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WHAT YOU'LL GAIN
Program Outcomes
In the MIS program, students have the unique opportunity to hone communication, research and writing skills transferrable to any professional or academic field.
- Sharpen your critical thinking and analytical skills
- Engage with world-class Rice University faculty
- Enhance your understanding of interdisciplinary analysis and communication skills
- Develop the research methods needed to foster analytical and strategic mindsets
- Gain the opportunity to attain career advancement or prepare for further graduate study
- Grow with peers who are equally committed and energetic about exploring and learning
- Build your professional and personal network by joining our dedicated Alumni Community
- Add Rice to your resume
STUDENT JOURNEY
Coursework Progression
The MIS degree requires 12 courses for 34 credit hours. The multidisciplinary approach to your graduate education allows you to apply your life and professional experiences to develop new perspectives and understanding of the world.
FOUNDATIONS
All new students start the program by taking The Interdisciplinary Mind: Liberal Arts and the Pursuit of Knowledge and three core courses, one of each in our three main academic disciplines: humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
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ELECTIVES
Once the foundational courses are complete, students may take their 6 elective courses in any of the subject areas offered.
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CAPSTONE
The final sequence of courses are the Capstone Seminar and Capstone course. These involve independent study where the student researches a multidisciplinary or creative project under the mentorship of two faculty members and presents their final project to the entire MIS community.
CURRICULUM SPOTLIGHT
What Students Are Learning
Courses vary each semester to support students' curiosity and interests.
Interested in previewing the Rice experience before you apply? Contact mis@rice.edu to learn how you can join MIS students for a day.
The Interdisciplinary Mind: Liberal Arts and the Pursuit of Knowledge
Casey Schoenberger
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The Interdisciplinary Mind: Liberal Arts and the Pursuit of Knowledge
INDS 500
Credit Hours: 3
This course will unpack and explore the meaning and history of liberal studies, as well as the various debates and controversies associated with this term. Along the way, we’ll reflect on the role liberal education plays in our own intellectual and personal lives, and we’ll examine the relationship between this form of education and issues of citizenship, democracy, justice and the public good. In a variety of ways and from a variety of angles, this course will investigate an essential question: What effect should learning have on our lives? As we attempt to answer this vital and thorny question, the course will also introduce you to the actual work of liberal studies: the habits of inquiry, analysis, discussion, reflection and interdisciplinary research that animate graduate-level activity in this program. Ultimately, this work will provide an opportunity for us to wrestle with complex and enduring questions about human life and the search for meaning and happiness while at the same time honing the foundational scholarly skills of writing, reading and critical thinking.
Casey Schoenberger, Ph.D., completed a Ph.D. in Chinese literature at Yale University in 2013. His research focuses on cognitive, comparative, digital, musicological and linguistic approaches to East Asian literature and performing arts. For the past five years, he served as Assistant Professor of Chinese Culture at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he taught beginning and advanced courses for undergraduate and graduate students in English and in Mandarin. As a lecturer in Rice University’s Department of Transnational Asian Studies, he teaches courses on East Asian literature and performing arts in global context.
Islamic Art in Houston and the World
Aimée Froom
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Islamic Art in Houston and the World
INDS 506
Credit Hours: 3
Drawing on the exquisite collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this course takes an interdisciplinary approach to consider the materiality, impact of cross-cultural exchanges and the collection, interpretation and display of Islamic art, c. 800s-1800s in global art museums. Examination of original art and workshops on paper, ink and calligraphy will enable students to gain intimate knowledge of some of the materials and techniques of Islamic art.
