Dr. Steven Horwitz
St. Lawrence University News
Submitted by shorwitz on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 10:51.
Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics
Courses I teach regularly:
American Economic History, Economics of Gender and Family, Comparative Economic Systems, Introduction to Economics, Intermediate Macroeconomics, FYP: Evolution of the American Family, FYS: Public Policy and the Family
My research interests:
The economics of gender and family, monetary theory and macroeconomics, the economics of capitalism and socialism, the Austrian School of Economics, the economics and social thought of F. A. Hayek
Sample student projects I have supervised:
An Exploration of Why Some Cities Fail and Others Succeed Urban Growth, Public Policy and the Cultivation of Creativity
Socialist Calculation in the Information Age: New Perspectives on the Economic Calculation Debate
Examples of presentations, exhibitions, performances and published work:
“Wal-Mart to the Rescue: Private Enterprise’s Response to Hurricane Katrina,” The Independent Review, 13 (4), Spring 2009, forthcoming.
“The Functions of the Family in the Great Society,” Cambridge Journal of Economics, 29 (5), September 2005, pp. 669-84.
Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective, New York: Routledge, 2000.
Aspects of my teaching that students find most effective and interesting:
I think there are two aspects that are relevant here:
1. I am an intellectual contrarian. I offer them ways of viewing the world around them and its history that they are unlikely to have encountered before. Whether or not they find those perspectives and historical interpretations plausible is not nearly as important as the way in which these challenges to what they thought they knew engage them in the material and promote their own critical thinking skills.
2. I LOVE economics. I continually point to examples of "the economic way of thinking" in action, whether it's current events or why the residence hall lounge is always messy or why the fact that you're already 15 minutes late is not necessarily a good reason to blow off the rest of class. I think my love of economics comes across as an enthusiasm about what I'm teaching that also serves to engage students in ways they would not be otherwise. Learning economics should make a great deal of the world more intelligible and I think college students are always looking for ways to seem smarter than their peers and parents, so seeing the economic way of thinking in action plays right into that desire!
Some ways I connect with students outside the classroom:
I'm a regular at men's hockey games and I've been involved in a number of Student Life-sponsored events over the years.
Examples of connections between my research and my teaching:
Everything! What I'm thinking about professionally inevitably makes its way into my teaching in one form or another and what I do in the classroom feeds back into my research. One example each way: 1) In my American Economic History course in Fall 08, we spent a lot of time, for obvious reasons, comparing the current crisis to what we were reading in class, especially material on the Great Depression. At the same time, I was writing several pieces on the crisis that were appearing on the web, including on either of the two blogs for which I write. I had the students reading those pieces and discussing them either in class or in their course journals. 2) Both my 2000 book on macroeconomics and my current book project on the family have grown out of my teaching. The macro book was "written" while teaching money and banking for many years and student questions about the material forced me to rethink that work constantly. The family book, and my whole interest in the family as a research topic, grew out of my teaching that material in the FYP and FYS, especially my work with Cathy Crosby-Currie from the psychology department.
Bottom line: I teach what I write about and I write about what I teach. They are deeply interconnected.
Ways I offer service to my discipline and/or the University:
Served as Associate Dean of the First Year from 2001 to 2007
Secretary and Webmaster (and former President) of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics (1996 - present)
Book Review Editor, Review of Austrian Economics
Examples of my work as a visiting scholar or guest at another institution:
Visiting Scholar, Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH Summer 2007
Affiliated Senior Scholar, Mercatus Center, George Mason University (2007- present)
Consultant on the design of first-year seminar programs at LeMoyne College, Denison University, Buffalo State University, and Skidmore College
My hobbies and/or personal interests:
My two passions outside my work and family are following my beloved Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings and music, especially progressive rock and very especially the Canadian band Rush.
My current projects:
Two Worlds at Once: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of the Modern Family - book project in progress
Further grant-funded work on the role of Wal-Mart and the big box stores in post-Katrina reconstruction
Further work, both scholarly and popular, on the current economic crisis