Overview
The PEF Fellows Program is a selective undergraduate fellowship designed to create a community of students committed to serious engagement with economics, public policy, markets, entrepreneurship, and the institutions that shape free and flourishing societies. The program seeks to create an environment where students can ask difficult questions openly, develop confidence in expressing ideas, engage disagreement respectfully, build meaningful academic and professional relationships, and grow intellectually through dialogue and reflection.
At a time when artificial intelligence has made information widely accessible, the ability to think critically, communicate clearly, and engage ideas thoughtfully has become even more
important. Through seminars, research, reading groups, policy discussions, mentorship, and networking opportunities, fellows will engage competing ideas, develop independent thinking
skills, and connect academic learning to real-world policy and professional environments.
Program Structure
Brown Bag Forum
The Brown Bag Research Forum provides an informal setting in which undergraduate students can present research in progress or completed projects and receive constructive feedback from faculty and peers. Sessions are held approximately four times each semester and are open primarily to students and faculty in economics, political science, and related disciplines.
Students may present work on topics related to markets, economic institutions, liberty, public policy, and societal development. Faculty mentorship helps students refine their research questions, strengthen their arguments, improve their empirical or theoretical analysis, and communicate their findings effectively. The forum is intended to make research a visible and regular part of undergraduate intellectual life while building students’ confidence in presenting and defending their work.
Guest Speaker Series
The Guest Speaker Series brings scholars, policy professionals, and public intellectuals to campus for substantive engagement with undergraduate students and the broader university community. Events may include public lectures, seminars, small-group conversations, and pre- or post-event discussions.
Speakers address questions involving markets and morality, constitutional government, civil liberties, economic institutions, and other issues relevant to a free society. Programming connected to America’s 250th anniversary will provide additional opportunities to examine the ideas, institutions, and debates that have shaped the American experiment. Students are encouraged to engage speakers directly through questions, curated readings, informal conversations, and discussion sessions that extend learning beyond the formal lecture.
Program Goal
The Pepperdine Economic Forum combines research, mentorship, and co-curricular intellectual engagement in a format that can grow with student interest. By creating recurring opportunities for students to present their work, interact with visiting scholars, and participate in serious discussion, the Forum is designed to become an enduring part of undergraduate academic life at Pepperdine. More specifically the initiative seeks to
- create a sustained undergraduate intellectual community centered on economics, institutions, and public policy.
- develop students’ capacity to conduct, present, and improve independent research.
- provide meaningful faculty mentorship and opportunities for peer feedback.
- expose students to scholars and professionals representing a range of serious perspectives.
- strengthen critical inquiry, civil discourse, research communication, and intellectual independence.
- connect classroom learning with broader debates about markets, liberty, institutions, and human flourishing.