Rhodes College is being awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) grant in the amount of $502,946 for research conducted by Dr. Qian Shen, assistant professor of biology. The award for the project titled “The Molecular Basis For Carbon Dioxide Sensing And Response In Dimorphic Fungi” will be distributed over three years and will involve students from Rhodes College and LeMoyne-Owen College.

Rhodes College has joined the national Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, deepening its commitment to creating access to higher education for incarcerated people. The group cultivates and supports college-in-prison programs in partnership with colleges and universities across the country. It was established in 2009 by the Bard Prison Initiative at New York’s Bard College. Rhodes is the Consortium’s first institution in the South.

Rhodes is one of the “Best Colleges in America 2024,” according to Money, and has received four out of five stars based on the company’s unique star system. Colleges were scored in three areas: quality, affordability, and future earning potential.

Recent Rhodes College graduate Janay Kelley ’24 has curated the Threaded Legacies exhibition currently on view at Memphis’ Cossitt Library. The exhibition is a result of a project titled “Threading Legacy: Artistry, Ritual, and Southern Black Women Lineages” that Kelley worked on in 2023 as a fellow in the eight-week Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies.

Rhodes College visitors often become enamored when stepping on the picturesque campus for the first time, so it is no surprise that the college is among Architectural Digest’s “64 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America.” The publication notes the college’s “beautiful wooded campus with uniformly Collegiate Gothic buildings made of Arkansas sandstone, Vermont slate, and Indiana limestone.”

Dr. Shana Stoddard, associate professor of chemistry at Rhodes College, has been selected to receive the 2024 Lloyd N. Ferguson Young Scientist Award for Excellence in Research from the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. She will be presented the award at the organization's national conference in September.

While students at Rhodes College, alums Robyn Barrow ’15 (art history) and Alexandra Cronin ’15 (English) bonded over the love of books, creative writing, and good food. Now the author duo, whose pen name is Quinn Connor, has published a new book titled The Pecan Children.

Among student opportunities at Rhodes are work experiences in other countries through the Mertie Buckman, Morelle Legge, Wasfy Iskander, and William Theodore Eckles international internship programs.

Rhodes College is among the “50 Best Value Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States 2024 For International Students” published by Study Abroad Aide. In addition, Rhodes has earned a distinguished position in the top 33 percentage of Best Value universities/colleges worldwide.

Artwork by Brooklyn-based artist Esther Ruiz is being featured in a solo exhibition titled Uncharted at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT. The artist received a bachelor’s degree in studio art from Rhodes in 2011, and her work has been reviewed in publications including Art News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.