Rice University Alumni College Weekend
March 13–15, 2009
What is Alumni College Weekend?
Since 1995, the Association of Rice Alumni has held an annual event inviting alumni and friends back to campus for a weekend of classes from Rice's outstanding faculty. We firmly believe that the pursuit of knowledge should be lifelong, and Alumni College is a fabulous opportunity to sample the most recent research and top-notch teaching of the university. And when you're not in class, Alumni College offers you a chance to mingle at meals and social events with your fellow "classmates" — a broad spectrum of Rice alumni from various class years and regions, plus parents of current students and other knowledge-seeking friends. Read through the course descriptions, decide which classes interest you most, and sign up today!
The 2009 Program
The classes offered at Alumni College are grouped into tracks — themes that help you identify topics of particular interest. This year we are pleased to present the following tracks:
Future of Energy
A look at what is happening to our energy resources and what we are doing to become a more sustainable society, locally and globally
Magic and Myth
A glimpse into magic and myth from literature, arts, and humanities
Focus on the Jones Graduate School of Management
Courses highlighting some of the outstanding faculty of the JGSM
America Tomorrow
Rice experts add their predictions for the new White House administration
Art of Articulation
Classes focused on helping participants express themselves through different means
Encore
A review of some of your favorite courses of the last 14 years
Online
registration is now closed, but there is still some
space available. If you would like to attend
Alumni College Weekend, please contact Lauren
Linn at 713-348-6093.
Magic has figured in opera ever since it began. We explore magic in three famous works: the deus ex machina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the bells and whistles in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and the dazzling magical effects in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann. These examples trace opera’s journey from its early interest in godlike rescuers, through its desire for innocence in the Enlightenment, to its fascination with personal demons in the Romantic era.
Suggested studies:
Film versions of the operas, on DVD:
• Don Giovanni, dir. Joseph Losey (ca. 1979).
• The Magic Flute, dir. Ingmar Bergman (1975).
Reading:
• Marcia J. Citron, Opera on Screen (Yale UP, 2000).
Marcia Citron is the Lovett Distinguished Service Professor of Musicology and has been at Rice since 1976. She specializes in opera and film, authored the foundational study Opera on Screen (Yale, 2000), written articles on opera in famous films such as the Godfather trilogy and Moonstruck, and is completing another book on the topic, When Opera Meets Film (Cambridge UP). Her past research focuses on gender, including the award-winning volume Gender and the Musical Canon (Cambridge) and books on Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and Cécile Chaminade.
All executives face ethical dilemmas at some point in their careers. All too often, however, the “thinking” behind the dilemma and its resolution is confused, rushed, and one-dimensional, leading to sub-optimal decision processes. In this session, we will discuss and debate common errors that occur when organizations engage in ethical thinking and debate, and identify potential solutions that can help you navigate these murky waters.
Margaret Cording joined the faculty at the Jones School in July 2003. She received her Ph.D. in Management from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. She earned an MBA at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where she was a fellow in the Wharton Executive MBA Program. Cording earned a B.B.A. in finance and economics at Temple University.
Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Cording was a Managing Director at Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase) where she was responsible for managing their foreign exchange sales business. During her 14 year tenure at Chase, she was also responsible for the development and management of a program to improve the strategic relevance, risk-adjusted economic performance, productivity, and efficiency of a diverse set of businesses, including capital markets globally and wholesale banking activities in Europe and Asia.
The world is in the early stages of a green technology revolution, whereby we are seeing a fundamental shift towards more ecologically sustainable approaches to everything from the supply of energy to the design of buildings to the manufacturing of products from carpet to baby food. This revolution has been gaining strength on university campuses over the past few years, touching literally every aspect of the university in the process. Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson will highlight many of the ways that the sustainability movement is transforming Rice, with a particular emphasis on the new construction projects on the campus.
