The first University of Austin (UATX) Winter Institute for the History and Philosophy of Economics will be held at UATX’s Downtown Austin (Texas) campus, Thursday, December 18th, through Sunday, December 21st, 2025.
The Winter Institute has been conceived as a small (hopefully) annual conference following the tradition laid down by Sandra Peart and David Levy in their long-running Summer Institute for the Preservation of the History of Economic Thought, and subsequently carried on for two years as a Winter Institute, by Ross Emmett at Arizona State University.
The purpose of the Institute is to provide a workshop setting, no less academically demanding for all its collegiality, in which both early-career and advanced scholars can engage with each other’s work in a constructive, yet rigorously critical, manner. The Institute will offer a forum for historians and philosophers of economics to meet, network, and present their works-in-progress to an audience of engaged peers.
One aspect of the Peart / Levy / Emmett model that we are especially concerned to preserve is a commitment to early-career scholars. We are reserving five of the ten available presentation slots for graduate students and scholars who have completed their PhDs within the last two years. The other five presentation slots are reserved for more established senior scholars. We will also support a number of invited scholars who will participate in the Institute as attendees / discussants, without presenting a paper. Naturally, anyone who might be near Austin at the time and would like to attend the Institute without financial support is welcome.
Participants at previous Summer / Winter Institutes have included Brad Bateman, Peter Boettke, Mauro Boianovsky, Marcel Boumans, James Buchanan, Bruce Caldwell, David Colander, John Davis, Evelyn Forget, Dan Hammond, Wade Hands, Samuel Hollander, Kevin Hoover, Maria Christina Marcuzzo, Deirdre McCloskey, Steve Medema, Phil Mirowski, Mary Morgan, Maria Pia Paganelli, Malcolm Rutherford, Warren Samuels, Eric Schliesser, Gordon Tullock, Anthony Waterman, and Roy Weintraub.
Participants should plan to arrive in Austin by Thursday, December 18th, 2025. An opening reception will be held that evening. Five sessions per day will be held on Friday the 19th and Saturday the 20th, with a closing dinner following the final Saturday session. Attendees should plan to depart on Sunday, December 21st, 2025.
Those chosen to present at the Institute will receive Institute-related meals, hotel accommodation for three nights, and a $1,250 honorarium to help defray travel costs.
We invite proposals on any topic, from any perspective, relevant to the history and / or philosophy of economics. Please provide an abstract of no more than 250 words and a brief CV of no more than 2 pages. Send your proposals (and any other inquiries) to sscheall@uaustin.org. The deadline for submissions is June 15th, 2025. Notifications will be sent by August 1st, 2025.
The Winter Institute for the History and Philosophy of Economics is supported by the Center for Economics, Politics, and History at the University of Austin, America’s newest university and, incidentally, the only American university to mandate at least one course in the history of economic thought for all students, regardless of major.
Scott Scheall
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Economics, Center for Economics, Politics, and History, University of Austin
On behalf of the Winter Institute Scientific Committee:
Morgan Marietta
Dean, Center for Economics, Politics, and History, University of Austin
Thomas Hogan
Associate Professor of Economics, Center for Economics, Politics, and History, University of Austin
Stephen Meardon
Associate Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College
Charles McCann
Independent Scholar
Alexander Linsbichler
Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Philosophy and Scientific Method, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, and Lecturer of Philosophy and Economics, University of Vienna