Aimée Froom, Ph.D, is curator, Art of the Islamic Worlds, and co-Director, World Faiths Initiative, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She also serves on the MFAH Program Review Committee and is Curatorial Representative to senior management. She directed the creation of the museum's Hossein Afshar Galleries for Art of the Islamic Worlds (opened 2023), recognized by the City of Houston with a Proclamation for commitment to inclusivity and partnership with local communities. She has over 25 years of international curatorial and teaching experience, including undergraduate and graduate courses on Islamic Art at Rice University, Brown University, Bard Graduate Center, Trinity College and American University of Paris. Her book publications include Sea of Ink, Forest of Pens: The Art of the Qurʾan in the Hossein Afshar Collection (2024) and Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands - Selections from the Hossein Afshar Collection (2019), both published with Yale University Press and Arts of Islamic Lands: Selections from The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (2016). She was a Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow and received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
A River Runs Through It: Lives, Stories and Creative Work
William Monroe
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A River Runs Through It: Lives, Stories and Creative Work
INDS 507
Credit Hours: 3
Rivers shape landscapes and much more. In this interdisciplinary course, we will explore, examine and discover the metaphorical power of rivers in literature, film, politics, sacred writings and personal stories, including our own life writing. Across time and cultures, rivers have signified journeys, crossings, challenges, threats, sources, systems, majesty, transportation, transition, temporality, hope, beauty and mystery. The course will be taught as a colloquium, a speaking together and will feature several occasional guests during the semester. There will be opportunities for leading our conversations and a final creative project: a memoir in the form of prose, poetry or visual art or a critical/analytical essay.
William Monroe, Ph.D., began his teaching career as a grad student at the University of Texas and included Houston Community College, McMurry University in Abilene and the University of Houston. In 2022, he retired from UH as professor of English and Nancy O’Connor Abendshein Professor and Dean of the Honors College. Since then he has taught at the University of St. Thomas, at Texas State University in San Marcos and at Rice University. A staged reading of Primary Care, a play about Alzheimer’s disease that Monroe wrote and directed, was presented by the UT McGovern Medical School for a “Healthcare and the Arts” conference in 2023. He completed a first draft of the play, inspired by medical research done by his collaborator Dr. Thomas R. Cole, during a Rockefeller Fellowship at the Institute for the Medical Humanities, UTMB-Galveston. Monroe’s critical work on twentieth-century literature, Power to Hurt: The Virtues of Alienation, was selected as an outstanding academic book of the year and nominated for the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award. He was chosen to participate in an NEH Institute on Narrative at the University of Iowa and has been featured on a number of radio programs and podcasts, including an Engines of Our Ingenuity episode, “Doctors and Detectives,” on Sherlock Holmes and, on KPFT, a So, What’s Your Story episode featuring a story by Dr. Denton Cooley. He has also been working on a book-length manuscript entitled “The Vocation of Affliction: Flannery O’Connor and the Myth of Mastery.” In addition to Flannery O’Connor, Monroe’s teaching and research interests have included T. S. Eliot, Willa Cather, Vladimir Nabokov, Walker Percy and Raymond Carver, as well as courses, presentations and publications in the fields of literature and medicine and health humanities. He received the UH Teaching Excellence Award, was twice nominated for a state-wide Piper Professor Award and served for 25 years as the director and seminar leader in the Common Ground Teachers Institute, a collaborative endeavor between university faculty and secondary school teachers. In 2024 and 2025, Monroe presented papers on O’Connor at the American Literature Association Convention in Chicago and the “Flannery Abroad” conference in London. He has written several short memoirs and is currently teaching a Rice FWIS course entitled “Life Writing: Our Stories, Our Selves.”
The Psychology of Human Flourishing
Ryan Brown
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The Psychology of Human Flourishing
INDS 509
Credit Hours: 3
What does it mean to flourish in modern life and work—and what does the scientific evidence actually support? Moving beyond popular narratives about happiness, this course offers an introductory, evidence-based examination of flourishing in adult life and work through the lens of contemporary research in psychology, supplemented by research in organizational behavior, economics and ethics. In this course, students will critically evaluate what contributes to sustained wellbeing at both the individual and organizational levels. This course combines rigorous scholarship with practical application. Students will assess competing theories and measures related to human flourishing, explore individual and organizational drivers of thriving and consider ethical tradeoffs inherent in wellbeing initiatives. Designed for both curious novices and experienced professionals, the course integrates scientific research, personal self-awareness and reflection and applied analysis.
