The Beaver Making Sense of LSE Since 1949
Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union
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beaveronline.co.uk
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Issue 905
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Tuesday 29 October
LSE Considers Lewis Legacy Projects Inside Today Special
Before Malcom X
The history of Islam in the Americas
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Comment
The Black Woman’s Body
A discussion of sex and Black women
Eileen Gbagbo
Guest BHM Editor
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campaign to celebrate the legacy of Sir Arthur Lewis at LSE is gaining traction, with reports of a building - potentially 32 Lincolns Inn Fields, as it houses the Economics Department - to be named in his honour and the creation of a scholarship fund for BAME Economics students. Lewis, LSE’s first Black Academic, has been honoured with the Arthur Lewis building at the University of Manchester, where he taught until 1957; a community college in his home country of St Lucia; the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic studies at the University of the West Indies; as well as his portrait on the 100 dollar East Caribbean bill. Lewis attended LSE between 1937 and 1940 to do to his Bachelors and PhD, and, after graduating, taught a course on the interwar years. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in
Economic Sciences in 1979 along with Theodore Schultz for his “pioneering research into economic development, with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries.” The Lewis model is a dual sector model which highlights the growth of a developing country in terms of labour transition between the subsistence to the capitalist sector. The campaign to see Lewis commemorated argues that as LSE is Lewis’ alma mater and had a formative impact on his academic career, there should be greater efforts to commemorate him, similar to the University of Manchester. Currently, there is a poster in the Student Services centre detailing his time at LSE and notable impact on the field both in theory and practice. The poster, along the wall of the Atrium gallery, next to other Nobel Prize winners, can be easily missed by students. In the Department of Economics, the Arthur Lewis Chair of Development Economics is current-
ly held by Professor Sir Tim Besley. The movement has caught the attention of influential members of the public such as Tim Frost, Chair of Cairn Capital. He writes on LinkedIn: “Why no Sir Arthur Lewis building at the LSE? A SAL building would be a great way for us to show our pride in SAL’s achievements. Sir Arthur spent 5 minutes at Manchester Uni and they have a huge edifice named for him. #BlackHistoryMonth an appropriate time for the world’s best social science university to act.” In the ‘Beyond Black History Month’ panel discussion with Minouche Shafik and Zulum Elumogo, the LSE Director detailed she is keen to move forward with plans to honour Lewis’ legacy. A five minute video exploring Arthur Lewis and his long lasting influence in the field of Economics is to be published towards the end of Black History Month. It includes discussions with Martha Ojo – LSESU’s Education Officer and
Christina Ivey – a Jamaican Government student - on what Lewis’ legacy means to them navigating race relations today, 40 years on. This campaign is a first step in ensuring the celebration of Lewis, raising the question of previous and current institutional neglect of Black students at LSE. Education Officer, Martha Ojo, says “Arthur Lewis paved the way for what we consider to be developmental economics today. Lewis shifted the focus of economics away from the West to the colonies, a major change for the discipline at the time. It inspires, because Lewis did this all at a time and in a country with troubling racial attitude. For these and many other reasons, Lewis remains significant for many across the globe.”
Features
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“What happens in Black History Month should happen all year.” Dr. Abenaa Owusu-Bempah
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BHM Special