2018 Europe & Liberty Seminar in Bansko, Bulgaria

July 22-28, 2018

This seminar will be held at the St. Ivan Rilski Hotel (in the Rodope mountain, two hours from Sofia) in Cooperation with the Institute for Market Economics (Sofia).

Note that for the selected students, accommodations and attendance to the conferences are free. Selected students will only need to fund their transportation.

Faculty will include: Krassen Stanchev (economics), Douglas Rasmussen (philosophy), Pierre Garello (economics of law), Christian Nasulea (economics)

Application Deadline: May 15th, 2018

Speakers

Douglas B. Rasmussen
St. John’s University
Douglas B. Rasmussen is Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University in NYC. Among the books he has co-authored (with Douglas J. Den Uyl) are: Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelian Defense of Liberal Order (1991); Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non-Perfectionist Politics (2006); and The Perfectionist Turn: From Metanorms to Metaethics (2016). He has authored numerous articles in many scholarly anthologies and in such journals as: the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly; American Philosophical Quarterly; International Philosophical Quarterly; The New Scholasticism; The Personalist; Public Affairs Quarterly; Social Philosophy & Policy; The Review of Metaphysics; and The Thomist. He has served on the Steering Committee of the Ayn Rand Society and as a member of Executive Council of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. He is co-editor (with Den Uyl) of The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand (1984). His areas of research interest are epistemology, ontology, ethics, and political philosophy as well as the moral foundations of capitalism.

Pierre Garello
IES-Europe – Aix-Marseille Université
President of IES-Europe and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines, Pierre Garello is Professor of Economics at the Faculté d’Economie et Gestion of Aix Marseille University in France. He has published various articles on Austrian economics, law and economics (especially competition law and contract law). He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines, a scholarly review dealing with economic, legal, philosophical and political issues, in the tradition of the French Classical Liberal School. He is also at the center of a liberal network in Europe and is the coordinator of the European liberal think tanks Resource Bank. He is directing research for IREF, a think tank that promotes tax competition and sound public finances.

Alberto Mingardi
Istituto Bruno Leoni
Alberto Mingardi is Assistant Professor in History of Political Thought at IULM University of Milan. He is also the Director General of Istituto Bruno Leoni, Italy’s free-market think tank (www.brunoleoni.it) which he helped to establish in 2004. He is also an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute and an Affiliate at the Economic Science Institute at Chapman University. His main scientific interest is the history of political thought. He has written a monograph on Thomas Hodgskin (Thomas Hodgskin, allievo anarchico di Adam Smith, Venezia: Marsilio, 2016) and one on Herbert Spencer (New York & London: Continuum, 2011). He has edited a few books, including critical editions of Hodgskin and Spencer, and he has translated into English, Antonio Rosmini, The Constitution Under Social Justice (Lexington Books, 2003). He is a columnist of the Italian daily La Stampa and contributes to the literary supplement of Il Sole 24 Ore. Internationally, his opinion pieces have frequently appeared on Politico and The Wall Street Journal. He blogs at EconLog. He holds a PhD in Political Science from University of Pavia.

Krassen Stanchev
The Institute for Market Economics
Dr Krassen Stanchev is a Board Chairman, Founder and former Executive Director of Institute for Market Economics (www.ime.bg) – the first Bulgaria’s free market think thank (1993), former member and a committee chairman of the Constitutional Assembly (1990-1991), one of the most quoted Bulgarian observers, best country analyst award for 1996 by Euromoney and a nominee for Bulgaria’s Mr. Ekonomika 2004 as well as laureate of Bulgaria Government Prize – 2002, Templeton – 2006 – as IME Director, and GV Fund for Contribution to the Spirit of Liberty – 2006. He was a principle drafter of a number of reforms from central planning to market economy and is one of the leaders of those reforms. He leads, led or was involved in initiatives related to market oriented and democratic reforms in other countries, Balkans and Former Soviet Union.

Christian Nasulea
University of Bucharest
Christian Nasulea teaches economics at the Faculty of History of the University of Bucharest where he is a member of the Department of International Relations and Universal History. His courses cover topics such as Global Economics, Globalisation and History of Economic Thought. He is a fellow of the Institut de Recherches Economiques et Fiscales. In addition to his university work he also develops learning resources for high school students who are interested in economics. His areas of research interest include public policy and stimuli for economic development, political and commercial negotiation in international relations, behavioural economics and decision processes.

Petar Ganev
Institute for Market Economics
After graduating from the University of National and World Economy, Bulgaria, he joined the Institute for Market Economics (IME) as a senior economist. Petar is an IES-Europe Alumnus as he took part to an IES-Europe Summer Seminar in Varna, Bulgaria in 2005. In 2011, thanks his help, IES-Europe was able to go back to Bulgaria after 5 years of absence. Petar was the link between IES-Europe and IME as a local organizer. After the success of the last editions of summer seminars and thanks to Petar’s involvement, we will make it again to Bulgaria in 2016.