Our graduate students create new knowledge and communicate it.  They present conference papers regularly at Rice and at national and international conferences.  Travel funding is available for the latter.  
 
Graduate student conferences held at Rice are organized by the students themselves, with departmental or School of Humanities support.  A keynote speaker may be a faculty member from Rice or from another institution--graduate student organizers make such decisions.  
 
Look out for the graduate student conferences that have become regular annual events, each with their own formats:  
 
The Humanities Graduate Student Assocation (HGSA) organizes its Humanities Speaker Series. Here is a recent call for presentations.
 
The Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality (CSWGS) sponsors its CSWGS Annual Graduate Symposium and Keynote.  Here is a recent call for papers and graduate student symposium announcement.
 
The Department of English sponsors its Rice English Graduate Symposium.  Here are the call for papers and program for the 2017 event.
 
Other graduate student-organized conferences have been unique events arranged by a team of graduate students pursuing a specific topic.
 
Here is a recent example from the Department of History.
 
These have sometimes resulted in publication as volumes of essays.   For example, a 2010 graduate student-organized conference in the Department of History resulted in this highly praised volume.   This video provides a glimpse behind the scenes of the conference and volume.