The Association of Southwestern University Alumni strives to provide alumni with quality lifelong learning activities and events. The following events took place during the 2006-2007 academic year.

"How to Use Your Roman Villa: the Art and Frescoes of Ancient Stabiae"
Road Scholars Presentation
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Dallas Museum of Art (1717 Harwood, Dallas)
Road Scholar: Thomas Howe, professor of art and art history and holder of the Herman Brown Chair. Dr. Howe is also the coordinator general of the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Project

The Restoring Ancient Stabiae Project is a joint Italian-American cultural project that is creating one of the largest archaeological parks in modern Europe, on the site of the ancient Roman villas of Stabiae, near Pompeii, which were destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Howe is curator of the four-year traveling tour of Roman frescoes, "In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite." The Dallas Museum of Art is the only museum to host the exhibit in Texas.

May 31-June 3, 2007
Georgetown Festival of the Arts
This year's Festival brought a greatly expanded offering in the visual arts, two days of free music and fun in San Gabriel Park and, of course fireworks! Also, keeping to the tradition, the Festival introduced another composer, Franz Schubert, whose magnificent music filled our hearts over the Festival's four days. Several members of the Southwestern University community performed and lectured in this year's festivals. Performers include Virginia Hyde Dupuy ’71; Bruce Cain, professor of voice; Kiyoshi Tamagawa, chair of the Music Department; Kenneth Sheppard, professor of music; and, Pam Gregory Rossman ’72, chapel organist. Lecturers include Susan Youens ’69; J. Michael Cooper, associate professor of music and Margaret Root Brown Professor of Fine Arts; and, Farley Snell, professor emeritus of religion and former University Chaplain. Artistic director of the festival is Ellsworth Peterson ’55, professor emeritus of music.

May 24, 2007
Aldersgate Day Celebration
Aldersgate Day commemorates John Wesley's "heart-warming" experience at Aldersgate Church in London in 1738. In honor of the 269th anniversary of Aldersgate Day, Ellsworth Peterson ’55 and Rev. Milton Jordan ’62 coordinated a celebration for Thursday, May 24, at Southwestern University. The celebration began with coffee in the Arthur and Evie Jo Wilson Chapel Plaza at 10 a.m. followed by a 10:30 a.m. presentation of “Trampling a Pernicious Doctrine: John Wesley Beyond Aldersgate” by Rev. Milton Jordan ’62. Guests will break for lunch at 11:30 a.m. A lunch buffet was served in the Pirate’s Cove located on the lower level of the Red & Charline McCombs Campus Center for $4 per person. Following lunch, Ellsworth Peterson ’55, professor emeritus of music, presented "Continuing the Wesleyan Tradition: Samuel Sebastian Wesley" from 1-2:30 p.m.

The Sarofim School of Fine Arts Spring 2007 Calendar
The end of the academic year is in sight for Southwestern students. With that, The Sarofim School of Fine Arts held their end-of-year performances and exhibits. Events included:

• Chorale Performance – Sunday, April 15 at 7 p.m., Lois Perkins Chapel.
• Senior Art Exhibits – April 10-19, Fine Arts Gallery.
• Opera Theatre – Friday, April 20 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 22 at 3 p.m., The Ballroom of the Red & Charline McCombs Campus Center.
• Wind Ensemble Performance – Saturday, April 21 at 7 p.m., Georgetown High School Performing Arts Center.
• Annual Student Art Exhibit – April 23-May 4, Fine Arts Gallery. A special opening reception is scheduled for Thursday, April 26, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
• Jazz Band Performance – Wednesday, April 25, at 7 p.m., Bishops Lounge of the Red & Charline McCombs Campus Center.
• Orchestra Performance – Saturday, April 28, at 7 p.m., The Ballroom of the Red & Charline McCombs Campus Center.

Click here for a campus map.

April 18, 2007
Shilling Lecture: Former Secretary of State James Baker III
James Baker III, the former secretary of state, who most recently served as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, gave the 2007 Shilling Lecture at Southwestern University. The lecture was held Wednesday, April 18, at 3 p.m. in the Corbin J. Robertson Center. Baker served in senior government positions under three U.S. presidents. He concluded his White House tenure by serving as chief of staff and senior counselor to President George H.W. Bush from August 1992 to January 1993. In March 2006, Baker and former U.S. Congressman Lee H. Hamilton were named co-chairs of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan blue-ribbon panel examining a forward-looking approach to Iraq. The Shilling Lecture Series at Southwestern University was established in 1999 by The Brown Foundation Inc. of Houston to honor Southwestern's 13th president, Roy Shilling, and his wife, Margaret.

