Victor V. Claar, Ph.D., is professor of economics at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, where he teaches courses in economics to undergraduates and graduates. He recently was a Fulbright Scholar at the American University of Armenia—a landlocked country at the intersection of Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Iran—where he conducted research and gave lectures to graduate students.

Professor Claar has a long, impressive record of publications, including his influential book, Economics in Christian Perspective: Theory, Policy and Life Choices, now in its fifth printing and recently translated into Chinese. One reviewer said of the book’s authors, “they demonstrate an impressive breadth of vision [and] deftly move from the big picture and macroeconomics to the care for the individual and restoring hope for the least of these.”

While you may have heard that economics was once dubbed the “dismal science,” Professor Claar’s work demonstrates that this field is quite the opposite, especially when it does what Professor Claar does: combine sobering analysis and Christian principles to offer a vision of hope.

Professor Claar is also the author of Fair Trade? Its Prospects as a Poverty Solution, an incisive, thoughtful work that challenges us all to rethink how we buy what we need and want.