APPLY TO LEAD A PROJECT – Applications are currently closed.
Applications may be for a single semester; a year-long commitment is preferred.
APPLY TO ASSIST A PROJECT – Applications are currently closed.
The list of projects is available on the application page.
Please let us know if you would like to receive emails for RFS calls.
DESCRIPTION
The Rice Feminist Seminar (RFS) is an ongoing research project of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (CSWGS) that takes up different urgent topics every few years. It is a collaborative endeavor of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduates, and Houston community members whose work is connected by the seminar topic.
The inaugural topic for the seminar (2019-2021) is “Climates of Violence, Politics of Change.”
As this topic suggests, this three-year instantiation of the seminar examines different types, locations, and modalities of gendered violence as well as the many ways in which groups and individuals have identified, theorized, and resisted that violence. Specific topics that might be explored under this capacious rubric include: domestic violence, violence at the border, economic violence, racial violence, and planetary or ecological violence. We are open to research projects that think through the dynamics of violence in terms of scale, place, and/or identity.
In addition to project work, all participants in the Rice Feminist Seminar meet two or three times each semester to support each other through common readings and works in progress. These seminars may also host outside speakers or arrange field trips.
APPLICATION GUIDELINES - PROJECT PROPOSALS
Faculty and graduate students affiliated with the Center are eligible to propose a project to lead, whether as an individual or as a team. Applicants are encouraged to articulate ways in which undergraduate and graduate students might assist that work. After reviewing the project applications, we will inform the selected projects, and then send a call to undergraduate and graduate students who could serve as research assistants for specific parts of those projects. Undergraduate assistants will have a choice of course credit (independent study) or a stipend; graduate student assistants will get a stipend. Preference will be given to projects in which faculty, graduate students, undergraduates and members of the public collaborate in some form. Applications may be for a single semester; a year-long commitment is preferred. Applicants may re-apply for a subsequent year. Project applications may include requests for funding of up to $2,000.
Applications should include the following:
- Summary of project lead member(s) and role(s)
- Project description/narrative (250 to 500 words) specifying opportunities for graduate and undergraduate assistants; there is an option to upload a file (.pdf, .doc, .docx)
- Project budget (1 page of text maximum); there is an option to upload a file (.pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx)
Eligible budget items include, but are not limited to:
- student labor
- consultation fees for off-campus professionals
- incentives for research subjects (gift cards, travel vouchers, etc.)
- transportation to conduct research off-campus
- field trips
- honoraria and travel for outside speakers to come to Rice
- works-in-progress meetings
- disseminating and presenting supported research at conferences
- reasonable print and media production costs to create research tools or share research findings
APPLICATION GUIDELINES - PROJECT ASSISTANTS
Graduate students and undergraduate students are eligible to apply to assist one of the selected projects. Applications consist of a curriculum vitae and cover letter detailing your interests and relevant experience, uploaded through the application portal above. If multiple projects are of interest, please rank them in the cover letter. If you are an undergraduate, please specify whether you want course credit or a stipend.
AY 2019/20
The pilot year of the RFS sponsored six research teams:
- “Learning from Marxist Feminism and from Each Other” – Krista Comer, Rosemary Hennessy
- “The Reservation: from Black Neighborhood to Red-Light District, 1865-1917” – Brian Riedel, John Mulligan
- “Homing” – Helena Michie
- “Toxicity in Houston: Environmental Justice and Feminist Critique” – Zoë Wool, Tim Quinn, Izzie Karohl, Alison Yelvington
- “Beyond subterranean extractivisms: feminist research methodologies in the making” – Andrea Ballestero, Lupe Flores, Mai Ton
- "Violence, Liberation and Trauma in the Global South” – Sophie Esch, Marlene Sanchez, Diana De La Torre Pinedo, Mark Williams Laforest