National and global news about Rhodes students and alums

Dr. Earl Wright II, who joined Rhodes’ Department of Anthropology and Sociology this year as professor of sociology, has published a new book titled Jim Crow Sociology: The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology. The eye-opening book features the activities and contributions of early African American sociologists at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University, Howard University, and Atlanta University.

At Rhodes, Sarah Eiland ’20 discovered her passion and followed it all the way to Ireland at the University College of Dublin (UCD) where she is pursuing a master’s degree in the school’s Gender, Politics, and International Relations program.

Rhodes College President Marjorie Hass issued a statement regarding Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s ’94 nomination to the Supreme Court.

Deja Walls, a senior biology major at Rhodes College who is interested in pursuing a career as a physician assistant, has been selected as a recipient of the BlueCross Power of We Scholarship. The $10,000 award is funded by the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Foundation.

Dr. Clara Pascual-Argente, L. Palmer Brown Chair in Interdisciplinary Humanities and associate professor of Spanish at Rhodes College, has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant, together with Dr. Emily Francomano of Georgetown University, to support work on an edition and translation of two medieval Iberian narratives about fictional king Apollonius of Tyre. Their work will appear in the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library collection, published by Harvard University Press.

Rhodes College ranks 11th for “Students Most Engaged in Community Service” and is recommended as one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduates to earn their college degree in The Princeton Review’s newest edition of The Best 386 Colleges.

Molly Mulhern has proven that you never really know where a job might take you. The Austin, TX, resident had been working as an event coordinator after graduating from Rhodes in 2018, but she found herself out of a job due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With much of the economy shut down, she wasn’t having success finding employment—until one day she stumbled upon a posting for a candlemaker at a Texas beeswax candle company. What happened next is buzz-worthy.

Tony Eskridge ’20, an urban studies major and former Rhodes Student Government president, has won an Emerson National Hunger Fellowship, an 11-month program that provides unique leadership development opportunities for motivated individuals who wish to make a difference in eliminating hunger and poverty in the United States.

Rhodes biology alumna Emma Selner ’18 has had a manuscript based on her undergraduate research published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. The article, titled “The Effects of Ligand Charge, Orientation and Size on the Binding of Potential Inhibitors for Aldehyde Dehydrogenase,” has applications in treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

Rhodes alumna and Union City, TN, native Allison Bruff ’14 is one of four individuals appointed as a 2020-2021 Supreme Court Fellow, according to an announcement by the Supreme Court Fellows Commission. She was selected as part of a highly competitive national process, culminating with interviews by the Commission in Washington, DC. Each Fellow will serve a one-year term beginning in September 2020.