From Mark Blyth, Director

Welcome back to campus. I was on sabbatical last year and the Rhodes Center was left in the capable hands of Prof. Jeff Colgan. Now I’m back and we have an exciting two semesters ahead of us. For the Fall Semester we kick off with a conference that builds off the 2021 conference that we held at Rhodes with folks from the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Germany. That conference resulted in this volume.

This semester we build upon the work in this volume in the form of a conference called “Greening Growth Models” that uses the framework of the Diminishing Returns project to analyze states’ most likely decarbonization pathways. The conference will be held Sept 3rd and 4th at Watson. If you would like to attend please mail me as space is limited. 

In addition to this fall conference we have an exciting schedule of speakers coming to Rhodes. Charlotte Cavaille will share her research on people’s preferences for redistribution. Henry Yeung will give us an Asian-focused take on the notion of a hi-tech Chip War. Peter Goodman from the New York Times will present his book on how and why global supply chains broke down during the pandemic. For a full list of our events please check our event listings. 

In the Spring we will host another conference that seeks to build out the Growth Model research program, this time with colleagues from the London School of Economics. This conference will apply the Growth Model framework to states in the Global South. In the Spring we focus on our two premium lecture series. The first is the annual Ethics of Capitalism lecture and the second is the Grazonic lecture series which brings special guests to campus. Details on both events will be announced in the Spring. 

Also, this year, the Rhodes Center Podcast will take a new format. Rather than being simply interviews with our visitors we are working to make it more of a thematic show. 

In terms of our research focus, apart from the Growth Models project we have one post doc in residence, Mathias Larsen, who works on China’s green industries and we will be recruiting a postdoc to work jointly with myself and Ben Braun of the London School of Economics on Asset Managers and Private Equity funds. 

In short, its good to be back. I look forward to seeing you at our events.