Richard Johnson is Rice University’s Director of Sustainability, where he coordinates, supports, leads, and provides technical assistance for a broad range of campus greening activities and initiatives. Mr. Johnson also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Environment and Society, holds an appointment as a Professor in the Practice of Environmental Studies in sociology, and is an affiliate of the Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life. Mr. Johnson earned a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from Rice and a Masters in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia.
This lecture will include discussion of several leaders and movements that are consciously seeking to serve as alternatives to the voices of extremism within contemporary Islam.
William Martin is the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Emeritus Professor of Religion and Public Policy in the Department of Sociology at Rice. Since his retirement from teaching in June 2005, he serves as the Chavanne Senior Fellow for Religion and Public Policy at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice. His areas of specialization include religion, criminology, and issues related to drug use and drug policy. At age sixteen, he decided to become a college professor as a consequence of exposure to particularly inspiring and dedicated teachers he encountered during his freshman year in college.
This lecture will discuss the implications of the 2008 elections on the future of healthcare reform. We will explore the reforms proposed by the President, the mechanisms behind those reforms, and consider how these proposals will actually play out in Congress.
Karoline Mortensen received a Ph.D. in health services organization and policy from the University of Michigan in 2006. Her research focuses on the differences in utilization of healthcare services among the uninsured, privately and publicly insured, and the utilization patterns of the intermittently uninsured. Her current research examines the effect of Hurricane Katrina evacuees on emergency departments in the Houston area, the physical and mental health status of evacuees remaining in Houston, and the effects of Medicaid Section 1115 waivers granting temporary Medicaid coverage in the wake of Katrina. She has published in the journals Health Affairs and Medical Care. Dr. Mortensen has taught classes in microeconomics, health policy, and environmental politics and policy.
This lecture uses theologian Paul Tillich’s notion of boundary to argue that magic, religion, and science constitute boundaries of existence that people cross frequently in their attempts to come to terms with reality. Religion and science have influenced perception and life but have not eclipsed magic. These three entities coexist and are employed by people as the need arises. The lecture concludes by arguing that magic, religion, and science share one similarity deserving critical attention—the view that magic provides possibilities for rethinking ethical theory.
Elias Bongmba is the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Professor of Christian Theology and Professor of Religion. His first book, African Witchcraft and Otherness: A Philosophical and Theological of Intersubjective Relations, addressed the ethical implications of witchcraft. His most recent book, Facing a Pandemic: The African Church and the Crisis of AIDS, discusses ways of responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic with compassion and love. He is currently working on a book on African religions.
This lecture will examine the cause and effect of the run-up and decline of oil prices from two very different perspectives: government policy and human reaction. How did the high oil prices of the past year change policy? What role did the reaction of the American people play in creating the new policy? What can we expect in the future?
Kenneth B. Medlock III is a fellow in energy studies at the Baker Institute and adjunct assistant professor in the Rice University department of economics. Medlock received a Ph.D. in economics from Rice in 2000 and was the Baker Institute’s M. D. Anderson Fellow from 2000 to 2001. Afterward, he held the position of corporate consultant at El Paso Energy Corporation.
Medlock leads the Baker Institute Energy Forum’s natural gas program. He is a principal in the development of the Rice World Natural Gas Trade Model, aimed at assessing the future of international natural gas trade. Medlock’s research covers a wide range of topics in energy economics and has been published in numerous academic journals, book chapters, and industry periodicals, as well as in various Energy Forum studies. He is a member of the International Association of Energy Economics (IAEE), and in 2001 he won (joint with Ron Soligo) the IAEE Award for Best Paper of the Year in the Energy Journal.
A description and analysis of Jefferson’s many interests and accomplishments, along with some attention to disappointments, tragedy, and contradictions in his life.
Suggested reading:
Alan Pell Crawford, Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson.
Follow-up reading:
Merrill D. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography.
