Humanities
From the beginning, the Rice curriculum included the humanities.
Students in the earliest classes studied English and modern languages,
as well as more technical subjects, during their first two years.
Over time, departments and areas of humanistic studies were added
until, in 1979, the School of Humanities was formalized as its
own academic division.
Since then, we have expanded both the scope and ambition of the
school. In the last 20 years, the faculty, with more than 130 full-time
members, has more than doubled in relation to the size of the student
body. That is approximately one-fourth of all Rice full-time faculty,
consonant with the fact that one-fourth of Rice undergraduates
are humanities majors.
Through the various departments and specialized initiatives that promote qualities
of independence, management, and scholarship such as Leadership Rice and the
Rice Undergraduate Scholars Program, our humanities students partake of some
of the most interesting and rewarding academic circumstances anywhere. They also
can take advantage of the many internships with cultural and arts organizations
available in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city. These include the
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, and the
Houston Area Women’s Center. Each year, more than 40 percent of Rice undergraduates
who travel abroad to study are humanities majors, and we have begun a program
that provides travel grants to further increase opportunities for study abroad.
Our humanities students regularly win national awards including Rhodes, Marshall,
Watson, Fulbright, and Luce scholarships, just to name a few.
Today, the School of Humanities comprises 11 departments: art and art history,
classical studies, English, French studies, German and Slavic studies, Hispanic
studies, history, kinesiology/human performance and health sciences, linguistics,
philosophy, and religious studies. Augmenting these are interdisciplinary programs
in ancient Mediterranean civilizations, medieval studies, the study of women
and gender, and Asian studies—the latter in conjunction with the School
of Social Sciences—as well as an education certification program.
Space limitations do not allow a full account of all the activities taking place
in the school. Rather, our focus is on the prime strengths that have developed
in several departments.
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