Humanities

Award-winning writer Kiese Laymon joining English faculty

The critically acclaimed memoirist and essayist will be the Libby Shearn Moody Professor of Creative Writing and English, starting Jan. 1, 2022.

Bruce Hainley joins Rice as new VADA chair

Noted writer Bruce Hainley is joining the faculty at Rice as the new chair of the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts (VADA).

'Become human again' to address social, environmental challenges

"Hyposubjects: on becoming human," a new book from Rice professors Timothy Morton and Dominic Boyer, takes an experimental approach to thinking about the social and environmental challenges of our times.

The art of politics: Sperandio convenes April 30 panel on protest art in comics

As the New York Times put it in a recent profile, artist Sue Coe “proudly labels her own work propaganda.” Coe’s “searing social-political art,” notes Times writer Hilarie Sheets, “can feel like a punch in the face or a call to action — or both.”

Anthony Pinn elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Rice Professor Anthony Pinn has been elected to the nation’s foremost society of scholars, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Established by America’s founding fathers in 1780, the academy’s members have included Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Undergraduate research showcase returns to Rice in hybrid format April 21

Linda Liu and Anika Sonig wanted to make sure all bases were covered when they planned this year’s Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS), the annual showcase for student research projects that’s operating under pandemic conditions for the second year in a row.

Clements and Faubion convene conference of international Foucault ‘superstars’

Scholars’ twice-weekly talks this summer will consider newly published work by the French philosopher Micheal Foucault

Final Low-Fi films bid a fiery farewell to the Rice Media Center

The all-analog Low-Fi film series from the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts (VADA) will conclude its weekly screenings with a bang May 6, marking the end of an era.

How should we decide who deserves to be honored with a statue?

Public monument expert Sanford Levinson to deliver April 13 lecture.

Graciela Sanchez, founder of San Antonio’s Esperanza Center, will deliver keynote address

Graciela Sanchez, founder of San Antonio’s Esperanza Center, will deliver keynote address.

Graduate symposium explores intersections of violence and care across disciplines

A dual graduate studies symposium on violence and care, complete with two keynotes, is slated later this month in a collaboration between Rice’s Department of English and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality (CSWGS)

New Big Questions courses: The botched pandemic response, and why religion matters more than you know

A recent study from Indiana University-Purdue University and the University of Oklahoma suggests Americans who “strongly embrace Christian nationalism” — which, the authors note, is nearly 25% of the U.S. population and growing — are also much more likely to refuse COVID-19 vaccination.

Cathy Park Hong on the ‘Asian American Reckoning’

The right-wing conspiracy movement QAnon reportedly has started peddling anti-Chinese rhetoric. It’s the latest in a troubling trend of anti-Asian sentiment, on the rise across America, as addressed by Rice President David Leebron in a recent message to the Rice community.

Debate teams Zoom to national championships

Hosting meetings and giving presentations via Zoom during the pandemic has been tough enough for many of us. But Rice students in the George R. Brown Forensics Society have now won national debate competitions over Zoom — and in three different categories.

Acclaimed author, alumnus Larry McMurtry dies at 84

Larry McMurtry ’60, who launched his writing career as a student at Rice University — a place he considered his “intellectual home”— and became famous for such memorable novels as “Lonesome Dove,” “The Last Picture Show” and “Terms of Endearment” among his dozens of other books and screenplays, has died. He was 84.