The 2023 Steering Committee election is now open. Click here to vote!

There are three open positions on the Steering Committee and five candidates running for these open positions. Please vote for up to three candidates. Those (re)elected to the Steering Committee will serve a three-year term, starting Fall 2023 until Fall 2026. Online voting is open from June 30th to July 15th 2023.

Candidates Bios and Statements

Hannah Archambault 

Fresno State  

Hannah Archambault is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Fresno State, and taught at UMass throughout her graduate education. She received her PhD from UMass Amherst in 2022 and her MA from The New School in 2010, both in Economics. In addition to her teaching and publications, she has also worked as an analyst for the New York City Office of Management and Budget, in the music industry, and as a full time in-home paid caregiver.

I have observed and been engaged with the activities of the Union for Radical Political Economy for many of the last 15 years. I have presented at URPE sessions at the EEAs and ASSAs, and I work closely with other members of the organization in many capacities. URPE is my direct community in my field—the people that I interact with professionally, rely on for support and feedback on my teaching and research, and critically engage with in scholarly matters. I benefit extensively from the organization, so I would like to participate in its governance as a member of the URPE Steering Committee. I am interested in supporting both other early career scholars and promoting and appreciating the role of URPE and RRPE as foundational in the field of radical political economy for over 50 years. As an early career scholar, I value the potential opportunity to contribute to the governance and administration of an organization that has been and continues be a locus of incisive critique by joining the Steering Committee.

Paul Cooney

City College /CUNY

Paul Cooney is a political economist, who received his PhD. from the New School for Social Research in 1990, after obtaining his MS in Chemical Engineering from the State University of Buffalo in 1982. From 2006-2014 he was an associate professor at the Universidade Federal do Pará in the Brazilian Amazon. From 2014-2019 he was a professor at the Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento in Argentina. He was a professor in the Economics Department at the Catholic University of Quito from 2019 to 2022 and currently is a professor at the City College of New York. His current research topics are ecological economics, including entropy, thermodynamics and economics, deindustrialization and reprimarization in Argentina and Brazil during recent decades and also the current world crisis, neoliberal globalization in Latin America, and environmental impacts of reprimarization. In addition to being a member of the URPE Steering Committee, he is also on the editorial board of the following journals: Research in Political Economy, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, and Revista Ensayos de Economía.

I am standing for reelection to continue serving on the URPE steering committee for another term. I have been a member of URPE since the early 1990s. I also served as a member of the Steering Committee from 2001-2004, and in my second stint have been on the Steering Committee since 2011. Though no longer Treasurer I am still continuing as a member of the Finance Committee.

In terms of my background, I obtained my PhD in Economics from the New School for Social Research in 1989, after doing my Masters in Chemical Engineering at SUNY @ Buffalo in 1982. I was an associate professor of Economics from 2006-2014, in the Post-Graduate Program in Economics (PPGE) in the Amazon of Brazil, UFPA- Universidade Federal do Pará. I then worked for 6 years in Buenos Aires at the Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento from 2014-2019. From the Fall semester of 2019 until July 2022, I was an associate professor in Quito at the Catholic University (PUCE) and also teaching courses at FLACSO. I am currently a professor at City College of New York/CUNY.

Much of my research over the years has focused on Latin America and the impacts of neoliberalism, in terms of social and environmental impacts. A year ago, I published a book on the trajectories of deindustrialization and reprimarization in Argentina and Brazil and their social and environmental impacts in recent decades: Paths of Development in the Southern Cone (Palgrave, 2021). A second area of research is in the field of ecological economics, discussing the relationship between economics and thermodynamics and beginning work on a book comparing environmental economics, ecological economics and political ecology.

As I have now returned to the United States, I would like to continue working on the SC, especially on several of our current projects I am involved with, such as the URPE Reader on the Political Economy of the Environment, working with the Finance Committee, working to reestablish URPE’s presence in the Left Forum in New York and lastly working to maintain and strengthen URPE’s links with other heterodox political economy organizations in Latin America, such as SEP (Sociedade Brasileira de Economia Política) in Brazil and the SEC (Sociedad de Economía Crítica) in Argentina.

Nina Eichacker

University of Rhode Island   

Nina Eichacker has been an assistant professor of economics at the University of Rhode Island since 2017, where she teaches classes in macroeconomics, money and finance, and globalization, advises students, and sits on the steering committee of the International Studies and Diplomacy major. She earned her PhD in Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 2014. Prior to her current appointment, she was a lecturer in economics at Bentley University, in Waltham, MA (2013-2017).

Much of my work has focused on the intersection of political and economic power, and how particular economic ideas have shaped economic policies have tended to favor financial and nonfinancial firms over households; URPE and its members have been a constant presence in developing the ideas that guide my research. I have published work predominantly focused on Post-Keynesian economic theory, the consequences of financial liberalization and crisis and the interaction between fiscal and monetary policy, especially in the context of asymmetric power relations, in journals including the Review of Political Economy, the International Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Economic Issues, and PSL Quarterly. My work in progress examines the intersection of monetary, fiscal, industrial, and regulatory policy, as well as establishing how policy makers educate themselves on economic issues, in order to understand how radical economists may increase their influence in guiding current political and economic outcome.

Jared Ragusett

Central Connecticut State University 

Dr. Jared Ragusett is an associate professor and department chair at Central Connecticut State University, where he has taught since 2010.  He earned his PhD in economics from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst in 2012.  Dr. Ragusett teaches courses in political economy, Marxian economics, and the history of economic thought.  His research interests include the effects of the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession on historically underrepresented groups, the evolution of neoliberal capitalism, heterodox approaches to the teaching of economics, as well as heterodox approaches to urban economics.  He has presented his work to URPE audiences at the EEA and ASSA, and published in American Review of Political Economy and Review of Radical Political Economics, among others.  In addition to his academic work, he has consulted for the Connecticut AFL – CIO.

I would be honored to serve another term on the URPE Steering Committee.  My specialty interests and university leadership have been assets to the organization, and I would like to continue the critical work of promoting radical political economics.  During my last term, I served as URPE President, and co-coordinator of the URPE at the ASSA program.  I am also a member of the URPE Coordinating Committee, and work closely with URPE’s National Office Coordinator (Steve Theberge).  URPE faces several complex issues and struggles in the years ahead, and I look forward to moving the organization in a new direction.

Ramya Vijaya 

Stockton University of NJ     

Ramya Vijaya is a Professor of Economics at Stockton University, New Jersey. She received her Ph.D. from American University with a focus on feminist political economy. She is also a former Fulbright fellow and works on issues of political economy both in the global south and the global north

I have been a member of URPE off and on since my graduate school days at American University and have benefitted from being part of this network. My training and work is firmly rooted in heterodox political economy. I have published my work in RRPE and other allied heterodox network journals like Feminist Economics and Forum for Social Economics. My work spans issues relevant to both the global south and north. I think this is a valuable perspective I can bring to the steering committee to ensure broader representation of scholars and scholarship of relevance globally.  I have also developed a considerable portfolio of public facing scholarships with pieces in several news portal. This could be useful in generating more visibility for issues of concern for URPE. Though I have not been active in URPE committees in the past, due to some time constraints, I think I can bring some useful fresh perspectives and ways to increase visibility and reach out to newer scholars.