Digging Into Arkansas’s Agricultural History: Meet This Year’s Stricklin Fellow

Last week, the Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art welcomed a researcher with a big question:

What can Arkansas’s history of rice farming tell us about the global food system today?

Chen Chu, a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), spent the week digging into the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies’ collections as the 2026 recipient of the David Stricklin Research Fellowship.

Chu’s research takes a wide-angle look at agriculture, rural communities, and the policies that connect local economies to global markets. His dissertation focuses on agricultural trade liberalization since the 1980s and examines how agricultural policy has increasingly intersected with rural development, environmental concerns, and planning. For his research, he is looking closely at two major rice-growing regions: California and Arkansas. (Read about Arkansas’s agricultural history and rice industry in the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas.)

“Despite its significance, the critical role Arkansas rice plays in mediating global trade and shaping food security remains underexamined,” Chu says. “I’m working to uncover this story through the Butler Center’s remarkable archival collections.”

The Butler Center’s archives are an especially valuable stop for Chu, as historical records can offer a window into the decisions, debates, and economic changes that have shaped Arkansas agriculture over the past several decades. What he finds in the archives can help Chu connect those stories to questions that we’re still asking today.

Chu’s work crosses several academic fields, including urban planning, political ecology, political economy, and historical sociology. But at its heart, his research is about people and places: how changes in agriculture and economic policy affect rural communities, and how those communities respond to a rapidly changing world.

Chu is also hoping to connect with Arkansans who have knowledge of the state’s rice industry and rural economic development. Those conversations can add another important layer to the story he is piecing together from the archives.

“I use historical research to better understand contemporary politics,” Chu says. “I look forward to connecting with anyone concerned with the politics of rice and rural economic development in Arkansas.”

Glenn Whaley, manager of the Roberts Library, was glad to see the fellowship supporting research with such contemporary relevance.

“Chen Chu’s research is extremely timely, and I’m very pleased we have the materials here at the Butler Center to aid him in pursuing it,” Whaley says. “The more that can be learned about the effect of the agricultural, environmental, and economic policymaking of the last several decades, the more able Arkansas can be to help meet the needs of the world’s populations.”

Chu’s visit is exactly the kind of research the David Stricklin Research Fellowship was created to support. The fellowship honors David Stricklin, a former Butler Center director and longtime advocate for history and its preservation. Stricklin joined CALS in 2005 after teaching history at Lyon College and later served as CALS’s director of strategic partnerships and community engagement. He retired from CALS in 2021.

The fellowship provides up to $1,000 to help researchers use materials held by the Butler Center. Students, teachers, and independent researchers are all welcome to apply; applicants do not need to be enrolled in a degree program. Funds can be used for travel, lodging, and a limited stipend.

For Chu, the fellowship offered an opportunity to spend time with Arkansas’s history firsthand. And for the Roberts Library, it’s a chance to see those collections put to work answering questions that reach far beyond its walls.

Who knows what stories the archives will reveal next?

Learn more about the David Stricklin Research Fellowship.

Danielle Afsordeh is the community outreach archivist and programs coordinator for the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies/Roberts Library.