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Rhodes Scholarship Finalists
Anisha Mittal and Jesus Murillo, graduating seniors at Fisk University, in Nashville, Tennessee and members of the W.E.B. Du Bois General University Honors Program, have been named finalists for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Named after British colonial statesman Cecil J. Rhodes, the scholarship will fully fund 2-3 years of graduate study at the University of Oxford, in Oxford, England, in any field of interest to the scholarship winners. Since its launch over 115 years ago, the Rhodes Scholarship has become the most coveted of international scholarships. Famous U.S. Rhodes Scholars include former President Bill Clinton, current presidential hopefuls Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg, ABC newscaster George Stephanopoulos, and former U.N. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice. Mittal, who is from Dalton, Georgia, is majoring in biology with a minor in music and was named a Goldwater Scholar earlier this year. Murillo, a political science major from Visalia, California, serves as a student government leader and a chaplain's assistant at Fisk. Dr. Patrick C. Fleming, Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Honors Program, remarked of the two honors students and Rhodes Scholarship finalists: “Anisha and Jesus are leaders on campus and in their community. Both are stellar students with the potential to be global leaders. Despite the university’s prestigious history and the superlative caliber of our students, no Fisk graduate has gone on to become a Rhodes Scholar – yet. The whole campus is pulling for Anisha and Jesus, and we wish them the best of luck!” Mittal and Murillo are among approximately 240 students from the U.S. who have advanced to the final round of the competition. From this number, a total of 32 Americans will be named U.S. Rhodes Scholars.
Garrette Lewis-Thomas at Duke University with book enclosures she created for a rare book collection
Spring 2019 Garrette Lewis-Thomas, a senior psychology and sociology major, was selected as a 2019 Summer Intern for the HBCU Library Alliance Library Conservation/Preservation Internship Program. The Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, in partnership with the HBCU Library Alliance, provides eight fully-funded, eight-week summer internships in library and archives preservation at eight nationally recognized library preservation/ conservation laboratories. Ms. Lewis-Thomas was selected to complete her internship at Duke University Libraries (DUL). During her time at Duke, Ms. Lewis-Thomas received training in photograph preservation, disaster preparedness, and creating archival enclosures for books. Ms. Lewis-Thomas received a cost-of-living stipend, funds for travel, and assistance arranging travel and housing accommodations. Upon her return to Fisk University, Ms. Lewis Thomas received $1,500.00
to complete a preservation/conservation project at the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library. Ms. LewisThomas is the Library’s third student to complete an internship with the Alliance and complete a project at Fisk University. For her project, she will update the library’s current disaster preparedness manual, build a disaster supplies kit, and host a workshop on how to address certain disasters like floods.
Re-housing Panorama photograph of African American Soldiers from WWI from the W.E.B. Du Bois Archive in the Franklin Library Special Collections and Archives
2020-2022 CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship
We are happy to announce that Fisk University will serve as a host institution for the 2020-2022 CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Data Curation for African American Studies. These fellowships are for recent Ph.D's with expertise in any aspect of African American and/or African Studies; salaries, a portion of fringe benefits, and these fellows’ participation in program activities are fully funded through the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) for selected hosts. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supports these fellowships.
