Visiting Scholar Program

Since 1956, the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program has been offering undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America's most distinguished scholars.

The purpose of the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program is to contribute to the intellectual life of the campus by making possible an exchange of ideas between the Visiting Scholars and the resident faculty and students.

Fall 2023 Visiting Scholar

Trevon D. Logan is the Hazel C. Youngberg Trustees Distinguished Professor of Economics and Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University.

Professor Logan is a research associate in the Development of the American Economy Program and the director of the Race and Stratification in the Economy Working Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research. A former President of the National Economic Association and member of the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of the Minority Groups in the Economics Profession, he is currently Co- director of the American Economic Association’s Mentoring Program and member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Economic Literature and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. His current research focuses on racial inequality and economic history. His international award-winning research has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the Economist, NBC, CBS, Bloomberg, CNN, and other major media outlets. Named by Fortune Magazine as “One of the 19 Black Economists You Should Know and Celebrate” in 2020, his work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Brookings Institution, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, among others.

Professor Logan will visit campus on September 21st and 22nd. On Thursday, September 21st he will deliver the following public lecture:

"The Sins of Economic History"  
Recent work has highlighted the deep relationship between modern capitalism and racial inequality in American history. Yet we know little about how the process has worked in detail. Economic history stresses large-scale changes, but the truths of racial capitalism are in the details. How and why does economic history miss the mark when discussing the history of racial economic inequality? And what do we miss when failing to account for the historical process of racialization, capitalism, and racial oppression? Discussing key turning points in the economic history of American enslavement, Reconstruction, and legal segregation, the hits and misses to the traditional economic approach to American racial inequality will be exposed.

Date and Time: Thursday, Sept 21st, 5:00pm
Location: Capitol Federal Hall (Colloquium room)

This event will be free and open to the public.

Past Visiting Scholars

During the fall 2022 semester, Dr. William Moseley (DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography, and Director of the Food, Agriculture & Society Program, at Macalester College) visited campus and delivered a public lecture titled “When Agronomy Flirts with Markets, Gender and Nutrition: A Political Ecology of the New Green Revolution for Africa and Women’s Food Security in Burkina Faso.”

Other recent visiting scholars include:

  • Adam Winkler, UCLA professor of law (Spring 2022)
  • Karen Fleming, Johns Hopkins University professor of biophysics (Spring 2021)
  • James Sullivan, University of Notre Dame professor of economics (Spring 2020)
  • Paula Stephan, Georgia State University professor of economics (Spring 2019)
  • Mary Miller, Yale professor of art history (Spring 2018)