Conferences

Global E.P. Thompson conference participants group photo

The Program on the Study of Capitalism regularly organizes conferences relating to the core themes of interest of our faculty and graduate student affiliates. We host top scholars from around the world to enable discussions of recent and important research in the field. 

Upcoming Events

 

Past Conferences Supported by the Program on the Study of Capitalism

"Conference on Money as a Democratic Medium", December 14-15, 2018, Harvard Law School

“Those who create and issue money and credit direct the policies of government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people.”  The words, attributed to a 20th century British banker, capture an emerging consensus.  Money, governance, and public welfare are intimately connected in the modern world.  More particularly, the way political communities make money and allocate credit is an essential element of governance.  It critically shapes economic processes – channeling liquidity, fueling productivity, and influencing distribution.  At the same time, those decisions about money and credit define key political structures, locating in particular hands the authority to mobilize resources, determining access to funds, and delegating power and privileges to private actors and organizations.

Recognizing money and credit as public projects exposes issues of democratic purpose and possibility.  In a novel focus, this conference makes those issues central.  Scholars, policy makers, and students have often assumed that money and credit emerge from private exchange and entrepreneurial activity.  Recent work, by contrast, emphasizes that modern currencies depend on collective orchestration.  The conference particularly highlights that scholarship that 1) examines money as a public project, thus opening monetary institutions to view, and 2) considers the profound legal and political obligations that attach to the design of our monetary and financial system.  A full version of the announcement and current schedule can be found here.

 

October 19-20, 2017 - "Before the City / Beyond the City: Capitalism in the Countryside", Harvard Law School

October 3-5, 2013 - "The Global E.P. Thompson: Reflections on the Making of the English Working Class After 50 Years"

2011 - Teaching Capitalism

April 7-9, 2011 - "Slavery's Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development", Brown University

2011 - Capitalism in Action!

2008 - History of Capitalism in America

2006 - History of Capitalism in America