Apply by submitting the requested materials (varies by project) by Friday, March 27, at 11:59 pm. If applying to more than one project (recommended, as this will increase your likelihood of being able to enroll), include a ranking of your preferences.
Available Projects
More projects will be added later in the semester.
The application form will be available on Thursday, March 12, 2026, and will close on Friday, March 27, 2026
The practicum in medical humanities provides Rice undergraduates pursuing the Medical Humanities minor a two-semester opportunity to assist in research at various institutions within the Texas Medical Center, giving them valuable experience in a variety of medical and public health settings, research institutes, and centers. The program identifies faculty and researchers in the Texas Medical Center who are interested in mentoring undergraduates and are currently researching topics with medical humanities components or perspectives. Students apply in the spring semester for projects beginning the following academic year and are matched with projects. Students also meet regularly as a class taught by a Rice faculty member and complete course assignments. Students will earn 6 credits for the academic year (MDHM 402 & MDHM 403). This practicum counts toward the Medical Humanities minor.
Community partners interested in mentoring a student may submit a project that has a clear medical humanities component. The community partner submission form will be posted on this page in January of each year. A previous version of the form that may be lightly modified may be found here: https://rice.app.box.com/file/1789445497785
Students may find projects for the following academic year and application instructions on this page in February of each academic year.
Previous projects may be found below.
Eligibility
The Medical Humanities practicum is open to all Rice continuing undergraduate students who have declared the Medical Humanities minor, completed MDHM 201: Introduction to Medical Humanities, and taken at least nine credit hours in departments within the School of Humanities (including MDHM courses) or in classes that count as electives towards the minor.
To international students — although this is a course and not an internship, because work will take place off campus and inside the United States, it may endanger your student visa. Consult with OISS before registering.
Selection
Students may find the call for the following year’s projects posted on this page in February each academic year. Students then apply for each project that interests them, keeping in mind that many projects are very competitive. It is recommended that students apply for at least three projects. The 3+ projects may be in the year-long practicum and/or in the MDHM430 practicum.
Once all application materials are confirmed, applicants may be contacted directly by the project directors for an interview. Project directors cannot determine your placement in their project.
In April, after all interviews have been completed, finalists will be contacted by Fatima Bazan Mota, Program Administrator, or Dr. Melissa Bailar, Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of the Medical Humanities Program, with their project placement. At that point, participants will be approved for enrollment into the associated fall course MDHM 402 (3 credits). The Rice faculty member teaching the course will need to enter a registration override for you to be able to enroll.
During the late spring semester or during the summer, students are expected to complete all required badging, clearance processes, and paperwork required by their partner organization. Onboarding must be completed one full week before the fall semester begins. Please contact Dr. Bailar (melba@rice.edu) if you encounter any difficulties.
See a listing of previous projects >
For all practicum questions, please contact:
Dr. Melissa Bailar | Associate Director and Senior Lecturer of Medical Humanities | Rice University | School of Humanities | melba@rice.edu
Fatima Bazan Mota | Undergraduate Program Administrator | Rice University | School of Humanities | fb55@rice.edu
Once you have been matched with a project, MDHM faculty will be in touch to submit the registration override so that you may register for MDHM 402 or MDHM 430.
Deadline for sponsors to submit projects: Friday, February 27, 2026
Applications will open on Thursday, March 12, 2026
Deadline to apply: Friday, March 27, 2026, at 11:59 pm
Students can use a single form to apply for multiple projects, including both one-semester practicum projects and year-long practicum projects.
All applications will require:
- A 250-word statement of interest for each project to which you are applying. The paragraph should indicate: Why you are interested in the particular project; any coursework, research, or experience that has contributed to your interest in the project; and of the skills that the project may have listed as necessary, which you have and which you will need to acquire.
- A brief cover letter appropriate for all projects to which you are applying that indicates your areas of interest in medical humanities, any previous research experience, and any other relevant experience that prepares you for medical humanities research.
- Resume
- Unofficial transcript
More projects will be added later in the semester.
