SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Dr. Harold W. Stanley, the Geurin-Pettus Distinguished Chair in American Politics and Political Economy at Southern Methodist University, will be the featured 2016 Phi Beta Kappa speaker at Wofford College at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 3, in Leonard Auditorium in Main Building. The Wofford PBK chapter is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

Stanley will talk on “Picking a President in 2016: Lessons Learned (or not) from Previous Campaigns, Elections and Their Aftermaths.” The talk is free and open to the public.

Stanley, interim vice president for academic affairs and provost at SMU, is author of numerous books and articles, with his research focused on American government, particularly on Southern and Latino politics and presidential elections. As associate provost at SMU, he oversaw the International Center, SMU-in-Taos, the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center, the Center for Academic Development of Student Athletes and the President’s Scholars. He co-edits “Vital Statistics in American Politics,” now in its 15th edition, and has testified often as an expert witness in federal court on voting rights and redistricting.

Before arriving at SMU in 2003, Stanley was chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Rochester, where he began his teaching career. He also taught at Yale University as the Prize Teaching Fellow and served as a visiting research professor at the University of Alabama and SMU. Recently, Stanley was honored with the Outstanding Teaching in Political Science Award of Pi Sigma Alpha/American Political Science Association, has received the Outstanding Administrator Award at SMU as well as its prestigious “M” Award, the most highly prized recognition bestowed upon students, faculty, staff and administrators.

Stanley received his bachelor of arts degree from Yale University (PBK), his master’s degree from Oxford University and his doctoral degree from Yale University.

On Jan. 14, 1941, PBK President Marjorie Hope Nicholson, dean of Smith College, came to Spartanburg to install the Beta of South Carolina chapter at Wofford. Later that year, the first group of Wofford students were elected to the prestigious organization. Since 1941, more than 1,000 Wofford students have been elected to membership.