IHS Summer Seminars

What’s a typical day like during the Exploring Liberty seminar?

While every day will bring new topics to discuss, here you can see how a typical day will challenge you to further expand your thinking.

Keep in mind that, as a part of almost every lecture, there is either a break out discussion or an activity. You will have plenty of chances to get out of your seat, ask questions, and engage with other students.

You Can’t Know Everything

How do farmers know how much to plant? How do shoppers know which produce to buy? And how do droughts, floods, and new technologies factor into their decisions?

Learn how prices can answer these questions by communicating what people want, how many want it, who can make it, and how much is available. Collecting pieces of information one person could never know on their own, prices offer us the information we need to make decisions and to connect with the world around us.

Coffee Break

Women and Government

Do laws that try to help women actually accomplish what they set out to do?

Hear from a female economist on glass ceilings, pay gaps, and mandatory maternity leave. Bring your questions and thoughts about how to empower women, in light of what we know about policy and the real impact of regulations.

Lunch & Free Time

Over every lunch and dinner, you will have the chance to sit and discuss further with your favorite faculty.

Where do rights come from?

Is the right to free speech different from a right to health care? What does it mean to have a right to something? And what do your rights mean for other people?

Dive into the topic of rights, hear what great thinkers like John Locke and John Stuart Mill have to say, and form your own opinion on rights.

Dinner

Doctors, Florists, and Interior Decorators: Who should need a license?

A lot of people need a license to work—not just doctors and lawyers, but also interior decorators, hair braiders, and florists. Does this licensing make sense?

Learn how these laws are made, and what effect they can have on you and aspiring entrepreneurs. Could there be another way?

Discussion Groups

Join a small, faculty-led group discussion to tackle the lingering questions you have about the topics covered that day, raise new concerns, and hear what your fellow students think.

Evening Social

Over drinks and refreshments, discuss the pressing questions on your mind and talk, one on one, with faculty and fellow students

What’s a typical day like during the Exploring Liberty seminar?

While every day will bring new topics to discuss, here you can see how a typical day will challenge you to further expand your thinking.

Keep in mind that, as a part of almost every lecture, there is either a break out discussion or an activity. You will have plenty of chances to get out of your seat, ask questions, and engage with other students.

Breakfast

Should there be a minimum wage?

Why do people who work hard at labor-intensive jobs get paid less than people with cushy offices? Should society reward them better for what they do by requiring employers to pay their employees more? What would happen if the minimum wage went up to $15.00/hour?

Engage with your peers and an expert economist to discuss the ins and outs of this timely and important debate.

Coffee Break

Objections to libertarianism

There are lots of critiques of libertarianism:

Is it just for some to be rich and others to be poor? Is it really a big deal to take from the rich to help those who aren’t as well off? Could people really be charitable and kind to each other without directions from government?

Engage with some of the most frequently discussed objections to libertarian thought, discuss their possible merits, and consider how you might respond.

Lunch & Free Time

Over every lunch and dinner, you will have the chance to sit and discuss further with your favorite faculty.

Rights, Justice, and Liberties

Where do your rights end and another person’s begin? Can your rights interfere with one another?

Explore the complex relationship between rights, freedom, and justice, then apply what you’ve learned to policies like redistribution.

Dinner

Is the U.S. economy healthy?

You probably know the U.S. government is in a lot of debt.

But how will that debt actually impact you? What happens if government programs run out of money?

Hear from an expert economist, who will break down the ins and outs of the U.S.’s financial health and how it could impact you.

Discussion Groups

Join a small, faculty-led group discussion to tackle the lingering questions you have about the topics covered that day, raise new concerns, and hear what your fellow students think.

Evening Social

Over drinks and refreshments, discuss the pressing questions on your mind and talk, one on one, with faculty and fellow students.

What’s a typical day like during the Justice, Equality, & Liberty Seminar?

As a part of almost every lecture, there is either a break out discussion or an activity. You will have plenty of chances to get out of your seat, ask questions, and engage with other students.

Breakfast 

Conceptions of Justice
Does the liberty perspective have anything to say about social justice? How does a preference toward freedom impact yours view about a justice society? Does a free society have any place for distributive justice? Learn about the different types of justice, cases when they conflict, and ways a liberty-minded thinker can consider these cases and begin to propose solutions.