John B. Boles is the William P. Hobby Professor of History and the managing editor of the Journal of Southern History. He graduated from Rice in 1965 and is the father of two Rice graduates. He has written or edited 20 books and has lectured widely on Southern history and the history of Rice. Boles is a popular teacher and has participated in more than a dozen Alumni Colleges, speaking on a wide range of topics, including the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Bible Belt, and the 1990 Economic Summit at Rice. He has won a number of teaching prizes, including the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching in 2006.
Improvisational techniques can establish a framework for more effective communications, stronger leadership, and more productive collaboration. They distinguished the greatest talents in comedy and ensemble-comedy notables, including Monty Python and Saturday Night Live.
In this highly participatory workshop, Kim reveals that “there’s a method in the madness” of improvisation—an agreed upon set of rules that serve as frameworks for team building, risk taking, and actively building upon the ideas of others. Participants will get to sample beginning improvisation exercises from Second City and compete in group challenges that help them practice “thinking on their feet.”
Suggested studies:
Books
Janet Coleman, The Compass: The Improvisational Theatre that Revolutionized American Comedy.
Jeffrey Sweet, Something Wonderful Right Away: An Oral History of the Second City and The Compass Players.
Recordings
“An Evening With Mike Nichols And Elaine May.”
Follow-up readings:
Viola Spolin, Theater Games for the Classroom.
Charna Halpern, Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation.
Mick Napier, Improvise.: Scene from the Inside Out.
Kim McGaw performed and trained in the conservatory of Chicago’s famed Second City, which launched Saturday Night Live and has continued to provide the majority of its cast, from John Belushi to Tina Fey. Kim’s improv teachers, the best in comedy, challenged her more than her professors at Northwestern University and made learning a game. Kim has since deconstructed their teaching methods and developed her own unique formats that can be adapted to any industry. A popular speaker and instructor at Rice’s Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, Kim has been featured in the Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, and Houston Business Journal. Among her clients are Baylor College of Medicine, ExxonMobil, The Kinkaid School, and Young Presidents’ Organization.
There is no question that since the start of the “surge” the level of violence in Iraq is significantly lower. Does this mean that the U.S. can sharply reduce its level of involvement in the near future? This lecture will place the U.S. involvement in Iraq in an historical context and consider whether it is reasonable to expect that the U.S. can withdraw from Iraq in the near future.
Richard Stoll grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester, and his doctorate from the University of Michigan. He came to Rice in 1979 and is now a Professor of Political Science. His research interests are in the study of international conflict, American national security policy, and the use of computer simulation. He has published six books and a number of articles and book chapters. Stoll has served as the Associate Dean of Social Sciences and as Associate Director of Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. During his time at Rice, he has won ten teaching awards. In 1989, Jones College named their TV room “Stoll’s” in his honor and in 2007, Jones College named its Outstanding Faculty Associate Award
after him.
All would agree that π is one of the most important and intriguing of all numbers. Most agree that it is the most beautiful number. We’ll discuss historical aspects, current research, and unsolved problems.
Suggested reading:
Erggren, Borwein, and Borwein, Pi: A Source Book, Springer-Verlag. The third edition is dated 2003, ISBN 0-387-20571-3.
Frank Jones received his B.A. in chemical engineering in 1958 and his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1961, both from Rice University. He has been a member of the Rice faculty since 1962 and has focused his research in partial differential equations. In 2007 he was named the Texas Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation.
This lecture will discuss how the corporate governance system of “Corporate America” has created incentives for executives to grow their companies’ business at any cost and underestimate the risk lurking in what they were doing and how they were doing it.
Anthea Yan Zhang is an associate professor of strategy at the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University. Zhang’s areas of specialization include CEO succession/dismissal, corporate governance, and foreign direct investment in/from emerging markets. Her research has been published in top-tier management journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and Journal of Management. Several of Zhang’s papers have been cited by prominent business media outlets such as the Economist, USA Today, Business Week, and The New York Times. She has taught “Strategic Issues in Global Business,” “International Strategic Alliances,” and “Corporate Governance” in the MBA, MBA for Executives, and MBA for Professionals programs of the Jones School at Rice. She received a B.A. and M.A. in Economics from Nanjing University, China; a Master of Philosophy degree in International Business from City University of Hong Kong; and a Ph.D. in strategic management from the University of Southern California.
