School of Humanities History

EDGAR ODELL LOVETT

1908, Rice’s founding president, Edgar Odell Lovett, wrote a charter outlining the establishment of “a Public Library, and the maintenance of an Institution for the Advancement of Literature, Science, Art, Philosophy and Letters …” This direction created the foundation for what would become the Rice Institute.

RICE INSTITUTE

1912-1915, The Rice Institute formally opened on October 12, 1912, and classes began October 23, 1912. Rice quickly built a humanities program by offering courses in Latin, French, Spanish, German, philosophy, history, poetry, psychology and English.

RICE'S FIRST HUMANITIES PROFESSOR

Rice’s first humanities professor was a lecturer from Central University of Kentucky, Thomas Lindsay Blaney, who was recruited to teach German. Other faculty appointments followed Blaney’s and the areas of study grew: Stockton Axson and John Thomas McCants in English; Albert Leon Guerand in French; and William Ward Watkin in architecture. These original faculty members shaped Rice’s humanities disciplines as well as established early post-graduate opportunities in English, French and German.

THE DRAMATIC CLUB

1921, The Dramatic Club, which later became the Rice Players, was formed. In 1964, Neil “Sandy” Havens would become the Rice Players’ first full-time director.

OWEN WISTER LITERARY SOCIETY

1922, Owen Wister Literary Society begins. The Owen Wister Literary Society was started at Rice University in 1924 to handle the overload of its sister societies as the university grew and the need arose for additional societies for women students. In the fall of 1924, Miss Adelle Roensch, a Rice girl, saw the need for another literary society (the third) on the campus. After discussing this idea with Mr. McCann, she got the go-ahead sign. While searching for a set of initials which would spell the school's mascot (OWLS, not SAMMY), Oscar Wilde was suggested by the girls and discarded by the administration.

FIRST HUMANITIES PHD

1933, the first humanities doctorate degree was awarded in history. The first doctoral programs in the humanities were formally established in English and history in 1951.

FIRST RICE RHODES SCHOLAR

1934, Samuel R. Dunlap ’31 was the first of many Rice graduates to win a Rhodes Scholarship. He pursued his graduate work in English literature and received his PhD in 1939.

THE RICE OWL LITERARY MAGAZINE

1939, the Rice Owl Literary Magazine merges with Rice Alumni News.

KATHERINE FISCHER DREW

1944, Katherine Fischer Drew, '44, '45, earns her first degree from Rice. She goes on to see Rice from many more angles--as a graduate student, the first female faculty member, a department chair, and an acting dean.

1945 LONG-RANGE PLAN EXPANDS HUMANITIES FACULTY

1945, the Board of Trustees developed a long-range plan for Rice, including the expansion of faculty and facilities and the modification of the curriculum to require all students to take courses in language literature, history, social studies, philosophy and education.

J. NEWTON RAYZOR ENDOWS CHAIR

1953, J. Newton Rayzor ’17, the first Rice graduate to serve as a trustee of Rice, endowed the Masterson chair in history and the Rayzor chair in religious studies.

FONDREN LIBRARY

1947, the cornerstone of Fondren Library is laid in December.

FIRST RICE PROVOST

1953, Dr. Carey Croneis appointed Rice's first provost. He served as provost under President Houston until 1960 and at that time assumed the additional responsibilities of Acting President following President Houston's resignation due to ill health. He served as both Provost and President until the appointment of Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer as President in July 1961. In 1961 Dr. Croneis was named Chancellor and held that position until his retirement in 1970. He was thus named Wiess Professor Emeritus of Geology and Chancellor Emeritus.

KONSTANTIN KOLENDA

1953, Konstantin Kolenda joins the philosophy faculty three years after graduating. He goes on to teach for 38 years.

JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN HISTORY

1958, “The Journal of Southern History” moved to Rice.

HAMMAN HALL

1959, Hamman Hall, named in honor of George Hamman and largely financed by the George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, was the first building dedicated to performance arts programs at Rice.

FIRST DEAN OF HUMANITIES APPOINTED

1959, William H. Masterson ’35, who received his undergraduate degree from Rice and joined the history faculty in 1951, was named the first Dean of Humanities.

RICE INSTITUTE

1960, the Board of Governors proposed that the Rice Institute change its name to William Marsh Rice University and the new name became effective on July 1, 1960.

STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

1960, the “SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900” began in the English Department as a quarterly journal of historical and critical studies seeking to explore and understand British literature.

NEW SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES BUILDING

1962, the J. Newton Rayzor Family Foundation financed the construction of a new building, Rayzor Hall, designed to house the humanities.

ALAN GROB

1961, Alan Grob joins Rice faculty in the English department and served as chairman from 1981 to 1987. He taught courses in Shakespeare, British Romantic poetry, Wordsworth and Keats and Victorian literature at Rice for more than 40 years before retiring in 2002. He was the recipient of multiple Brown Awards for Superior Teaching as well as the George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF RICE

1962, Semi-Centennial of Rice is celebrated with the Academic Festival, drawing 20 world-renowned scholars to campus for the “Man, Science, Learning, and Education” lecture series.

J.S. FULTON

1963, J.S. Fulton appointed interim dean of the School of Humanities.

KATHERINE TSANOFF BROWN

1963, Katherine Tsanoff Brown, who entered Rice at age 15 and graduated in 1938, returned to the university to teach art. She served as the dean of undergraduate affairs from 1973-1983.

ALLEN MATUSOW

1963, Allen Matusow joined the history faculty, specializing in 20th century U.S. history. He served as Dean of the Humanities from 1981-1995.

FRANK E. VANDIVER

1963, Civil War scholar and Rice professor, Frank E. Vandiver, secures sponsorship from the university to start the Jefferson Davis Association. Editorial offices open in December 1964, and after several years of scouring the country for documents, the first volume is published in 1971.

PHILIP WADSWORTH

1964, Philip Wadsworth appointed dean of the School of Humanities.

NEIL "SANDY" HAVENS

1964, Neil "Sandy Havens becomes the first to serve as Rice Players' full-time director and the first tenured professor of theatre. Sandy goes on to teach for over 30 years and later served as department chairman of the Department of Art and Art History 1994-96.

DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS

1965, Rice established the Department of Fine Arts. Katherine Tsanoff Brown, James Chillman, John O’Neil and David Parsons were the original faculty for this department, which offered courses in art history, architecture, and visual and dramatic arts.

CHARLES GARSIDE, JR.

1966, Charles Garside, Jr., arrives to become part of the History Department faculty.

FINE ARTS MOVES TO TEMPORARY FACILITIES

1967, after a flood, the Department of Fine Arts moved from Fondren Library to new temporary facilities in Allen Center while Sewall Hall is constructed.

VIRGIL TAPAZIO

1967, Virgil Tapazio appointed dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

GEORGE R. BROWN TEACHING AWARD

1967, Louis H. Mackey (Philosophy), Trenton Wann (Psychology), Alan Grob (English), and Louis P. Galambos (History) are five of the six recipients of the inaugural George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching. Professor Alexander X. Byrd received the award in 2006 and 2013.

LINGUISTICS

1968, the Bachelor of Arts program in Linguistics is established, and linguistics post-doctorate degrees are awarded through the particular language departments and Anthropology. The Department of Linguistics will officially be founded in 1968.

WILLIAM MASTERSON APPOINTED PRESIDENT

1968, the Board of Trustees appoints William Masterson, former dean of the School of Humanities, the university president--only to have him resign five days later amidst student and faculty protest.

DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS CHANGES TO DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ART HISTORY

1968, art benefactors Jean and Dominique De Menil moved their spectrum of art activities from the University of St. Thomas to Rice. The Department of Fine Arts becomes the Department of Art and Art HIstory and includes film, photography, studio art, and art history.

DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

1968, the Department of Religious Studies was founded.

THE MACHINE

1969, the new Institute for the Arts held its first exhibition titled, "The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age," co-sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art. The Machine was one of the most important exhibitions of the 1960s dealing with art and technology.

RICE MEDIA CENTER

1969, the Media Center (part of the Fine Arts Department) began courses on film with James Blue as instructor (pictured left). The Rice Media Center was the founded by art patrons Jean and Dominique de Menil to provide a channel through which different peoples of the world could communicate through film and art. The Media Center continues to serve as a vital part of the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts today.

THE NEW INSTITUTE FOR THE ARTS

1969, Houston arts patrons John and Dominque de Menil brought a team of art historians and staff, an art library, and a photography and film program to the university’s Fine Arts department. As the department gained momentum with the de Menils’ ongoing support, the Rice Media Center was established, alongside the Rice Art Museum and the Rice Institute for the Arts. The sites quickly developed reputations for presenting the most innovative art, photography and film exhibitions in the city.

