Spring 2009 News

LPS Professor Paul Harrington, director of the center of labor market studies, was a guest on "Business Talk" on NBC 10 in Providence, R.I., on March 23, to talk about the current labor market and today's economic impact on education.

LPS Professor Paul Harrington,was quoted in a Feb. 17 Newsweek article on career recovery after layoffs. "People are making career shifts because they think their prospects in a field where they've been employed are not good," said Harrington.

MIT Professor Susan Silby will give a talk, "Legal Culture & Cultures of Legality" on 9 April at 5:30 in Clifford Lounge. Professor Silby will meet with LPS students beforehand at 3:30 in the political science conference room. All are welcome.

PhD Candidate Neenah Estrella-Luna will be defending her dissertation entitled " Environmental Review In Massachusetts: The Relationships, The Decisions, And The Law." Friday, March 27, 2009 at 1:30pm in room 7 Snell Library.

PhD Candidate Mark Yunger will be defending his dissertation entitled "The Democratization of Unemployment." Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 3pm in room 140C West Village.

LPS Professor Paul Harrington, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies and professor of law, policy and society, was interviewed on NECN on April 8 about the effects of lifetime job security contracts on the current condition of the Boston Globe.

LPS Professor Joan Fitzgerald gave an invited lecture on renewable energy and regional economic development on May 13th at Newcastle University. The talk was part of the Regional Insights series sponsored by the university's Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies and One North East, northern England's economic development agency.

LPS Professor James A. Fox has an op-ed in the 24 April Boston Globe on the Markoff murder case.

Believing in Markoff: Loyalty or Lunacy?

LPS Alum (2007) Kuheli Dutt's dissertation research (which was published in Environment, Development, and Sustainability) was mentioned in a New York Times blog: Link

LPS Ph.D. student Fabio Sa e Silva was awarded a fellowship from the Open Society Institute for a Summer Course in Europe, "Teaching Law, Ethics, and Human Rights," as part of a program of the Public Interest Law Institute at Columbia University and the CEU Summer University.

LPS Ph.D. student Fabio Sa e Silva just accepted a tenured research position at prestigious Brazilian federal think-tank,IPEA, which is maintained by the federal government. IPEA reports to the Minister of Long-Term Planning, Harvard Law Professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger. He was one of 1,400 applicants--not bad for someone who is ABD!!

LPS Ph.D. candidate Rich Maloney recently presented findings from his dissertation research at the Assn. of Arts Administration Educators annual conference in Philadelphia and was also part of the conference organizing committee. Rich also serves as an elected board member of the international Association of Arts Administration Educators and in that role recently participated in four panels at an invitation-only symposium in Helsinki that examined the future of the field of cultural management.

LPS Ph.D candidate Bob Pritchard won the 2008-2009 NU Economics Department Undergraduate Teaching Award. This "professor of the year" award is voted upon by the class of graduating economics majors. Congratulations Bob!

LPS Director Joan Fitzgerald testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services,Education, and Related Agencies on March 25th. She and other panelists provided input for budget hearings on strategies and policies for raising the standard of living and opportunities, particularly for those at the bottom of the income spectrum.

The research of Economics and LPS-affiliated Professor Andrew Sum was featured in Bob Herbert's New York Times column on February 27th. The column focused on Sum's recent Center for Labor Market Studies report on high youth unemployment.

High youth unemployment

LPS Director Joan Fitzgerald was named this year's Robert D. Klein University Lecturer. Her talk, "Emerald Cities: On the Front Lines of Sustainability," will be delivered at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31, in the Raytheon Amphitheater.

LPS professors Barry Bluestone and Stephanie Pollack published an op-ed in the Boston Globe, "Gas tax: Paying cents to save big bucks" (Feb. 26).

PhD Candidate Mbosonge Mwenechanya will be defending his dissertation entitled "The De-Africanization of African Development: International Development Programs and Political Economy of the Local in Zambia." Friday, January 23, 2009 at 2pm in room 132 Nightingale Hall.