Woodrow W. Hughes, Jr.

Dr. Hughes retired in May 2019.

Dr. Hughes, a member of the Converse College faculty since 1986, spent five years in the banking industry after graduating from Furman University with a BA in economics. He completed his doctoral degree requirements at the University of South Carolina in 1989. His previous teaching experience includes Furman and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In 2006, he was awarded the Kathryne Amelia Brown Teaching award. Dr. Hughes has worked with Educational Testing Service since 2004 grading Economics Advanced Placement exams, writing and evaluating questions for the AP Econ exams, and writing and reviewing materials for the AP Econ program. He has also reviewed several textbooks and was on the Content Advisory Panel for Explorations in Economics, authored by Professors David Anderson and Alan Krueger.

Dr. Hughes has written several opinion-editorial page articles which have appeared in newspapers throughout the state. His works include: a critique of a proposal by the state of South Carolina to set a minimum price paid to Palmetto state dairy farmers for milk (Got Milk?); who wins and who loses when the minimum wage rises (Minimum Wage: Who Wins and Who Loses); a look at some of the proposals regarding the financing of the social security program (Social Insecurity?); and (with Professor Tom Maynard) an examination of the lost revenue to the city of Spartanburg resulting from tax-exempt properties within the city limits of Spartanburg (Annexation and Non-Profit Taxation). Dr. Hughes has also authored Economic Impact Studies which examine the monetary effect of Converse College on the local economy. The most recent study estimates that Converse College adds approximately $38.5 million on an annual basis to the Spartanburg community.

Since 1995, Dr. Hughes has accompanied students on study/travel programs to various locations. His travels range from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Santiago, Chile, and include visits to the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, Spain, and Peru. In January 2008, Dr. Hughes and Dr. Doug Jensen (Biology) led a study/travel program to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands to study the impact tourism has had and is having on the environment and the peoples of the region. In 2003, Dr. Hughes was a member of a Fulbright-Hays Study Exchange program, spending 33 days in Poland studying the transition of Poland’s economy and Poland’s ascension into the European Union. He has also participated in a month-long Rotary International Group Study Exchange program in India.