2025-2026 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars Announced 

Since 1956, the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Visiting Scholar Program has offered undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars. The purpose of the 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.
 
Each year, members of the Committee on the Visiting Scholar Program select top scholars in the liberal arts and sciences to visit universities and colleges where Phi Beta Kappa chapters are located. Visiting 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.
 
The 2025-2026 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars will make over 100 visits during the academic year, with the majority of them participating in our podcast Key Conversations with Phi Beta Kappa.

2025-2026 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars: 

• Elijah Anderson, Yale University, Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies
• Ximena Bernal, Purdue University, Professor of Biology
• Prosanta Chakrabarty, Louisiana State University,  E.K. Hunter Chair for Communication in Science Research, Professor and Curator of Fishes at the Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences  
• Mary Favret, Johns Hopkins University, Professor of English 
• Shannon Jackson, UC Berkeley, Cyrus & Michelle Hadidi Professor of the Arts & Humanities 
• Peniel Joseph, University of Texas, Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values, founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, and Distinguished Service Leadership Professor and Professor of History in the College of Liberal Arts
• Frances Negrón Muntaner, Columbia University, Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities 
• Teri Odom, Northwestern University, Joan Husting Madden and William H. Madden, Jr. Professor of Chemistry 
• Laura Ogden, Dartmouth College, Professor of Anthropology 
• Mark Palmer, University of Missouri, Professor of Geography  
• Michael Puett, Harvard University, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology and the Victor and William Fung Director of the Asia Center 
• David M. Rabban, The University of Texas School of Law, Dahr Jamail, Randall Hage Jamail, and Robert Lee Jamail Regents Chair in Law
• Catherine S. Ramírez, UC Santa Cruz, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
• Margo Schlanger, University of Michigan Law School, Wade H. and Dores M. McCree Collegiate Professor of Law and Director of the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse 
• Aradhna Tripati, UCLA, Professor of Environment and Sustainability and Director of the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science