Dr. Scott Newstok, professor of English and executive director of the Spence Wilson Center for Interdisciplinary Humanities at Rhodes College, has been awarded a four-year grant from the State Research Agency of Spain. This award will support his scholarship on the multilingual heritage of early modern English across legal, religious, political, and literary discourses. Newstok’s project was one of 37 funded among 254 applications; in the three-year history of Spain’s research program, he is the second recipient who works in the humanities, and the only recipient from a liberal arts college.
Walmart Executive and Rhodes Alumna Julie Gehrki ’02 to Receive 2025 Sullivan Luminary Award
Julie Gehrki, an alumna of Rhodes College and president of the Walmart Foundation and senior vice president of philanthropy at Walmart, will receive the 2025 Luminary Award presented by the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation at its centennial celebration, set for April 11 in Nashville.
April 08, 2025
Maya Khalife-Hamdan ’25 Presents Honors Project in International Studies at National Conference
Maya Khalife-Hamdan, a senior with a double majoring in international studies and Spanish, presented a poster of her Honors project in international studies at the 82nd Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference held in Chicago April 3-6.
April 08, 2025
Eleanor Ellsworth ’25 Presents Group Research Project at ASIANetwork 2025 Annual Conference
Rhodes senior Eleanor Ellsworth, who is pursuing a double major in biology and Chinese studies, represented her research group at the ASIANetwork 2025 Annual Conference and presented results from their project titled “Asian Foodways in Memphis: Reasons for Rebrands.” The group includes Sophia Burke ’26, Stella Venn ’25, Gwen Williams ’24, and Silvia Flores ’24.
April 07, 2025
Rhodes Giving Day a Success
Members of the Rhodes community celebrated the many paths that lead students to Rhodes and into their futures. Rhodes Giving Day was held April 2-3, and the campaign received 1,210 gifts and raised $236,490.
April 07, 2025
Rhodes Students Discuss Undergraduate Science Research with U.S. Government Officials
Rhodes students Jennifer Bui ’26, Hugh Ferguson ’27, Layla Lammers ’27, Trinity Liaw ’25, and Catherine Prabish ’27 traveled to Washington, D.C., in March to discuss their undergraduate research with U.S. senators and representatives. The trip was part of their participation in the Students Transforming Through Research Advocacy Program presented by The Council on Undergraduate Research.
April 04, 2025
Spence Wilson Center for Interdisciplinary Humanities to Present Conversation on the State of the Humanities
The Spence Wilson Center for Interdisciplinary Humanities at Rhodes College will host a conversation with Dr. Shelly Lowe, former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities on April 24. Lowe will speak on “Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future: The State of the Humanities Today.”
April 04, 2025
Philosophy Major Maya Underwood ’26 takes Unique Route to Medical School
Philosophy major Maya Underwood ’26 is rounding out her liberal arts experience with volunteer work, pre-med education, and musical training. In a year, she will be on her way to George Washington University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences, thanks to Rhodes’ Health Professions Advising Early Selection Program. George Washington University’s search for uncommon students like Underwood and Rhodes’ knack for producing them led to a partnership between the two institutions that allowed her to be accepted into medical school far earlier than most.
April 03, 2025
Anna Claire Tilley ’25 Awarded Distinguished Fellowship to Global Crop Diversity Trust
Anna Claire Tilley, a Rhodes College senior from Fort Smith, AR, has been awarded The Steve and Riea Lainoff Crop Trust Fellowship in Honor of Cary Fowler ’71. She is pursuing a major in urban studies and a minor in environmental studies and will support the work of the resource mobilization and communications teams of the Global Crop Diversity Trust in Bonn, Germany, in August 2025.
April 02, 2025
Rhodes Sophomore Ada Collins Named 2025 Goldwater Scholar
Ada Collins, who is a physics and mathematics major from Greensboro, NC, is among the 441 students from across the United States who have been selected as Goldwater Scholars for the 2025-2026 academic year. The Goldwater Foundation provides scholarships to support college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming the nation’s next generation of natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering research leaders.
March 31, 2025
NEXT PHASE: Rhodes College Team Delivers CubeSat to NASA for Much Anticipated Launch
In 2021, Rhodes announced that its research proposal for a four-inch, cube-shaped satellite named RHOK-SAT was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for its CubeSat Launch Initiative. Now the CubeSat has been delivered to NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it will wait for liftoff this summer.
March 26, 2025