Freedom, Inequality, and the Economy of the Future: Nobel Prize Winner Joseph Stiglitz visits SDU on 14th May

Joseph Stiglitz: The Road to Freedom

In The Road to Freedom, Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz challenges the notion that free and unregulated markets lead to freedom and prosperity. Drawing on a range of economic crises – from the financial and opioid crises to growing inequality – he demonstrates how market forces today undermine both economic and political freedom.

Stiglitz argues that true freedom requires strong communities, public regulation, and investments in the common good. Based on both economic research and modern philosophy, he shows how we can rethink freedom in the 21st century and create a more just and sustainable future.

This event is a collaboration between Word Festival, Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS), and Center for American Studies (CAS) at the University of Southern Denmark. David Woolner (Marist University) and Jørn Brøndal (SDU) will moderate the conversation.

Where and when

Join this exciting and highly relevant event at SDU on May 14th 2025 from 14:00 to 15.30. The doors open at 12.45.
The venue is the DIAS Auditorium, Fioniavej 34, 5230 Odense M.

This event is free to attend but has limited capacity: first come, first served.

If you can't make it to Odense, you can also watch it online via ZOOM.

About Joseph E. Stiglitz

Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist and professor at Columbia University. He is co-chair of the OECD expert group on measuring economic performance and social progress and chief economist at the Roosevelt Institute. Stiglitz received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 1979. He has previously served as chief economist and vice president at the World Bank and chairman of the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers.

In 2000, he founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank for international development based at Columbia University. In 2011, Time Magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people. Stiglitz is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work on asymmetric information, and his research spans topics such as income distribution, climate change, corporate governance, public policy, macroeconomics, and globalization. He has authored numerous books, including the recent People, Power, and Profits, Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy, and Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited.