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Rhodes College
(Memphis, TN)
The
Rhodes Insitute for Regional Studies
Summary
This interdisciplinary program brings together a select group of students
and faculty for eight weeks of summer research on regional community topics.
After an intensive two-week regional studies seminar, students engage
in independent and community-based research under the supervision of faculty
mentors and produce papers that are disseminated in the community.
The Practice
Memphis and the mid-South region afford unique opportunities for Rhodes
students to engage in community-based research. The area’s racial
and cultural diversity, its significant contributions to literature and
music, its pivotal role in the history of civil rights, the prominence
of its national political leaders, and its growing importance as a commercial
and distribution hub make it an ideal community text for research in the
humanities, fine arts, and social sciences. The Rhodes Institute for Regional
Studies brings a select group of students and faculty together to work
on interdisciplinary research projects. Students and faculty spend eight
summer weeks together: two weeks in a faculty-designed seminar on regional
studies; five weeks engaged in independent and community-based research,
interspersed with weekly individual and group meetings; one final week
presenting their work. Interspersed throughout the program are visits
to local and regional sites of significance. Under the supervision of
a faculty mentor, each student produces an 8,000-to-10,000-word research
paper.
Institute faculty come from the academic disciplines of history, political
science, English, religious studies, music, and economics and business
administration. Faculty mentors receive $5,000 stipends for participation.
Student selection occurs through a competitive application process. At
the end of the fall semester, rising juniors and seniors submit proposals
for research projects, which are evaluated by Institute faculty during
early spring. Selected student participants (known as “Rhodes Institute
Fellows”) receive housing, a meal plan, $2500 stipend, and a research
budget.
Effectiveness
Students complete a 61 question evaluation form at the end of the program.
These evaluations reveal a high overall satisfaction rate regarding all
general phases of the program. Specifically, student participants express
their strong agreement (4.81, where 1.0 = strongly disagree and 5.0 =
strongly agree) with the statement, “The first two weeks of the
Institute taught me a great deal about Memphis.” They agree (4.0)
that “the weekly meetings [during weeks three through seven] helped
keep my research on track” and that they “enjoyed getting
together with everyone at the weekly group meetings.” Finally, student
express fairly strong agreement (4.54) with the following statement: “My
research and writing skills improved as a result of this program”
and express a strong overall satisfaction by agreeing (4.36) that they
would “recommend this program to [their] friends.” As the
program expands to include more community-based research projects in the
future, community input will become a part of the evaluation process as
well.
The completed research projects are posted on the Rhodes Institute for
Regional Studies’ web page, and the exemplary papers are published
in the Rhodes Journal of Regional Studies. Institute fellows
are required to present their research during the College’s spring
Undergraduate Research Symposium and are encouraged to submit their work
to appropriate professional journals. Projects are sent to interested
policy makers, journalists, scholars, and religious leaders, in the Memphis
region and across the country.
During the program’s inaugural 2003 session, the Rhodes Institute
created and sustained a community of scholars in a setting with a better
than 3-1 student-faculty ratio. Students learned from each other sharing
about research topics and methods. Institute Fellows gained an understanding
and an appreciation of the city and region in which they live. They made
connections in the community that are invaluable, particularly for students
who decide to settle in the mid-South. The Institute supports these connections
by sponsoring membership for all Institute Fellows in Mpact Memphis, an
organization of local young professionals who seek to promote and improve
the city.
Resources
Click
here for research projects and additional information.
Contact Information
Timothy S. Huebner
Director, Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies
Associate Professor of History
Rhodes College
2000 North Parkway
Memphis, Tennessee 38112
Phone: 901-843-3653
Fax: 901-843-3727
huebner@rhodes.edu
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