Phi Beta Kappa Society :: Visiting Scholars

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Visiting Scholar Program

The Visiting Scholar Program makes available every year 12 or 13 distinguished scholars. The men and women participating during 2009-2010 will visit 47 colleges and universities, spending two days at each one, meeting informally with students and faculty members, taking part in classroom discussions, and giving a public lecture open to the entire academic community. The visits are designed primarily for undergraduate participation.

The purpose of the 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. A total of 4,736 visits have been made by the 565 Visiting Scholars who have taken part in the program during the past 53 years. You may view a history of the Visiting Scholar Program here (PDF).

Participation is limited to the 280 campuses that shelter chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. Priority is given to those institutions not located in major metropolitan centers or that do not have extensive resources on which to draw for similar programs.

You may view a list of all Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars since the program’s inception in 1956 here (PDF).

Invitations should not be sent directly to the visiting scholars. If you are interested in bringing one of the scholars to your campus, please get in touch with the secretary or president of the local Phi Beta Kappa chapter so that your preference can be considered by the chapter when applying for a visitor. Applications for the 2009-2010 program must be received at the national office by April 15, 2009.

Please review all procedural information before requesting a visiting scholar. Questions about the program should be addressed to the Director of Lecture Programs.

Visiting Scholars 2009-2010

(Click on the scholar's name for a biographical sketch and itinerary.)

Thomas Bender
University Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History, New York University

John H. Coatsworth
Dean, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

Jean Comaroff
Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2009-2010 Phi Beta Kappa/Frank M. Updike Memorial Scholar

Elaine Fuchs
Lancefield Professor in Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, Rockefeller University

Linda Gordon
Florence Kelley Professor of History, New York University

John G. Hildebrand
Regents Professor of Neurobiology, University of Arizona

Catharine A. MacKinnon
Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law, University of Michigan

Doug McAdam
Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

Andrew Odlyzko
Professor of Mathematics, University of Minnesota

Stephen Owen
James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University

Lisa M. Pratt
Professor of Geological Sciences, Indiana University

Alan Ryan
Warden, New College, University of Oxford

Visiting Scholars 2008-2009

You may view a chronological listing of visits on the Online Calendar here.
(Click on the scholar's name for a biographical sketch and itinerary.)

Eric Adelberger
Professor of Physics, University of Washington

Elaine K. Gazda
Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, University of Michigan

Philip D. Gingerich
Case Collegiate Professor of Paleontology, University of Michigan

Faye Ginsburg
Kriser Professor of Anthropology, New York University

Linda Gordon
Professor of History, New York University

Robert Haselkorn
Pritzker Distinguished Service Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago

Loch K. Johnson
Regents Professor of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia

Anne K. Mellor
Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles

Betty Smocovitis
Professor of History and Zoology, University of Florida

Anna Tsing
Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz

William A. Wulf
University Professor and AT&T Professor of Engineering, University of Virginia

Visiting Scholars 2007-2008

(Click on the scholar's name for a biographical sketch and itinerary.)

Michael J. B. Allen
Distinguished Professor of English

Roger S. Bagnall
Director, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University

Lori F. Damrosch
Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization, Columbia University

Morris P. Fiorina
Wendt Family Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

Alejandro García-Rivera
Professor of Systematic Theology, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

Sandra Harding
Professor of Education and Women’s Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Daniel Huttenlocher
Neafsey Professor of Computing, Information Science and Business, Cornell University

Lawrence M. Krauss
Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, Case Western Reserve University

Eric Mazur
Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics, Harvard University

Saskia Sassen
Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago

James J. Sheehan
Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University, 2007-2008 Phi Beta Kappa/Frank M. Updike Memorial Scholar

Pamela S. Soltis
Curator, Laboratory of Molecular Systematics and Evolutionary Genetics, Florida Museum of Natural History

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University