Upcoming Events

Get involved with the exciting and engaging lectures, film screenings, workshops and symposiums happening at the Bagwell Center for the Study of Markets and Economic Opportunity in the Coles College of Business.

Spring 2025 Lectures

  • Speaker: Jonathan Looney, Director of Business Development, Sallie Mae

    Date: March 5, 2025

    Lecture 1: “Smart Money Management,”
    Time: 9:05 am - 9:55 am
    Time: Burruss Building 151

    Lecture 2: “Understanding the Costs of Student Loan Borrowing,”
    Time: 10:10 am - 1 1:00 am
    Location: Burruss Building 151

  • Speaker: Johan Norberg, Author and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute

    Date: March 21, 2025

    Lecture: “Capitalism: Making the World Safe for Innovation and Progress,”
    Time: 1:25 pm - 2:15 pm
    Location: English Building 102

    Bio: He is the intellectual superstar from Sweden. Johan Norberg has lectured all over the globe about the positive effects of our open, innovative, global world. He has published more than twenty books and is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker and honorary member of several prestigious institutes.

    With their unwavering focus on spreading the virtues of an open world, his lectures are described as elegant, sharp and powerful. Using numbers, history and economics, Johan addresses common objections to capitalism, liberalism and globalization. He explains how these forces have made the world a better place – and he has the numbers to prove it.

  • Speaker: Vincent Geloso, Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University

    Date: March 28, 2025

    Lecture 1: “Canada’s Income Gap with the United States Before 1913,”
    Time: 9:05 am - 9:55 am
    Location: Burruss Building 151

    Lecture 2: “The Linguistic Divide as the Economic Gap with Canada,”
    Time: 10:10am - 11:00am
    Location: Burruss Building 151

    Bio: Originally from Quebec, Canada, Geloso is an Assistant Professor of Economics at George Mason University and earned his Ph.D. in economic history from the London School of Economics. He was previously postdoctoral fellow at Texas Tech University and assistant professor of economics at King's University College and Bates College. He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Montreal.

    Geloso specializes in the measurement of living standards today and in the distant past and in economic history. He combines this specialization in economic history with a specialization in political economy in order to explain differences in living standards over time and space. His articles have been published in Economic Journal, European Economic Review, Public Choice, Economic Inquiry, Canadian Journal of Economics Explorations in Economic History, European Review of Economic History, Contemporary Economic Policy and Southern Economic Journal. He has also authored some 250 opinion articles in the Wall Street Journal, Journal de Montréal, Journal de Québec, National Post, Toronto Sun, Vancouver Sun, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Gazette, Le Devoir, La Presse, Le Soleil, and Huffington Post Québec. I also frequently collaborate with L'Express (France) and Le Point (France).

Spring 2025 Film Screenings

  • Date: March 3, 2025
    Time: 9:05 am - 9:55 am
    Location: Burruss Building 151

    Description: How do we prevent war? How great a price are we willing to pay for peace? Can we use the lessons learned throughout history to extend peace into tomorrow? This program investigates the use of deterrence and appeasement in an era of rogue nations and nuclear proliferation.

  • Date: March 17, 2025
    Time: 9:05 am - 9:55 am
    Location: Burruss Building 151

    Description: In 1980 economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman inspired market reform in the West and revolutions in the East with his celebrated television series Free To Choose.

    Thirty years later, in this one-hour documentary, Swedish author, commentator, and Cato Senior Fellow Johan Norberg travels in Friedman's footsteps to see what has actually happened in the places Friedman's ideas helped transform. In location after location Norberg examines the contemporary relevance of Friedman's ideas in the 2011 world of globalization and financial crisis. Central to his examination are the perennial questions concerning power and prosperity, and the trade-offs between individual liberty and income equality.

  • Date: April 7, 2025
    Time: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
    Location: Burruss Building 151

    Description: She Rises Up chronicles the remarkable journeys of three women who are helping to lift their communities out of poverty through the local businesses they fight the odds to maintain. Gladys Yupanqui of Peru founded a mini-market and is looking to expand. Magatte Wade of Senegal is building a cosmetics manufacturing company. Selyna Peiris of Sri Lanka is expanding the textile company founded by her mother.

    Nearly one-third of all countries have laws that stifle a woman’s access to work. They limit access to bank accounts, property inheritance, and many types of jobs. These countries have some of the highest poverty rates in the world.

    Gladys, Magatte and Selyna’s stories are each unique unto themselves. Yet a common theme illustrates the critical importance of local businesses to emerging economies.  These women prevail over issues that are not faced by the multinational corporations that come in.  Opening a business in many countries is easier for a large foreign corporation than for local entrepreneurs.

    McKinsey & Company has calculated that if women were to participate in the world economy to the same extent as men, they would add the equivalent of the combined economies of China and the U.S. to the world’s prosperity.

    She Rises Up reveals the role entrepreneurs and small businesses can play in women gaining financial independence, and ultimately reducing poverty for all.  

 

Past Events