The application form will be available on Thursday, March 12, 2026
MDHM 402 & 403, and MDHM 430 Practicum Options, Academic Year 2026-2027
- Independent Practicum - One semester or Year-long
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Students may propose a practicum if they have made arrangements to work with an organization, hospital, or individual and will conduct research that relates to medical humanities (in terms of both methods and questions). The proposed practicum must include work with individuals outside of Rice for at least some of the time and have an experiential learning component. Students should expect to spend 8 hours a week on the work and reflective aspects of the practicum (the equivalent of 3 credit hours in an upper-level course), in addition to regular class meetings and meetings with the instructor.
In lieu of a cover letter, please submit a description of the experiential learning aspect the student will gain. This can take many forms, from working alongside archivists or policy writers, to providing patient care, to contributing to an established research project at a hospital (to mention a few examples). Indicate if the student will be joining a structured research endeavor undertaken by the partnering organization (i.e. an existing grant-funded project), if the student will be working on independent research of their own design, or something in-between. (approx. 250-300 words).
Students must include the contact information of the project PI or other mentor who has agreed to supervise the student’s work.
Medical Humanities faculty will contact students about proposed independent projects to request further information after an initial review.
- American College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine - One semester, repeatable
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Students in this practicum will spend about 4-5 hours per week shadowing practitioners and students at the American College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (https://acaomhealthcare.com/). You will observe patients being treated and be paired with a mentor who can explain the treatments and answer questions you have about holistic medicine. Students must formulate their own research question to pursue, under the guidance of the practicum faculty. In addition, they will contribute to a literature review and interview practitioners to create informational materials for the College. Students will be required to complete some HIPAA online training (approximately 6 hours) before the semester begins.
- Radiation Effects and Events - One semester, repeatable
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Selected students will work with Dr. Armin Weinberg (https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/armin-weinberg), faculty at Semey Medical University in Kazakhstan, librarians at the Texas Medical Center Library’s archives, and other individuals who have studied the health, social, political, and personal effects of radiation exposure from nuclear bombs (including their extensive testing in Kazakhstan), nuclear accidents, and nuclear waste. Depending on the status with Russia and Ukraine, students may talk with researchers there as well to learn about different approaches to medical treatment and obstacles to effective care. Students will assist with research into international medical partnerships; conduct interviews for the archive on radiation effects and events; work with authors on editing essays for journal publications; and/or other research-related tasks. Students will have the opportunity to talk and work with a range of experts from the U.S., Kazakhstan, Japan, and elsewhere. Students must have prior research experience in any discipline, strong organizational and time-management skills, and professional communication proficiency. This practicum may be taken for one or two semesters.
- Speaking with One Voice - One semester, repeatable
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Focus: Health Disparities, Oral History, and Community Advocacy
By addressing health disparities through collaboration across various sectors—including community advocates, researchers, and policymakers—the Intercultural Cancer Council (ICC) played a crucial role in shaping systemic change. Working with Dr. Armin Weinberg, students will capture oral histories from key figures involved in the ICC and assist in expanding the archived materials at the McGovern Historical Research Center (TMC Archives). This project deepens understanding of the intersection between healthcare policy, social justice, and community advocacy.
Student Responsibilities & Deliverables:
- Archival Research: Review the historical context of the Council and the roles of individuals within the ICC collections at the TMC Archives.
- Oral History: Prepare informed interview questions and create a structured interview guide that provides an overview of individual roles, experiences with specific initiatives, and key challenges faced.
- Digital Preservation: Prepare and format oral histories for inclusion in the digital archives.
- DAHSHA Connection: Develop a Translational Study Guide that connects the ICC’s historical archives to a contemporary health equity issue. High-quality guides may be selected for contribution to the Dialogues Across Health Science Humanities and the Archives (DAHSHA) at Rice and the McGovern Historical Center, bridging archival lessons with modern-day advocacy.
