Center for African and African American Studies
The Center for African and African American Studies is Rice’s primary location for curriculum and research related to Africa and to people of African descent in the Americas and beyond. Offering a broad base for teaching and pedagogical resources as well as interdisciplinary scholarship and programming that brings Rice into national and international conversations, the center is a clearinghouse for critical conversation, instruction, cutting-edge research and community outreach in an interdisciplinary fashion. A collaboration between the School of Humanities and the School of Social Sciences, the center provides a unique hub for conversations on crucial topics, including: critical approaches to race and racism, the nature of diasporic histories and identities, and the complexity of Africa’s past, present and future.
Center for Environmental Studies
The Center for Environmental Studies at Rice is a place where humanists, artists, architects and social scientists come together to conduct research and teaching about the most pressing questions of an era lived in the shadow of massive climate instability and environmental turmoil. This conversation takes place with colleagues in the natural sciences and engineering but with approaches that consider the profoundly social and cultural nature of our embeddedness in the Earth’s many and complex living systems. Because of the critical role that representation plays in how we think and feel about our rapidly changing planet, the creative arts and media hold an important place in our work.
Humanities Research Center
Humanities Research Center (HRC) is committed to fostering connections among diverse disciplines while promoting the research goals of the humanities broadly construed. The HRC identifies, encourages, and funds innovative research projects by faculty, visiting scholars, graduate, and undergraduate students in the School of Humanities and beyond. This involves supporting scholarly work, facilitating research between the School of Humanities and other areas of Rice University, as well as leading institutional change by partnering with other foundations, centers, research institutions, and universities. Independent initiatives are also taken by the HRC in order to incubate ideas and detect disciplinary changes that shape the future of the university.
Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Rice University's Medieval and Early Modern Studies program offers students the opportunity to study a variety of often interrelated medieval civilizations: European, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Asian, from the 4th to the 16th centuries. Our global and interdisciplinary program draws on a broad range of critical approaches and eleven departments - Anthropology, Art History, Classics, English, French Studies, History, Jewish Studies, Music, Philosophy, and Religious Studies.
Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Established in 2006 as an outgrowth of the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (CSWGS) at Rice encompasses interdisciplinary academic programs and research intensive opportunities.