Mia Harris ’23, a biology major from Hermitage, TN, got to have a unique experience this summer as an Animal Behavior and Conservation Fellow at the Memphis Zoo. As part of this Rhodes fellowship, she was involved in daily behavioral data collection on four female African elephants. Harris became interested in the zoo’s art enrichment activities for animals and was provided with an art piece painted by Gina, matriarch of the zoo’s African elephant herd. Harris then painted around Gina’s work to create the face of Tyranza, who was the herd’s previous matriarch and the oldest female elephant in North America when she passed away in 2020 at age 56.

Rhodes College welcomes 20 new faculty to its distinguished roster for the 2021-2022 academic year in the areas of anthropology and sociology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and computer science, modern languages and literatures, neuroscience, political science, psychology, religious studies, and urban studies.

Dr. Charles L. Hughes, director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College, conducts research, publishes articles, and gives talks on topics related to the recording industry of the U.S. South. Now he has published a new book, Why Bushwick Bill Matters, about a member of the Houston hip-hop trio Geto Boys who gained mainstream popularity in the late 1980s.