News and information about the Rhodes classroom experience.

Prof. Nelson is a recognized Presidential scholar and the Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes. Among the courses he teaches is The American Presidency.

A successful project completed for a course often can inspire a student to dig deeper into a subject through research, or even apply for an internship to further their knowledge. That’s what happened to rising senior Jalen Essick. As part of the Intro to Urban Studies course taught by Prof. Shaolu Yu, he prepared a research paper and presentation about the Memphis International Airport’s impact on the city of Memphis’ economic vitality. Now, he is an intern at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

Twenty Rhodes College students recently immersed themselves in the sights and sounds of Ecuador through the SPAN 209/309: Spanish in Latin America course taught by Dr. Eric Henager and Dr. Bruce Milton Jackson Jr. of Rhodes Spanish Studies, in coordination with professors from Ecuador.

A team of three rising seniors at Rhodes—Thu-Trang Nguyen, Jana Turner, and Jiaxuan (Jade) Yang—recently earned the second-place prize of $500 in a data visualization contest for college students presented by the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. The Rhodes submission for the national competition was part of a midterm project in the Math 235: Data Visualization course taught by Dr. Erika David Parr in spring 2022.

Dr. Shana Stoddard, assistant professor of chemistry and director for student mentoring at Rhodes College, is featured in the April/May issue of ASBMB Today about inspiring students to engage in transformative research that extends beyond the classroom.

Students enrolled in Prof. Scott Newstok’s Special Topics seminar in the fall of 2021 became intimately acquainted with Michel de Montaigne, a revolutionary writer and thinker and one of Shakespeare’s major influences. In conceiving the course, Newstok approached Associate Director of Barret Library William Short to see whether they could create a curatorial experience for the students, focusing on themes in Montaigne's writing. The successful exhibition in Barret Library brought the writer to life for both the students and spectators.

A classroom discussion led by Dr. Charles McKinney, the Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Africana Studies at Rhodes and associate professor of history, is airing during Black History Month on NBCLX, a digital news network owned by NBCUniversal. Taped during the 2021 fall semester, the broadcast focuses on how McKinney and his students are tackling uncomfortable conversations about America’s past and present.

Dr. Marion Lang, assistant professor of computer science at Rhodes College, has been awarded a one-year visiting research scientist position at Google in Sunnyvale, CA. Lang is working with the distributed data processing and analytics group, which builds large, Google-scale distributed data processing systems. “I came to Rhodes a few years ago because I loved the balance between research and teaching that Rhodes emphasizes,” says Lang. “I’m grateful to Rhodes for the ability to take this time away to do computer science research at industry scale and am excited for the opportunity to strengthen my—and Rhodes’ computer science department’s—connection to Google.”

Although robots have been designed to do simple repetitive tasks in the home and workplace, there is more research to be done before robots can perform more difficult autonomous tasks. Computer science majors Shane Elder ’21, Osman Celikok ’22, and Marisa Hudspeth ’22 have been working with Prof. Ross Sowell on human-robot interaction research. Also, the students have had their work supported by summer fellowships.

Rhodes College faculty have a strong investment in training future scientists, according to Dr. Larryn Peterson, associate professor of chemistry. With a National Science Foundation grant, she and her team of students have been conducting research that is yielding big benefits. Erykah Starr ’20, Alexa Alana ’20, Ryan Marasco ’21, and Skyler Cochrane ’18 share their experiences on the team.