April 28-29, 2007
Theatre for Young Audiences: The Trial of Goldilocks
The Southwestern University Theatre Department invited a young (and young-at-heart) audience to attend The Trial of Goldilocks, a fairy tale fantasy. Guilty or innocent? Was the young girl a selfish spoiled brat intruding where she didn’t belong? Or, was she the victim of three conniving bears (and their animal “band of hoods” in the woods)? In Rhyme, mime and mirth, this exciting new comedy brings Goldilocks to court on charges of breaking and entering, and examines the familiar fairy tale from three points of view: the traditional, the Bears’ and then Goldilocks. Performances were scheduled for Saturday, April 28, and Sunday, April 29, at 3 p.m., in the Jesse and Mary Gibbs Jones Theatre of The Alma Thomas Fine Arts Center.

March 29, 2007
Jessie Daniel Ames Lecture
Bonnie Thornton Dill, chair and professor of the Women's Studies Department at the University of Maryland, delivered the 2007 Jessie Daniel Ames Lecture. Dill is a leading scholar on African-American women and the family. She won national awards for both her scholarship and teaching. The lecture was scheduled for March 29. For additional information, contact Elizabeth Green Musselman, associate professor of history.

March 5-6, 2007
Brown Symposium XXIX: Who Do We Think We Are?!
What are humans in relationship to the many other animals with whom we share the Earth? Religious and philosophical traditions alike have addressed this question in myriad ways and arrived at countless answers. Scientists and ethicists continually grapple with this problem as our choices and actions contribute to the extinction of species after species. While we often live in harmony with other animals, we also experiment on them, mass produce them for food, use them for entertainment and encroach on their habitats. We live constrained by the deep-seeded foundational dualism - “us” and “them” - that we are human and they are animals. But we are all animals, inexorably interconnected. So this symposium (re)asked, “Who Do We Think We Are?!”

Open to the public without charge, the Brown Symposium XXIX was scheduled for March 5-6, 2007. Featured speakers include Paul Waldau, Inés Talamantez, Alice Walker and Marc Bekoff. The 29th Symposium in the series,“Who Do We Think We Are?!,” was developed by Laura Hobgood-Oster, associate professor of religion, chair of the Religion and Philosophy Department and holder of the Elizabeth Root Paden Chair in Religion. The Symposium is funded through an endowment established by The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston.

Feb. 23-March 4, 2007
Theatre Performance: Company
The Southwestern University Theatre Department invited alumni to attend Company, a musical comedy. Winner of the 1971 Tony Award for Best Musical, this wonderfully edgy and witty musical-comedy, that takes a sharp look at love and commitment through the marriages of five couples as seen through the eyes of their single friend Bobby, explores love and commitment, fear and longing, and the simple joy of being alive. An honest, witty, sophisticated look at relationships, Company offers a fresh perspective on our most cherished institution, marriage – its troubles and triumphs, its viciousness and victories. Performances were scheduled for Feb. 23-March 4, in the Jesse and Mary Gibbs Jones Theatre of The Alma Thomas Fine Arts Center.

Feb. 8, 2007
Houston Road Scholars Presentation
The Houston Association of Southwestern University Alumni hosted a Road Scholars Event Feb. 8, 2007, at 6:30 p.m., at The Briar Club (2603 Timmons Lane, Houston). Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth presented, "Berlin Stories." This presentation invite alumni to explore the textures of a city from different perspectives over time and to form your own vision of what it means today to say, as John F. Kennedy did in 1963, "Ich bin ein Berliner."

Nov. 29-Dec. 3, 2006
Theatre Performance: Durang, Durang: A side-splitting torrent of nonsense and wisdom
The Southwestern University Theatre Department invited alumni to attend Durang, Durang by Christopher Durang. From one of America's funniest and most outrageous and eccentric playwrights comes these inventive, imaginative and hilarious one-acts full of audacious originality and brilliant parody. Durang, Durang delivers a pungent potpourri of biting satire, dark comedy and clever parody crammed into a compilation guaranteed to shock both sense and sensibility. Performances were scheduled for Nov. 29-Dec. 3, in the Jesse and Mary Gibbs Jones Theatre of The Alma Thomas Fine Arts Center.

