ENST 601/Spring 2021 Environmental Humanities Research Forum: Diluvial Houston Civic Conversations


The Environmental Humanities Research Forum meets regularly to share research, teaching, and other activities in the environmental humanities with both members of the Rice community and invited guests. Activities may include: attending lectures and special seminars by visiting scholars; attending and participating in Center for Environmental Studies symposia; working on special projects for the Center for Environmental Studies including participating in arts and other projects especially at the Solar Studios; webinar and lecture series; the center's public-facing website; and more. Evaluation is based on student participation, research and presentations. Repeatable for Credit.

During Spring 2021, the Research Forum will be conducted by Professors Dominic Boyer and Farès el-Dahdah and will meet on Tuesdays/Thursdays between 11:20a and 12:40p. The Forum will focus on Houston, a city that faces aqueous environmental threats like no other US city of similar size and scale. The environmental threats that Houston faces have only dramatically increased with the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and what is equally clear is that the city is particularly prone to disenfranchising segments of its population in times of crises. Up to 6 graduate students will be selected, preferably in their third, fourth year or later, and will be eligible to apply for supplemental funding (i.e., $5,000) in order to conduct and disseminate summer research (e.g., travel and conference registration costs). The seminar will consist of a speaker series and the conceptualization of research projects that can eventually be incorporated into the Highways + Waterways cartographic platform (a demo video of which can be seen here). This is a variable credit course. For degree of participation details, please contact course instructors (Dominic Boyer/dcb2@rice.edu and Farès el-Dahdah/fdahdah@rice.edu).

The Forum is part of the Humanities Research Center’s Diluvial Houston (Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) and graduate students from Rice University and the University of Houston (UH) are invited to apply.

Eligibility:
Applications are welcome from Rice and UH graduate students in the humanities, interpretive social sciences, and architecture. Participants must remain in good academic standing throughout the duration of the seminar.

Application Materials:
-One-page statement of interest in the seminar topic. Please save this document as a .pdf file and upload below.
-Brief letter/email of endorsement from applicant’s advisor/committee sent directly to Sean Smith (sean.m.smith@rice.edu)

Contact: Sean Smith (sean.m.smith@rice.edu)

Deadline: January 8, 2021 [Extended to January 21, 2021]