DENNIS HUSTON JOINS ENGLISH FACULTY

1969, Professor Dennis Huston joined the faculty of the English Department. He went on to teach 47 years at Rice.

GEOFF WINNINGHAM JOINS THE FACULTY IN THE MEDIA CENTER

1969, Professor Geoff Winningham joins the faculty of the Rice Media Center, part of the Department of Art and Art History, to teach photography. Winningham, earned his undergraduate degree in English from Rice and his work in photography and film-making supported by numerous fellowships and awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships and 5 grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Professor Winningham continues to each photography in a teaching career that spans almost 50 years at Rice.

BOB PATTEN JOINS ENGLISH FACULTY

1969, well-known Dickens scholar Robert Patten, now the Lynette S. Autrey Professor Emeritus in Humanities, arrives at Rice. Specializing in 19th-century British literature and art. Professor Patten taught from 1969-2012.

SEWALL HALL

1971, Sewall Hall was built to accommodate the visual and dramatic arts at Rice, as well as a gallery space.

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

1979, The School of Social Sciences is founded, splitting from the School of Humanities and moving to Sewall Hall.

ALLEN MATUSOW

1981, Allen Matusow appointed dean of the School of Humanities.

GEORGE R. BROWN FORENSIC SOCIETY

1984, the George R. Brown Forensic Society was formed, replacing the original Rice Forensic Society, as the university’s competitive intercollegiate speech and debate team.

HERRING HALL

1984. Herring Hall was completed and named for Robert J. Herring, former chair of the Rice Board of Trustees.

GEORGE RUPP

1985, The university’s fifth president George Rupp, was inaugurated and became the first Rice president to have a background in a humanities discipline (religious studies).

LARRY MCMURTRY

1986, Larry McMurtry, who earned his master’s degree in English from Rice in 1960, won the Pulitzer-Prize for his novel “Lonesome Dove.”

HUMANITIES RESEARCH CENTER

1987, The Humanities Research Center was established by a faculty working group.

CHAO CENTER FOR ASIAN STUDIES

1988, in 1988, Professor Richard Smith, George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, established Rice University's Asian Studies program and Asian Studies major. During its twenty-five-year history as an undergraduate major, the Asian Studies program was supported by the enthusiastic participation of Rice faculty and also by grants from various foundations such as the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.

ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN CIVILIZATIONS

1989, the Program in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations is established.

STUDY OF WOMEN AND GENDER

1992, the newly founded interdisciplinary Program for the Study of Women and Gender enrolled its first majors. The program expanded its course offerings, establishing a graduate program and later changed its name to the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality.

RICE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY

1994, Sewall Gallery is renamed Rice University Art Gallery and a full-time director, Kim Davenport, is hired. A year later, the gallery will showcase its inaugural exhibitions – "Leon Golub: New Work and Adrian Piper’s Cornered." Rice Gallery has been the only university gallery in the nation dedicated to commissioning site-specific installation art.

JUDITH C. BROWN

1995, Judith C. Brown is appointed dean of the School of Humanities.

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF LANGUAGES

1997, the Center for the Study of Languages was established under its first director, Regina Kecht, and housed in Rayzor Hall.

HUMANITIES BUILDING

2000, the School of Humanities celebrated the opening of the Humanities Building, which includes Pitman Tower, the Phoebe and Bobby Tudor Conference Room and the Lee and Joe Jamail Courtyard.

GALE STOKES

2000, Gail Stokes is appointed dean of the School of Humanities.

GARY WIHL

2003, Gary Wihl is appointed dean of the School of Humanities.

DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ART HISTORY

2003, art history and studio arts separated to two distinct departments: the Department of Art History and the Department of Visual Arts, growing out of what was previously the Department of Art and Art History. Within a few years, the Rice Theatre Program was established (separating from Rice Players, a student run theatre club) in 2007.

R2: THE RICE REVIEW

2004, English professor Justin Cronin established "R2: The Rice Review," an undergraduate literary journal published annual in the spring.

CAMPBELL LECTURE SERIES

2005, The Campbell Lecture Series was established thanks to a generous gift from T.C. Campbell ’34. The mission of the lecture series is to bring distinguished scholars in the arts, literature and humanities to Rice to discuss their work and career, while supporting engagement between scholar and student.

