CTaLE Associate Christa Hansen shares her perspective on the recent EconTEAching session that launched CTaLE’s Communities of Practice. I provide here a retrospective review of the October 17, 2023 EconTEAching seminar, opening the Communities of Practice Initiative, marking the 30th EconTEAching seminar in total. As described on the CTaLE Communities of Practice webpage, ‘Better Together’ has always been a core value of CTaLE’s work. I myself am a recent new Associate member of this group, and was introduced to CTaLE in a manner just as described, through a jointly hosted community engag ..read more

BSc Economics Student Qiyue Wang, was a Conference Facilitator at this TeachECONference2023. In this blog, she gives her perspective on Track 1 of the online video poster presentations, “Harnessing Technology to Improve Teaching.” Acknowledging the numerous challenges faced by educators during online teaching, this year’s conference featured a diverse array of speakers who delved into thought-provoking subjects. These topics spanned from valuable lessons learned during the pandemic to effective strategies for fostering student success in economics. With the emergence of AI in today’s world com ..read more

It isn’t a secret that great minds of the last two centuries crossed paths in London. We’ve all heard about their intellectual circles and powerful ideas that changed the world, yet Ramin aspires to bring insights from UCL, the first university founded in London and where he lectures. Organizing a bespoke Econ walk with him turned out to be the best way to learn how London fits into the history of economic thought. The Econ Walk brought together researchers from the University of Sussex and KCL. It started with participants suggesting titles that encapsulate 19th and 20th century economic his ..read more

“Economic growth does not mean anything if it leaves people out”. While this quote by Jack Kemp shares its relevance among many pressing socioeconomic issues, the mandate of this blog will be limited to gender representation in the labour market. More specifically, how a gender-based perspective could be inculcated in economic academia and the benefits the approach entails. This blog will also draw references from the EconTEAching seminar, “Teaching Gender Economics“, which took place on 1 March 2023. It will reflect on the broad ideas and intricacies of Gender Economics as thought and worked ..read more

Joined by Astrid Kunze (Norwegian School of Economics), Günseli Berik (University of Utah) and Yana Rodgers (Rutgers School of Arts and Science), this EconTEAching seminar focuses on engaging a broad discussion teaching gender economics. The speakers shared their personal experiences and their research findings on promoting and integrating a gender perspective in teaching economics courses in particular. Significance of integrating a gender perspective Reducing the gender gap in the economics profession. A survey from the American Economic Association discovered that at least 48% of femal ..read more

A collaboration between Ramin Nassehi (CTaLE, UCL) and Noushin Pouraghaei (KCL), will see the popular London Economics Walk delivered to staff and students at Kings Business School (KBS). Led by Dr Ramin Nassehi and Dr Noushin Pouraghaei, the London Economics Walk provides an opportunity to learn about the rich history of Bloomsbury via the lens of notable economics thinkers. The walk attracts students, researchers from the UCL and KCL community including those from outside the economics discipline. Noushin, a Lecturer in Economics (Education) successfully bid for the KBS Innovative Education ..read more

In the EconTEAching Seminar ‘Supporting students from diverse backgrounds applying to grad school’, Prof. Dina Pomeranz (Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich and co-founder of Graduate Applications International Network (GAIN)), Carl Gergs (PhD candidate at the UCL Department of Economics and a mentor on the Economics PhD Applicant Mentoring Programme (AMP), and Gaia Dossi (PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at LSE and an AMP mentor) discuss some of the challenges and supporting mechanisms in place for students from diverse backgrounds applying to graduate sch ..read more

The First Year Challenge (FYC) is a key part of the academic year for BSc Economics first year students at UCL. This multimedia assignment is designed to introduce incoming students to independent research and to academic collaboration, helping to acquaint them with their programme, and to form new connections with fellow students. How does the FYC work? Small groups of students are assigned a location and are asked to make a short video or podcast linking the location to the overall theme of the first unit of their first-year CORE-ECON text, The Economy: capitalism, growth and inequality. The ..read more

The American writer Susan Sontag once said that “the past itself, as historical change continues to accelerate, has become the most surreal of subjects – making it possible… to see a new beauty in what is vanishing” while the quote itself may not have been about London, one cannot help but think the Bloomsbury area epitomises that sentiment. After all, passing by the flat where the most preeminent economist of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, used to live only to find a small, unassuming Bed & Breakfast that 110 years ago was the residence of one Vladimir Lenin is pretty surreal, ind ..read more

The acronym “IRL” – which stands for “in real life” – is one that has drawn much mockery toward the community of video gamers it comes from. It may conjure images of figures shrouded in darkness who haven’t left their bedrooms for days, illuminated only by the blaring white light of the alternate reality they inhabit, so entrenched in it that they have to specify when an event is taking place “IRL”. Yet today a similar phrase has worked its way into common English: “in-person”. Though its origin is out of the necessity created by the pandemic rather than gaming addiction, it implies the same t ..read more