Illinois
Sara Romersberger, Movement Specialist, holds a B.S. in theatre education from
Illinois State University, an M.A. in dance from the University of Illinois, and
a Certificate of Mime/Movement from Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Paris, France. Lecoq-based
movement classes include placement, acrobatics, neutral and character mask,
masks of the Commedia Dell' Arte, European clown, historical movement styles
(Renaissance and Restoration) and dance of the 20th century.
Her professional work in the Dallas area since 2000 includes directing Tripping the Light Fantastic for the Festival of Independent Theaters and creating or coaching movement, dance and/or fight choreography for Macbeth, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream- the musical, As You Like It, A Comedy of Errors, The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas; for Anna in the Tropics, Hamlet, Wit and Crumbs From the Table of Joy at The Dallas Theater Center; for Greendale, Waiting for the Train, Blasted, The Late Henry Moss, A Man's Best Friend, and Silence at the Undermain Theatre; for Misery at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth; and for The Last Five Years at the Plano Repertory Theatre as well as additional shows at Theatre Three, Classical Acting Company and Contemporary Theatre of Dallas. She was a winner of a Dallas Theatre Critics award and a 2005 Rabin award for Special Recognition for Outstanding Choreography for her work on The Wrestling Season at Dallas Children's Theatre.
Courses Taught:
FNAR 6316 On Being Funny
Jan Sayers, Ph.D. Speech Coach and Lecturer,
SMU.
Dr. Sayers's career has always included experience in the
corporate world as well as academia. She served as an Educational
Technologist while at the GTE World Headquarters (Telephone Operations) in Irving, Texas.
She assessed training needs and designed curricula for various courses. While
at GTE, the issue of workplace literacy became one of her primary areas of
concentration. She interviewed area schools providing workplace literacy
and the businesses they served. A summary of her dissertation on how
colleges provide workplace literacy programs to business and industry was
published two years later.*
Dr. Sayers' degrees include the B.F.A., Communication in Human Relations,
Texas Christian University; M.S., Communication in Human Relations, T.C.U.; and
Ph.D., Higher Education, University of North Texas.
* Sayers, J.K. (l995, July-August). “Providing Workplace Literacy: Collaboration with Business and Industry.“ Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 19, pp. 295-305.
Courses Taught:
BHSC 6110 Articulate Voice
BHSC 6326 Communication and Persuasion
HUMN 6356 Oral Interpretation of Literature
The Reverend Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt - Director of Spiritual Formation and Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas. An Episcopal priest, he also serves as the director of the Episcopal studies program. He is canonically resident in the Diocese of Washington and a member of the national church's Board of Examining Chaplains.
Prior to
his arrival at SMU, he served as Canon Educator and Director of Programs in
Spirituality and Religious Education at Washington National Cathedral; special
assistant to the President and Provost of La Salle University in Philadelphia; a
Fellow of the American Council on Education; and Dean of St. George's College in
Jerusalem. He has also served in
numerous parishes in the United States and abroad.
His work
in higher education includes service as a lecturer in New Testament studies at
Oxford University, and as a tutor at Keble College, Oxford. He has been a guest
lecturer at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., at the National
Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and Southwestern Medical Center at the
University of Texas, Dallas.
He is the author of numerous published articles and reviews, including forty-four entries in Doubleday's Anchor Bible Dictionary, as well as contributions to Feminist Theology andThe Scottish Journal of Theology. He is author of A Still Small Voice: Women, Ordination and the Church (Syracuse University Press, 1998); The Changing Face of God (Morehouse-Continuum, 2000); When Suffering Persists (Morehouse, 2001), in Italian translation: Sofferenza, All ricerca di una riposta (Torino: Claudiana, 2004); Conversations with Scripture: Revelation (Morehouse, 2005); and What God Wants for Your Life, Finding Answers to the Deepest Questions (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005). His more recent work includes an article co-written for the Heythrop Journal with Drs. Jeff Bishop and Philipp Rosemann, entitled, "Fides ancilla medicinae: On the Ersatz Liturgy of Death in Biopsychosociospiritual Medicine."
In
addition to his work in the academy and the church Dr. Schmidt currently serves
on two Data Safety Monitoring Boards for the National Institutes of Health and a
third board for Amgen, Inc.
