Each year, the Society selects top scholars in the liberal arts and sciences to visit universities and colleges where Phi Beta Kappa chapters are located. The purpose of the Visiting Scholar Program is to contribute to the intellectual life of the institution by making possible an exchange of ideas between the Visiting Scholars and the resident faculty and students. The scholars spend two days on each campus meeting informally with undergraduates, participating in classroom lectures and seminars, and giving one major lecture open to the academic community and general public.
“For almost seventy years, the Phi Beta Kappa Society Visiting Scholars Program has invited some of the nation’s most distinguished scholars to engage the life of the mind with university communities and the broad public,” said Walker, who also serves as interim dean of Wake Forest’s School of Divinity and director of the African American Studies Program. “I am honored to be a part of this rich tradition and extend this legacy in new and dynamic ways. I look forward to engaging Phi Beta Kappa chapters and university communities throughout next academic year.”
He will lecture on the following topics:
“The Humanities and the Other Humans”: On the Fate of the Humanities in a Pluralistic Age”
“With God on Our Side”: On Religion and American Public Life in a Secular Age”
“On Earth As It Is”: On Ethics and the Environment in the Age of the Anthropocene”
Walker will also offer seminars on “Organic Leadership and Deep Democracy” and “Philosophy, Democracy and Race.”
The 2023-2024 Visiting Scholars will make over 100 visits to college and universities during the academic year and most will be featured in the podcast Key Conversations with Phi Beta Kappa.
The Phi Beta Kappa Society announced the appointment of Wake Forest Professor of Humanities Corey D. B. Walker as a 2023-24 Visiting Scholar.