Journalist Exposes Social Cost of Cheap Culture

WORCESTER, Mass. – Ellen Ruppel Shell, journalism professor at Boston University and the author of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture (Penguin Press, 2009), will talk about her book at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25 in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

Shell’s lecture is part of the yearlong economic series “After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward,” sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, which explores the lessons learned from the credit crisis that began in 2007 and offers diverse perspectives on how to construct a new economy that is sustainable and just.

In her book, Shell investigates the history, psychology, politics and economics of the low price imperative with a particular look at the impact of globalism.

According to a Library Journal review, “This highly intelligent and disturbing book provides invaluable insight into our consumer culture and should be mandatory reading for anyone trying to figure out our current financial mess. As Shell proves, the hunt for cheap products has hurt us all.”

Shell is also the author of The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin (Grove/Atlantic, 2002) and A Child’s Place (Little, Brown, Inc., 1992). She is a frequent contributor to Atlantic Monthly Magazine and Commonwealth Magazine, and has been published in the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, SEED, Smithsonian Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, TIME, and USA Today. Shell is co-director of the Graduate Program in Science Journalism at Boston University.

The talks in the lecture series are recorded for podcast and available at www.holycross.edu/crec/listen_learn.

Upcoming events in the series:

• Thursday, March 11, 7:30 p.m., Rehm Library Reforming Health Care in the U.S.: What Now? Jonathan Gruber, considered one of the nation’s leading health care economists, is director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a key architect of Massachusetts’ health care reform and professor of economics at MIT.

To learn more about this series and to sign up for email updates from the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, visit www.holycross.edu/crec.

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.