Is capitalism essentially a system of social inequality, injustice and exploitation, or is it mainly a system of individual freedom and responsibility conducive to economic prosperity?  What system of values is associated with human happiness? What does it mean, for example, to seek equality in legal rights as compared to equality in the distribution of resources? How do political and economic systems differ in their ability to promote the good life, and what role does political economy have in defining what the good life might be?  

The Project aims to explore questions such as these—at the intersection of economics, politics, and ethics, though often falling through the cracks of these specialized academic disciplines—by means of teaching, research, and student inquiry.

The Project is expressly designed to enrich an undergraduate liberal-arts education. Most of our activities are centered upon expanding the opportunities of students who may or may not become specialists in the theory or practice of political economy, but who are looking to broaden their horizons and prepare themselves to think more deeply about the complex world that awaits them.

This commitment has manifested itself primarily in the following activities:

Courses

Typically, the PEP sponsors numerous courses every year. These are housed in a variety of departments and programs, including Economics, Government, Philosophy, Sociology, and International Studies.

The Project is emphatically interdisciplinary: it welcomes students, faculty, and visiting speakers and scholars from disciplines as varied as political science, economics, philosophy, history, sociology, even religion and literature. The PEP is committed to rigorous and open-minded investigation and a respectful but critical attitude toward all points of view.  

Here are courses the PEP has offered in recent years.

Speakers

The PEP typically hosts a number of speakers per term. Often, these are outside visitors to our campus invited to enrich a course that is being taught that term. On those occasions, the speaker will frequently attend the class in question or have lunch with select students interested in the subject.

Learn more about the speakers, from campus and beyond, who have participated in PEP events over the years.

Debates

One of the features of the Political Economy Project from the beginning has been a commitment to "teach the debate." Part of this commitment has involved the practice of scheduling outside speakers to debate important and contested topics. Our debate programming has covered everything from inequality, CEO pay, and slavery, to drug legalization, UBI, and the fate of the American Dream.

Check out our Past Events page for debates we have hosted.

Reading Groups

The Political Economy Project (PEP) grew out of the practice of faculty members such as Professors Meir Kohn and Douglas Irwin offering students informal opportunities to read and discuss important books together. Texts and topics that could not easily fit the framework of formal coursework could instead serve a kind of continuing education, in an intimate small-group setting that allows for closer interaction than is sometimes possible in the classroom. To date, we have offered nearly sixty (60) informal reading groups, and counting.

Learn more about our past offerings.

Informal "Monday Night Dinner" Talks

Equally informal was the practice of inviting faculty members to offer brief remarks on a topic of wide appeal over a catered dinner. Especially popular in the early years, before the Pandemic of 2020, the event typically featured a talk of no more than twenty minutes or so, followed by a question-and-answer period of similar length, so that the whole event was completed within about forty-five minutes.

See our list of past Monday night dinners.

Student Grants

Starting in 2019, the Political Economy Project began funding, on a competitive basis, a regular series of "Independent Research Fellowships" to allow qualified students to initiate their own program of directed reading under the guidance of a faculty mentor, for periods of anywhere from five to ten weeks. The fellowships were designed to replace job or intern activities, freeing up a period of concentrated full-time reading on a topic chosen by the student. 

In 2024, this program gave way to our "Disagreements Initiative," which regularly funds two students per term, out of what has invariably been a competitive pool of candidates. 

For more information, see "Disagreements Initiative".

The Dartmouth Exchange

Starting in 2024, a group of students led by Catherine Horner ('26) took the initiative to launch a journal of student writing on themes relevant to the mission of the PEP. 

To read their work, or to become involved either as an editor or as a prospective contributor, click here.

To be on our e-mail list for timely updates on any of our activities, you may sign up here, or email us!