1) Modular Courses
These courses are divided into six two-week modules, each taught separately by three Rice faculty members and three external curators and/or members of the Texas Medical Center. Inviting specialists, such as curators or clinicians, to co-teach these courses creates tangible situations of reciprocity between the campus and the city, making it possible for leaders in the arts, culture, and medicine to connect their respective practices with current scholarship and have a hand in shaping future generations of practitioners and/or scholars.
2) Master Classes
Master Classes are for undergraduate and graduate students in the humanities and humanistic fields. Students meet monthly to study critical questions using a variety of methodologies, forms, and historical contexts. Ideally, Rice students are exposed to a wide variety of innovative research in the humanities and to both scholars and practitioners from the Texas Medical Center or Houston’s Museum District.
3) “Alt-Ac” Support for Graduate Students
Humanities graduate students seeking non-faculty careers after receipt of their PhD are offered support through the following three components: a) mentored training for entering the job market; b) remunerated positions in the Civic Humanists Program, which brings high school students to campus, sends faculty to inner city schools, and involves undergraduate and graduate students at many levels; and c) full-year stipends for 6th-year students interested in pursuing non-faculty careers.
To apply for our civic humanist or 6th-year alt-ac programs, see our Calls & Deadlines page. To learn more about our alt-ac programming and to explore relevant resources, visit the HRC's alt-ac site.
4) Graduate Student Teaching
Courses taught by graduate students offer new options for the undergraduate curriculum each year while giving graduate students in the humanities the opportunity to teach. Awarded students receive a standard stipend to develop and teach new public humanities courses.
5) Faculty Research and Course Development
The HRC provides research funding to faculty to: a) pursue research projects that do not fit comfortably within departmental boundaries, and funding was set aside specifically for research in medical humanities and cultural heritage; and b) to develop new courses in medical humanities and cultural heritage. In both cases, preference is given to proposals that promise to spark collaborations, cultivate new scholarly paradigms, or forge lasting curricular innovation.
6) Practica
The HRC has partnered with Houston institutions to create practice-based courses for advanced students in the areas of medical humanities and cultural heritage. Qualified students work 10 hours/week on site with archivists, center directors, and practitioners to pursue research projects in specific areas. Overseen by Rice faculty, students learn to apply their humanistic training to real-world problems and acquire new practical skills. HRC practicums are credit-bearing, evaluated by Rice faculty, and culminate in an end-of-semester symposium in which students present their research to the public. Visit the practica site for more information.