A University of Chicago college student is among the 2026 Rhodes Scholars announced this weekend.

Tori Harris, a fourth-year in the College at UChicago, will attend Oxford University in England next fall with a goal of earning a master of science in African Studies and archaeology.

"It's an incredible honor to be selected to study as a Rhodes Scholar," Harris said in a University of Chicago news release. "There's a part of me that feels like this is a little surreal, but I'm excited to be given this opportunity to study what I love at Oxford. I'm hoping to do right by the people who set me on this journey as I move forward in my work."

Harris is the 56th University of Chicago student to be named a Rhodes Scholar, and the third to earn the honor in the past 12 months.

"Tori has not only exhibited remarkable creativity during her time in the College, but also demonstrated the effectiveness of community-based knowledge—a hallmark of public archaeology," Melina Hale, Dean of the College at UChicago, said in the news release. "We're incredibly proud of her and this achievement."

Harris studies anthropology and creative writing at the U of C. She has focused on excavating the legacy of the African diaspora to recover African American culture and history, the university said.

Harris, who grew up in Tulsa, had her first experience with archaeology when she researched and excavated the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the university said.

"My path in archaeology started when I volunteered during the riot's centennial anniversary," Harris said in the release. "I was 16 years old, and had a role in mapping smaller community sites that shaped the city and those neighborhoods for years to come. However, it wasn't until my second year at UChicago that I became interested in African diasporic religious practices and started studying the connection between those practices and the revolutionary theory of those who were enslaved."

The Rhodes House noted that Harris has conducted archaeological excavations elsewhere across the U.S., including New Orleans, where she helped excavate the Duncan Plaza public park. She also served as a research assistant at the Midlow Center for New Orleans Studies and at the Chicago History Museum, the Rhodes House said.

Harris is currently working on her B.A. paper on material culture — the study of the objects, spaces, and resources that people use to define themselves, the U of C said. Harris excavated artifacts at the Woodland Plantation in Louisiana last summer, and she used her creative writing skills to weave the information from the excavation into narratives, the university said.

Harris has also had her creative writing, including a set of poems and short stories, published in Blacklight Magazine.

At Oxford, Harris hopes to lean on the U.K.'s history of public archaeology, which she said has a focus on community involvement that she admires.

"There is a project in the outskirts of Cardiff that uses local volunteers at their archaeological sites to not only help out with research but also to care for the site," Harris said in the release. "It's honestly the reason why I want to be in the U.K. I want to learn what the best way to reach community members is and how to involve them and their local expertise in the discovery of history that is right in their backyards."

Community involvement has come into play in archaeological excavations on which Harris has already worked. The university noted that during the Duncan Park excavation in New Orleans, some area residents came by, including the third great-grandson of a resident who once lived in the neighborhood and is now working with the excavation project himself.

Also among the 2026 Rhodes scholars is William Lieber, a fifth-generation Illinoisan who grew up in Springfield and graduated from Duke University in North Carolina in May. Lieber earned a B.A. in health and incarceration, a program at Duke that involves examining the intersection of medical science, ethics, education, and criminal and restorative justice.

Lieber, who transferred to Duke from Illinois Wesleyan, is focused on advancing prison reform and improving reentry programs and systems for those who have served time, Duke said.

Lieber has already co-led education-focused programs in prisons throughout North Carolina, and worked with Duke Hospital and the Durham Sheriff's office to examine the issue of insurance among rearrested patients, Duke said. He also worked as an EMT and restorative justice facilitator, and led an interview team working with gun violence victims in Durham, North Carolina, to provide information for policy reform.

At Oxford, Lieber will pursue a master of science in education and in criminology and criminal justice.