My Time at the LSE

This summer, I had the honor of visiting the LSE/STICERD as the 2008 F.A. Hayek Fellow.  As part of the fellowship, I was provided with office space at the LSE and the opportunity to meet with faculty and students (the picture is of me with the Lionel Robbins bust located in the Lionel Robbins Building where STICERD is housed).  It was a pleasure to meet Tim Besley who was a gracious host.

In addition to meeting the faculty and students at STICERD, other highlights of my trip included:

1. Meeting Chandran Kukathas and participating in a seminar on his excellent book, The Liberal Archipelago.  Chandran is the leading proponent of cosmopolitan liberalism and I highly recommend his book.
2. Participating in the Austrian reading group organized by Paul Lewis, John Meadowcroft and Anthony Evans.
3. Speaking at the Institute for Economic Affairs where John and Christine Blundell were kind enough to host me for an evening lecture (my talk was on "Institutions, Entrepreneurship and Development").  John also gave me an excellent tour of the Westminster area where, among other things, I learned about the history of the private provision of fire services in London.
4. Speaking at the European School of Management where Anthony Evans organized a talk on After War.  It was good to catch up with Anthony and see first-hand the excellent program he is helping to build.
5. Meeting Dominique Lazanski, the former president of the Hayek Society.  I was disappointed to learn that the Hayek Society had lost momentum since Dominique graduated from the LSE.  However, Dominique connected me with all the right people and was a great help throughout my visit.  Further, as an avid reader of all things Austrian economics and classical liberalism, Dominique is fun to talk to.
6. Touring London and Scotland (Glasgow was nice, but Edinburgh was by far my favorite).

In addition to my meetings and talks, I was able to get a good deal of research done.  I will be posting more on this in the future.

I want to thank Tim Besley of STICERD and Toby Baxendale for providing me with the opportunity to spend time at the LSE.  Also, Sue Coles, Jane Dickson and Angela Swain were extremely helpful in enabling my visit to go as smoothly as it did.

Comments

[Dain]

Meeting Chandran Kukathas and participating in a seminar on his excellent book, The Liberal Archipelago. Chandran is the leading proponent of cosmopolitan liberalism and I highly recommend his book.

I would love to hear more about this seminar. I read his book and found it to be a strong defense of libertarian non-interventionism, even if that wasn't quite his intent.

[Peter Boettke]

Congratulations Chris ... it sounds like you got the most out of your visit.

The LSE is a really special environment. Did you attend any good public lectures in the Old Theatre?

I actually found the LSE to be as intellectual exciting an environment as any place I've had the opportunity to work at.

Can you give us a breakdown of seminars you attended or conversations you had with scholars there (or in London) --- I would love to hear what is currently being discussed by the faculty and graduate students there.