Clickable Table of Contents
- Message from the Director and Associate Director
- FC Headlines
- Encouraging Civil Debate of ESG Viewpoints Through Panel of Experts and the Freedom Center’s Justice, Law, and Capitalism Talk Series
- Inspiring Through Oral History: An Evening With Holocaust Survivor Hanna Zack Miley
- Dr. Rigdon Invited to Present Research on Narrowing the Gender Wage Gap in the National Science Foundation’s Distinguished Lecture Series
- Freedom Center Journalist-in-Residence Jay Nordlinger Honors Iconic Economist And Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith
- Leading the Nation: U of A Becomes First U.S. Institution To Join European Master in Law and Economics
- Spotlighting Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr. David Clark
- Advancing K-12 Education: Freedom Center Partners With Cato Institute to Enhance Teachers’ Skills for Civic Education
- PPEL Undergraduate Summer School Returned for Second Year, June 4-7
Message from the Director and Associate Director
As we prepare to begin a new academic year, we at the Freedom Center reflect on the importance of our mission. In today’s political climate, educating students and citizens to the values of freedom and civil discourse could not be more important. As recent events have reminded us, these values should never be taken for granted.
In this spirit, we launched a new Freedom Center debate series last April, focused on the rise of “Environmental, Social, and Governance” (ESG), featuring an esteemed panel of world-renowned experts and moderators. Debate has become almost a daunting word these days, but it shouldn’t be. If conducted in a civilized and open-minded way, debating with others serves to foster an understanding of diverse perspectives and honor the freedom founding our democracy.
If conducted in a civilized and open-minded way, debating with others serves to foster an understanding of diverse perspectives and honor the freedom founding our democracy. Our goal is to demonstrate that our community remains capable of engaging in these debates for thebenefit of all. Judging by the large attendance of the ESG debate and the outpouring of emails we received afterward, we believe we are on the right track toward achieving that goal. Expect more Freedom Center debates soon. You can see a short trailer here.
In April, we also had the privilege of welcoming Holocaust survivor Hanna Zack Miley to campus to share her life story of loss, survival, forgiveness and hope—told through a public screening of a documentary depicting her journey from victim to survivor. Her mission of promoting reconciliation between groups of faith, cultures, races, and politics embodies so much of what we aim to achieve here at the Freedom Center. Mrs. Miley, and her lifelong and worldwide mission, is a warm reminder to all of us of the power of forgiveness. You can view Mrs. Miley’s “Story of Hope” here.
You’ll find more about the ESG debate and the evening with Mrs. Miley, along with many other ways we are advancing the mission of the Freedom Center, in this Spring 2024 edition of our newsletter. You can also stay updated by checking our News page and follow us on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.
Hope you are having a wonderful summer,
Mary L. Rigdon
Freedom Center Director and
Associate Professor of Political Economy and Moral Science
Saura Masconale
Freedom Center Associate Director and
Assistant Professor of Political Economy and Moral Science, James E. Rogers College of Law Affiliated Faculty
Encouraging Civil Debate of ESG Viewpoints Through Panel of Experts and the Freedom Center’s Justice, Law, and Capitalism Talk Series
The series showcased a dynamic panel debate, “Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) Now and in the Future: Is There Common Ground,” before a live audience at the Phoenix Heard Museum on April 3. Former White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Robert Gibbs moderated the debate, co-sponsored by the National Review Institute, with panel-participation by Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow; Kevin Hassett, 29th Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers; Sandra E Taylor, former Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Starbucks; and Kimberly Yee, State Treasurer of Arizona.
The event promoted greater understanding between ESG advocates, who believe standards should be integrated into business practices for sustainability, and critics, who argue corporations should stick to their core mission of maximizing wealth. Almost 200 people attended the debate and over 5000 live-streamed it.
Distinguished scholars delved deeper into the topic through the Freedom Center Justice, Law, and Capitalism Talk Series, created by Saura Masconale and Simone Sepe. The talk series featured four presentations examining ESG from a legal, economic, and philosophical perspective, including by William Bratton, Jessica Flanigan, Elizabeth Pollman, and Brian Berkey. The talks were open to faculty, students and community members.
Inspiring Through Oral History: An Evening With Holocaust Survivor Hanna Zack Miley
On April 29, the Freedom Center and the University of Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona proudly presented a uniquely poignant event featuring a screening of a mini-documentary depicting the story of Holocaust survivor Hanna Zack Miley.
Born in 1932 to Jewish parents in Germany, Miley—along with her family and community—suffered increasing violence from the Nazi regime. At age 7, her father arranged for her escape to England. She would later learn her parents were gassed in a death camp in 1942. Now at 92 years old, Miley continues the mission to share her story of loss, freedom, and forgiveness around the world as she has been for half a century.
Speaking to the full crowd, Miley remarked, “I thank you all for coming. It’s really quite affirming, and I feel that doing this tonight is actually very significant in this time,” she said. “My story is a story of hope. And I want to give you hope.” Following the screening, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Director David Graizbord and State Representative Alma Hernandez joined Mrs. Miley for a fireside chat.
