Duke's Center for the History of Political Economy
(CHOPE 
<<http://econ.duke.edu/HOPE/CENTER/home.php>http://econ.duke.edu/HOPE/CENTER/home.php)> 
will sponsor a HOPE Conference in April 2013 on the general subject 
of "MIT and the Transformation of American Economics." The archival 
collections, in the Economists Papers Project (EPP) of the Rare Book, 
Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, of Paul Samuelson, 
Robert Solow, Franco Modigliani, Evsey Domar, and Franklin Fisher 
present an unusually rich source for scholars to examine in order to 
address the general topic. However those collections certainly do not 
circumscribe the questions that historians might wish to engage, such as:

How did the MIT Economics Department develop? How much connection was 
there among the faculty members' research activities? Was there an 
identifiable MIT/Cambridge economics culture? What networks of
faculty, their students, and their students' students came into being 
as MIT "products"?  Were there common features of the work done at 
MIT by various individuals? What was the pedagogical distinction of 
the MIT faculty? How were students trained? Did MIT evolve as economic
problems evolved, or as economic analysis evolved? What was the view 
of empirical work, and its role in developing economic analysis? Why 
has the history of "Chicago Economics" become an industry in the
history of economics, while that of MIT has not?

Certainly these questions are only indicative of the range of issues 
that might be addressed by conferees.

Because of the complex nature of the research opportunities that the 
EPP holdings represent, this notice is being sent out unusually early 
in order that interested scholars might take up new projects on this 
general theme.

Inquiries and expressions of interest should be sent to Professor E. 
Roy Weintraub at <mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]


E. Roy Weintraub