Now Reading: Faculty Books

By Deverly Pérez

Shared Morals: The Role of Moral Rhetoric in Party Politics
by Jae-Hee Jung

In “Shared Morals: The Role of Moral Rhetoric in Party Politics,” Rice professor Jae-Hee Jung challenges the assumption that moral rhetoric in politics is purely divisive. Analyzing Western democracies, she reveals how parties use moral language not just to polarize, but to build trust, explain motives and bridge divides. Drawing on political psychology and comparative data, Jung shows that appeals to shared values can mobilize voters and foster representation, ultimately reframing moral rhetoric as a potential tool for common ground rather than just conflict.

Jae-Hee Jung is assistant professor of political science in the School of Social Sciences at Rice.

Cat Love: A Novel
by Tomás Q. Morín

Narrated by a cat trapped inside its own Schrödinger’s box, “Cat Love” is a dystopian debut novel by Rice professor and Guggenheim fellow Tomás Q. Morín. Imprisoned in a classroom for “Emotional Support Humans” in training, she reminisces about music, poetry and her beloved owner while her captors debate her feline existence. Part elegy, part dark comedy, this surreal meditation interrogates empathy, animal rights and human folly with poetically charged prose.

Tomás Q. Morín is associate professor of creative writing in the School of Humanities and Arts at Rice.

From the Fall 2026 issue of Rice Magazine