Miley’s oral history was recently approved by the Arizona State Board of Education for teachers to use as part of the Freedom Center’s Oral History Mini Documentary Collection, designed to strengthen civic education through oral histories that contrast the differences between living under authoritarian governments and democracy in America.
Dr. Rigdon Invited to Present Research on Narrowing the Gender Wage Gap in the National Science Foundation’s Distinguished Lecture Series
Dr. Rigdon was an invited speaker in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF)Social and Behavioral Sciences Distinguished Lecture Seminar Series. Her talk “Understanding Competitiveness and the Gender Wage Gap” detailed how social incentives may hold a key to unlocking women’s natural competitiveness and help narrow the seemingly ineradicable pay gap. Funded by the National Science Foundation and conducted collaboratively with University of San Francisco Professor Alessandra Cassar, Dr. Rigdon’s work provides a deeper understanding of differences in competitiveness, hypothesizing that women are just as competitive as men but motivated differently.
“It’s about changing the systems, not the women,” said Dr. Rigdon. “We’re advancing the wage-gap conversation from how to change women’s behavior — lean in, be assertive — to ways institutions and incentives should change to promote women’s natural competitiveness.”
Their research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Evolution and Human Behavior, and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
You can learn about Dr. Rigdon’s other invited speaking engagements this Spring here, including in the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s Women’s History Speaker Series, the plenary talk at the Arizona Council on Economic Education Invest in Girls program, and as a selected speaker at the U of A Commission on the Status of Women Event.
Freedom Center Journalist-in-Residence Jay Nordlinger Honors Iconic Economist And Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith
Journalist-in-Residence Jay Nordlinger, interviewed Vernon Smith, the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics. The visit was featured in the article, “Scholar, and Champion, of a Free Society,” published in the June issue of National Review. “Altogether, an encounter with Vernon L. Smith—who rose from the Kansas plains to leave a mark on the world—is an encounter with intellect, practicality, and humane values,” Nordlinger recounted
Much of his Nobel-winning research was conducted from 1976 to 2001 at the University of Arizona, where he mentored then Ph.D. candidate and current Director Mary L. Rigdon.
The Freedom Center’s Journalist-in-Residence program provides a dynamic, immersive campus experience to inspire media thought-leaders and reinforce the role of a free press to promote critical thinking and a healthy democracy. Nordlinger is recognized as an inaugural participant along with Emmy and Peabody award-winning sports journalist Sarah Spain.
Leading the Nation: U of A Becomes First U.S. Institution To Join European Master in Law and Economics
The University of Arizona has staked claim as the first in the United States to join the European Master in Law & Economics (EMLE), an interdisciplinary program that fosters an atmosphere of internationality among students to prepare them for successful careers in international business and law. EMLE was launched in 1990 at the universities in Ghent, Paris IX, Oxford, and Rotterdam, before adding sites in Aix-Marseille, Barcelona, Hamburg, Rome, Warsaw, Haifa, Mumbai, and, now, Tucson.
As part of EMLE, students study three terms at one or two of the consortium institutions with distinguished scholars from around the world in a program that synthesizes law and economics together into a manageable, innovative program. EMLE students will begin taking classes at UArizona in Spring 2025.
Spotlighting Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr. David Clark
Congratulations to David Clark on becoming a core faculty member in the Freedom Center and joining the U of A’s Department of Philosophy as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2024. David started at the Freedom Center as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Fall 2023 after completing his Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Southern California. Welcome and bear down!
Advancing K-12 Education: Freedom Center Partners With Cato Institute to Enhance Teachers’ Skills for Civic Education
Forged through a partnership between the Freedom Center and the Cato Institute, the Sphere Education Initiatives has provided more than 100 teachers across Arizona and the United States tools, strategies, and materials to promote free speech and civil engagement among students.
At a recent summit, Mary L. Rigdonshared a timeless reminder from the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Arizonan Sandra Day O’Connor in her opening remarks: “The practice of democracy is not passed down through the gene pool. It must be taught and learned by each new generation.” The summit also featured a keynote address by Rep. Quang Nguyen, preceding a screening of a documentary recounting his experience escaping Communist Vietnam to being elected to the Arizona State Legislature. The film is housed within the Freedom Center’s Oral History Collection.
PPEL Undergraduate Summer School Returned for Second Year, June 4-7
The Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL) Undergraduate Summer School, created and organized by Mary L. Rigdon and Saura Masconale, was held at the University of San Diego campus for its second year on June 4-7, 2024. The four-day program, a collaboration with the Freedom Center and the Department of Political Economy and Moral Science at the University of Arizona, the University of San Diego’s Center for Ethics, Economics, & Public Policy, and Chapman University’s Smith Institute for Political Economy & Philosophy and supported in part by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (#62965), strengthens and refines students’ critical thinking skills while cultivating intellectual humility that enables them to learn from others offering varying viewpoints. More than 40 students attended from 30 different universities. The plenary lecture was given by Dr. Deirdre McCloskey on the equality of permission. Courses were taught by Suzanne Dovi, Thony Gillies, Saura Masconale, Mary Rigdon, Simone Sepe, Vlad Tarko, John Thrasher, Steve Wall, Bart Wilson and Matt Zwolinski.
