Monday, September 17
Post-Communist Politics and Economics Workshop

Organizational Meeting
1730 Cambridge Street, 3rd Floor, Room S354
12:15-2:00 p.m.
 
This workshop brings together graduate students, post-docs, and area faculty to discuss new work related to politics and economics in the post-communist (and communist) countries of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Asia.  In 2007-2008 the workshop is being chaired by Gerald Easter (of Boston College), Dmitry Gorenburg (of Harvard University and AAASS) and Pauline Luong (of Brown University).

The regime changes and economic transformations underway in the socialist and  post-socialist world have provided a unique natural experiment for many of the existing theories of political science and economics. The workshop has forged an explicit link between the theoretical literature on institutions, transitions, economic reform, and democratization and evidence from the post-communist cases. Workshop participants have presented both theoretical propositions and empirical findings, permitting critical reevaluation of theories and analytical treatment of data.

In order to support the workshop's emphasis on substantive discussions of new scholarly work, all presenters submit a written paper, and all participants are expected to have read the paper in advance of the meeting.  At the meeting, the presenter briefly summarizes the paper and participants offer comments on the written work.  In addition, all presenters are expected to commit to attending all workshop sessions. 

All meetings will be from 12:15 to 2:00 pm, at the Davis Center, 1730 Cambridge St., Room S354.  Lunch will be available beginning at 12:15 and discussion of papers will start promptly at 12:30.  See the schedule for dates and specific presentation information.  If you would like further information or would like to be included on our e-mail list for future announcements of scheduled meetings please contact Gavril Bilev (gavril_bilev@brown.edu).