Coffee Break

Inequality and Mobility
Many commonly cited economic indexes say that inequality is on the rise. Though, that may not be the whole picture. How else can we understand the lives of the people at the “top” and “bottom” of the inequality picture? Considering standard of living, life expectancy, generational growth in wealth and flourishing, and unintended consequences of government policies, then what does the complete story say?

Lunch & Free Time

Police Militarization and Accountability

How did neighborhood police departments get access to military equipment? When did no-knock raids become common practice? Why are there increasingly frequent news stories about cases of police abusing these privileges? Trace with us the history of modern policing, the incentives of police departments, and how we can try to make the justice system more just for everyone involved.

Dinner

Liberty and The American Founding 
Were the Founding Fathers on the side of liberty? What can we learn from their legacy, centuries later, while keeping in mind their triumphs, their flaws, and the limitations of their ideas? Discuss with us America’s Founding era and the applications we can draw for the world we live in today.

Discussion Groups
Join a faculty-led small group discussion to consider the questions that have been lingering and developing in conversations throughout the day. Raise new concerns, and hear what your fellow students think.

Evening Social

Over a drink and refreshments, discuss the pressing questions on your mind and talk, one on one, with faculty and your fellow students.

What’s a typical day like during the Liberty & Society seminar?

As a part of almost every lecture, there is either a break out discussion or an activity. You will have plenty of chances to get out of your seat, ask questions, and engage with other students.

Breakfast

Philosophies of Government: A Roadmap

Everyday talk of the ‘left’ versus the ‘right’ leaves out important distinctions.

What do we even have government for? What should government do? Should we have one at all?

Explore different philosophies of government and see what resonates with you.

Coffee Break

The Second Industrial Revolution and the Birth of Corporations

You have heard about the Industrial Revolution, with its rapid mechanization, growth, and impact on city life. But have you heard of the Second Industrial Revolution?

This lecture will explore the Second Industrial Revolution, the birth of large corporations, and how these changes shaped the economy?

Lunch & Free Time

What is Law?

Hear from an expert on law and philosophy as you dive deep into the nature of the law.

Are laws inherently political, or do they stand outside of politics? Could they arise spontaneously, like markets and prices? Learn what economic concepts can teach us about law.

Dinner

Politics Without Romance: Applying Economics to Politics

Learn about the public choice approach to political theory, which explores how incentives and institutions influence government.

Why do government policies not work as well as intended? Why do government institutions and spending continue to grow? The tools of public choice theory will help you think critically about why government actors do what they do.

Discussion Groups

Join a small, faculty-led group discussion to tackle the lingering questions you have about the topics covered that day, raise new concerns, and hear what your fellow students think.

Evening Social

Over drinks and refreshments, discuss the pressing questions on your mind and talk, one on one, with faculty and fellow students.

What’s a typical day like during the Origins, Tensions, and Impacts seminar?

Breakfast 

History of Liberal Thinking

Hear from an expert in the field of history, who discusses the emergence of “liberalism,” as a modern set of ideas. As it has emerged, liberalism has sorted into several different sub-groups, each focused on different animating values and understandings of government and politics. Learn about each of those sub-groups and how the ongoing conversations between them remain relevant today.

Coffee Break

Classical Versus Modern Understandings of Public Finance
How does a public finance view of economics differ from a public choice approach? What are the implications of viewing government’s role in the economy as a night watchman versus that of an active participant? Learn from an expert in the field and then prepare to engage in later discussions on the tensions existing between different schools of economic thought.

Lunch & Free Time

Faculty-Led Discussion Groups

Spend your afternoon digging through and discussing pre-readings, previous lectures, and ongoing conversations. A faculty member from the seminar will provide guidance and a discussion format, under which you and your peers will explore topics of interest and challenge each other to think critically and ask hard questions.

Dinner

Conceptions of Justice

Does everyone who self-identifies as a liberal (whether libertarian or otherwise) have the same definition of “justice?” If not, then where do they depart? When tensions arise about matters of distribution, outcomes, and opportunity, which values do certain strains of liberalism hold as the most important to preserve? Hear from an expert in philosophy, who will guide you through these areas of tension and highlight key figures in the ongoing discussion of what a just society looks like.

Evening Social

Over a drink and refreshments, discuss the pressing questions on your mind and talk, one on one, with faculty and your fellow students.