- The Handbook of Texas Medicine - One semester, repeatable
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Students in this practicum will research, write, and publish at least one entry for an online encyclopedia, The Handbook of Texas Medicine, and revise an existing article. Students may select a topic that has been identified as a priority for the handbook or may suggest a new one. Topics include the histories of hospitals and clinics (including those with non-Western approaches), health organizations, medical journals, remedies, and individual healthcare professionals. Of particular interest are histories of organizations providing healthcare to vulnerable populations. Students work closely with Dr. Bailar and the Handbook of Texas’ Managing Editor. Students may also meet with the head of the Texas Medical Center Library’s archives to learn archival research skills and explore relevant collections. Students will meet as needed with other community members who can contribute insights to their topics. Students must have strong writing and time management skills. This is designed as a one-semester practicum, but students may take it a second semester to complete another entry.
- History of Medicine and Faith in the Texas Medical Center - ISH - One semester, repeatable
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The Institute for Spirituality and Health is a founding member institution of the Texas Medical Center. The people who developed this, the largest medical center in the world, ensured that faith and spirituality were represented and promoted here from the very beginning.
Students who choose this topic will have the opportunity to design their own historical research project based primarily on the Institute’s modest historical archive, much of which was recently digitized. Drawing upon newsletters, meeting minutes, and other resources, students can pose and pursue original historical questions about the relationship between medicine and religion in this extraordinary place and enhance our understanding of the contexts, concerns, innovations, pressures, and resources that have shaped this institution over the past seventy years. Students will develop archival research skills, including digitization, identifying and investigating historical questions, analyzing texts and graphic documents. Research progress and results may be presented in a slide presentation, poster, or scholarly written format allowing for further skills-building in digital media, graphic design, and academic writing. At the end of the semester, students will report on the progress and results of their research to a diverse audience of stakeholders at the Institute during our end-of-semester luncheon.
Participants will receive (approximately) bi-weekly virtual mentorship and guidance from ISH staff members, on weeks when their regular practicum class does not meet. Mentorship from ISH staff will cover all aspects of the project. Communication between meetings is always welcome.
- Diabetes Education in Faith Communities - One semester, repeatable
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Are you passionate about health equity and/or community-based participatory research? The Center for Faith and Public Health (CFPH) at the Institute for Spirituality and Health (ISH) partners with and empowers faith communities to improve health outcomes among their congregations and promote a holistic approach to wellbeing.
Practicum students who select this topic will engage in meaningful qualitative research with faith community members and program facilitators participating in our diabetes education programs. The objective is to evaluate the impact of our community-based diabetes education program and understand individuals’ experiences of disease, health, and faith.
Research Process:
Diabetes management classes run concurrently on an approximate six-week rotation. The proposed workflow below is to guide students in fitting into that rotation throughout the semester. It is not intended as a strict schedule. Students may also need to be flexible if diabetes education program schedules should change.
Possible tasks
- Develop a focus group research protocol
- Administer/Facilitate focus group research
- Analyze and present findings from focus group research
- Develop and/or refine program evaluation questionnaires
- Manage and Analyze questionnaire data
Participants will receive (approximately) bi-weekly virtual mentorship and guidance from ISH staff members, on weeks when their regular practicum class does not meet. Mentorship from ISH staff will cover all aspects of the project. Communication between meetings is always welcome.
- Mental Health Research and Education - Year-long
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The Veterans Administration (VA) has a strong commitment to improving Veterans’ mental health while supporting mental health clinicians. The South Central Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers (SC MIRECC) focuses on promoting equity in engagement, access, and quality of mental health care for Veterans facing barriers to care, especially rural and underserved Veterans. The SC MIRECC’s mission works synergistically with the VA’s commitment to improve mental health care by developing and disseminating evidence based educational material, tools and interventions that focus on improving mental health care.