This session explores the theory and practice of personal persuasion. It examines influence as a communication process and offers an approach to understanding and applying the key elements of persuasion in your business and personal life.
Suggested readings:
Robert B. Cialdini, Influence.
Annette Simmons, The Story Factor.
Rick Schell teaches Leadership Communication and Consultative Selling in the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University. He is also the Director of the Undergraduate Business Minor program, where he teaches Business Communications.
Prior to joining the Jones School, Schell spent 30 years in the Information Technology industry. His business career included executive assignments in field sales, strategic and industry marketing, media and analyst relations, sales education, and global business development. Schell holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Rice University and throughout his business career has taught English language and literature courses at area colleges and universities
This lecture will examine the multiple factors behind the financial crisis that began in August 2007.
Malcolm Gillis was president of Rice University from 1993-2004. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Duke University from 1991-1993. He is now a University Professor and the Ervin Kenneth Zingler Professor of Economics at Rice University. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life teaching economics and bringing economic analysis to bear on important issues of public policy in nearly 20 countries, from the United States and Canada to Ecuador, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, and Korea. He is author, coauthor, or editor of eight books and was the principal author of the leading textbook in the field of economics, Economics of Development, now available in five languages.
In this course the participants are introduced to the entrepreneurial process for starting a business. There are four major phases in the entrepreneurial process: Opportunity, Launch, Growth, and Harvest. Each of these phases and the activities related to the phases are presented.
Follow-up readings:
Roberts, Stevenson, Sahlman, Marshall, Hamermesh, New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur, McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2007, sixth edition.
Reiss and Cruikshank, Low Risk, High Reward: Starting and Growing Your Business with Minimal Risk, The Free Press, 2000.
Kiyosaki with Lechter, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Warner Business Books 1998.
Stanley and Danko, The Millionaire Next Door, Longstreet, 1996 (SD).
Williams and Napier, Preparing an Entrepreneurial Business Plan, T&NO Book Company, 2006. Can be purchased at the Rice University Bookstore.
H. Albert Napier is a Professor of Management in the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University, where he teaches graduate level entrepreneurship, information technology, and e-business courses. He is the director of the Center on the Management of Information Technology (COMIT). Dr. Napier’s current research interests include entrepreneurship, e-business, and human-computer interface.
In addition to his duties at Rice, Napier was a principal of Napier & Judd, Inc., which provided IT consulting and personal computer training services. The company, which initiated operations in 1981, provided consulting services in IT strategy, planning, and systems development to more than 200 organizations and trained more than 150,000 participants on personal computer software applications. Some of the industries served by Napier & Judd, Inc. included energy, health, education, finance, banking, distribution, and accounting.
Napier holds a B.A. degree in mathematics and economics, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in business administration, all from the University of Texas at Austin.
Because a person’s life—even as it is unfolding—is a story in itself, each of us has a story to tell. This course will assist you in telling your own unique story. We will cover techniques that will facilitate the beginning of your journey, discovering further insights of your life, and the telling of your personal story, leaving a legacy of value and interest to your family and friends.
Suggested readings:
Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write.
Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.
Follow-up readings:
Linda Spence, Legacy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Personal History.
Abigail Thomas, Thinking About Memoir.
Nancy Geyer, who teaches in the creative writing department of Rice University’s Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, is a journalist, playwright, and novelist whose works include the novels Flying South, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, and Frailties, published by Little, Brown and Company. Three of her plays have won national competitions. She has taught English at the University of Houston and produced and anchored in-house television programs for a major energy corporation. She received a M.S. in education and a M.A. in English from the State University of New York.
