The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center′s Mission
The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center empowers people to create social change in Memphis. The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center provides opportunities that empower Rhodes faculty, staff, and students to address issues of public concern in Memphis and the Mid-South. The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center creates social change by raising public awareness about social issues, encouraging deliberate and reflective dialogue, and community-based research, teaching, and scholarship.

Our Memphis Centered Lecture Series is a public lecture series geared toward promoting understanding and scholarship happening in and about Memphis and the region. The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center collaborates with community partners and other institutions of higher education in the region to promote research, teaching, and scholarship.
Upcoming Memphis Centered events
Friday, October 13th @ 6pm, Blount Auditorium, Buckman Hall - Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers who Persist in Place with Brooks Lamb
Monday, October 30th @ 6pm, location TBA - Dr. Cookie Woolner
To receive notifications on all our events, follow us on Facebook.

In partnership with department liaisons, The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center supports faculty curriculum development centered around activities that expand connections between the classroom and hands-on learning in Memphis communities.

The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center offers two student fellowships.
Applications for the 2024-2025 academic year fellowships are now open: Apply today.
The Fellowship in the Arts is a paid, project-based fellowship designed to promote creative works of art in partnership with local artists or arts organizations. Students work with faculty mentors to complete projects in studio art, performing art, or digital art. Faculty mentors also receive a stipend.
The Turley Scholars Fellowship is an immersive, community-engagement fellowship designed to collaborate with community-based organizations to promote positive, lasting social change. Students may receive academic credit for participating in activities that expand connections between classroom experience and real-world experience.

The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center has hosted several conferences and events geared towards empowering people to create social change in Memphis and the Mid-South. Below are some examples:

If you are interested in staying up-to-date on The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center events, including our public lectures and conferences, please follow us on Facebook, The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center. You can also join our email list by contacting our Program Coordinator.
Past Programs
- Journalism in Pursuit of Justice: From Ida B. Wells to MLK50
- Community Response to a Global Health Crisis
- Memphis Colleges Service Coalition: Prison Reform and Mass Incarceration
- Healthcare Disparities in Medical Training
- Understanding Environmental Justice & Environmental Racism
- Are You Family? Black and LGBT+ in the Midsouth
- In This Place Speaker Series: 200 Years of Race & Place
- Why Bushwick Bill Matters
- Two Sides of the Same Coin
Academic Connection Examples
- Beale Street: Past and Present
- Elvis Presley and America
- The History of LGBTQ+ Memphis
- Intro to Memphis
- The State of Memphis Housing Summit 2019
Experiential Learning Examples
Past Events
- Back in Memphis with the Country Blues Again: A Symposium on the Past, Present, and Future of the Memphis Country Blues Festivals
- From Civil War to Civil Rights: Race, Region, and the Making of Public Memory
- In collaboration with Mike Curb Institute, The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center hosted the Beale Street Symposium and Memphis: Art and Place Conference
- The Pain into Power Symposium
- The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center co-sponsored the Rhodes Health Equity Symposium featuring Harriet Washington
The Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center in the News
Event coverage can be found across the following websites:
- The Sou'wester (An interview with Yolanda McNair, whose daughter was killed by Detroit police)
- WREG-TV (Families of police shooting victims stop in Memphis to talk empowerment)
- Fox-13 (Rhodes College hosts 'Pain into Power: Weekend Empowerment' symposium)
- Tri-State Defender (TSDRadio: Moving to turn pain into power)
- The Daily Memphian (Families of police shooting victims gather for weekend event)
- The Commercial Appeal (Old Town Road)