Clone of Fondren Fellows Outcomes and Highlights

Fondren Fellows Program

Student-led research and digital scholarship projects advancing the Rice Library's mission.

About the Program

The Fondren Fellows program provides Rice students with the opportunity to conduct library-related research and develop impactful digital scholarship. Fellows collaborate with librarians, faculty, and staff to support open knowledge initiatives across campus.

42

Fellows since launch

16

Departments represented

87%

Projects completed on time

Program Outcomes & Impact

42

Fellows Since Launch

16

Departments Engaged

87%

Projects Completed On Time

5 Years

Of Transformational Work

Spotlighted Achievements

  • Partnered with the Digital Scholarship Lab on three open-access initiatives
  • Improved metadata discoverability in the Woodson Research Center
  • Developed accessibility audits of campus-wide digital resources
  • Created first-generation student-focused learning tools

Meet the Fellows

Anjali Rao

Junior, Computer Science

Developed accessibility strategies for digital exhibits and led usability testing of library platforms.

Current Projects

Fondren Fellows Projects for the 2025–26 Academic Year

Building a History of Industrial Accidents and Disasters in Houston
A digital archive documenting Houston’s major industrial disasters and their long-term impact.
Who Owned Freedmen’s Town?: Tracking Deeds from 1867 to 1936
Investigating the ownership history of Freedmen’s Town properties to uncover displacement patterns.
Teaching Qualitative Data Analysis Research Tools
Designing a teaching toolkit for NVivo and other QDA platforms to support student researchers.
Computing Cultural Heritage: White House Scientists Archive
Processing digital and print documents to preserve stories of underrepresented scientists.
The Red Book of Houston
Digitizing and sharing the 1915 directory of Black professionals in Houston.
Olivewood Cemetery Mapping Project
Using GIS to uncover and map historic Black burial sites in Olivewood Cemetery.
Readers’ Marks: Tracing the Past in Rare Books
Exploring annotations and markings in rare books to reveal historic reader engagement.
Enhancing Teaching with AI
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65 Years of SEL: A Research Archive Project
Building a historical record of the Science and Engineering Library’s evolution and legacy.
Open Data, Open Knowledge
Developing tools that make Rice’s data resources more open and AI-literate.
Analysis of Medical Humanities Resources at Fondren
Evaluating collections and services that support medical humanities research at Fondren.

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Past Project Archives

Creosote Contamination Archive
Outcome: Digital collection uploaded to Woodson Research Center; Presented at FF Showcase.
Fellow(s): Catherine Cook
View more project information here
Energy Consumption Trends at Rice
Outcome: Spreadsheet analysis; Presented at FF Showcase.
Fellow(s): Jadyn Bray-Boyce
View more project information here
Slave Ship Voyage Pairings
Outcome: Identified 100–200 new voyage IDs; Work to be featured on slavevoyages.org.
Fellow(s): Sean Weeks
50 Years of Science at Rice
Outcome: Two long-form articles; digital showcase; Presented at NSURS.
Fellow(s): Magdalena Whelley
View more project information here
Rice Pedagogical Research Collection
Outcome: Database creation; Trend analysis; Presented at CTE event.
Fellow(s): Lucy Hu
View more project information here
Biographies from Digital Archives
Outcome: 6 biographies written; Presented at Rice Humanities Day.
Fellow(s): Jae’la Solomon
View more project information here
Teaching Text Analysis with Python
Outcome: Created two courses; Developed a Fondren LibGuide.
Fellow(s): Melissa Mar
View more project information here
LLM Integrated Archive System
Outcome: Backend system created; Prototype built with SQL & NoSQL.
Fellow(s): Yujie Xu
View more project information here
Rice Engineering History Reports
Outcome: 16 research reports completed; Presented at FF Flash Talks.
Fellow(s): Lexi Xu
Comics Without Borders Presentation
Outcome: Presentation and comic included in published anthology.
Fellow(s): Sofia Adams-Giron
View more project information here
Oral History and Article Publication
Outcome: 7 interviews; 2 articles published (2 more planned).
Fellow(s): Sage Lee

Fondren Fellows Highlights

Rice Research Repository

We encourage Fellows to upload their completed projects, materials, and presentations to the Rice Research Repository (R-3). The Fondren Fellows Collection is available here.

Fondren Fellows Projects in the News

  • Andrew Bell, “‘A succinct review of American history’: Storied political campaign button collection donated to Rice,” Rice News (October 22, 2024)
  • “Meet the 2024 TDL Awards Recipients.” Dr. Sidney Lu and Fondren Fellows Loïc Duggal and Hoang Nguyen won the Texas Digital Library's Trailblazer Award for developing the History of the Japanese Farmers in Texas digital exhibition.
  • Patrick Michels, “New Markers Remember Enslaved People Brought to Texas by Sea,” Texas Monthly (April 18, 2024)
  • Brandi Smith, “Beyond names and dates: ‘The Red Book’ comes alive thanks to Rice student research,” Rice News (May 8, 2024)
  • Brandi Smith, “Rice student art showcased at 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice,” Rice News (May 7, 2024)
  • Brandi Smith, “Visualizing catastrophe: Rice professor explores natural disasters through photography,” Rice News (April 18, 2024)