Alumni

"His writing remains incredibly relevant to the modern world, and we should not be afraid to involve Smith, and other major characters, on whose thought our world is built into our contemporary research and everyday conversations."

 

Jan Jasinski (MA Economic and Social History & Business and Management, 2024), President of the Adam Smith 300 student team, has shared with us his experience working with the club in 2023 for Adam Smith's Tercentenary year.  The AS300 Student Team were instrumental in engaging the student body with the Tercentenary Celebrations. Jan is keen to encourage students, staff and alumni alike to continue to engage with the work of Adam Smith.
 

"In the first half of 2023, we principally worked on preparing what we ended up calling Adam Smith: Re-Enlightened, the student day as part of the Tercentenary Week in June." Jan tells us. "It was an entire day’s worth of Smith-related workshops, competitions, and presentations, through which we connected his thought to everything ranging from the climate crisis, to the rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace. The day was capped off with a show debate on Smith’s legacy in the Glasgow University Union’s famous Debates Chamber, and a ceilidh. In the latter half of 2023,  we focussed on making direct connections between various subjects and student societies and Smith—we accomplished this by hosting an inter-political party debate, a business case competition involving ethics in the workplace, a ‘business game’-style simulation of a Smithian free market, and more."

Jan is particularly proud of the academic diversity that the team achieved across the year, which he describes as "in tune with the inter-disciplinary traditions of Smith and the wider Scottish Enlightenment". The team consisted of students in fields ranging from economics and business,  to digital media, politics,  maths, and more. They also collaborated with a wide variety of student societies, including the Dialectic, GUU Debating, GU Business Club, GU Student Television, and various political party societies. His work with the project also led to him being invited to co-author an academic paper with Professor Tom Scotto and Professor Graeme Roy on the use of Smith and his thought in British politics, which has now been published in the National Institute Economic Review. A huge congratulations on this wonderful achievement, Jan!

When asked about the legacy of Adam Smith, Jan is keen to highlight Smith's passion for education:

"I think the legacy of Smith from which we can draw most as a society was his deep commitment to education, and passing on knowledge, both in his writing and in practice—he would call the time he spent at our University in his position as rector 'by far the most useful and therefore as by far the happiest and most honourable period of my life'.

I hope that this project will make Smith a more approachable figure. His writing remains incredibly relevant to the modern world, and we should not be afraid to involve Smith, and other major characters, on whose thought our world is built into our contemporary research and everyday conversations.

I also hope this project can serve as evidence of the leadership that students can provide to the University in organising projects like these—after all, the 250th anniversary of the publication of the Wealth of Nations is only two years away!"

You can read more about Adam Smith and the Tercentenary celebrations on our Adam Smith 300 webpages.

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With thanks to Jan Jasinski and Allan Johnstone, Student Engagement Assistant.

First published: 27 February 2024