The Ofstad Visiting Scholar Program brings renowned guest writers and scholars from around the world to the Truman campus. During their stay, these talented scholars offer a range of workshops, lectures, and readings.

The scholars bring diverse voices to campus and expose our students to new scholarly, artistic, and professional possibilities through interactions with accomplished individuals working in academia, publishing, and the nonprofit sector. Alongside the classroom experiences, the Clayton B. Ofstad Readings Series invites all members of the northeast Missouri community to public presentations by each of these scholars and writers.

Hosted by the Department of English and Linguistics, the Ofstad Visiting Scholar Program is available thanks to the profound generosity and vision of Odessa Ofstad in creating Truman’s first-ever endowed chair. Odessa worked at Truman from 1967-1993. During her career, she served as the cataloger, head cataloger, music and curriculum librarian, archivist and special collections librarian. She retired as Special Collections Librarian Emerita. Her husband, Clayton B. Ofstad, joined the Language and Literature Department at Truman in 1967, where he taught until his retirement in 1987. He passed away in 1994.