About the Seminar
The Sawyer Seminar Writing History, Righting Democracy examines the history of higher education—how universities came to be, whom they serve, and how they shape public life—with Rice as its starting point.
Supported by a major grant, the Seminar brings together scholars, students, and staff from across Rice, alongside Houston-based scholars, artists, curators, librarians, archivists, students and scholars from other institutions, and community members, to study the university's and the city's histories and deepen the connections that advance the kind of shared inquiry democracy depends on.
Over the coming year, the Seminar will convene sustained conversation, new research, and public programming on Rice University in connection to other institutions and to Houston at large. Through exhibits, teach-ins, tours, courses, and symposia, it will examine the histories that make Rice and how they connect to the city—and how understanding with them opens space to imagine better futures.
Our Work
The Seminar convenes its inquiry through a range of formats across the year:
- Exhibits drawing on archival research into the histories of Rice and Houston
- Teach-ins and facilitated conversations open to the campus and city communities
- Tours of significant sites across the university and Houston
- Courses that bring the Seminar's questions and research into the classroom
- Symposia convening scholars from Rice and beyond
People
Principal Investigator
- Lacy M. Johnson, Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of Creative Writing, Department of English and Creative Writing; Director of Graduate Studies, MFA in Creative Writing
Co-Principal Investigators
- Margarita Castromán Soto, Allison Sarofim Assistant Professor for Distinguished Teaching, Department of English and Creative Writing
- Denva Gallant, Associate Professor of Art History, Department of Art History
- Gabriela Garcia, Director of Graduate Initiatives and Innovation, School of Humanities and Arts; Associate Director, Humanities Research Center; Resident Associate, Martel College
- Fabiola López-Durán, Associate Professor of Art History, Department of Art History; Associate Director, Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies
- Fay Yarbrough, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Graduate Programs; William Gaines Twyman Professor of History, Department of History
Key Partners
- W. Caleb McDaniel, Interim Department Chair and Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities, Department of History; Editor, Journal of Southern History
- Portia Hopkins, University Historian
- José Aranda Jr., Terrence Doody Professor of English
- Luziris Pineda Turi, Teaching Professor of Spanish; Associate Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives, Office of Access and Institutional Excellence
- Olivia K. Young, Assistant Professor of Art History
Fellows & Associates
- Taneil Ruffin, Postdoctoral Associate in Public History
- Stone Mims, Post-MFA Fellow in Creative Writing
- Olivier Péloquin, Graduate Associate
The Seminar also draws on a wider community of conveners, facilitators, and collaborators across Rice and Houston.