Tom Head
Professor of Economics
Phone: 503-554-2811
E-mail: thead@georgefox.edu
Office Location: Newberg campus, Hoover #145
Office Hours:
By appointment
_____________________________________________________________________________
Tom Head, professor of economics, came to George Fox University in 1971. His academic preparation includes an undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Oregon and graduate degrees in marketing from the University of Oregon and economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Besides his work at George Fox, Tom has held teaching and research positions at Southern Pacific Transportation Company, the University of Oregon, the University of Colorado, and the University of California at Berkeley.
His writings have ranged from theological and spiritual pieces in such publications as The Christian Century, Friends Journal, and The Evangelical Friend, to professional writings in The Journal of Economic Literature, The International Journal of Development Planning Literature, Focus, and The A.C.E. Bulletin. His current research and writing projects are on the subject of "Envisioning a Moral Economy."
Tom is a Quaker with a passion for interfaith dialogue and has had a longstanding interest in the integration of religion and economics. In pursuit of putting good and just economic ideas into practice, he has been actively involved with a number of NGOs, including the Quaker Institute for the Future, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Quaker United Nations Office, serving as a delegate to the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong and to the earlier United Nations Global Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico. Click here to see More information about Tom's international work.
Professor Head Teaches:
- Global Political Economy
- International Trade & Finance
- Economic Justice
- MBA Economics
- Global Environment
- International Studies Seminar
Education
- MS, University of Oregon
- MA, University of California at Berkeley
- BS, University of Oregon
Research Interests
- Global economics
- International trace and finance
- Third-World economic development
- Values and ethical issues
- Economics of peace and war
- Quaker thought and practice.
Selected Publications and Presentations:
- “From Soldier to Pacifist: How Do Convictions Change?” Christian Century, May 17, 1972, pp. 577-78.
- “An Economist Looks at John Woolman,” Pendle Hill Lecture, Wallingford, Pennsylvania, November 7, 1994.
- “Everyday Eschatology: The Witness of Quaker Simplicity,” a chapter in Dean Freiday, ed., The Day of the Lord: Eschatology in Quaker Perspective, Friends World Committee, 1981, pp. 11-21.
- “Promising Developments for Conceptualizing and Modeling Institutional Change,” (with Irma Adelman) reprinted in Institutions and Development Strategies: The Selected Essays of Irma Adelman Volume I, Economists of the Twentieth Century Series, Edward Elgar Publishing, 1995.
- “The Economics of John Woolman,” in Shirley Dodson, ed., John Woolman’s Spirituality and Our Contemporary Witness, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1995.
- “The Business of Our Lives,” in Paul Anderson and Howard Macy, editors, Truth’s Bright Embrace: Essays and Poems in Honor of Arthur O. Roberts, George Fox University Press, 1996, pp. 75-80.
- Panelist, “Consultation on the Global Financial Architecture,” Quaker House, London, England, November 2000.
- “Review of John E. Stapleford’s Bulls, Bears & Golden Calves: Applying Christian Ethics in Economics,” Faith & Economics, Spring 2002.
- “Business and Economics,” Historical Dictionary of The Friends (Quakers), The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland and Oxford, 2003.
- “Measuring Success at the WTO in Hong Kong,” Friends Bulletin, March 2006, pages 16-17.
- “A Fair and Just Economy,” Friends Association for Higher Education, “Scholars for Peace, Justice, and Sustainability” Conference, Earlham College, June 2007.
- Review of Riane Eisler, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, Berett-Koehler Publishers, 2007 in Faith & Economics, Fall 2007.
- "Envisioning A Moral Economy," Pendle Hill Publications, Pennsylvania, 2010. More information at Pendle Hill.