Phi Beta Kappa Chapter to Host Paige West at Annual Cardinal Newman Lecture
West will give a lecture titled “Depression, Racism and the Environment.”
Paige West, Ph.D., the Claire Tow professor of anthropology at Barnard College and chair of Columbia University’s Ecology and Culture University Seminar, will serve as the speaker for Phi Beta Kappa’s Visiting Scholar Program, and deliver the annual Cardinal Newman Lecture.
The event will take place on Thursday, Nov. 9 at 4:30 p.m. in the William Scala Academy Room, located in room 215 of Leo Hall.
In addition to her academic work, West is the co-founder, and a board member, of the PNG Institute of Biological Research, a small non-governmental organization dedicated to building academic opportunities for research in Papua New Guinea by Papua New Guineans. West is also the co-founder of the Roviana Solwara Skul, a school in Papua New Guinea dedicated to teaching at the nexus of indigenous knowledge and western scientific knowledge.
West has authored or edited eight books and is the founding editor of the journal Environment and Society. She has been named a fellow of the Association of Social Anthropology in Oceania and is the former president of the Anthropology and Environment Section of the American Anthropological Association.
West has a B.A. from Wofford College, an M.A. from the University of Georgia and an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University.
Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most prestigious honor society, has been offering undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars through its Visiting Scholar Program since 1956. Phi Beta Kappa’s mission is to champion education in the liberal arts and sciences, to recognize academic excellence, and to foster freedom of thought and expression.
For more information about Phi Beta Kappa’s annual Cardinal Newman Lecture, contact Michael Grabowski, Ph.D., associate professor of communication, at michael.grabowski@manhattan.edu or (718) 862-3852.