Dark Matter: STEM and the Arts in Black Houston(s)

Houston’s 1961 rebrand as ‘Space City, USA’ owes much to Rice University's historic research collaborations with NASA from the early months of the agency’s founding. Because of this partnership, ‘Houston’ will forever be the first human utterance broadcasted from the surface of the moon. Since then, ever-more ‘giant steps’ have been made both in terms of Houston-based STEM research as well as the popular cultural impact of H-Town’s historically unique forms of artistic expression. This seldom acknowledged intersection of critical STEM-based research and the Arts in Black Houston(s) calls attention to several questions: Precisely what forms of social life have Black communities negotiated and redefined, created and maintained in the context of uncertain technological and ecological futures? How do residents establish their sense of place in the city, and in what ways might Black Houstonian cultural productions continue to influence research innovations in ‘H-Town’s’ burgeoning healthcare and cultural industries?

Following the National Science Foundation’s definition, we approach the question of STEM broadly, to include research that spans the social sciences, welcoming research in such fields as sociology, anthropology, psychology and economics. To that end, Dark Matter: STEM & The Arts in Black Houston(s) will bring together researchers, scientists, artists, and scholar-activists at Rice and across metropolitan Houston whose work explores a number of emergent challenges posed by the community’s uncertain technological and environmental futures. Through this symposium, we aim to: (1) produce new knowledges related to Black Houston(s), and publish this information in an edited volume; and, (2) provide a platform for scholarly and community engagement and collaboration.