Nov. 10-Dec. 6, 2006
Chinese Painting Exhibit
The Art Department welcomed alumni to visit Chinese Painting Exhibit, displaying scrolls from the National Palace Museum in Taipei. This exhibit was displayed Nov. 10-Dec. 6, in the Fine Arts Gallery of The Alma Thomas Fine Arts Center.

Nov. 14, 2006
Washington, D.C Road Scholars Presentation
The Washington, D.C. Association of Southwestern University Alumni hosted a Road Scholars Event Nov. 14, 2006, at 7:30 p.m., at Mass Court (300 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, D.C.). Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Jennifer Suchland ’96 will present, "Madame President: Would It Make a Difference?"

Nov. 8-10, 2006
Business in the Liberal Arts Summit
The Southwestern University Business faculty hosted a national summit meeting Nov. 8-10, to build guiding principles and success factors for business programs within liberal arts colleges. Approximately 30 faculty, business practitioners and deans from around the country worked together. The summit was sponsored by the James S. Kemper Foundation. For additional information, contact Mary Grace Neville, assistant professor of business and economics.

Nov. 8, 2006
An Evening with Robert Pinsky
The A. Frank Smith, Jr. Library Center and The Writer's Voice presented An Evening with Robert Pinsky, poet, translator, essayist, professor and U.S. Poet Laureate 1997-2000, for a reading and commentary. Pinsky’s first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism, and such national enthusiasm in response, that the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. Throughout his career, Pinsky has been dedicated to identifying and invigorating poetry’s place in the world.

Oct. 26, 2006
History Colloquium
Professor Clifton Crais of Emory University spoke on "Heterography," reflecting on how to write a biography of a person, such as Sara Baartman, the early 19th Century "Hottentot Venus."

Oct. 20-29, 2006
Theatre Performance: The House of Bernarda Alba
The Southwestern University Theatre Department performed The House of Bernarda Alba by Frederico Garcia Lorca. The House of Bernarda Alba centers on the emotional struggle among the women of a Spanish family as they mourn the death of their husband/father. Considered one of the theatre's great classics, the play chronicles the passions unleashed among the women trapped in a life that suddenly has few chances for happiness.

Sept. 5-Oct. 13, 2006
Chris Campbell: Recent Work Ceramics Exhibit
The Art Department welcomed alumni to visit Chris Campbell: Recent Work, a ceramics exhibit. This exhibit was on display Sept. 5 - Oct. 13, in the Fine Arts Gallery.

Oct. 11-12, 2006
Peace Conference
The Office of Religous Life coordinated the 2006 Peace Conference: Making Multi-faith Connections in the Practice of Peace and Non-Violence. Arun Gandhi, M.K. Gandhi's grandson, lectured Wednesday, Oct. 11. Panelists and others presented workshops Thursday afternoon. Special music performances presented as well. For more information contact Ansa Copeland, student conference coordinator or University Chaplain Beverly Jones, co-coordinator.

Sept. 28, 2006
A. Frank Smith, Jr. Lecture
Hillard Pouncy, from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University presented, "It's Hard Out Here in the Mainstream: Connecting Less, Well-Educated Young Black Males to Mainstream Opportunities." In his words, "Something very curious is going on in America and the world. Black male youth culture is one of the biggest selling phenomena that we've experienced in recent decades - the hip-hop music, the dress, the swagger. Yet, a reputation for that same behavior and deportment contiributed significantly to extremely high unemployment rates among young, less well-educated black men." Pouncy is a well published author on public policy and the African-American community.

Sept. 22, 2006
Luce Lecture
Ellis Krauss, professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, presented a lecture entitled, "Japan's Critical 2005 Election - A Tale of Zombies, Rebels, Madonnas, and Assassins...and Political Change."

Sept. 12, 2006 
Central Texas Road Scholars Presentation
The Association of Southwestern University Alumni sponsored a Central Texas Road Scholars Event Tuesday, Sept. 12, at Carmelo's Ristorante. The Road Scholars Presentation, Sonatas for Jukeboxes: Popular Music and Personal Tastes, featured David Gaines, associate professor of English and director of the Paideia® Program. This event was coordinated by Beth Oltremari Lovaas ’94.