WHAW Panel to Discuss Christine Lagarde, IMF

On Friday, February 28, at noon, the Lewis Global Studies Center will host five Smith faculty members in a panel discussion on “Christine Lagarde and the International Monetary Fund.”

The event, held in Campus Center Carroll Room, is part of the Lewis Center’s What’s Happening Around the World (WHAW) lunchtime series.

“The Lewis Center is keen on contributing to the conversation that is happening in and outside classrooms this spring about Lagarde and the IMF,” says Greg White, Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of Government and Elizabeth Mugar Eveillard ’69 Faculty Director of the Lewis Global Studies Center. “Having Christine Lagarde as a commencement speaker gives us an opportunity to educate ourselves and each other about the IMF and about complicated, difficult issues. It’s what a liberal arts education is about.”

White will moderate the panel that includes Assistant Professor of Sociology Payal Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Economics Simon Halliday, Associate Professor of Economics Roisin O’Sullivan and Assistant Professor of Economics Vis Taraz.

Lagarde, the first woman to serve as the IMF’s managing director, will be the speaker at Smith’s 136th commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 18, at 10 a.m. in the campus Quadrangle.

After serving as the Minister of Finance for France, Lagarde was appointed in 2011 as the 11th managing director of the IMF. As the head of the 188-country organization, Lagarde has worked to address a broad array of global issues including the European economic crisis, international financial issues, climate change and the underrepresentation of women in the economic and financial spheres.