Phi Alpha Theta | Rhodes College

Phi Alpha Theta (PAT) is a national honor society dedicated to promoting the study of history and recognizing academic excellence among students. The Rhodes College Alpha Epsilon Delta chapter upholds the values of historical inquiry, scholarly research, and intellectual curiosity. Our chapter brings together a diverse community of students who share a passion for understanding the complexities of the past and how they shape our world today. Membership in Phi Alpha Theta is open to all students who have completed twelve credits of history coursework at Rhodes and who have earned at least a 3.3 GPA in history and at least a 3.2 GPA overall.

Rhodes PAT members have presented their work and national and regional conferences, and they regularly have panels at the annual Rhodes Symposium. Our chapter’s award-winning journal, Rhodes Historical Review, published annually in the spring, features some of the best essays written by History majors.

Rhodes Historical Review (Downloadable PDFS)

Honors Research Projects

2023
Patsy Wardlaw
‘The grevaunce that wymmen han in beryng of theire chieldren:’ Emotion and Women’s Childbirth Rituals in Late Medieval England

2020
Joe Angelillo
The Nomination of L.Q.C. Lamar to the Supreme Court: Popular Constitutionalism, the Reconstruction Amendments, and the End of Reconstruction

2020
Jordan Snowden
“The Sherden in His Majesty’s Captivity”: A Comparative Look at the Mercenaries of New Kingdom Egypt

2018
ZongFang Li
China's Alternative: Kang Youwei's Confucian Reforms in the Late Qing Dynasty
2017
Nathaniel Plemons
British Images of West Africa
2014
Phoebe Strom
Defining Dixie: Creating and Deploying Country Music’s Mythic South
2011
Daniel Williford
Colonial Representations, Post-Colonial Aspirations: French Cultural Policy in the Final Decade of the Tunisian Protectorate
2010
Cailin Elise Meyer
Landscape and the Planter Ideal: Planter Class Formation in Fayette County, 1825-1860
2009
Taylor E. Barnes
"An Unprecedented Conversation": The Limits of President Clinton′s Advisory Board on Race
Anthony C. Siracusa, III
Developing an American Ahimsa: The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr.′s Paradigm of Protest
2008
Ashley Cundiff
Contesting the Boundaries of Womanhood: Female Reformers and Sex-Workers in Memphis, 1880-1920
Joseph Doyle
“The Worst Behaved City in the Union” The Impact of the Memphis Riots on Reconstruction Politics