Terrence Gee and family gift to help establish CAAAS postdoctoral fellowship
Gee ’86, a member of the humanities advisory council as well as the Rice council of Trustees, and his wife, Terri, have long been advocates for the humanities at Rice. The Dr. Anthony B. Pinn Postdoctoral Fellowship is designed to attract the greatest and brightest researchers in the humanities and social sciences whose work is relevant to African and African American studies.
“We recognize the vital significance of African and African American studies in today’s world,” Gee said. “Our donation reflects our firm conviction that one should actively back the causes close to their heart, and this field is undeniably one of them.”
“Rice is deeply grateful for Terrence and Terri Gee’s support of the Center for African and African American Studies, and of Rice in general,” President Reginald DesRoches said. “Because of their generosity, we will be able to elevate the center onto an international stage and enhance Rice’s overall reach and impact.”
Gee hopes that this hybrid endowment will attract rising academic stars, propelling the center to prominence and paving the road for additional funding.
“We wanted to invest in rigorous scholarship and dedicated, emerging scholars,” he said. “There is no better place to make that investment than Rice University, and we encourage others to do the same.”
In addition to supporting this objective, Gee said he is thrilled to name the endowment after Anthony Pinn, the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities, professor of religion, and founding director of CAAAS.
“The Center for African and African American Studies is positioned to make major curricular and research contributions that give Rice wide-ranging recognition, and the gift from Terrence and Terri Gee will go a long way in helping the center become a prime location for innovative work,” Pinn said. “I am particularly honored and grateful to have this fellowship in my name. I’m humbled by their thoughtfulness.”
Gee, who hails from Houston, has been part of Rice University’s Humanities Advisory Board since 2013. Additionally, he has been serving as a trustee at Rice since 2017. Throughout the years, he has actively championed interdisciplinary scholarship at the university and played a key role in launching initiatives such as the Civic Humanist and BrainSTEM programs.
Before his current position as the chief information officer at privately held Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, Gee accumulated over 20 years of experience at Accenture, a renowned global management and technology consulting firm. Notably, Coca-Cola Beverages Florida is the fourth-largest Black-owned business in the United States.
