Gartner Honors Lecture Series 2005-2006

The Al & Sadye Gartner Honors Lecture Series was established in 1969 by friends and associates of Al Gartner upon his retirement from the Zale Corporation, in honor of his exemplary service to the corporation.  The Series has consistently brought noted authorities in the humanities and sciences to the SMU campus:  Harold Bloom, David Broder, Lady Bird Johnson, and Victor Frankl, to name a few.  In 1999, the Series established a partnership with the University Honors Program in order to fully institute the practice of bringing noted academics, business leaders, civic figures, and cultural experts to SMU for two days of activity.  This practice, modeled on the Chubb Program at Yale University, invites the University community, as well as the general public, to interact with the lecturers in a variety of forums:  the public lecture, the classroom visits, sharing a meal, and small, informal gatherings in which lecturers and the community may talk freely of wide-ranging issues.

Beginning in 2004, the Series was expanded to include Gartner Conversations.  Twice a year, students are invited to have informal discussions over dinner with visiting faculty.

The 2005-2006 Gartner Honors Lecture Series

The Gang Problem at the “Street Level”: a Realistic Perspective

Wesley McBride

Thursday, 22 September 2005, 7 pm

Hughes Trigg Forum

Stories about gang activity frequently appear in our news—so much that local, state, and federal legislation is regularly introduced to combat the gang problem. Numerous police authorities have solicited training from the United States of America to help control the growing gang threat, including recently the South African, Caribbean, Bahamas, and Japanese law enforcement agencies.  What does this mean about the past, present, and future situations of gangs in America and around the world?  Sergeant Wesley McBride (ret.) is one of the few expert persons qualified to respond to this question in legal committees and in the media.  He has trained the above agencies, and will address the modern tactics (many that he developed himself) of eliminating these societal menaces.

Sgt. McBride is the current president of the California Gang Investigator’s Association.  He has served over 35 years with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.  At the time of his retirement in 2002, he was the intelligence sergeant for Safe Streets Bureau, Operation Safe Streets, and the Sheriff’s Department’s gang detail.  He has lectured the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Academy, and co-authored a textbook entitled Understanding Street Gangs as well as numerous articles in professional and academic journals on street gangs.

 

“What is Contemporary Art?”

Dr. Richard Meyer

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Meadows Museum Auditorium, 5:30 PM

How and when did contemporary art become a field of specialization within art history? How does the framing of contemporary art as a "period" or field of study affect the broader discipline of art history? This talk will address the historical emergence of the idea of contemporary art through a set of specific case studies in 20th-century art, pedagogy, and curatorial practice.

Dr. Richard Meyer is a professor of modern and contemporary art in the Department of Art History at the University of Southern California.  In the past decade, he taught contemporary and modern art at Stanford, Columbia, and UC Berkeley.  Dr. Meyer has received grants from Cornell University and USC as well as from a variety of associations and other donors.  In 2003, the Smithsonian American Art Museum awarded Dr. Meyer the Eldredge Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in American Art.  His book, Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art, was cited in Artforum as one of the “Best Books of 2002.”

This Lecture is co-sponsored by the Art History Department of Southern Methodist University.

 

"The Changing Roles of Women Today: How Women from our Past can Help Inform our Future"?

Helen LaKelly Hunt

Wednesday, 1 March 2006, 7 pm

Hughes Trigg Forum

In her discussion of contemporary roles of women, Helen LaKelly Hunt will lift up the little known story of the abolitionist feminists and their vision as guides for leadership today.  She will touch on the issues of money, race, and relationships as women join with men in the work of modern social transformation.

Hunt is the founder and president of the Sister Fund, a private women's fund dedicated to the social, political, economic, and spiritual empowerment of women and girls.  She acquired 3 academic degrees from SMU, including a B.A. in secondary education, an M.L.A. in Liberal Arts, and an M.A. in Counseling, along with an Honorary degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary.  Her book, "Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance," explores abolitionist and feminist women.  She has also co-authored 4 books with her husband, Harville Hendrix, and was instrumental in his development of Imago Relationship Therapy.

 

¡Ay Carumba, Tres Vidas!

Georgina Corbo & The Core Ensemble

Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 6:30 pm

Meadows Museum Lecture Hall

What do you get when you mix exceptional musical talent with accurate impersonation of historical Latin American women?  Why, Georgina Corbo and The Core Ensemble of course!  Corbo, a singer-actress, and a musical trio present a dazzling combination of chamber music with theatre. Tres Vidas explores the lives of three outstanding heroic figures through a series of one-act-plays: Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, Salvadoran peasant-activist Rufina Amaya, and Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni.  The soundtrack of the production involves popular and folk music arrangements drawing inspiration from Argentina, Mexico, and Cuba. 

Georgina Corbo studied Acting and Latin American Studies at State University of New York at Purchase.  Her personalities come to life from a script written by Marjorie Agosin, a Chilean professor of Spanish Literature at Wellesley College.  Corbo has appeared On and Off Broadway, and on television in Law and Order, New York Undercover, and Sesame Street.  The Core Ensemble (cello, piano, percussion) was the year 2000 recipient of the McDermott Award for Excellence in the Arts by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  The Boston Globe praised the Core as being “often formidable, always intelligent, ultimately compelling.”

This Lecture is presented in conjunction with the Women’s Symposium.  Those who wish to attend will need to register for the Symposium.  Seating is limited.

Click here to view the 2004-2005 Gartner Lecture Series