Fondren Fellows

About the program

The Fondren Fellows program funds Rice undergraduate or graduate students to conduct research or teaching projects sponsored by Fondren Library that involve skills, collections, spaces, or services related to libraries and archives. Projects are proposed by Rice faculty members or Fondren staff who serve as mentors, helping Fellows to establish a work plan, develop the project, and acquire needed skills. These projects cover a wide range of topics, such as describing archival collections, developing digital scholarship projects, or creating educational resources.

Projects for 2024-25:

1. Building and Employing New Tools for the Study of US Science Policy - Mentors: Kenneth Matthew and Kirstin Matthews

2. Building the "Creosote Contamination in Houston's Fifth Ward" Collection - Mentors: Carrie Masiello and Lisa Spiro

3. Campus Comics: Continuing the Rice Comics Anthology - Mentor: David Messmer

4. Comics without Borders - Mentor: Christopher Sperandio

5. Curating Rice's Environmental Research - Mentor: Shannon Kipphut-Smith

6. Enhancing Graduate Student Support for Digital Humanities - Mentor: Lisa Spiro, Sean Smith

7. Exploring Pedagogical Research at Rice and Beyond - Mentor: Catherine Barber

8. History Project for Rice University’s School of Engineering 50th Anniversary - Mentor: Jada Crawford

9. Maintain and Analyze Rice University Research Repository - Mentor: Arko Barman

10. Mapping Olivewood Cemetery - Mentors: Norie Guthrie and Fay Yarbrough

11. Milestones in Science: 50 years of Natural Sciences at Rice - Mentor: Lauren Kapcha

12. Open Access Publishing at Rice: Factors that Influence Researcher Choices and Sustainable Funding Models - Mentors: Cindy Pierard, Lisa Spiro, Shannon Kipphut-Smith, Scott Vieira

13. SlaveVoyages.org - Mentor: Daniel Domingues

14. Teaching Text Analysis - Mentor: Sean Smith

15. The Red Book of Houston - Mentors: Norie Guthrie and Fay Yarbrough

16. The Rice University CatOWLog: A Comprehensive Bibliography of Rice Creators - Mentor: Thumy Webb

17. Understanding Rice's Historic Energy Use to Inform the University's Climate Policy - Mentor: Richard Johnson

Program expectations

Once selected, Fondren Fellows must:

• Submit a research plan
• Participate in regular meetings with their mentor(s) and, as appropriate, with other Fellows   
• Be able to dedicate at least 5-10 hours of work per week to their project
• Provide reports on their progress in meeting the project goals
• Present their project at a public forum, such as the Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS) or a Fondren Town Hall Meeting
• Acknowledge the Fondren Fellows program in any publications or presentations resulting from the fellowship
• Provide feedback on the Fellows program, including by completing a brief survey at the middle and end of the fellowship

Benefits

The Fondren Fellows program offers the following benefits to students:

• Receive a competitive wage. 
• Create a meaningful research, design or teaching project in collaboration with experts.
• Build your research portfolio.
• Participate in a research cohort, learning from and connecting with fellow students.
• Hone skills in research, communication, project management, and collaboration.
• Work flexible hours; most positions involve at least some remote work.    

Please direct any questions to fondrenfellows@rice.edu

Outcomes and Highlights

Explore the outcomes and project deliverables of recent Fondren Fellows projects.

Fondren Fellows Steering Committee

The Fondren Fellows program is overseen by:

• Alec Brown (Fondren Fellows coordinator)
• Lisa Spiro (Fondren Fellows director and Assistant University Librarian for Digital Scholarship and Organizational Development)
• Amanda Focke (Head of Special Collections)
• Denis Galvin (Assistant University Librarian for IT and Technical Services)
• Cindy Pierard (Assistant University Librarian for Research Services)

More about the Fondren Fellows Program

Fondren Library gratefully acknowledges the John “Terry” Maltsberger III estate for creating an endowment to support expanding the Fondren Fellows program - "Surprise for Fondren Library: $2 million endowment to fund experiential research," Rice News (November 5, 2018).

Between 2016 and 2019, the Fondren Fellows program was funded through the generous support of Trish Brice. The program's inception originally drew inspiration from a similar program at Vanderbilt, as well as by student research programs at Rice’s Center for Civic Leadership and Rice’s Humanities Research Center.

For more information, see Jeff Falk's article: "Fondren Fellows Program showcases students’ research prowess," Rice News (April 17, 2017) and Andrew Bell's "Rice’s Fondren Fellows program displays projects at showcase event," Rice News (April 29, 2024).

Fellows are encouraged to upload completed project materials and presentations to the Rice Research Repository (R-3).