The extent to which the United States should act unilaterally or multilaterally in international relations and the extent to which the United States should be an active participant in international institutions and treaties has been a contentious issue in national politics over the last five years. In this lecture we will consider the role of the United States in developing and/or resisting international institutions and agreements in the past, the roles that international agreements and institutions play in international politics today, and possible future courses for international cooperation and U.S. policy.
Brett Ashley Leeds is the Albert Thomas Associate Professor of Political Science at Rice University. Her research focuses on international relations, particularly on the design and influence of cooperative agreements and institutions. She has written extensively on the politics of military alliances and on the influence of domestic politics on international relations. In 2008 Leeds was awarded the Karl Deutsch Award by the International Studies Association, which recognizes a scholar under the age of 40 who is judged to have made, through a body of publications, the most significant contribution to the study of international relations and peace research.
The 2008 financial markets crisis has affected everyone in the U.S. This seminar examines the causes and the consequences of this crisis, exploring questions such as: What role did various parties play in causing the crisis – investment and commercial banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, hedge funds, rating agencies, the Fed, and the American consumer? How does this crisis compare to others in the past? What remedies have been undertaken and how are they working? What could or should have been done differently?
Suggested readings:
George Soros, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means (2008).
Robert J. Shiller, The Subprime Solution: How Today’s Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It (2008).
Charles R. Morris, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash (2008).
Jill Foote is a Lecturer of Management at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Management, where she is also Director of the El Paso Corporation Finance Center and Director of the M.A. Wright Fund (the MBA student-managed investment portfolio). Her principal teaching responsibilities are in investment management. She received a B.A. from Rice University (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa), a M.A. from NYU, and a Ph.D. from Fordham University. Foote joined the Rice faculty in 2002 after spending 13 years at Goldman Sachs in New York.
“Even fairy-stories as a whole have three faces: the Mystical toward the Supernatural; the Magical towards Nature; and the Mirror of scorn and pity towards Man. The essential face of Faërie is the middle one, the Magical.”—J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories”
When Bilbo in The Hobbit is engaged in a riddling contest with Gollum, whose victory will ensure his survival, why does the Ring suddenly slip onto his finger, render him invisible, and allow him to escape the Dark Hobbit? Is it magic, or accident?
To explain the role of magic in Middle-earth, this lecture will consider Tolkien’s definitions in his important essay “On Fairy-Stories,” his taxonomy of magic in his mythology (as chronicled in The Silmarillion and in Unfinished Tales), and formative medieval influences—especially Andrew Lang’s fairy-tale retelling of “The Story of Sigurd”—on Tolkien’s own fiction.
Suggested readings:
It is assumed that participants in this class will have read J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1937), and The Lord of the Rings (1953-55) (in any complete edition) in advance.
Please also read before class Andrew Lang’s tale, “The Story of Sigurd,” from the Old Norse Volsunga Saga, in his edition of The Red Fairy Book (1890; rpt. New York: Dover, 1966), pp. 357-67.
Follow-up readings:
Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories” (1939) in the Tolkien Reader, 2nd ed. (Ballantine, 1989), pb. ISBN 0345345061.
“Ainulindäle,” and “Valaquenta,” in The Silmarillion, (Houghton Mifflin, Manner Books, 2001), 2nd ed., pp. 15-22; 25-32. ISBN 0618126988.
Tolkien, Letter #131, in Letters, ed. Humphrey Carpenter (Houghton Mifflin, 2000), pp. 143-61. pb. ISBN 0618056998.
The “Palantír” and “The Istari” in Tolkien, Unfinished Tales (Ballantine, 1988), pp. 405-33. ISBN 0-345-35711-6.
N.B. A new critical edition of “On Fairy-Stories” that contains all variants from the three major versions of Tolkien’s Andrew Lang Lecture of 1939 has just appeared: see J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories: Expanded Edition, with commentary and notes, edited by Verlyn Flieger and Douglas Anderson (London: HarperCollins, 2008). It is, however, primarily of interest to Tolkien scholars rather than general readers.
