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The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced last week that Steven Medema, economics professor at the Downtown Denver Campus of the University of Colorado Denver, received a 2005 NEH Summer Stipend award. This is a highly competitive award – only two nominations may be sent from each institution – and the election ratio is very low. Medema’s award will allow him to complete a book that will explore economists’ views of the appropriate role for government within the economic system, and how economic theory treats and informs the role of government.
Medema’s book, The Hesitant Hand: Market and State in the History of Modern Economic Thought, is under contract with Princeton University Press. It is an intellectual history of the theory of economic policy from the late 19th century to the present, tracing this history from the demise of the laissez-faire views associated with classical liberalism in the latter 19th century, through the rise of the overtly interventionist neoclassical welfare economics tradition, and on to the rebirth of classical liberal economics in the second half of the 20th century.
“I have long been fascinated by economists’ views of the appropriate role for the state in economic activity, and the forces driving the evolution of those ideas over time,” Medema said. The Hesitant Hand project is the culmination of more than a decade of research on one facet of this topic. “Garnering NEH support for this project has been very gratifying. Economics is not traditionally thought of as a ‘humanities’ discipline, but work on the intellectual history of economics certainly has an important humanities aspect.”
The NEH summer stipends support individuals pursuing advanced research that contributes to scholarly knowledge or to the public's understanding of the humanities. Award recipients produce scholarly articles, monographs on specialized subjects, books on broad topics, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly tools. The stipend period is between June 15 and Aug. 15.
“I am particularly pleased that this is yet another national award for the [Downtown Denver Campus of UCDHSC],” Medema stressed. “I am grateful to the university for forwarding the project for NEH consideration and for the support the university has given to my research over the years.”