The London School of Economics (LSE) welcomes Scripps College assistant professor of economics Latika Chaudhary to the stage March 14 as its prestigious Epstein Lecturer. This marks the first time a professor from a liberal arts college has received such an invitation.
“It’s an honor to be in this group of people and I believe for Scripps as well,” she says.
Chaudhary will speak on the performance of railroads and education in colonial India. “While railroads remained one of the key priorities of the Raj,” she notes, “education was poorly funded for most of the colonial period.”
The economist joins a short list of luminaries with this appearance; Ran Abramitzky from Stanford University, Dr. Ichiro Maekawa from Soka University in Tokyo, and Tracy Dennison from Caltech are all prior speakers, with topics varying from Spanish economic regionalism and British decolonization to serf economy in Russia. Chaudhary’s inclusion in this list is significant because professors at research universities generally have smaller teaching loads and hence more time to develop their research than their liberal arts counterparts.
The Epstein Lecture series was founded in 2008 in memory of Stephan (Larry) Epstein, who worked at LSE for more than a decade and was head of the department at time of his death. With the mission to “bring the work of outstanding early career researchers in economic history to a broader audience,” the lecture series has brought professors and experts from around the world to LSE.