Jane Chance, the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Chair in English, has taught medieval literature at Rice University since 1973. A specialist in myth reception and medievalism, she has published twenty-two books, nearly a hundred articles and reviews, many reprinted, and delivered invited and plenary lectures all over the world. A recipient of NEH and Guggenheim fellowships and a Rockefeller Bellagio residency, she was also selected as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study-Princeton. Her book Medieval Mythography: From Roman North Africa to the School of Chartres, 433-1177 A.D. won the SCMLA Best Book Prize in 1995, as did The Literary Subversions of Medieval Women in 2008.
Chance has taught a course on Tolkien at Rice since 1976 and has been interviewed about him by many media, including the New York Times, TLS, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, BBC, CBC, and NPR. She also appeared in the feature-length documentaries, now on DVD, the National Geographic film Beyond the Movie: “The Lord of the Ring” (2002) and Ringers, Lord of the Fans (2005).
Following the late Rick Smalley’s energy vision of 2003, the Smalley Institute at Rice University continues to pursue solutions for the world’s energy problems through innovative application of nanotechnology. These solutions include the Armchair Quantum Wire, a carbon nanotube cable capable of carrying vast amounts of electrical energy long distances, and energy efficiency improvements leading to conservation, especially from revolutionary ultra-light weight materials. Nanomaterials also offer promise for greatly enhanced oil recovery from current and new wells. This lecture will look at all of these opportunities and more, pointing out some of the world-leading research of faculty and students here at Rice.
Suggested readings:
“Nano’s Big Future,” National Geographic, June 2006, pp. 98-119.
Richard Booker, Nanotechnology for Dummies, Wiley, 2005 (Rice grad student).
Peter Tertzakian, A Thousand Barrels a Second, McGraw-Hill, 2007.
As director of the Smalley Institute, Wade Adams is responsible for providing the vision and direction needed to achieve the institute’s short- and long-term goals, ensuring effective execution of the institute’s initiatives and promoting the accomplishments of the faculty, students, and components that comprise the Smalley Institute.
Adams joined the Smalley Institute after he retired from the U.S. Air Force senior executive ranks in January 2002 as the chief scientist of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
He was educated at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Massachusetts. He is internationally known for his research in high-performance rigid-rod polymer fibers, X-ray scattering studies of fibers and liquid crystalline films, polymer dispersed liquid crystals, and theoretical studies of ultimate polymer properties. He has written more than 200 publications on these topics, including several review articles and three books, and has given more than 700 presentations. Adams is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Air Force Research Laboratory. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in the rank of Colonel in 1998.
This lecture gives an overview of social enterprise—the use of market-based business models aimed at serving underserved social needs. We will briefly look at three examples of social enterprise opportunities—one of them done poorly (Nike in China), another done well (CEMEX in Mexico), and finally a new project about solar-power steam generation for uses in rural schools and health clinics.
Doug Schuler is an associate professor of management in the Jones Graduate School of Management. He has been at Rice since 1992. His primary areas of research and teaching are corporate political strategies, business-government relations, international trade, and social enterprise/corporate social responsibility. In 2008 with two other researchers, Schuler was awarded a grant from the Shell Center for Sustainability to design and implement a sustainable enterprise around a solar technology. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley (B.S. 1985) and the University of Minnesota (Ph.D. 1992).
A national consensus for expanded pre-school education and for a rich science education for more children calls for deeply knowledgeable and caring teachers, expert in their fields and in children’s learning. For more than 20 years, the Center for Education has been Rice’s presence in urban schools. Linda McNeil will talk about how Rice has been “ahead of the curve” in its programs for upgrading teachers’ learning in these critical subjects essential to our nation’s future.
Suggested readings:
See the Center for Education website for more information on the School Science and Technology Project, the School Literacy and Culture Project, and a video documentary, “Standing Next to the Fire,” by Rice film professor Brian Huberman on the work of the Center for Education in urban classrooms.
