About The Speaker

Thomas Sowell is currently a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution specializing in social and economic policy and the history of ideas. He earned the bachelor's degree in economics magna cum laude from Harvard, the master's from Columbia University, and the doctorate at the University of Chicago. His teaching career has included distinguished faculty positions at Amherst, Cornell, Brandeis, and UCLA. He was previously Project Director at the Urban Institute, as well as a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

He has written 18 books including: Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas (1993); Preferential Policies: An International Perspective (1990); Choosing a College: A Guide for Parents and Students (1989); A Conflict of Visions (1987); Marxism: Philosophy and Economics (1985); Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality (1984); The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective (1982); Ethnic America: A History (1981); Markets and Minorities (1981); Knowledge and Decisions (1980); Race and Economics (1975); Black Education: Myths and Tragedies (1972); and Affirmative Action Reconsidered: Was it Necessary in Academia? (1975).

Dr. Sowell's published research appears in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, The Journal of Political Economy, History of Political Economy, Economica, Oxford Economic Papers, Ethics, and American Economic Review. His essays have appeared widely in periodicals such as Forbes, The American Spectator, The American Enterprise, Commentary, The Public Interest, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Ethnic Studies, Newsweek, The Wilson Quarterly, Journal of Legal Education, Regulation, American Educator, New York Times Magazine, Black Enterprise, Fortune, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Review of Black Political Economy, Quarterly Review of Economics and Business, and Bell Telephone Magazine.

Dr. Sowell writes a nationally syndicated column for Creators Syndicate appearing in major newspapers throughout the United States. He has written regular columns for the Scripps-Howard News Service, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Washington Star, Newsweek, Newsday, and Stanford Daily.