Eventlist

LECTURE BY PROFESSOR YANIS VAROUFAKIS

The Board of Management of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne & Victoria and The University of Melbourne's Research Unit in Public Culture are presenting a lecture titled 'GREEK CRISIS: Why there is no such thing (and how to escape it)' by renowned political economist Professor Yanis Varoufakis on Monday 15 October at the Greek Community Centre.

Greece is arguably in the deepest economic crisis in its modern history. Yet, there is no such thing as a Greek Crisis, in the same sense that it would be meaningless to speak of an Ohio Crisis or a Tasmania Crisis in the 1930s. Just like Ohio and Tasmania were then caught up in a Great Depression that had engulfed the whole of the United States, indeed the capitalist system in its entirety, so too today there is a European and Global Crisis of which Greece is an interesting part. In fact, Varoufakis will be arguing that Greece's terrible current situation holds clues to understanding the overall malaise that is afflicting Europe and, to a lesser extent, the global economy. Studying these clues carefully helps gain a clearer picture of what needs to be done to avert a new, a postmodern, 1930s from engulfing us all.

Professor Varoufakis will be introduced by Professor Nikos Papastergiadis and he will also chair the event. The lecture will be conducted in the English language.

Varoufakis was born in Athens, 1961, moved to England to read Mathematical Economics (Essex), Mathematical Statistics (Birmingham) and to complete a PhD in Economics (Essex).

His academic appointments (teaching economics, econometrics, political philosophy and game theory), began at the University of Essex and then took him to the Universities of East Anglia, Cambridge, Glasgow, the Université Catholique de Louvain and the University of Sydney– before returning to his native Greece to take up an appointment at the University of Athens as Professor of Economic Theory and director of the Political Economy Program, as well as to found

UADPhilEcon, an international doctorate program in economics.

In 2010 he co-founded, with artist Danae Stratou, vitalspace.org, a non-profit organisation for the promotion of art projects that touch upon the various crises affecting the global community.

He now holds a Visiting Professorship at the Lyndon B. Johnson Graduate School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas at Austin. Since the Global and Euro Crises began in 2008, Varoufakis has been an active participant in the debates occasioned by these events.

Together with Stuart Holland, he is the author of A Modest Proposal for Resolving the Euro Crisis.

Lecture details:

Title: Greek Crisis: Why there is no such thing (and how to escape it)

Presenter: Professor Yanis Varoufakis

Date: Monday 15 October 2012

Time:  7.00pm

Venue: Greek Community Centre Level 3, 168 Lonsdale Street Melbourne