Get involved with the exciting and engaging lectures, film screenings, workshops and
symposiums happening at the Bagwell Center for the Study of Markets and Economic Opportunity
in the Coles College of Business.
Fall 2024 Lectures
Daniel Di Martino (co-sponsored by Young America's Foundation)
Date: August 29, 2024
Speaker: Daniel DiMartino (co-sponsored by Young America's Foundation), PhD Candidate in Economics,
Columbia University.
Lecture 1: "Socialism Kills: The Deadly Consequences of Socialism in Venezuela." Time: 9:30am - 10:45pm Location: Engineering Room 202 - Marietta Campus
Speaker Bio: Daniel Di Martino is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at Columbia University, a Graduate Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and a member of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Free Enterprise Board of Advisors at Young America’s Foundation.
Born and raised in Venezuela, Di Martino experienced the terrible consequences of
socialism first-hand. After leaving Venezuela for the United States in 2016, he dedicated
himself to explaining how socialism destroyed his homeland, advocating for its freedom,
and stopping this ideology from ever being implemented in America and elsewhere.
Di Martino appears frequently on national TV channels such as Fox News and CNN; writes
for USA Today, National Review, and other news outlets; and speaks regularly at college
campuses and events all over the country.
He also founded the Dissident Project, which provides students with access to informed,
intelligent perspectives on how authoritarianism takes hold, what happens when it
does, and what America can learn from the evils of current and former socialist states
around the world.
Brad Humphreys
Date: September 26, 2024
Speaker: Brad Humphreys, Professor of Economics, West Virginia University
Lecture 1: "Estimating the value of medal success in the Olympic Games." Time: 9:30am - 10:45am Location: Student Center, STA 180 BC - Kennesaw Campus
Lecture 2: TBD Time: 11:00am - 12:15pm Location: Student Center, STA 180 BC - Kennesaw Campus
Speaker Bio: Brad R. Humphreys is a native West Virginian and WVU alumni. He holds a BS in Business Administration and a BS in Economics from the WVU Chambers College of Business and Economics and an MA and PhD in economics from the Johns Hopkins University. He is a professor of economics in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics. He previously held positions on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Alberta, and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
He is the 2016-17 Benedum Distinguished Scholar in Social and Behavioral Sciences at WVU. He is the recipient of the 2022 Peter Sloane Award for his research contributions to European sports economics. He served as the President of the Eastern Economic Association in 2021-2022.
His research on the economics and financing of professional sports and the economics of gambling has been published in academic journals in economics and policy analysis, including the Journal of Urban Economics, the Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Regional Science, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Empirical Economics, Public Finance Review, and Regional Science and Urban Economics. He has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals in economics and public policy. He is the co-editor of the three volume The Business of Sport, a comprehensive examination of sports business, economics, and finance which was named an Outstanding Business Reference Source by the Business Reference Sources Committee of the American Library Association.
He is Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Economic Policy, a general interest economics journal and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Sports Economics, the International Journal of Sport Finance, the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, the International Journal of Sport Marketing and Sponsorship, the International Journal of Empirical Economics, and International Gambling Studies.
He twice testified before the United States Congress on the economic impact of professional sports teams and facilities. He has also testified before the Massachusetts legislature and Washington DC City Council on the financing of sports facilities. In 2014 he co-authored a report with economists from the Brattle Group for the Governor’s Office of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts evaluating taxpayer liabilities associated with hosting the 2024 Olympic Games; the Boston 2024 Olympic Bid was terminated shortly after the report was issued.
Marian Tupy
Date: October 11, 2024
Speaker: Marian Tupy, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute
Lecture: "Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing
on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet." Time: 2:30pm - 3:20pm Location: Student Center, STA 180 BC - Kennesaw Campus
Speaker Bio: Marian L. Tupy is the founder and editor of HumanProgress.org, and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
He is the coauthor of the Simon Abundance Index, Superabundance: The Story of Population
Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet (2022)
and Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know: And Many Others You Will Find
Interesting (2020).
His articles have been published in the Financial Times, the Washington Post, the
Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Newsweek, the U.K. Spectator,
Foreign Policy, and various other outlets both in the United States and overseas.
He has appeared on BBC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, and other channels.
Tupy received his BA in international relations and classics from the University of
the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and his PhD in international relations
from the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom.
Fall 2024 Film Screenings
Mighty Ira
Date: October 23, 2024 Time: 12:00pm - 1:45pm Location: Student Center, STA 180 BC - Kennesaw Campus
Description: Ira Glasser is one of America’s unsung champions of civil rights and liberties. As the leader of the American Civil Liberties Union for 23 years, he transformed the organization from a small, “mom-and-pop” operation on the verge of bankruptcy into a civil liberties juggernaut with offices in every state and a $30 million endowment. As his generation retires from the barricades, Ira reminisces on his life at the forefront of defending the rights of all Americans, from civil rights leaders to neo-Nazis.
His story takes us to his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, where in 1947 Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers broke the color barrier in baseball and inspired a generation of civil rights activists; to the offices of Robert Kennedy, where the U.S. Senator spoke with a young Ira and convinced him to take his first job with the ACLU; and to California, where a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor explains to Ira why he thinks the ACLU was wrong to defend the right of neo-Nazis to demonstrate near his home in Skokie, Illinois, over 40 years ago — and how recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, evoke painful memories.
Amid high-profile controversies surrounding free speech, racial equality, and antisemitism — and on the occasion of the ACLU’s centennial — Ira Glasser’s story is as timely and provocative as ever.
Description: As news and social media amplify a narrative of an America on the brink of civil
war, politicians in Washington, DC stir conflict: red against blue, rich against poor,
urban against rural, race against race, and man against woman. They cast us as enemies
locked in battle, usurping power and posing as our saviors.
UNDIVIDE US challenges the idea that citizens who disagree are not capable of civil
conversation and demonstrates the truth that, even in our differences, the American
experiment is still alive and well.
It exposes the power players in Washington DC as the true disruptors of peace, driving
our legitimate differences to the brink of disaster. Hear from experts about the roots
of this toxic polarization and learn how to counteract it in our local communities
and lives.
Description: They grew up believing their land was paradise. Now, they risk everything in escaping
it. In an unforgettable documentary, follow families on a treacherous journey to defect
from their homeland of North Korea, as the threat of severe punishment and possible
execution looms over their passage, revealing a world many have never seen.
