Sandra Gilbert receives award for work in humanities

Sandra Gilbert receives award for work in humanities

BY JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News staff

Rice’s Center for the Study of Cultures has been called “the intellectual backbone of the humanities.” If that’s true, Sandra Gilbert gives that backbone its muscle.

Since 2001, Gilbert has served as associate director of the Center for the Study of Cultures (CSC), organizing and administering around 50 academic events, from lectures to symposia to conferences, as well as the center’s visiting-scholar, teaching-release fellowship and postdoctoral programs and doing CSC public relations.

Photo by Jeff Fitlow

Sandra Gilbert, assistant director of the Center for the Study of Cultures, has turned the center into an agency that has enhanced the visibility of the humanities at Rice.

“The amount of workload is staggering,” said Werner Kelber, outgoing CSC director. “And the one person who carries the lion’s share is Sandra.”

For this dedication and hard work, Gilbert recently was recognized with Rice University’s Distinguished Employee Award.

In his nomination of Gilbert, Kelber said, “Her competence, her refreshing common-sense approach, as well as her humor and kindness, have all been significant contributing factors to turning the CSC into an agency that is significantly invigorating the humanities at Rice and enhancing the visibility both of Rice and its humanities at home and abroad.”

Gilbert’s success comes in part from her vast knowledge of Rice and its resources. She joined the university almost 20 years ago, working mostly in administration. Eventually, however, she wanted to do something closer to academics, and the position in the CSC affords her just that opportunity.

Since the CSC is a vehicle for humanities- and social sciences-centered interdisciplinary projects and research, Gilbert gets to work closely with faculty and postdoctoral students from across several schools — “a perk, along with getting to work with Werner,” she said.

“Werner is an inspirationally wonderful person,” she said. “He motivates people to do their very best. He may have said in the nomination that I work very hard, but he brings it out. Working with him has been wonderful.”
Earlier this summer, Kelber turned over the directorship to Caroline Levander, who has worked with Gilbert through the CSC advisory council and who is equally admiring of Gilbert’s efforts. “She has been impressively smart and efficient and has an astounding knowledge of the center’s inner workings,” Levander said.

And there is much to those inner workings. Each year, the CSC is involved in organizing or hosting countless individual lectures, workshops, study groups, symposia and conferences that bring hundreds of colleagues from the U.S. and abroad to campus.

Thanks to Gilbert’s expert handling of all the administrative and fiscal responsibilities, Kelber said, “Invariably, our visitors over the years have come away from Rice impressed with the quality of the academic discourses, with the beauty of the campus and the hospitality extended to them.”

Gilbert is modest, however. “Many staff positions at Rice involve much more than meets the eye,” she said. “There’s more under the surface to many jobs than others realize, but that is part of the attraction for me.”

The accomplishment she is most proud of is working with Kelber to establish the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships, a unique program that brought its first scholars to Rice in 2003.

“Postdoctoral students are very common in science and engineering,” Gilbert explained, “but not so in humanities — not just at Rice, but across the nation.” This program brings excellent scholars who are in their early academic careers to the Rice campus, where they teach as well as work on their research.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for these postdocs to transition from graduate studies to tenure-track positions,” she said, beaming like a proud mom, clearly enjoying her work with them and seeing the initial batch go to their first jobs in academia.
Kelber said, “Hers is Rice citizenship at its very best. Hundreds of colleagues at Rice and internationally have greatly benefited from her dedicated professionalism, and the humanities at Rice are much the better because of her presence with us and her work among us.”

The Distinguished Employee Award is given by the human resources department on behalf of the university to recognize employees who perform above and beyond their job descriptions to the benefit of the Rice community. To nominate an employee for the Distinguished Employee Award, contact Colleen Dutton at 713-348-4755.