{"id":7920,"date":"2025-01-24T09:59:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T14:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/?p=7920"},"modified":"2025-04-29T11:13:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T15:13:31","slug":"randall-germain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/2025\/randall-germain\/","title":{"rendered":"Randall Germain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Randall Germain\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Get to Know Randall Germain: Exploring Political Economy through PECO5000<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For prospective students considering a deep dive into the fascinating world of political economy, Dr. Randall Germain<\/a> offers an unparalleled opportunity to engage with the discipline\u2019s foundational texts and contemporary debates. This Fall 2025, Dr. Germain will teach PECO5000, the cornerstone course in the Political Economy program. As the core course for the Fall portion, this class is where you will get your first impression of the Political Economy program and meet the small cohort you will get to spend the next 2 years with throughout the program. With a rich academic background and a passion for historical and theoretical inquiry, Dr. Germain brings a plethora of expertise and enthusiasm to the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From History to Global Finance: Dr. Germain\u2019s Academic Journey<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Germain\u2019s academic path has been shaped by an enduring curiosity about how the world works. Beginning his academic career with a B.A. in History and Political Science at the University of Victoria, he completed his studies with a PhD in Political Science from York University. His journey into International Political Economy (IPE) began through an engagement with history, political science, and the history of political thought. After completing his PhD research on the global monetary and financial system, he spent much of his career examining how financial governance is regulated and how theoretical debates in IPE engage with historical processes. Another key area of Dr. Germain\u2019s scholarship focuses on the disciplinary history of International Political Economy: where it comes from, how it has evolved, and how it has become institutionalized in the academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Dr. Germain is completing a book on how the discipline of International Political Economy has engaged with the idea of history, including a chapter that brings key thinkers such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Max Weber into conversation with one another. He has also recently published an article on Karl Polanyi and International Political Economy,<\/a> co-authored with a Carleton PhD student in political science. This active engagement with the field makes Fall 2025 a particularly exciting time for him to teach PECO5000, as he has spent the past six months immersed in the very material students will study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Canonical Approach: What to Expect in PECO5000<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Germain\u2019s approach to teaching PECO5000 is rooted in engaging deeply with foundational texts. Unlike many courses that rely heavily on excerpts or secondary material, he prioritizes reading \u201cbig chunks\u201d of original works to allow students to grapple with ideas in their full complexity. Students will delve into classics like Smith\u2019s The Wealth of Nations<\/em> and Marx\u2019s Capital<\/em>, spending two weeks on each text. The course also includes influential thinkers like Weber and Gramsci, along with sections on feminist political economy, post-structural, and post-colonial approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The semester culminates with an examination of a contemporary work in political economy, published within the last few years. This structure not only provides students with a strong grounding in the field\u2019s intellectual traditions but also shows how these traditions continue to inform modern scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Collaborative and Challenging Environment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Germain is particularly excited about the interdisciplinary nature of the Political Economy program and the highly engaged community at the Institute of Political Economy. He emphasizes that students come to the Political Economy program for two reasons: a curiosity about how the world works and a desire to explore how political economy helps explain it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Embrace your curiosity! The academic achievements of students in this program demonstrate your readiness to engage with these texts. Most of the thinkers we study are approachable and fascinating to explore. Even with Marx, we make the material accessible by breaking it down and incorporating engaging resources like news articles to bring his ideas to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning and Growing Together<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For Dr. Germain, teaching PECO5000 is as much about his own intellectual growth as it is about his students\u2019. \u201cEvery time I re-read one of these works, I learn something new,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see how students bring their own interests and questions to these thinkers, we create the best discussions from our interdisciplinary background and collective grounding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the course, students will have engaged deeply with some of the most foundational texts in political economy, gaining not only theoretical knowledge but also developing critical tools to analyze how the world works. Dr. Germain\u2019s mantra for success? \u201cEmbrace your curiosity, and don\u2019t be afraid to dive deep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re looking for an intellectually rigorous course that challenges you to think critically about the intersections of history, politics, and economics, Dr. Germain\u2019s PECO5000 promises an enriching and transformative experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get to Know Randall Germain: Exploring Political Economy through PECO5000 For prospective students considering a deep dive into the fascinating world of political economy, Dr. Randall Germain offers an unparalleled opportunity to engage with the discipline\u2019s foundational texts and contemporary debates. This Fall 2025, Dr. Germain will teach PECO5000, the cornerstone course in the Political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-profiles"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicaleconomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}