Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar to Speak on Campus

Deborah Stone, research professor of government and public policy at Dartmouth College, will visit Truman State University Sept. 29-30, as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. During her stay she will present a public lecture, conduct seminars, and meet with faculty and students.  
Stone has taught politics and public policy at Duke, MIT, and Brandeis. She has served on advisory commissions for the Social Security Administration, the Human Genome Commission, and the Institute of Medicine. In addition she has authored many books including “Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making,” “The Disabled State,” and “The Limits of Professional Power: National Health Care in the Federal Republic of Germany.” In addition to scholarly articles on health and social policy, she writes for American Prospect, Nation, and New Republic. Her current research focuses on the place of altruism in public life and on public policy toward care giving.

An additional public seminar will be offered at 1:30, Sept. 29, in the Student Union Building Governors Room titled “Writing and the Art of Persuasion.” In this seminar, Stone will talk about writing for popular audiences and how it differs from scholarly writing. Stone will conduct a public lecture titled “The Paradox of Altruism” at 8:15 p.m., Sept. 29, in Violette Hall 1000. This lecture will draw on stories of extraordinary rescuers and ordinary, everyday altruism to understand the rewards people get from helping others and the paradoxical ways altruism works in our lives.

At 11:30 a.m., Sept. 30, in the Student Union Building Governors Room, Stone will present a public discussion of “When Patients Go to Market: Why the U.S. Health Insurance System is Falling Apart.” This talk explores why market-based reforms in health care never seem to solve the problems they are intended to fix.

As a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, Stone will visit several campuses this year at the invitation of their Phi Beta Kappa chapters. Truman is one of four campuses in Missouri that hosts chapters of this prestigious honor society for the liberal arts and sciences. Truman is only the second public Missouri university to be so honored.

Support for Stone’s visit is provided by the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Charles J. McClain, president emeritus of Truman State University, and the health and exercise science program.

The Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program makes available each year twelve or more distinguished scholars who visit 100 colleges and universities with chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. They spend two days on each campus, meeting informally with students and faculty members, taking part in classroom discussions, and giving a public lecture open to the entire academic community. This program aims 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. Now entering its 50th year, the Visiting Scholar Program has sent 518 Scholars on some 4,500 two-day visits since the 1956-57 academic year.

Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest academic honor society. It has chapters at 170 colleges and universities, and more than 600,000 members.

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