Economic History workshop builds excitement

"Economic history as a subject discipline within Economics is a growing field and should attract many students - especially those interested in answering the big questions in economics." This was the view of Martine Mariotti, recent graduate in Economic History at UCLA and now at the Australian National University in Canberra. She was the guest researcher at the recent ERSA/EHSSA Economic History Workshop held in Durban, South Africa and organised by Sophia du Plessis from Stellenbosch University.

The workshop brought a number of economic historians together to discuss the future of the field in the country, both regarding teaching and research. A number of exciting proposals was made to ignite interest in Economic History. Two Stellenbosch papers were presented: the team of Johan Fourie and Dieter von Fintel analysed the trends of inequality in the seventeenth and eighteenth century Cape Colony, while the team of Stan du Plessis and Sophia du Plessis investigated the media feedback mechanism in Botswana.

The conference was generously sponsored by ERSA (Economic Research South Africa). A follow-up conference will be held at the start of 2009.

Visit the Economic History of Southern Africa website, now hosted on the Stellenbosch server, at www.ehssa.org