Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars


The Delaware Valley Association is fortunate to have 11 college and university Phi Beta Kappa Chapters in our region.  The Phi Beta Kappa national Visiting Scholars program supports bringing eminent annually designated academic scholars as speakers to Chapters across the country.  

The Phi of Pennsylvania Chapter at Saint Joseph's University hosted Tammie Kernodle, PhD., on October 7-8, 2024, for campus engagement and a free public lecture on 10/8, "All Rhythm But None of the Blues: Black Music, Black Women and the De-Mythologizing of Post-Racial America". Professor Kernodle is Distinguished Professor of Music at Miami University of Ohio. Her research is focused on African American music, gender studies in music, and race in American popular culture. She is the author of the biography Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams, which chronicles the six-decade career of the jazz pianist/arranger and educator; served as Associate Editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of African American Music and on the Editorial Board for the revision of the New Grove Encyclopedia of American Music; and was the President of the Society for American Music.  The lecture was co-sponsored by the SJU Department of Music and the SJU Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

The Epsilon of Pennsylvania Chapter at Swarthmore College hosted Professor Julia Bryan-Wilson, on April 11-12, 2024.  Professor Bryan-Wilson is Professor of Art History and core faculty at the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender at Columbia University.  She is the award-winning author of Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era (2009), Fray:  Art and Textile Politics (2027), and Louise Nevelson's Sculpture: Drag, Color, Join, Face (2023).  Professor Bryan-Wilson is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Andy Warhol foundation, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian, and the Terra Foundation, among others.  She is a widely published critic and adjunct curator at the Meseu de Arte de Sao Paulo.  Professor Bryan-Wilson's public lecture on April 11th, was entitled, "Stitching Protest".  

The Delta of New Jersey Chapter at The College of New Jersey hosted Professor M. Cathleen Kaveny, on March 25-26, 2024. Professor Kaveny is the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor of Law and Theology at Boston College, the first faculty member to be appointed in both the Department of Theology and the Law School.  Her work focusses on the relationship of law, religion, and morality. She is the author of four books and more than one hundred articles and essays and has published extensively in the areas of law, ethics, and medical ethics. She is the chair of the Bord of Trustees of the Journal of Religious Ethics, and has served as the president of the Society of Christian Ethics, the major professional society for scholars of Christian ethics and moral theology in North America.  She has also served on the editorial bords of a number of scholarly journals in her area of expertise. Professor Kaveny's public lecture on March 25th, was entitled, "Nostalgia and Nationalism: Is there a Connection".

The Phi of Pennsylvania Chapter at St. Joseph's University hosted one of PBK's 2023-2024 Visiting Scholars, Professor Trevon Logan, for two days on October 23-24, 2023.  Professor Logan is the Hazel C. Youngberg Trustees Distinguished Professor of Economics and Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, The Ohio State University. On Monday, October 23rd, from 4:00 - 5:30 p.m., Professor Logan delivered a public lecture entitled, “All We Have Is The Truth: Burdened Individuality, Abstract Equality, and Economic Interference” in the Teletorium in Mandeville Hall, to which PBK DV members were welcome to attend. The lecture asked if we are interpreting racial economic and social disparities appropriately. 

The Rho of Pennsylvania Chapter at Temple University hosted Professor Mark D. Hayward, a health demographer and population health scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, in February 2023 for two days of talks and interactions, as one of the 2022-2023 PBK Visiting Scholars.  Professor Hayward's public lecture during his visit at Temple was entitled, "Improving Our Nation's Health", in which he addressed why, although life expectancy in high-income countries has improved dramatically, the US has fallen significantly behind, with this divergence continuing unabated for over 40 years.  His lecture reviewed the ways in which growing social inequality in health, federal policies and the rise of New Federalism may have contributed to this adverse trend in US life expectancy, and highlighted the fast-growing geographic inequality of mortality among US states. Professor Hayward also hypothesized that politics has become a growing force in increasing an array of health risks for many Americans.