In the fall of 2005, Professors Sven Beckert (FAS, Dept. of History) and Christine Desan (HLS) initiated a new graduate student-faculty research seminar on the Political Economy of Modern Capitalism. The seminar aimed to provide a forum for the intensive interdisciplinary study of capitalism with particular attention to it as an historically situated process of regulating social relations. The topic is unparalleled in importance. As a political economic form, capitalism defines not only market dynamics, but governance structures and social relations. The study of its growth and development therefore attracts scholars from a wide variety of fields, and we believe that their contributions can powerfully stimulate mutual insight.
Every two weeks during the academic year the Workshop brings graduate students, Harvard University faculty, and outside scholars together to study, analyze, and debate the development of modern capitalism. The Workshop combines public sessions where visiting scholars present exciting works-in-progress with closes sessions where graduate students debate core readings on themes like labor, commodities, money, and the state. This combination provides a forum for debate on the best new research on the history of capitalism while also exposing students to classic works of political economy. For more information on upcoming sessions, please check the calendar.
Past Syllabi: 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010-2011
Many student research papers have gone on to be published, a partial list of this research is available here.