Description:

Please join the Political Science Department's Spring 2024 Farrell Lecture as they host Eric Helleiner, political science professor at the University of Waterloo.

The rapid growth of the field of international political economy since the 1970s has revived an older tradition of thought from the pre-1945 era. The Contested World Economy provides the first book-length analysis of these deep intellectual roots of the field, revealing how earlier debates about the world economy were more global and wide-ranging than usually recognized. Helleiner shows how pre-1945 pioneers of international political economy included thinkers from all parts of the world rather than just those from Europe and the United States featured in most textbooks. Their discussions also went beyond the much-studied debate between economic liberals, neomercantilists, and Marxists, and addressed wider topics, including many with contemporary relevance, such as environmental degradation, gender inequality, racial discrimination, religious worldviews, civilizational values, national self-sufficiency, and varieties of economic regionalism. This fascinating history of ideas sheds new light on current debates and the need for a global understanding of their antecedents.

Eric Helleiner is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo. He received his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Toronto, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Department of International Relations of the London School of Economics. His single-authored books include The Neomercantilists: A Global Intellectual History (Cornell, 2021), States and the Reemergence of Global Finance (Cornell, 1994), The Making of National Money: Territorial Currencies in Historical Perspective (Cornell, 2003), Towards North American Monetary Union? The Politics and History of Canada’s Exchange Rate Regime (McGill-Queen’s, 2006), The Forgotten Foundations of Bretton Woods: International Development and the Making of the Postwar Order (Cornell, 2014), and The Status Quo Crisis: Global Financial Governance After the 2008 Meltdown (Oxford, 2014)."

Each year, the Department of Political Science welcomes a distinguished visitor to deliver a lecture supported by funding from R. Barry Farrell's gift to the department. Professor Farrell taught in the political science department from 1966 until his death in 1991. In both his research and teaching, Professor Farrell sought to forge closer links between theories of politics and the experience of making foreign policy. The Farrell Lecture gives students and faculty the opportunity to learn from and interact with scholars and practitioners who bridge the worlds of political science and foreign policy practice.

PLEASE NOTE: Use the "Register" link for in-person attendance, and the "More Info" link for virtual registration!