About the ITVA
The purpose of The International Thorstein Veblen Association (ITVA) is to encourage research and scholarship on Veblen's work, life, sources, influences, and the continuing relevance of his thought for analyses of contemporary social, economic and political life. ITVA is a broadly multi-disciplinary organization. We welcome scholars from many fields who are interested in any aspect of Veblen's wide-ranging studies into such areas as material and symbolic culture, technology, industry and workmanship, business enterprise, and economic development; the sociology and politics of labor, feminism, and race; the evolution of higher learning in America; epistemology; American history and its patterns of production, consumption, class and status; ecology; the state, war and peace; democracy, power and authoritarianism. ITVA also welcomes research into the Veblen biography, its relationships with the larger Norwegian and immigrant experience, including the development of rural communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin in the mid-to-late 19th century. Scholars interested in the intellectual sources and antecedents of Veblen's thought are also welcome, for example, students of such thinkers as Rousseau, Kant, Hume, Smith, Darwin, Marx, or Sombart, among many others; so too those interested in considerations of Veblen's work as a source of literary criticism. Finally, ITVA strongly encourages applications of Veblenian theory to the study of the contemporary political economy, culture and politics.
ITVA also values its role as a community of scholars helpful to one another in their collaborative research on Veblen and his theoretical importance. We hope to serve as a clearinghouse of information for Veblen scholars on current research projects, work-in-progress, emerging publications, and newly published work.
For information about participation in future ITVA conferences, or for more information about any aspect of ITVA's mission or activities, please contact Professor Sidney Plotkin, Department of Political Science, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, 12604. E-Mail: Plotkin@Vassar.edu.