Classics Major Cyrus Reza '20 Named 2020 Rhodes Scholar

We would like to congratulate Stanford senior Cyrus Reza '20 (Classics and Math double major) on being named a 2020 Rhodes Scholar. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in international policy with a focus on international security at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

Reza applied for the Rhodes Scholarship because he believed it would help expand his understanding of the Middle East, particularly Kurdistan. Last summer, while traveling in the region, he became acquainted with the consequences of the conflict in Iraq on the rights of ethnic minorities and women. Part of his time there was spent following an Italian journalist as she studied the phenomenon of self-immolation among Iraqi Kurdish women.

“I hope that my work at Oxford may, in some small part, help shed light on this and other acute issues that impact the most underprivileged peoples in Iraq,” Reza said.