Valerie Hudson
A BYU scholar is among Foreign Policy magazine’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers,” a list that includes Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, and Hillary Clinton.
Valerie M. Hudson (BS ’78), professor of political science, was ranked no. 97 for her research showing that gender imbalances within individual countries have global consequences. The magazine wrote, “Hudson’s indispensable 2004 study Bare Branches may have been partially responsible for the scaling back of China’s one-child policy.”
“Foreign Policy is a prestigious magazine widely read by scholars and policymakers across the world, and this list is very prestigious company,” says Hudson’s department chair, Darren G. Hawkins. “Professor Hudson is identifying a link between doing what’s right and furthering a nation’s self-interest.”
Hudson had no inkling of the honor.
“I was blindsided when the e-mail arrived; I thought it was a phishing scam,” says Hudson, who has been an avid reader of Foreign Policy for more than 15 years. After confirming the notification, she felt “very gratified, and pleased that this reflects wonderfully on BYU.”
