The School of Business is teaming up with the Women’s and Gender Studies Program to bring the nationally admired economist and writer, Virginia Postrel, to speak at the College of Charleston on October 6, 2010. Virginia Postrel will speak to at 3:30 p.m. in the Wachovia Auditorium.
Postrel will present an analysis of glamour as an imaginative process and how it plays a role in political economy. The term political economy can be described as the intersection of economics and political science. “The combination of these subjects is what is so fascinating. Economics and business majors examine political economy issues and the Women and Gender Studies’ group examine glamour, but not together and they might not see how these issues are related. This talk will provide students the opportunity to see how these disciplines overlap,” says Pete Calcagno, associate professor of economics and director of the Initiative for Public Choice and Market Process in the School of Business.
“My business ethics class is well-prepared for her visit because Virginia will discuss the market and value, and we have just read Marx, Max Weber and other critics of capitalism. Her view is supportive of capitalism while we have just explored the opposite,” says Jennifer Baker, assistant professor in the department of philosophy. “We can’t wait to hear her particular take.”
There will also be a discussion titled “Women and Commodification: A Faculty Roundtable with Virginia Postrel” on Tuesday, October 5 at 12 noon in the Education Building, room 116, off of St. Phillip Street.
Postrel is the author of The Substance of Style and The Future and Its Enemies. Currently, Postrel is working on a book about glamour and is the editor-in-chief of a group blog on DeepGlamour.net. Postrel has also contributed to The New York Times as an economics columnist and been an editor for The Atlantic, and Forbes magazine. Previous speaking engagements include corporate venues such as Nike, Procter & Gamble, Target, Liz Claiborne, Sony and IDEO.
She lives in Los Angeles and serves on the UCLA Advisory Board of the Center on Governance and on the Board of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. In 2006, she donated a kidney to a friend and has since been an activist for living organ donations.
