The Middle East is once again exploding in violence but Elizabeth Allan, a University of Georgia senior, wants to one day help forge United States policy in the region. To her, the Middle East is a place of extraordinary beauty, hope and nuance.

And now to reach those lofty ambitions, the 22-year-old Atlanta resident’s resume will be armed with an impressive title: Rhodes Scholar.

On Saturday evening, Allan was named UGA’s fourth Rhodes Scholar in the past six years. Next fall, she will attend England’s Oxford University to pursue a master’s degree in Modern Middle Eastern Studies. She is one of 32 Rhodes recipients in the United States who were accepted from 838 applicants.

Joy A. Buolamwini, a Georgia Tech computer science student from Cordova, Tenn. was also picked for the award.

Allan, who is a year away from being fluent in Arabic, has travelled to six continents while in college. She said she is interested in the Middle East “because it’s where some of the most interesting questions and challenges are.” Authoritarianism, women’s rights, oil, violence, she said, ticking a few of them off.

Allan, a graduate of the Westminister Schools, got a Twitter account to follow the Arab Spring, the revolutions that roiled the region last year and toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and other nations.

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