Follow-up readings:
McNeil, Coppola, Radigan and Vasquez-Heilig, “Avoidable Losses: High-Stakes Accountability and the Dropout Crisis,” Education Policy Analysis Archives (see Center website).
Patsy Cooper, When Stories Come to School (Teacher and Writers Collaborative).
Elnora Harcombe, Science Teaching/Science Learning (Teachers College Press).
Linda McSpadden McNeil is Professor of Education and Director of the Rice Center for Education, which she founded with Professor Emeritus Ronald Sass in 1988. McNeil is the author of Contradictions of School Reform: Educational Costs of Standardized Testing (Routledge); she and her colleagues work to improve teachers’ knowledge of their subjects, of children’s learning, and of the cultures of children and their families. She studies urban schooling, educational policy, educational equity, and the quality of what is taught in schools. She is frequently called on by legislators, the media, and community organizations for her recent studies on the harmful impact of standardized-test-based accountability in public schools.
Anyone who has ever cautiously opened a power bill knows how difficult it can be in many climates to design buildings that are comfortable yet energy-efficient. This course will survey the latest techniques to reduce energy consumption in buildings through the use of cutting-edge materials, construction systems, and engineering concepts.
Architecture professor Gordon Wittenberg is the director of the Technology, Environment, and Practice Program in Rice’s School of Architecture and is a partner in the firm Wittenberg Architects. He teaches undergraduate and graduate design studios, the introductory course in technology, and a seminar in advanced materials and systems. When Wittenberg first came to Rice, his primary focus was teaching and research in the area of energy conservation and sustainability. He has written a number of articles and a book on the special problems related to cooling and comfort in hot, humid climates such as Houston and the traditional architecture of the South as a response to climate. Wittenberg is a former master of Sid Richardson College.
Richard III is Shakespeare’s second longest play (only Hamlet is longer), and Richard’s
is also the second longest part in Shakespeare (again surpassed only by Hamlet’s). The play, if done without cutting, takes nearly four hours to do on stage, and, to make matters worse, the cast of the play is huge, and many of them have two or three different names. So when Richard Loncraine made a movie of the film, starring Ian McKellen, it was shocking to see that he cut the play to less than half its length, and, in addition, added a scene of nine-and-a-half minutes, without dialogue, at the beginning to give his movie audience crucial background—and some proleptic information—about the play. This lecture will discuss how Loncraine worked his magic both in modernizing the play and in limiting it to normal movie length.
J. Dennis Huston has taught English at Rice since 1969, offering courses on a wide variety of topics, including Shakespeare, drama, detective fiction, public speaking, and film. His skill, dedication, and classroom magic are legendary and have resulted in numerous teaching awards. He has supported and contributed to theater on campus, acting in, directing, and drawing others into both Rice Players and college productions. Huston offers a class on public speaking each year, which is limited to only 15 people. Students camp out more than 24 hours in advance outside of his office in order to secure a spot in this class. In 1990, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation named Huston as the National Professor of the Year. In 2005, he was honored by the Association of Rice Alumni with its Meritorious Service Award for his commitment to teaching, research, and undergraduate life at Rice, including serving twice as master of Hanszen College.
Books
Most of the titles mentioned can be found at your local
bookstore or at an online bookstore such as barnesandnoble.com.
Scholarship
The Leo S. Shamblin Scholarship Fund was established
to provide scholarship support to potential Alumni College
participants with a strong record of volunteer service
to the Rice community. Recipients must plan to participate
in the entire Alumni College Weekend, and young alumni
and out-of-town participants are especially encouraged
to apply. Individuals interested in applying for the
scholarship funds should address a letter to the director
of alumni affairs explaining why the funds would assist
them in attending Alumni College Weekend and how they
satisfy the criteria regarding volunteer service. The
deadline for application is March 2.
