Phi Theta Kappa to Host Honors Institute at University of Richmond
Jackson, MS - Phi Theta Kappa will hold its annual Honors Institute at the
University of Richmond in Virginia June 22-26. The Honors Institute provides
a weeklong opportunity for participants to hear challenging speakers
address various aspects of the Society's interdisciplinary Honors Study
Topic, engage in stimulating small-group discussions, and enjoy scholarly
fellowship with their peers from Phi Theta Kappa chapters throughout the
world.
"Our International Honors Institute is the 'crown jewel'
of honors programming. It affords chapter members and advisors the opportunity
to spend a week in intensive study of our Honors Study Topic," said Susan
Edwards, Phi Theta Kappa's Dean of Academic Affairs and Honors Programs.
"Participants will also have the opportunity to study and discuss the interconnection
of our Society's Hallmarks of scholarship, leadership, service, and fellowship
that we call the Phi Theta Kappa Experience and the ways in which their study
can translate into Honors in Action programs that benefit their colleges
and communities."
Speakers at the Honors Institute will explore
the 2008-2010 Honors Study Topic, The Paradox of Affluence: Choices,
Challenges, and Consequences. The program will include the following
lectures:
Dr. Douglas Foard, former Executive Secretary of
Phi Beta Kappa, will examine the paradox of affluence as it relates to the
American Civil War and particularly to the area around Richmond, Virginia.
Davar
Ardalan, NPR Editor and author of I Am Iran: A Memoir, will discuss
the paradox of affluence as it relates to living between two worlds and relations
between the United States and Iran.
Dr. Michael Galaty, Professor
of Anthropology at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi and head of
the Shala Valley Project in Albania, will look at primatology, anthropology
and archaeology to discuss both affluence and violence in human culture
and their connection.
Dr. Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School
Professor and author of Sell Out: The Politics of Racial Betrayal,
will discuss the paradox of affluence as it relates to the specter of race
anxiety and will offer solutions to overcoming the fear, and mistrust that
often surround talk of so-called race traitors.
Paul Loeb,
author of Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time,
will examine the paradox of affluence as it relates to individual, family,
and community issues of justice and social activism.
The 2009
Honors Institute will also feature a Town Hall Meeting and Reader's Theatre
production. The Town Hall meeting will be moderated by Professor Rob Carey,
chapter advisor at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, and Dr. Liesl
Ward, chapter advisor at Jefferson State Community College - Shelby Campus
in Birmingham, Alabama. The Reader's Theatre production will be directed
by Stephen Schroeder, chapter advisor at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn,
Illinois.
Participants will have a free day in the schedule
to explore the city of Richmond and the surrounding area. Additional program
information and a downloadable registration form are available on the
Phi Theta Kappa Honors
Institute website.
Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society,
headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, is the largest honor society in
American higher education with 1,250 chapters on college campuses in all
50 of the United States, Canada, Germany, the Republic of Palau, the Republic
of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the British
Virgin Islands, the United Arab Emirates and U.S. territorial possessions.
More than two million students have been inducted since its founding in
1918, with approximately 100,000 students inducted annually.
