Podcast: Ed Lopez on His New Book, “The Pursuit of Justice”

Jeanne Hoffman interviews, Dr. Edward J. Lopez, Associate Professor or Economics at San Jose State University, about his new book, “The Pursuit of Justice: Law and Economics of Legal Institutions.” From the publisher: The Pursuit of Justice is a thoroughgoing analysis of the bureaucratization and politicization of the U.S. legal…

Scholarly Publishing A Bibliographic Guide By Elaine Hawley

“The Academic Review Process: How Can We Make It More Efficient?” Ofer H. Azar. American Economist 50:1 (Spring 2006):37(14). Draft linked online. ABSTRACT: “Recently many editors try to reduce the turnaround times of academic journals. Shorter turnaround times, however, will induce many additional submissions of low-quality papers, increasing significantly the…

Liberty and Science Fiction in Firefly and Serenity

Jeanne Hoffman. Welcome to this Kosmos Online podcast. I’m Jeanne Hoffman. Today’s episode is part of our series on liberty and science fiction. I’m talking about themes of liberty on the TV show Firefly and its big screen sequel, Serenity, with my guest Amy Sturgis. Dr. Sturgis is an author,…

Interview with Dr. Bruce Benson on his book, “Property Rights”

Jeanne 10/14/2010 11:25am Last week I talked with Bruce Benson about his new book, ““Property Rights: Eminent Domain and Regulatory Takings Re-examined.” Dr. Benson is a Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute, the DeVoe Moore Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at Florida State University, and Contributing Editor of The Independent…

Did Tariffs Spark the Civil War? Reflecting on the Morrill Act at 150

Did protective tariffs truly lead to the Civil War? This question is one that nearly every enthusiast of the era encounters, standing as one of the most controversial and misunderstood debates surrounding the roots of secession, exactly 150 years ago. The debate around tariffs is contentious because it can appear…

The Battle Between Breadth and Depth in Creating a Course (or Syllabus)

By Kevin Currie-Knight I am currently in the throes of creating two undergraduate courses for next semester – one on school choice, and the other on the politics of American education. In so doing, I am coming up against the (probably) age-old challenge of course creation: finding an appropriate balance…

Podcast: Amy Sturgis on Liberty and Science Fiction

Jeanne Hoffman interviews Amy Sturgis about themes of liberty in science fiction books, movies and TV shows. Dr. Sturgis is an author, editor, scholar, educator, speaker and podcaster with specialties in the field of science fiction, fantasy and Native American studies. You can learn more about her work at www.amyhsturgis.com…

Jason Brennan on His New Book “Libertarianism”

Philosophy Program Officer Bill Glod sat down to talk with Georgetown professor and Bleeding Heart Libertarian blogger Jason Brennan about Dr. Brennan’s new book, Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press). Over the course of the interview they talked about being a libertarian, the recent rise of left libertarianism, social…

Online Education: UVA, Coursera, Everybody has an opinion

By Nathan Chang Everyone has an opinion about online education and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs, a term I grow weary of with each refresh of Google Reader). Naturally, some are good, some are bad, most are the same arguments recycled and tweaked. I have trudged through two weeks of…

“So, What Do You Work On?”: The Academic Elevator Pitch

“So, what do you work on?” “Tell me about your research.” “What do you study?” If you’re interested in the life of the mind, you’re going to hear these. A lot. It’s essential to make sure you have a quick answer, preferably one that invites your interlocutor to inquire further…