There was scarecely room to stand Friday, Sept. 18 during the Fourth Anunal International Politics and Economics (IPE) Program Symposium, where three guest professors presented different per- spectives on inequality at the Robert A. Jones ’59 House.
According to IPE Program Director nd Frederick C. Dirks Professor of International Economics William Pyle, the event was a success.
“The attendance for the three panels was excellent. And the speakers’ presentations were fantastic,” Pyle said.
"They all talked about inequality, but from very different, yet complementary, perspectives. And a number of the best questions came from students," added Pyle.
Allison Stanger, the Russell J. Leng ’60 Professor of International Politics and Economics, said the program balanced economics with political analysis and attracted a wide variety of students.
“We try to do it at the beginning of the year, on one day, with both economists and political scientists together. The idea is to try and do something really engaging right up front before students have a ton of work thrown at them,” Stranger said. “It’s a beautiful day today, so I’m delighted to see we’ve had a full house every session. To me that speaks really highly of Middlebury students, that they would sit inside on a day like this and talk about a pressing social issue.”
When planning the program, IPE professors wanted to discuss issues of immediate importance to the American economy and politics.
“Inequality in the United States has reached its highest level in generations. We thought that a symposium that put this trend in the US in both a historical
and comparative perspective would allow us all to better understand what [its] ramifications might be,” Pyle said.
UC Davis Distinguished Professor of Economics Peter Lindert, Oxford University Profes- sor of Comparative Politics David Rueda, and UC Berkeley John Gross Professor of Political Science Paul Pierson each presented for one hour and thirty minutes.
Pierson said he normally doesn’t see students participate in formal academic presentations as much as they did on Friday.
“One thing striking to me was having the students play a role in handling the Q and A, and it sounds like students are going to be really involved in the dinner tonight,” Pierson said. “A lot of the places I go to, you wouldn’t see that; students would be seen and not heard. It seems like they take you guys seriously.”
During the final session, Allison Stanger ceded her moderator position to IPE student Brian Rowett ’16. Rowett said the three speakers together presented a well-balanced program.
“The first guy, the economist Profes- sor Lindert, gave you economics without a lot of reasons why income inequality has changed so much,” Rowett said.
“[Paul Pierson] has a lot of conviction for why income inequality is the way it is in America especially since the 1970s.”
Bill Waldron, Professor of Religion, and Olympia D’Hauteville, ’18.5, both said the Symposium was relevant to their current academic interests.
“I grew up in the Cold War, and these are the kinds of questions I’ve been in- terested in since I was a kid,” Waldron said.
“Now it actually does have more direct connection to the kinds of research I’m interested in terms of what’s going on in contemporary Nepal.”
D’Hauteville, originally from France, added that Middlebury does a good job choosing speakers but rarely are there follow up discussion in her classes.
“I chose to go to the Symposium because I’m interested in economics and global development, but more generally to have a better understanding of the dy- namics around inequality and poverty in the country I now live in,” she said.
“The talk was a great example of how
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