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The Women’s Institute is thrilled to have Mark P. Jones, Ph.D., James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy’s political science fellow, join us this semester to analyze the final ...
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Mark Jernigan, former NASA engineer and current Associate Director of Rice Space Institute, will be joining us so...
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WIH is really excited to welcome new instructor Alex Gurule, who is ready to dive into Viking history with us. In anticipation of her upcoming class, several of her students had ques...
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Alida Webb served as Executive Director of the Women’s Institute for 35 years She passed away on Tuesday, the 10th of January 2023. She was 80 years of age. She is remembered fondly and with the utmost respect by both students and instruc...
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Just in time for jack-o-laterns and broomsticks, Dr. Laura Bland comes to WIH to talk all things in which culture has deemed spooky, freaky, and supernatural throughout the ages. We can’t wait to hear what she has to teach us about this fascin...
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You may think that because Mexico is our closest southern neighbor, there aren't many mysteries left for us to discover. We bet at least of couple of these quiz questions will make you think again! Keep on reading to see if you are surprised by ...
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We all lived through it, but how much do we really remember about our most recent cultural and political events during this period? Here is a little quiz to see how closely you were paying attention! Don't forget to sign up for this class to rel...
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An interview with Dr. Andrew Klein...

WIH is excited to introduce Professor Andrew Klein of Rice University as one of our newest lite...
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The American Musical is not just a vehicle for the entertainment of the greatest swath of people possible - it's also a social document that tells us the assumptions, biases, aspirations, and racial and sexual attitudes of the time the musical w...
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"Next week’s lecture will focus on the Texas Primary – the first in the nation, and, arguably, one of the most important.  

I’ll introduce the lecture with a brief history of p...
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By Joe Barnes
Bonner Means Baker Fellow

By Robert Zaretsky

First Published in The Washington Post: December 29, 2021

The ancient Greeks understood the location of the past and the future differently than we do. Most of us assume that the past is behind us and that our future is in front of us, waiting there for us to move ahead into it. Our basic belief in p...
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Shortly after Obama was first elected president, my son David, who lives in London, told me that a cab driver there, noticing that David was an American, spoke up about the recent election in the US of a black president and said “That could ne...
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For more than forty years as a reader and writer, student and teacher, I have held that literature and life are deeply bound to one another. This, at least, has been the case for me. The novels I treasure and events I experience blend and bleed ...
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WIH is pleased to welcome Andrew Torget, PhD, author, and distinguished history professor at University of North Texas, to WIH. He has crafted a skillfully researched and balanced surve...
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Interview by Alida Webb, Executive Direct or of WIH for 35 years.

His reputation preceded him. . . Some smiling board members said, “Just wait.”  So, I was anxious and curio...
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Leo Costello, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Art History at Rice University where he has been a four-time finalist for the George R. Brown teaching award.  ...
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WIH Reporter: It is a pleasure to welcome you to WIH, Dr. Zalman! We are looking forward to learning more about Surrealism and Its Afterlives in American Culture. Can you give us an example of where we can see Surrealism’s inf...
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