Rhodes College has received a $600,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will be used to (1) hire top-tier, post-doctoral candidates, who will help implement new, leading-edge teaching, technology and research methodologies; (2) establish a team of existing faculty “Innovation Fellows,” who will develop new academic courses and research projects that connect the college with communities in Memphis and throughout the Mid-South; and (3) develop a cohort of student “Engagement and Digital Scholarship Fellows,” who will work directly with both the post-doctoral candidates and current faculty to contribute to the work of the college in ways that complement their classroom education.
“We are extremely grateful to the Mellon Foundation for supporting our efforts to enhance and expand the liberal arts experience at Rhodes,” says Elizabeth Thomas, associate professor of psychology, director of the Urban Studies program, and director of the Memphis Center at Rhodes. “We received the grant in large part because of our successful track record establishing innovative, interdisciplinary offerings such as the Memphis Center, which was seeded with a grant from the Mellon Foundation, and serves as a lively working space where students and faculty collaborate on new and existing projects, and together build a community of engaged scholars who are interested in a wide variety of topics related to the human experience of Memphis and the Mid-South region. With this most recent gift, we will be able to build on our successes and incorporate new methodologies and strategies that will greatly enhance the learning environment for both faculty and students for years to come.”