A Blog on McConnell Center Life

Aaron Vance Class of 2017 Attending Dr. Richard Dilworth’s lecture on the impact of Chinese urbanization last week, I was fascinated by the effect of urbanization on China’s trajectory. Specifically, the movement of Chinese people establishes a foretelling and interesting future for the nation and its potentially forthcoming economic woes.  With China’s explicit urbanization policy pushing it’s people into cities on the Eastern Coast, a density trend has developed pushing wealth to the East and away from the more autonomous and more sparsely populated regions in the West. And while this provides for an interesting case study to unpack the economic impacts of such densities coupled with China’s own form of Federalism, the much more critical impact of this policy will effect the nations economics.  Such a policy of urbanization has resulted in the creation of planned cities, many of which now stand empty. With such a flooded real estate market, one sector has become...

Mary Elizabeth Young - Class of 2016       “How are we going to live in an atomic age?”     “I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night...’ In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation”   “If we are going to be destroyed by the atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds”  ( On Living in an Atomic Age, C.S. Lewis) Today, it seems, we find ourselves living in an atomic ...

Landon Lauder Class of 2017 China’s cities were and remain quite large. So what exactly is “urban” in China? Professor Richard Dilworth from Drexel University seemed to have a hint at an answer.  According to Dr. Dilworth, much of China’s urban growth occurred in the past two decades and rose somewhere between 10 to 20 percent. This amount of growth landed China at 260 people per square mile, whereas in the United States, excluding Alaska, we are at a dwarfed 70 people per square mile. China’s causes of urbanization were, as Dr. Dilworth seemed to indicate, hard to pinpoint. This is due to the Hukou system implemented by the government to entice citizens to move towards urban centers as China increasingly turned towards manufacturing. Additionally, once China began to open up to foreign private investment, there were additional incentives and allure ascribed to China’s urban areas. These intertwined factors of urbanization all told the story of internal migration, much...

Victoria Allen Class of 2016 As a young woman, I’ve noticed a strange and disturbing pattern of speech from myself, my peers, and women that I look up to.  Why is it that more often than not when we assert ourselves, the tail end comes out as an apology?  Or a question?  Or an immediate attempt to double down on an idea that we were set to propose but decided last minute that we wouldn’t dare broadcast the fact that we were thinking cognizant thoughts.  You know exactly what I’m talking about…don’t you?  I mean….I thought it was, you know, a good point.  I just thought I’d make light of it…my mistake.  There has been a significant amount of scholarship and science on this issue, however I’ve chosen not to engage with any of it, and to use purely anecdotal research. Women have a lower threshold for what is seen as unacceptable and unfeminine behavior.   Whether we’re concerned about offending, stamping on feelings, or stepping out of line, ...

Katie Cambron Class of 2016 From my first day of pre-school until the day I graduated high school, my family dinners always included my parents asking the age old question, “What did you learn today?”   For those fourteen years my answers ranged somewhere between “red and yellow make orange” and spouting out calculus theorems.   Of course, after moving to UofL, nightly dinners and the discussion of my school day with Mom and Dad faded away.   The ritual question, however, has remained a part of my daily routine. Each night, before I delve into my current Netflix addiction, I ask myself, “What did I learn today?”   Sure, throughout the past four years I have learned a lot about economic, financial, and accounting principles.   I’ve read Plato, studied astronomy, debated community issues, attended lectures by senators, and shaken hands with the US Ambassador to the United Nations.   The knowledge I have gained is far beyond what I ever anticipated. ...