CENHS plan focuses on undergraduate outreach

By Wesley Chou     10/21/13 7:00pm

The Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences at Rice University held an information session Oct. 10 in the Ley Student Center Miner Lounge at which fellows and members shared outreach plans and experiences with the center, which focuses on promoting humanities research and teaching related to energy and the environment.

According to alumni representative Emily Hughes (Wiess College '13), CENHS Director Dominic Boyer announced CENHS as a new branch of the Energy and Environment Initiative at the 2013 Cultures of Energy Second Annual Spring Research Symposium.  

CENHS's Social Analytics Research Cluster Faculty Coordinator Cymene Howe said the humanities play a subtle yet crucial role beside the sciences in understanding environmental issues.

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"Though engineering and understanding the conjunction between energy, the environment and human practices are crucial, [CENHS] believes that these processes need to be understood through a humanistic and social scientific point of view too," Howe, an assistant professor of anthropology, said. "We take a multi-methodological approach to these questions, so we have history, sociology and anthropology faculty involved."

According to Howe, undergraduates who take part in CENHS will enter a cutting-edge field with countless internship and research opportunities.

"Energy humanities is a new field, and it's an exciting and dynamic area in which to be researching with faculty," Howe said. "As undergraduates, you can be part of something that's burgeoning and intellectually exciting."

Howe said her study of Mexico's energy policies, conducted with Boyer, a professor of anthropology, exemplifies CENHS reserach.

"Mexico has one of the most comprehensive and far-reaching climate change legislation in the entire world," Howe said. "The government has mandated that 35 percent of its electricity come from renewable energy by 2024. As anthropologists, we're studying what happens on the ground to communities, what reactions they have and what policymakers have to say."

CENHS Cultures of Energy postdoctoral fellow Matthew Schneider-Mayerson said he will teach the course Culture, Energy and Environment: An Introduction to Energy Humanities, which is being offered for the first time in the spring 2014 semester. 

"We'll look at issues such as how fossil fuels and democracies are related, contemporary energy regimes and the mix of fuels we use to power our lives, and the threat of resource depletion and anthropogenic climate change and how we live as if this potentially apocalyptic change isn't happening," Schneider-Mayerson said.

Boyer said CENHS is open to undergraduate opinions to improve its programs.

"You have the opportunity to shape the way the center develops its relationship with the undergraduate body," Boyer said. "Whatever you think would enrich your experience is something we'd like to support, as long as it's connected in some way to energy. Rice is the first university in the world to establish a center like this, but we won't be unique for long since there is so much interest in this field."

CENHS undergraduate advisory council member Melissa Teng said taking the spring 2013 semester course HUMA 320: Social Studies of Energy taught by previous CENHS Cultures of Energy postdoctoral fellow Gokce Gunel expanded her views and that interested undergraduates will play a crucial role in further outreach.

"Taking that class added a whole new dimension when talking about energy," Teng, a Martel College senior, said. "I can talk about the history, culture or other perspectives, which all add a little more to the discussion, and so if you're interested in joining the undergraduate advisory council, you'll definitely be spearheading an effort to reach out to the rest of the student body."

More information about CENHS is available at  culturesofenergy.com.

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