----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- In partial answer to Mat, and for the list, we have had recently to explain exactly this point internally for the review. We noted that over the past decade or two perhaps the most notable characteristics of our program are unconventionality and experimentation. We have often been regarded as rather eccentric in the older HET community in the work we have undertaken. We respect and tolerate the conventional exegetical approach to the history of ideas, but we have been most interested in a variety of other approaches, including the relationship of economics to other disciplines and the involvement of economic ideas in the economy and various other social processes. Most recently, Neil DeMarchi and Craufurd Goodwin have been exploring connections between economics and the arts, and Neil for example has been writing in art history with an art historian while curating a show. Craufurd additionally has jointly supervised Ph.Ds in the Divinity School. I have been writing in the history of mathematics, and collaborating as well with individuals in the Program in Literature, and Cognitive Psychology. A distinctive feature of the "Duke approach" to our subject has been to keep it firmly embedded in the mother discipline of economics. We have all taught a variety of standard courses in the various subdisciplines at the graduate and undergraduate level (including a high proportion of the large introductory courses) and we have all done more than our share of administration (chairing and deaning). We think one of the mistakes our counterparts have made in other departments is to take a highly critical and confrontational stance toward the mainstream of the discipline. The result of that in a program such as ours would be to be "resourced" with reciprocal contempt. Consequently the impact of our presence, on departmental hiring, on self- governance issues, on the Duke Economics curriculum, and university affairs has been considerable. In any given year, there are usually 6-7 courses related to the history of economics, and often one of the many post doctoral visitors who come to work with us from other universities and countries teaches as well. Finally, we think we can say that, with the possible exception of health economics, amd financial econometrics, we have had more external funding for this field than for any other sub-field of economics. We have had grants from NSF, Ford, Rockefeller, Luce, Kanzanjian, and others. This enables us to support graduate students, conferences, archival developments, HOPE, etc. Consequently our students find desirable jobs, and are regarded as full members of their new departments, not as critics of economics but as mainstream professionals doing cross- disciplinary work as well. E. Roy Weintraub Duke University ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]