The Mike Curb Institute for Music at Rhodes College's New Arboretum Records label has released a new arrangement of "America the Beautiful" that recasts the song in Memphis and the Mississippi Delta and features Bobby Rush, Eddie Cotton, A-list Memphis musicians, and Rhodes College students.

Dr. Russell Wigginton, a member of the Rhodes Class of 1988, has been named president of the National Civil Rights Museum. He will begin the new position August 1. Wigginton’s professional career also spans more than two decades at Rhodes, having served as vice president of student life, vice president of external programs, vice president for college relations, assistant to the president for community relations, and faculty member in the history department.

Carroll D. Stevens, J.D., took office today as interim president of Rhodes College. A member of the Rhodes College Board of Trustees, President Stevens is one of the country’s top innovative leaders in education. Since 2013, he has served as president of the public benefit corporation Ardeo Education Solutions, and he recently served as vice president for advancement at Claremont McKenna College.

Dr. Rashna Richards, professor of English and chair of media studies at Rhodes College, has been promoted to dean for faculty reviews and assessment effective July 1, 2021. She has served as director for faculty reviews since 2019 as part of the Office of Academic Affairs’ leadership teams.

Environmental science major Claire McGuire ’20 was a member of a research team at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, in 2018, focused on recording and analyzing microplastic pollution in New England salt marshes. Now, she is one of the authors of “Salt Marsh Sediments Act As Sinks For Microplastics And Reveal Effects Of Current And Historical Land Use Changes” published in the international peer-reviewed journal Environmental Advances.

In September 2019, Rhodes College’s Liberal Arts in Prison Program began its first for-credit classes—a four-course, 12-credit sequence called Culture and Values—with inmates of the Women’s Therapeutic Residential Center (WTRC), a 1,200-bed facility operated by the Tennessee Department of Correction in Henning, TN. In May, five participants received an Undergraduate Certificate in Liberal Arts from Rhodes at a graduation ceremony held at WTRC.

Dr. Kimberly Kasper, assistant professor of anthropology at Rhodes College, is a contributor to Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice, a collection of essays edited by Hanna Garth and Ashanté M. Reese and published by University of Minnesota Press. The book recently was selected for “Public Picks 2021” by Public Books, which is an online magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship. Editors chose books that “dazzled, challenged, and inspired” them most over the past year.

Vice President for Student Life Dr. Meghan Harte Weyant has announced Jim Duncan as the next Director of Athletics for Rhodes College, effective July 5.

Rhodes College will expand its Media Studies Program this fall with a major in media studies. Approved by faculty in April 2021, the new major offers a critical understanding of the history, theory, and production of visual media from film to TV to digital and social media. Although a minor in film and media studies has existed for more than two decades, student interest and supporting data from research conducted as part of the college’s strategic planning process factored into the consideration of media studies as a major.

Rhodes alumna Shavonne Bragg ’19 is the recipient of the 2021 Shell Urban Science Educator Development Award, presented by The National Science Teaching Association and sponsored by Shell. A science teacher at Double Tree Elementary School in Memphis, Bragg is among top science educators from around the country to receive the award.