STaRT@Rice – the School of Social Sciences’ premier Statistical Training and Research Techniques program – celebrates its fifth year of instruction this year. The innovative program provides social sciences graduate students with a panoramic view of the research process and offers professionalization opportunities through applied workshops and short courses. Co-directed by Distinguished Professor of Sociology Tony Brown and Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences Jing Chen, STaRT@Rice will take place from October 3 – October 5 and includes workshops on R, computational economics, and Python, to name a few.
“We developed STaRT@Rice as a way to provide social sciences graduate students with approachable, unparalleled training led by some of the most incredible minds here at Rice,” said Brown. “STaRT@Rice levels the playing field because not only do participants get an up-close, immersive view of research processes, they also find community with one another, learn how to fight imposter syndrome, and gain confidence in their academic and professional pursuits.”
STaRT@Rice will kick off with an opening reception that includes remarks from Rice University President Reginald DesRoches, Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Seichii Matsuda, Dean of the School of Social Sciences Rachel Kimbro, and Brown, followed by a Research Relay, which provides faculty with a platform to share new research. The aim of Research Relays is to inform and engage the Rice community on emerging social sciences research, spark new ideas, and promote interdisciplinary collaborations.
“We started pairing Research Relays with the STaRT@Rice opening reception as a way to connect participants with faculty and get them excited about the possibilities of social sciences research,” said Associate Dean for Research for the School of Social Sciences Pat DeLucia. “Doing this enables participants to tangibly see how the research techniques and methods they learn about during STaRT@Rice can be applied to emerging, innovative scholarship.”
The October Research Relay is the second of a series that features research from some of the School of Social Science’s newest faculty, as well as a new faculty member from the Department of Statistics, including:
- Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo, professor of anthropology, whose research focuses on paleoanthropology and the archaeology of human origins;
- Kevin J.A. Thomas, director of the Houston Population Research Center, Demography and Distinguished Professor of Sociology, whose research centers on international migration and demography;
- Huixia (Judy) Wang, professor and chair of statistics, and William Marsh Rice Trustee Professor in Data Science, whose research centers on developing statistical learning and uncertainty quantification methods to provide solutions across various domains, including environmental and biomedical studies; and
- Jae-Hee Jung, assistant professor of political science, whose research examines the complexities of morality in politics, including the role that moral rhetoric plays in party competition and the consequences of moral considerations in public opinion.
Each presenter will be given four minutes to share their research. After the talks, participants and other attendees will have time to meet with the presenters to ask questions and discuss the research.
“The STaRT@Rice opening reception has a palpable energy that is strengthened by the incorporation of Research Relays,” said Kimbro. “I am thrilled that this year’s ceremony, which exemplifies the premier teaching and research taking place here at the School of Social Sciences, as well as the Department of Statistics, will showcase the groundbreaking research of Rice's newest faculty.”
Research Relays: New Faculty Research (II) will take place on October 3 from 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm in Kraft Hall 130. Light bites and refreshments will be served. RSVPs are requested from attendees who are not participating in STaRT@Rice. For questions about Research Relays, contact Pat.DeLucia@rice.edu. For questions about STaRT@Rice, contact start@rice.edu.
Main article photo: The October 2024 STaRT@Rice Opening Reception/Research Relay. Photo by Gustavo Raskosky.