The Editorial Staff of The Wild Grain would like to introduce you to the Rice University English Department’s newest digital publication.

Rice University prides itself on an accomplished and flourishing School of the Humanities, rich with an intellectual environment that serves students inside and outside of the classroom, both in the undergraduate population as well as within graduate student education. Long in the works but new to the screen, our website aims to be a platform that highlights the English Department’s amazing humanities programming.

The phrase “the humanities is dying” is often heard in relation to higher education, and the ongoing fear of a decaying liberal arts education seems unrelenting. We believe much of that fear is because the general public doesn’t have a working understanding of the “behind the scenes” aspects of humanities departments, humanities majors, and the “culture” of the humanities at large — one that is very much alive and, in fact, thriving.

The Wild Grain is positioned to be the public-facing platform of Rice’s English Department that serves as an easily accessible interface between Rice University’s students, professors and faculty and those who are curious to learn more about the work that we do. The Wild Grain will be a digital facilitator for the ongoing conversations about the vibrancy of the humanities, bridging gaps between departments, communities, and the rest of the academic world.

As the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of The Wild Grain, it is my pleasure, on behalf of the Editorial Staff, to introduce to you the English Department’s newest publication — one that we feel showcases the content core to student, faculty and alumni experiences at our university.