Stanley Davis, CC'26
Stanley is one of 32 Americans chosen for the prestigious scholarship, which provides funding for two or three years of postgraduate study at Oxford. U.S. Rhodes candidates must be nominated by their university before submitting their applications to the national competition. Candidates with interests across the academic spectrum are considered. In addition to academic excellence, applicants are considered based on their promise of leadership and a commitment to contributing to good in the world. “Across the Columbia community, those who have worked with Stanley speak of his gift for connection, his substantial research contributions, and the warmth and curiosity he brings to every conversation,” said Ariella Lang, associate dean of academic affairs and director of undergraduate research and fellowships. “We are proud to see his achievements recognized by the Rhodes Scholarship.”
Stanley Davis is a John Jay Scholar in Columbia College studying psychology. Matriculating to Columbia in 2023, he is graduating a year early this Spring. While at Columbia, Stanley has been actively involved in undergraduate research, working as Lab Coordinator for Columbia’s CyberPsych Lab. In this role, he manages over 10 concurrent studies and over 50 researchers. He is specifically interested in questions of trauma and resilience, with a focus on examining how early life experiences shape who we are. Davis has published research in these areas, with current work further exploring artificial intelligence-mediated psychological outcomes, legal rehabilitation beliefs and transdiagnostic approaches to current classifications of disease.
Stanley's work in studying trauma compelled him to work with Columbia’s Listening Tables, where he has been involved in facilitating campus dialogue in the wake of the campus protests. He helped organize a traveling exhibit and has led listening sessions throughout the Columbia community, motivated by the conviction that healing is possible through human empathy. He has also served as a Page and Clerk back in his home state of Tennessee, committed to grass-roots democratic efforts and the importance of local changemaking.
Stanley will read experimental psychology and comparative social policy at Oxford with the goal of further understanding the field of trauma studies and conflict transformation through the prism of policy and psychology. Ultimately, he plans to attend law school in the United States, and to use his interdisciplinary knowledge in these areas to serve and counsel others.