Ryan P. Brown, Ph.D., is the Managing Director for Measurement and Associate Director at the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. He regularly consults with organizations on ways to measure their impact on people and achieve transformational goals across industries including publishing, banking, government, the non-profit sector and education. Prior to the Doerr Institute, Ryan was the L. J. Semrod Presidential Professor of Psychology at The University of Oklahoma, where he taught and helped establish the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing. He has published more than 60 scientific articles on human thought and behavior over the last 25 years and is the author/co-author of three books—Honor Bound: How a Cultural Ideal Has Shaped the American Psyche (Oxford University Press, 2016), Leadership Reckoning: Can Higher Education Develop the Leaders We Need? (Monocle Press, 2021) and Measuring the Mist: A Practical Guide for Discovering What Really Works in Leader Development (Doerr Institute, 2022). Ryan graduated cum laude from Rice University and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. He taught briefly at Amherst College before joining the faculty of The University of Oklahoma in 2000. Ryan joined the Doerr Institute in 2017.
History of North American Philanthropy
Ronnie Hagerty
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History of North American Philanthropy
INDS 650
Credit Hours: 3
NEW - Philanthropic Leadership Track! The concept of philanthropy is intricately woven throughout the history of civilization. For most, it is not a frequent topic of conversation, yet its influence pervades virtually every discipline—arts, culture, religion, education, politics. This course is designed to trace the origins of philanthropy, illustrate its evolution, assess its current status and predict its future course. We will examine the emergence and evolution of organized philanthropy in the United States, tracing its roots from early religious and mutual aid traditions to the rise of major foundations and contemporary giving practices. Students will explore how philanthropic ideals, institutions and individuals have influenced American society, politics and economic life—often reinforcing prevailing power structures but at times challenging them. Through case studies and archival materials, students will analyze the legacy and implications of philanthropic interventions in education, health, housing and civil rights.
Ronnie Hagerty, Ph.D, is the assistant vice president of community relations for the United Way of Greater Houston. She oversees community outreach and leadership development initiatives including the Nonprofit Connection and Project Blueprint, a program that prepares emerging leaders in ethnic communities for board service. In addition, she has assumed responsibility for United Way’s talent management initiative. Prior to her transition to the nonprofit sector, Ms. Hagerty was a consultant with New York and Houston advertising and marketing firms. Ms. Hagerty is immediate past board chair of the Association of Fundraising Professionals – Greater Houston Chapter, and has been appointed by the Governor of Texas to serve as board chair for the OneStar National Service Commission. She serves on the boards of The Rose and The Junior League of Houston Sustainer organization. Hagerty holds a B.A. in journalism from St. Mary’s College/Notre Dame; MBA from the University of Houston Graduate School of Business; a doctoral degree from Antioch University and is credentialed as a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE). She is a lecturer at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A & M University and an adjunct professor at the Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University.
Strategic Communication for Mission-Driven Leaders
LaMecia Butler
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Strategic Communication for Mission-Driven Leaders
INDS 680
Credit Hours: 3
NEW - Strategic Communication Track! Students will learn and develop the skills necessary to communicate effectively as leaders on behalf of their organization. This course will explore strategies for influencing stakeholders, crisis communications, storytelling and leadership presence. The course literature, lectures and focused exercises will support student mastery of fundamental communication best practices and maximize their impact by developing the ability to deliver clear, inspiring, consistent and strategic messaging.
LaMecia Butler has extensive experience spanning the corporate and nonprofit sectors, leading communication, marketing, community and economic empowerment efforts for well-known organizations, including Meta Platforms, Inc., Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, Super Bowl 50 (San Francisco Bay Area), Super Bowl LI (Houston), American Express and more. Currently, she owns a boutique consulting firm specializing in communication and strategy solutions for nonprofits and small businesses. As an employee and entrepreneur, she has worked with countless global business and nonprofit professionals in their efforts to clearly communicate and execute their mission and vision and achieve their goals. She has over a decade of experience serving as an executive and advisory board member for nonprofit organizations seeking to close the gap for historically excluded communities in business, education, disaster recovery and economic development. She works part-time as a lecturer at Rice University. LaMecia earned her Master’s Degree in Business Administration (Marketing) from Rice University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication (Public Relations) from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
LEARN MORE
View the MIS Information Session
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