The Stimulus group at the University of Wisconsin-Superior held its first Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship and Civil Dialogue (WICCD) Economic Speaker Series on Feb 21. It hosted the Assistant Professor of Economics at Eckerd College, Dr. Sarah Dean, who presented her cryptocurrency research. The Stimulus group is the club for the economics program at UWS. “The WICCD is a UW systems grant that promotes civil discord about controversial topics,” said Assistant Professor of Economics at UWS and faculty advisor for the Stimulus group Joshua Bedi.
This was the first time the event was held at UWS, encouraging anyone to attend. Bedi said, “I think it gives more of a practical side of academia. I think it allows them to engage more with some of the material and, in a sense, to interesting material. And for me especially, with this econ speaker series. I like to show them that you can literally use economics to study anything.” The speaker event was recorded and can be found on The Stimulus group’s Facebook page. Dean and Bedi were both economics graduate students who attended George Matson together.
Cryptocurrencies can be considered controversial because many are uneducated about the topic or don’t consider it a trend for the future. Dean has experience working with cryptocurrency companies and government officials. “It seems like for government officials, one there is a push we need to be more accepting a bit with the current people in office. There seems to be more of an appreciation and kind of desire to make crypto more popular. And two, even before the current election, there was a push to make sure that there are educational materials out there because Americans are using them. And so they want to make sure that there is accurate, more unbiased information available,” said Dean.
The next WICCD Economic Speaker Series will be held on March 4 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in Swenson Hall 1004 Erlenbach Lecture Hall. The speaker is Assistant Professor of Economics at Nicholls State University Jon Murphy, who will present his findings on expert failure. For more information about the Stimulus group, check out their Facebook and Jackets Connect group pages, and become a member or email Bedi at jbedi1@uwsuper.edu. For more information about cryptocurrency, email Dean at deans@eckerd.edu. She’s all ears for a conversation.
