Westminster Economics Professor to Discuss Transition from Communist State to Free Market Economy

Dr. Rita Akin, assistant professor of economics at Westminster College, will report on the transition of the Czech Republic and Hungary to a multiparty free market economy Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 11:45 a.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater located in the McKelvey Campus Center.

 Akin recently returned from a seminar sponsored by the Center for International Education Exchange which focused on this transition.

 "The seminar in Hungary and the Czech Republic allowed me to learn about the difficult, yet eagerly awaited, transition these countries went through and are still going through from a centrally planned communist state to a multiparty free market economy, directly from those citizens and educators who lived through it and participated in designing it," Akin said. 

 Topics in the seminar included: Hungarian political development; Hungary and the New International Security Environment; the European Union and Hungary; Competitiveness of the Hungarian Economy in the European Union; and Integration and Globalization from the Perspective of Small Nations.

 "In Prague, our host institution was one of the oldest universities of Europe, the Charles University, which was established in 1348," Akin said.  "The lectures there covered political transformation, economic transformation, educational transformation, and contemporary issues in the Czech Republic as it joins the European Union."

Akin's presentation is part of the weekly Faculty Forum, established in 1990, to serve as a venue for the exchange of ideas and information among Westminster College faculty.  Speakers present their research, teaching ideas, lectures, performances, special programs, and uses of technology to keep faculty informed about the work of colleagues from many disciplines.

Akin, who has been with Westminster College since 2003, earned her undergraduate degree from Lafayettte College and her master's and Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

 Contact Akin at (724)946-7163 or e-mail akinrm@westminster.edu for more information.

Dr. Rita Akin