History department brings Virginia Postrel to campus

Janel Shoun-Smith | 

Nationally known culture pundit speaks on campus Wednesday, Oct. 15

Virginia Postrel, author, and speaker whose work spans a broad range of topics, from social science to fashion, concentrating on the intersection of culture and commerce will speak in Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 15.

Postrel, a columnist for Bloomberg View and contributor to USA Today and The New York Times, and author of “The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion,” will be speaking on the topic “Why Do People Buy Things They Don’t Need? Imagination, Meaning and Economic Value.”

Most of the goods and services produced and traded in commercial cultures aren’t necessary for survival. So why do people buy them? In this talk, Postrel goes beyond the economist’s agnosticism and the social critic’s charges of manipulation and status-seeking to probe the ways in which culture and emotion influence economic value.

In Vanity Fair, Sam Tanenhaus described Postrel as “a master DJ who sequences the latest riffs from the hard sciences, the social sciences, business, and technology, to name only a few sources.”

She is a regular columnist for Bloomberg View, and has previously been a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Forbes and Forbes ASAP. In 2011, Postrel received the Bastiat Prize and in 2012, her Bloomberg View column received a first place award for online entertainment commentary from the Los Angeles Press Club.

A popular speaker for business, design and university groups, Postrel’s corporate speaking venues have included Nike, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Target, Liz Claiborne, Sony and IDEO.”

Prior to “The Power of Glamour,” Postrel wrote “The Substance of Style” (2003) and “The Future and Its Enemies” (1998).

Postrel began her career as a reporter for Inc. and The Wall Street Journal and graduated from Princeton University with a degree in English literature, specializing in the Renaissance.

Postrel's talk is presented by the Department of History, Politics and Philosophy.