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY (CSWGS)

2006, the School of Humanities establishes the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (CSWGS), which houses the Program in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities (PJHC), and "Feminist Economics," an internationally-renowned journal whose founding editor, Diana Strassman, is director for PJHC.

VISUAL ARTS AND THEATRE REUNITE

2006-07, the Rice Theatre Program leaves the Department of English to return to the Department of Visual Arts. The new department is now the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts.

HOUSTON ENRICHES RICE EDUCATION (HERE)

2007, the Houston Enriches Rice Education (HERE) Project was established to advance Rice’s relationship to the larger Houston community while enhancing faculty research and both undergraduate and graduate education.

JEWISH STUDIES

2007, the interdisciplinary Program in Jewish Studies was established.

ALLEN MATUSOW

2009, Allen Matusow appointed interim dean of the School of Humanities.

NICOLAS SHUMWAY

2010, Nicolas Shumway became Dean of Humanities.

RICE GALLERY CLOSES

2017, Rice Art Gallery closes its doors with the Sol LeWitt exhibition, Glossy and Flat Black Squares (Wall Drawing #813), 1997. The next exhibition will be the final installation at Rice Gallery. This exhibition will be a re-installation of the work LeWitt originally created for the Gallery in 1997. This majestic work will be a fitting tribute to the installations presented over the past 22 years, the exceptional artists who made them, and all those who have supported this idea, this space, and its artists.

KATHLEEN CANNING

2018, Kathleen Canning began as Dean of Humanities.

MEDICAL HUMANITIES

2019, Humanities students interested in health care careers will have a new pathway into medical school thanks to an agreement struck between Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The medical humanities is the study of the social, cultural, ethical, and historical dimensions of how doctors, patients, and communities understand the lived experience of health and disease. The Program at Rice is the first of its kind in the United States and a response to a nationwide demand for more intellectual diversity among medical school applicants.

CENTER FOR AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

2019, the Center for African and African American Studies opens in the School of Humanities to serve as 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.

CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

2019, the Center for Environmental Studies opens in the School of Humanities. The center is one of only a few research center in the world specifically designed to foster and incubate research on the energy/environment nexus across the arts, humanities and social sciences.

CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES GLACIER MEMORIAL

2019, Rice anthropologists Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer, members of our Center for Environmental Studies, brought international media attention to Rice through their research and documentary film “Not OK” — and when they memorialized Iceland’s first glacier lost to climate change. Iceland’s first glacier lost to climate change will be remembered with a monument to be unveiled next month at the site of the former glacier.

RICE HISTORY PROFESSOR CALEB MCDANIEL AWARDED THE PULITZER PRIZE

2020, Rice history professor Caleb McDaniel won the Pulitzer Prize for his critically acclaimed account of a woman who twice survived enslavement and eventually triumphed in a historic court case against one of the men responsible for her captivity.

SLAVE TRADE REPOSITORY MOVED TO RICE

2021, The world's largest repository of information about the trans-Atlantic and intra-American slave trades is moved, for the first time in its 20-year history, from Emory University to Rice University under the direction of Professor Daniel Domingues da Silva in the Department of History.

SAROFIM HALL

2021, Rice's new home for student art, named Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall, will be designed by a team led by an alumnus with a deep appreciation for the arts at Rice and in Houston. The new Sarofim Hall will be an inventive take on the former prefabricated building, incorporating exhibition areas, labs, studios, shops, faculty offices and other facilities serving as collaboration points for artists across mediums. The building honors the legacy of the former Rice Media Center and Art Barn, which were commissioned by Houston arts patrons John and Dominique de Menil in 1969.

KIESE LAYMON WINS MACARTHUR FELLOWSHIP

2022, Rice University English professor and acclaimed author Kiese Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, the prestigious honor popularly known as the “genius grant.” A Black Southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi, Laymon’s work bears witness to the forms of violence that mark the Black experience. His writing across multiple forms — including essays, memoirs and fiction — is rooted in his perspective as a Black Southern man.

THEATRE MOVES FROM ART TO SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AS INDEPENDENT PROGRAM

2024, With the reorganization of the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts to the Department of Art, the Rice Theatre Program moves from VADA to establish itself as its own school-based program along with a new undergraduate theatre minor offering.