6:30pm – Meet the Speaker reception | 7pm – Dr. Joshua Wakeham presentation | After the presentation, stay for a screening of The Big Short.

The Big Short (2015): Based on the non-fiction best-seller by Michael Lewis, The Big Short follows a group of bankers who discover that the world of high finance is built on a house of cards. Follow along as eccentric hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) and banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) uncover the rot in the housing market and try to convince others to dare to see the truth: there is money to be made in betting against the bubble.

Presentation:
Join Josh Wakeham, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Plymouth State University, for a discussion about the organizational dynamics, questionable ethics, and outright fraud that fueled the Great Recession. Then watch The Big Short, starring Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Brad Pitt, and Ryan Gosling. Stay for a Q&A about what, if anything, has been learned about the risks to the financial system.

Bio: Joshua Wakeham is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Plymouth State University. He received his B.A. in Sociology from Williams College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University. He has published research on a wide variety of topics, including organizational behavior, policing, juvenile justice, gang intervention work, corruption, Somali pirates, bullshit, and con artists. Josh lives in Bethlehem, NH, with his wife and three daughters.