WWU Connections speaker series begins April 12 at Village Books with lecture on economics

A series of presentations by Western Washington University faculty and staff members at Village Books in Bellingham kicks off Tuesday, April 11, when assistant professor of economics Hart Hodges delivers his lecture "Simplicity, Sympathy, and Skepticism."

The WWU Connections series is a collaboration of Village Books and the Western Libraries.

Hodges' talk, which is slated for noon to 1 p.m. April 12, pulls together three different discussions. The first focuses on local economic development, the second on U.S. debt and the prospects for economic growth in the near term, and the third on what economics has to say about self-interest. The trick -- and the purpose of the talk -- is to show how those topics actually fit together quite nicely.

Hodges started at Western in fall 2000 and was named director of the Center for Economic and Business Research in fall 2003. He received his bachelor’s degree from Williams College, his master’s from Duke University and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Other lectures in the brown-bag series:

• Bob Keiper, an associate professor of secondary education at Woodring College of Education, will speak from noon to 1 p.m. May 10 on "Laughter: Motivation and Medicine."
• Ruth Steele, an archivist for the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies at WWU, will present "Views to the Past: Accessing Archives in the Digital Age" from noon to 1 p.m. June 14.