Welcome to our students at Rice
/
The academic year for us starts on Monday. Things are different for me this year because I have become the Chair of the Religious Studies Department after a year long leave. The summer was spent traveling and moving my office, which turned out to be a bigger chore than I was prepared for.
I want to extend a warm welcome to our incoming and returning students into our very special intellectual community here at Rice. I have taken this opportunity to write more about our program and post it on our departmental website: "The motto of Rice University is strikingly bold. 'Unconventional Wisdom.' It is a motto that we love to own because it describes the kind of intellectual community that we create and foster in the Department of Religious Studies. To study here means to challenge the status quo, to investigate what is not obvious, to reimagine what was, is and can be when it comes to religion. To study here means to enter an intellectual community where critical thought, disciplined training, and innovation intersect with religion." To read the rest of my message, click
.