by Elizabeth Stone
Dr. Swarna “Bashu” Dutt, a professor of economics at the University of West Georgia, has been named as a University Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chair. Dr. Dutt is the third UWG professor to receive this honor, with professor Howard E. Taylor serving from 1971 to 1987 and professor Jerry D. Perkins serving from 1991 to 2001.
“Dr. Dutt exemplifies educational excellence in the Richards College of Business at the University of West Georgia and is extraordinarily deserving of this award,” says Dr. Faye McIntyre, dean of the Richards College of Business and Sewell Chair of Private Enterprise. “In a 2007 document, he wrote ‘I am first and foremost a teacher, and plan to stay so all my life.’ This summarizes his world view and demonstrates why he is the perfect candidate to be named the Fuller E. Callaway Professional Chair. I am proud to count Bashu a colleague, and I am especially proud that he was selected to receive this award.”
Callaway Foundation, Inc., established the Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chairs trust in 1968, which has since provided funds to assist Georgia colleges and universities in the retention and addition of superior faculty members and to encourage enrichment of the academic program. The trust, administered by Bank of America, provides support through supplemental income to the Chair. Callaway Chair recipients must have demonstrated superior teaching abilities and achieved distinction as a teacher.
“It is a great honor for me to be named the Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chair, and I would like to thank the Callaway foundation for considering me worthy of it,” says Dr. Dutt. “To say ‘I am thrilled’ is an under statement. At the same time, I am humbled and with the help of my wonderful friends and colleagues in the economics department, I will strive to be the best teacher I possibly can be."
Dr. Dutt joined the University of West Georgia, then West Georgia College, in 1994 as an assistant professor in the Richards College of Business. He has since distinguished himself as an academic leader and an impressive professor. His many awards and honors at UWG include the 2010 Faculty Research Award, the 2008 Centennial “Professor of the Year” Award, the 2007 – 2008 Richards College of Business “Research Faculty of the Year” Award, plus numerous research grants.
“Professor Dutt is an eminent scholar but more importantly he has a passion to provide students with effective tools and resources to understand basic economic principles,” said Dr. Leland Gustafson, UWG professor of economics. “He is truly an outstanding economic educator and most deserving of this high honor as the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Economics.”
Dr. Dutt, a first generation immigrant, came to the U.S. from India in 1986 to join the economics graduate program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich. “I have always believed in the saying ‘Only possible in America,’” he said. “But now it’s etched in stone in me for eternity.”
Dr. Dutt has a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics from Wayne State University, as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Patna University in Bihar, India. Dutt specializes in international finance and exchange rate economics, open economy macroeconomics, nonlinear time series and stock price dynamics.
“I would like to wholeheartedly thank Dr. Faye McIntyre, dean of the Richards College of Business, and Dr. Beheruz Sethna, president emeritus of UWG, for nominating me for the Callaway Chair,” said Dr. Dutt. “Without their selection, this story would have ended before it began.”
