Alum Focus, Alison Johnston: Seattle, Stockholm, London, Corvallis

Submitted by Andrew Nestingen on
From Convergence to Conflict: Labor Markets and the Instability of the Euro
From Convergence to Conflict: Labor Markets and the Instability of the Euro
Professor Alison Johnston (OSU)
Professor Alison Johnston (OSU)

Professor Alison Johnston graduated from the UW in 2005 with majors in Swedish and economics. Just eleven years later, she has a doctorate from the London School of Economics, is an assistant professor of political science at Oregon State University, and is coming out with her first book. Cornell University Press is publishing her From Convergence to Crisis: Labor Markets and the Instability of the Euro in the series Cornell Studies in Money on 19 May 2016. Alison says, "I was a Swedish major at UW, and the Swedish studies program was very influential on my academic trajectory into European politics and political economy, as were Professor Christine Ingebritsen, Dr. Ia Dubois and Professor Lotta Gavel Adams." Alison’s book brings together her interest in Sweden, Europe, and economics. From Convergence to Crisis argues that the euro currency “provided institutional advantages to Northern corporatist economies over Southern Mediterranean countries in external trade and lending, which in turn largely shielded them from the debt crisis that peripheral Europe currently finds itself in.” Alison says she first started thinking about the questions she discusses in the book as an undergraduate, “when I participated in Ia and Lotta’s study abroad program in Stockholm in Spring, 2003” — at which time Sweden was voting on whether to adopt the euro currency. Alison pursued the questions that arose for her in Stockholm through a senior thesis, which “examined the impact of potential euro memberships for Sweden and Denmark." She even got the chance to talk to key decision makers in the euro referendum debate during her study in Stockholm. “Lotta introduced me to some Swedish politicians and an analyst at the Swedish finance ministry, and talking with them was very insightful. It was a phenomenal experience and it really opened my eyes to social science research and my current research areas of interest.” From Swedish studies to euro expert by way of the Scandinavian Studies department, almuna Alison Johnston. The Department of Scandinavian Studies wishes her hearty congratulations on the publication of From Convergence to Crisis: Labor Markets and the Instability of the Euro  

 

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