“This distinct recognition of scholars from around the world brought us Dr. Dani Rodrik, and with him, a wealth of knowledge utterly consistent with the liberal arts. For me, the 2018 Miller Upon Forum was a distinguished event that excellently culminated the scholarly work we had been studying from Rodrik as taught by professor Dr. Diep Phan during our delightfully intense Senior Seminar course. Although the entirety of Rodrik’s work is impossible to summarize in a sentence, the idea of globalization as a force or deterrent for healthy economies is wildly fascinating and thoroughly studying it certainly exercises the mental philosophy of the fox versus the hedgehog dichotomy from Archilochus’ parable.

From having Rodrik talking individually to me and other students during class time, to his extraordinary Memorial Lecture, it was a unique privilege to be a part of an event that celebrates not only economics as a discipline, but furthers the idea of critical thinking in its purest distillation: that as students of the liberal arts who think independently we can work through the economic-political challenges of our times and push the boundaries of academia because of experiences like these. It was an honor to be part of this Forum (and all previous ones while I was a student) and I look forward to the following years of brilliant statisticians and Nobel laureates.”