CAS Alumni Highlights 

Anthropology

ACE MADJLESI, a graduate of the MA program, is soon to finish Medical School! When reached for comment, she had this to say:

“When I finished my MA in anthropology, I went straight to work with Dr. Ruthbeth Finerman, Dr. Lynda Sagrestano, and Dr. Joy Clay at the Center for Research on Women (CROW) at the University of Memphis. While there, I worked in medical anthropology/public health research, which brought me into close contact with physicians and patients. I realized that I wanted a job that would allow me to directly provide services while keeping the door open for future research, thus addressing healthcare disparities on both an individual and systemic level. And to be quite frank, I met a lot of doctors who didn’t seem to care about their patients, and I knew I could do a better job.

When I decided to go to medical school, I was 25 years old and hadn’t had a biology class since 10th grade. While working at CROW, I was able to use a UofM staff scholarship to take one class per semester until I met the prerequisites for medical school. I also started working at the student-run free clinic, Clínica Esperanza, where I was able to put my cultural competency to use to conduct outreach and provide services to undocumented patients.

Medical school has been incredibly difficult - academically, physically, and emotionally - but the finish line is in sight, and I am eager to start treating patients as a physician.”

Ace will be graduating Medical School in May 2022, and she has already finished her clinical clerkships and board exams. She starts her residency in late March of 2022 in Family Medicine, which includes adult primary care, pediatrics, and OBGYN. Please help us congratulate her!

NADINE MCLEAN (She/Her) is a graduate of the MA program (2018) who is now working as a Research Manager at ALSAC. We reached out to her to check in, and here’s what she had to say! 

(Interview conducted by Crys Riles, current MA student)

Crys: Would you mind discussing your area of interest in the field of anthropology?

Nadine: My focus is design anthropology. My goal entering grad school was to use anthropological theories and methods to shape the future and I've spent several years figuring out how best to do that.

C: How did your training in the UM Department of Anthropology program help you achieve your goals in this field?

N: My grad school experience gave me the training, experience and connections I needed to pursue a career in innovation. But it also offered theoretical frameworks to help me understand and challenge the inherently exploitative nature of business (a work in progress).

C: What is your favorite thing about anthropology as a discipline?

N: As a Caribbean anthropologist, my favorite thing to do is engage with scholars and colleagues who fall outside of the traditional anthropological canon. We wish Nadine the best in her career and life!

EMMA HUGHES, who graduated from the department last semester with her Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology, is now working as a Field Tech with Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research based in Huntsville, AL. You can read more about their work HERE. Congratulations Emma! 

LEXI WADE, a recent graduate of the MA in Applied Anthropology program, is now working as a UX (User Experience) Researcher for AutoZone. Congratulations! 

Department of Computer Science

DR. STAN FRANKLIN (1949) graduated from the then Memphis State College with a BS in mathematics and a minor in physics in 1949. After leaving for several years, he returned to have a long and exceptional tenure at the UofM as a faculty member and chairman in Mathematical Sciences and Computer Science Departments and was an original founder of the Institute for Intelligent Studies.

He officially retired in December of 2013 at the age of 81 after more than forty years of service to the university. His research has continued after retirement, yielding over all almost 300 published papers that have, as of this morning, been cited 13179 times.

For the past twenty-five years, his research has been on cognitive modeling (how minds work) using our LIDA model. The work has been well received as attested to by close to 500 citations a year in recent years and several entries in Wikipedia (Stan Franklin, LIDA (cognitive architecture), sequential space. Read more >>>

NAGA GURUMOORTHY (MS 1997) Industrial Advisory Board member and department alum recently facilitated a gift by Intel in the amount of $36K. The gift will be applied towards several diversity initiatives, including sponsoring ten of the department's Diversity in Computer Science scholarships, sponsoring the summer Creative Game Design Camp for high-school students (with coverage of camp tuition for low-income participants), providing industry-based projects for students to work on, and providing access to the Intel Developers Cloud and data center cluster for faculty and student use.  https://www.memphis.edu/cs/pdfs/newsletter_s22.pdf 

Department of Psychology 

The College has received a rare PhD level fellowship/scholarship thanks to alumna BETTY SHADISH (BS, Psychology). The EDITH and WILLIAM CECIL DUKE FELLOWSHIP (named in memory of her parents), will benefit students who are PhD candidates in clinical psychology and plan to work with veterans or families of veterans. Betty is retired from the Veteran’s Administration (VA). During her time at the VA, she supervised students in their internship and worked with the Department of Psychology faculty to sponsor 5 workshops over the years. 

She continues to work part-time in her private clinical practice. Betty also created another scholarship (undergraduate, university-wide), in memory of her brother, Cecil, for students with disabilities. Cecil lost his mobility due to an accident, but he had a great outlook on life. With the help of Betty and his parents, he was able to not only get his undergraduate degree at the UofM, but finished law school and practiced in Memphis. Thank you!

World Languages and Literature 

Sophia Hahn

Graduation Date: May 2022

Major: World Languages (German)

Sophia Hahn graduated with a major in World Languages and Literatures (German) and a minor in American Sign Language in May 2022. She is currently enrolled in the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at The University of Memphis and participates in the Peer Power program with Melrose High School. She also tutors English at Southwest Tennessee Community College. Her study abroad experience in Bremen, Germany, inspired her to become a secondary school teacher of German, and she intends to launch a German program at Melrose this fall.