Economics to be big March topic

03/06/2020 

Three visiting economists will discuss everything from household debt to unfair lending practices to creating a more caring model of political economy, in separate lectures on March 10, 11 and 12, at SUNY Cortland.

The presentations will continue the university’s Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee (CICC) year-long series on “Debt,” a concept that explores a wide range of issues spanning criminal justice, inequality, immigration and climate change. 

Events in the “Debt” series are free and open to the public. To view a list of upcoming topics, visit the CICC’s calendar. 

DAVID FREUND TALK CANCELLED/TO BE RESCHEDULED

The talks that second week of March will begin with David Freund, the author of the 2008 book, Colored Property: State Policy and White Racial Politics in Suburban America, who will speak on Tuesday, March 10. Freund will lecture on the history of discriminatory lending practices in the U.S. and its role in perpetuating intergenerational inequality. He will speak from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge. 

Freund is an associate professor of history at University of Maryland who specializes in the history of the modern United States. His book, Colored Property, was awarded the 2008 Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians, the 2007 Kenneth Jackson Book Award from the Urban History Association and the 2009 Urban Affairs Association Best Book Award. 

He also has contributed to a number of public history, policy and documentary projects and has received grants and fellowships from organizations including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Graham Foundation for the Arts. 

Joelle Leclaire, an  associate professor of economics and finance at Buffalo State College, will speak from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge on Wednesday, March 11. Her talk will focus on macro-financial stability and household debt from the perspectives of American Post-Keynesian Economics, the Cambridge approach and the Monetary Circuit School.

SCOTT FERGUSON TALK CANCELLED. TO BE RESCHEDULED. Scott Ferguson will focus on the politics of care and the aesthetics of money when he returns to visit the campus again from University of South Florida on Thursday, March 12.

Ferguson, whose research explores relations between political economy and aesthetics, specializing in the history of Western visual culture from Renaissance painting to the Hollywood blockbuster, will lecture from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge. His text, Declarations of Dependence: Money, Aesthetics and the Politics of Care, was published by University of Nebraska Press in 2018.

A research scholar for the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, Ferguson is co-director of the Modern Money Network Humanities Division and co-host of the Money on the Left podcast.

The CICC “Debt” series will conclude with the following event: 

THURSDAY, APRIL 9. Historical sociologist Jakob Feinig will address the topic of money creation from the perspective of popular knowledge and democratization as a means for delivering improved social outcomes. His presentation lasts from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge. Research by Feinig, who is on the faculty at Binghamton University, examines the intersection of money creation, electoral democracy and human rights. His work also looks at non-elite participation in North American money politics from the colonial period to the present. Feinig currently is writing a book titled The Moral Economy of Money, the first systematic long-term study of popular involvement in the monetary institutions of any country. 

Featured Conversations in the Disciplines guests as well as Cortland faculty, staff and students are invited to contribute original works, which the committee plans to publish the collected works as a field guide under the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity’s ongoing book series under an agreement with publisher Palgrave-MacMillan. Last year, a field guide was published on the topic of Field Guide to Zombies and Surviving the Apocalypse. The institute is an independent public policy think-tank dedicated to the promotion of interdisciplinary research. 

The “Debt” series programming is supported by a $5,000 grant from SUNY Conversations in the Disciplines, a program created to build connections between SUNY faculty and visiting faulty from non-SUNY institutions. The series is co-sponsored by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Office, the Campus Artist and Lecture Series, the Research and Sponsored Programs Office, the President’s Office and the Cortland College Foundation. 

To submit an event, a Field Guide contribution, volunteer to support this year’s activities and programming, or for more information, contact organizer and Assistant Professor of Economics Benjamin Wilson at 607-753-2436. Stay current with the series news on Twitter at @SUNYCortCICC.