Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL)

03/04/2026

Rice University’s 24-Hour Challenge is today! I hope you’ll consider supporting the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL). This year, CERCL aims to raise $5000 in support of our Hip Hop at Rice Initiatives. You can make your gift today at our 24 Hour Challenge page. Thank you for your support!

Join us as we Celebrate 20 years of Hip Hop @ Rice University | 2006-2026 | The study of Hip Hop at Rice began in Fall 2006 when Dr. Anthony B. Pinn offered a new course— RELI 157/311 Religion and Hip Hop Culture in America. In part through CERCL (formerly the Houston Enriches Rice Education Project), Dr. Pinn's work in Hip Hop at Rice includes various related projects—from creating an archive to panel discussions, lectures, and exhibits, to developing innovative courses, to partnerships with key members of the Hip Hop community, such as Bun B, K-Rino, KRS-ONE, Mia-X, and Kool Moe Dee among others.

Rice’s 24-Hour Challenge is March 4! Join me in supporting this extraordinary university.

01/31/2026

Our condolences to all who loved Michael “5000” Watts. CERCL is proud to have preserved part of a great legacy!

Swisha House makes history by being the first music label of ANY genre to be archived in Special Collections at Rice University's library.

04/02/2025

Today is Rice University's 24 Hour Challenge! A one-day fundraising event to support departments and initiatives like CERCLs Fund for Racial Justice Teaching and Programming.

Please help us to support: programs like MUSE: Musicians United for Social Equality; courses like Journey Towards Justice: Black Liberation & the Civil Rights Movement; and the creative engagements of CERCLs Artist-in-Residence Program.

Join me in supporting Rice University and make a gift to the 24-Hour Challenge!

11/11/2024

Join us for a Film Screening and Panel Discussion

gOD-Talk: A Black Millennials and Faith Conversation
MFAH, Caroline Wiess Law Building

The documentary gOD-Talk examines how Black Millennials navigate faith in the modern world, influenced by issues such as gender, sexuality, race, and culture. Despite a trend toward being “spiritual but not religious,” Black Millennials continue to question the role of organized religion today. Part of a five-year study on Black Millennials, gOD-Talk explores the spiritual journeys of seven individuals from diverse religious backgrounds, including Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Ifa, Islam, and Spiritualism.

Presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in association with the Pew Research Center and in conjunction with Rice University Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL), gOD-Talk complements the exhibition Living with the Gods: Art, Beliefs, and Peoples.

After the screening, you are invited to stay for a panel discussion with guests Anthony Pinn, Diamond Stylz, and Myokei Caine Barrett.

Admission is free with your ticket
https://www.mfah.org/calendar/god-talk/202411141800

11/05/2024

09/23/2024

Rice University's Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL) just added Mia X to their Hip Hop Archival Collection.

09/21/2024

It was a pleasure to honor Mia X and expand our Hip Hop at Rice collection and initiatives https://cercl.rice.edu/hip-hop-rice

Mia X, known as the Mother of Southern Hip-Hop, has officially been inducted into Rice University's Hip Hop Archival Collection.The hip-hop icon is the first...

09/13/2024

For those who are still miffed that Lil Wayne won’t be headlining next year’s Super Bowl halftime show, we will be getting some New Orleans rap flavor right here in Houston next week.

07/11/2024

There's still time to visit the “Straight Flexin’, No Plexin’ ” Exhibit, a collaboration between the Houston Public Library, the arts and education organization CCM Foundation and two organizations within Rice University, CERCL and the Fondren Library. Texas Monthly describes the exhibit on view at the Hiram Clarke Multi-Service Center, inside the Vinson Neighborhood Library. Extended through July 26!

The “Straight Flexin’, No Plexin” exhibit demonstrates how the city and the culture became inextricably linked.

05/14/2024

Please enjoy a recap of the symposia, outreach initiatives, lectures, artistic performances and collaborative programs that made CERCL's Spring 2024 a success. https://mailchi.mp/a0791473435a/cercl-spring-2020-recap-17970934

04/18/2024

Students organize panel discussion about social movement activism for course’s final project

Under the guidance of Anthony Pinn, Rice University’s Agnes Cullen Arnold Distinguished Professor of Humanities and founding director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL), students in Religion 216 spent the spring semester delving into the complex intersections of ...

04/17/2024

Today, Houston is one of the most racially diverse cities in the United States. At the same time, it remains one of the most starkly segregated cities. In his book, "Houston and the Permanence of Segregation: An Afropessimist Approach to Urban History," David Ponton III demonstrates how and why segregation has become a permanent feature in our cities and offers powerful tools for imagining the world otherwise.

David Ponton Ill is an assistant professor in the School of
Interdisciplinary Global Studies at the University of South Florida.

April 19 @ 6:30 PM @ Brazos Bookstore
More info & Purchase books: https://www.brazosbookstore.com/event/store-david-ponton-iii-houston-and-permanence-segregation