UW News

April 9, 2009

Two student-organized panels to discuss the economic crisis April 14 and May 4

Two presentations sponsored by student advisory boards of so-called “learning links” are happening in the next month. Students on the advisory boards of the Social Science Learning Link (SLink) and the Arts Learning Link (ArtsLink) work with advisers to help students “get connected” to faculty, ideas and programs in their subject areas.



The Financial Meltdown: Where Did It Come From? Can We Fix It? Can We Prevent It From Happening Again? is the title of a panel discussion from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 14, in 120 Smith. The panel, sponsored by the Student Advisory Board of the Social Science Learning Link, asks three questions:


  • How do scholars in different fields look at the same massive problem?
  • Do their explanations complement each other, or are they at odds?
  • Do different disciplines see the world differently?


To find the answers, faculty from a number of disciplines make up the panel. They are:


  • Joel Migdal, international studies
  • Mark Smith, political science
  • Matt Spark, geography
  • James Gregory, history
  • Yoram Bauman, economics
  • Dominic Corva, graduate student, geography


The panel discussion format aims to showcase the ways faculty and graduate students from different social science disciplines come at complex social, economic and political issues and controversies from vastly different perspectives, asking different questions, offering different ideas about what constitutes a good answer, and disagreeing about what constitutes good evidence.


The Economic Crisis and the Arts: How do Scholars in Different Art Disciplines Look at the Same Problem? is scheduled for 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Monday, May 4, in 120 Smith. It is sponsored by the Student Advisory Board of ArtsLink. The questions under discussion are:


  • Why do the arts matter?
  • What would a world without the arts look like?
  • Why is funding for the arts always so tenuous in good and bad economic times? Why is funding in the arts the “first to go”?


Panel participants include:


  • Jamie Walker, art
  • Betsy Cooper, dance
  • Andrew Tsao, drama
  • Philip Thurtle, comparative history of ideas
  • Robert McNamara, interdisciplinary writing program.