This research opportunity is specifically with the education core of the SC MIRECC. Examples of recent projects with undergraduate interns include: creation of the Veterans Wellness Guide, A Veteran's Guide to Discussing STORES: Secure Storage to Reduce Suicide Risk and development of a cultural humility geriatric education module. The interprofessional education team has members from: Psychiatry, Social Psychology, and Clinical Psychology. The student would be involved in the development of educational materials along with their dissemination and evaluation. There are ample opportunities for students to write mentored manuscripts and poster presentations. Students can learn more about the educational efforts of the SC MIRECC by visiting the site, http://www.mirecc.va.gov/visn16/education.asp
Possible tasks:
- Lit review
- Educational content creation
- Manuscript/poster presentation creation
This project presents an opportunity to advance the student’s skills with creation of educational materials, dissemination, evaluation, and scholarly writing. Students will also be exposed to the current mental health research. Students will have opportunities for manuscript writing and presentations.
- Productive Disagreement: Exploring Conflict, Collaboration, and Innovation in a High-Performing Multidisciplinary Heart Center - Year-long
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This project at Texas Children's Hospital explores how clinicians in a high-performing multidisciplinary heart center navigate differing clinical perspectives when caring for patients with complex cardiac disease. Advanced cardiac care frequently involves uncertainty, rapidly evolving therapies, and contributions from multiple specialties, including cardiology, cardiac surgery, cardiac intensive care, anesthesia, and nursing. In these settings, differing opinions about diagnosis, management, or candidacy for advanced therapies are common and often necessary to refine decision-making and advance patient care. While conflict in healthcare is often framed negatively, this project examines how constructive disagreement can function as an important feature of collaborative practice in complex medical environments.
The larger research study will use narrative interviews with multidisciplinary clinicians to explore how disagreement emerges, how teams interpret and manage these moments, and how differing perspectives ultimately shape clinical decisions. The student would focus on obtaining narratives from clinicians, analyzing how clinicians describe disagreement, authority and collaboration.
Possible tasks:
- Conduct background literature review related to conflict in healthcare environments.
- Develop semi-structured interviews
- Conduct in-depth interviews with clinicians to describe conflict situations, what happened and what worked to provide qualitative data and practical insights.
- Analyze interviews to identify codes and themes through qualitative data analysis.
- Previous interviewing experience or experience with coding and conducting thematic analysis of qualitative data would be helpful.
The student will gain experience in medical humanities and qualitative research methods, including literature review, narrative analysis, and thematic coding of interview data. The student will explore how clinicians describe and interpret disagreement in a multidisciplinary heart center, gaining insight into the cultural, ethical, and relational aspects of complex medical decision-making. This work will deepen the student’s understanding of how language, professional identity, and institutional culture shape communication and collaboration in high-stakes clinical environments. The student would work towards abstract presentation at a national conference and manuscript publication.
- The Chabot Will See You Now: Concurrent Caregiver and Trainee Usage of Social Media, Technology, and AI Tools in Children with Systemic and Neuronal Inflammatory Conditions - Year-long
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Institution and Location: Texas Children’s Hospital
Over 10 years ago Eric Topol, MD predicted a medical world where the patient’s journey would be democratized by easily accessible technology. The project mentor, Dr. Muscal, is a senior pediatric rheumatologist who has observed both caregiver and medical trainee utilization of “chatbots” daily. However, there currently is a paucity of literature on AI usage by parents of children with rare conditions.
During practicum, students will learn about how technology is changing paradigms of the doctor/patient/family relationship. They will assist the mentor in surveys of technology usage of trainees (pediatrics’ residents and BCM medical students) and the caregivers of children being assessed/treated for traditional rheumatic disorders and novel neuroinflammatory conditions. They will collect concurrent sets of surveys for the same caregiver/treatment team “dyad” and will compile descriptive statistics on technology usage and assess potential predictors of the usage in the pediatric rare disease “space”.
Survey questions asked will relate to the comfort and frequency of technology usage by caregivers and trainees (with focus on chatbots such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, MS Copilot, and OpenEvidence). The surveys will also investigate for which tasks these groups use such technology, the emotional consequences of technology usage (i.e. reducing or exacerbating anxiety), and awareness of how the others are using these technologies.
Students must demonstrate professionalism, compassion in interacting with caregivers of potentially ill children, excellent time management, and solid organization.