Folbre will present two Patten Lectures in November at IU, according to an IU press release. Her first lecture, “Monsters of the Economic: Inequality, Fear and Loathing in America,” is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 10, and her second lecture, “The Political Economy of Patriarchal Systems,” is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12.
Both lectures are scheduled from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in Presidents Hall in Franklin Hall, according to the release. Both lectures are free and open to the public.
In “Monsters of the Economic: Inequality, Fear and Loathing in America,” Folbre will discuss how economic insecurity and downward mobility increase susceptibility to political manipulation, spawn fear and loathing and enforce barriers to solving economic problems,
according to the release.
In “The Political Economy of Patriarchal Systems,” Folbre will discuss how analytical
tools, such as game theory, bargaining models and exploitation concepts, can enhance feminist theory, according to the release.
A professor emerita of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and director of the Political Economy Research Institute’s Program on Gender and Care Work, Folbre studies the intersection of political economy and feminist theory, according to the release.
Her work has pressed economists, sociologists and other social scientists to fundamental re-evaluations of the ways they study the intersection of family, labor and the economy.
Folbre has published multiple books on topics ranging from gender in historical economics to labor spheres within families, according to the release. She has also published numerous pieces in journals and wrote a weekly blog for The New York Times from 2009 to 2014.
For her work, Folbre has earned multiple awards and grants, including a MacArthur Foundation award, also known as the “genius grant;” a Russell Sage Foundation fellowship; the Leontief Prize of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University; and a National Science Foundation grant.
The William T. Patten Foundation funds week-long visits of scholars or practitioners in the sciences, humanities and arts to IU, according to the release. These scholars and practitioners, chosen by a campus-wide faculty committee, give public lectures, participate in faculty colloquia and meet with students.
Since 1937, the foundation has brought more than 150 scholars or practitioners to IU, making the Patten Lecture series the oldest lecture series at IU, according to the release.
William T. Patten graduated from IU with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1893, according to the release. He later had a successful career in real estate and politics in Indianapolis. He created an endowment for IU in 1931 with the purpose of bringing renowned leaders to IU.
For more information about Folbre or her lectures, visit patten.indiana.edu.
Ashleigh Sherman