Courses Taught:
HUMN 6322 Making Sense of the American Spiritual Landscape
HUMN 6366 Revelation: Leaving Behind Left Behind
HUMN 6342 The Spiritual Vision of Jesus
HUMN 7212 Introduction to Monastic Spirituality
Dr. Dennis Simon
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His research and teaching interests include the
American Presidency, national elections, and the politics of change in the
Courses Taught:
SOSC 6329 The American Presidency
SOSC 6330 Politics and Film
SOSC 6331 Elections and Politics
SOSC 6356 Civil Rights
Carmen Smith
Courses Taught:
FNAR 6387 Inspiring Creativity through Original Art
Dr. Gary D. Swaim,
Adjunct Professor for the Master's in Liberal Studies Program
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, produced in
both California and Texas, and a widely published poet and writer of short
fiction, Dr. Swaim continues to enjoy his teaching, both at S.M.U. and the
University of Texas, Dallas. See his webpage at
http://garyswaim.com.
Courses Taught:
HUMN 6316 The Human Experience (Plano and Dallas)
HUMN 7313 Creating the Short Story
Harry M. Teitelbaum, Ed.D.-
Harry M. Teitelbaum retired as Professor of Education and former Dean of the School of Education at Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, Florida, in 2007. From 2007 until his relocation to Texas in 2009, Dr. Teitelbaum served as Visiting Professor of Education at the University of North Florida. Under Dr. Teitelbaum's tenure, former President Bush recognized the achievements of the partnership between the Jacksonville University School of Education and the Duval County School District when the President visited the School of Education's professional development school, Justina Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida in September 2001.
Previous academic appointments include: Associate/Acting Dean of the College of Education at Kutztown State University of Pennsylvania, Director of Teacher Education at the University of Portland (OR), and Fort Hays State University (KS) as Director of Professional Services. A former teacher, principal of elementary, middle, and senior high schools, Dr. Teitelbaum also served as assistant superintendent for the W. Sacramento (CA) Public Schools and district superintendent in Penn Valley, CA.
Best selling publications include a textbook published by McGraw-Hill entitled, The Induction Year: A Case Study Approach, thirty-seven published articles and over one hundred presentations/workshops at local, state, regional, national, and international conferences.
Dr. Teitelbaum is internationally known for his writings and presentations on leadership, organizational dynamics, recruitment, public/private partnerships, preservice education, induction, mentoring and connoisseurship. Dr. Teitelbaum's presentations at UNESCO's international conference in Paris and the MOFET Institute in Tel-Aviv won national recognition by the former President of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.
As Fulbright Scholar to New Zealand, Dr. Teitelbaum worked closely with teacher training institutions throughout the country for the U. S. State Department. During his tenure in New Zealand, he conducted over 100 seminars throughout the country. Dr. Teitelbaum is the founding president of the Upper Florida Chapter of the Fulbright Association.
Dr. Teitelbaum earned his masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he served as Ford Foundation Fellow. His wife, Sharyn, is a teacher. They have four children...all girls. The Teitelbaums currently reside in Plano, TX.
Courses Taught:
BHSC 6308 Introduction to Organizational Dynamics (Plano Campus)
Dr. Gregory Warden
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He has
authored or co-authored four books as well as over fifty articles and reviews in
journals such as the American Journal of Archaeology, Art History,
Etruscan Studies, Römische
Mitteilungen, Journal of the Society
of Architectural Historians, and the
International Foundation for Art Research Journal. His research interests
have included Greek archaeology (the Demeter sanctuary at
A native
of Italy, Warden is the founder, Principal Investigator, and co-Director of the
Mugello Valley Archaeological Project and excavations at Poggio Colla, an
Etruscan settlement north-east of Florence, a joint mission of SMU, Franklin and
Marshall College, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology.
Since 1995 this international project has trained students from over 60
universities and includes scholars from seven countries. The research project
has been featured in the New York Times,
the International Herald Tribune, in
the European media, as well as on the Discovery Channel. Warden is also the
former Editor of Etruscan Studies, a
journal of Etruscan and Italic art and culture, and has been elected to the
Istituto di Studi Etruschi e Italici.
Courses Taught:
FNAR 6311 Etruscan Art/Archaeology
FNAR 6320 Egypt of the Pharaohs
HUMN 6359 Etruscan Archaeology in Italy