Richard House Named Head of Humanities & Social Sciences Department

Monday, June 26, 2017
Richard House

Richard House

Dynamic professor and English scholar Richard House has been named head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, starting on July 1. He replaces Terrence Casey, who has returned to full-time teaching at the institute.

A member of the Rose-Hulman faculty since 2001, House is past-president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Professional Communication Society, a global organization dedicated to understanding and promoting communication in engineering, scientific and other technical environments.

House plans to grow and strengthen the department’s degree programs in international studies and economics, and make the arts, humanities and social sciences an integral part of every Rose-Hulman student’s education. He also wants to build new interdisciplinary academic program offerings, including the introduction of a new minor in cognitive science, and provide opportunities for Rose-Hulman students to participate in research and professional development in the department’s fields of study.

House teamed with Rose-Hulman faculty colleagues Richard Layton, Jessica Livingston and Sean Moseley in writing The Engineering Communication Manual, made available by Oxford University Press in 2016, to help engineering students develop their technical communication skills. The team’s research on engineering communication for environmental public policy earned the James Lufkin Award for best paper at the 2014 International Professional Communication Conference.

House also is one of the Rose-Hulman professors who have facilitated the Making Academic Change Happen workshop, providing faculty, staff and administrators from throughout the world the opportunity to learn change management tools that can assist them as they enact change on their own campuses. He specializes in change management strategies that focus on communication.

In the classroom, House teaches courses in American literature, William Shakespeare, sustainability, and communication for engineers and scientists. His current research interests include examining ways the liberal arts can be incorporated into engineering education and how Shakespeare’s literary works have been featured in film and television.

An interest in sustainability and design had House being one of the founders of Rose-Hulman's HERE program, a living-learning community for first-year students interested in sustainability and humanitarian engineering.

House earned a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from Illinois Wesleyan University, and added a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of California, Irv