Teaching

AWARDS

2001. York University Senate Committee on Teaching and Learning (SCOTL) University Wide Teaching Award. Total Faculty Eligible: 1200 full-time faculty at York University

2000. Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) Teaching Award. Total

Faculty Eligible: 11,000 full-time faculty at Ontario Universities.

APPROACH TO TEACHING

My ideal of a university education is one in which the classroom structure and course content are inclusive and diverse, with the structure informing the content and vice versa.

An economics education, broadly conceived, is an education that can enable a more concrete way of understanding the world in which we live. Economics can inform policy debate in important ways. The trade-offs inherent in one policy position or another may be rendered more transparent with economics. More importantly, holding critically and confidently an informed opinion on socio-economic policy issues—while remaining open to hearing and interrogating alternative arguments derivative of different viewpoints—is the first necessary step toward empowering students to action outside and beyond the classroom.

I am continuously exploring ways to interrogate effectively economics and its received “wisdom.” Both inside and outside of the classroom, I strive to:

humanize economics and encourage greater inclusivity;
draw attention to the vast degree of uncertainty and diversity of experience that exist;
encourage an appreciation for the broad scope for alternative opinion on policy issues that both uncertainty and diversity of experience imply;
emphasise the cultural values implicit in the traditional economic models;
incorporate alternative theoretical perspectives;
strike a constructive balance between formal knowledge structures and the imaginative or interpretative; and
instil a sense of social responsibility together with a sense of power to influence outcomes.

AREAS OF TEACHING INTEREST: Financial Economics (Money, Credit, and Banking, International Finance, Financial Crises, Theory/History/Development/Policy of Financial Institutions and Markets); Macroeconomics (Theory and Policy); Public Policy and Social Enterprise Program Evaluation

Graduate Supervision (In progress)

Wadi Dyson (PhD Sociology) Working Title: “In the Hands of Strangers: The Myth of Choice and Self-Determination”
Aqeela Tabassum (PhD Economics) WorkingTitle: “Impact of Electronic Money on Monetary Policy
Milos Vasic (PhD Sociology) Working Title: Markets and "Performation"

D'Ansi Mendoza (PhD Economics) “Three Essays on the Philosophy of Money

Graduate Supervision and Examination (Completed)

Tim MacNeil (PhD 2011 Social and Political Thought) “Culturally Sustainable Development... ” Member, Supervision and Examination and Committees
Reza Rajabiun (PhD 2009 Law) Title: “Essays on Bargaining and Institutions: Fostering Economic Development through the Utilization of Competition Law” Member, Supervision and Examination and Committees
Salimah Valiani, Sociology, CarletonUniversity PhD 2009 Title: “Gendered Wages, Deepening Unequal Exchange, and the Global Integration of Nursing Labour Markets” (External Examiner)
Candidate: Reza Rajabian (Osgoode) “Rules versus Discretion in the Design of Competition Law” 2009 (Chair, PhD Dissertation Examination Committee)
Sonya Marie Scott (Social and Political Thought) “The Epistemological Constitution of Subjectivity in Economic Thought” 2008 (Member, PhD Dissertation Examination Committee)
Lina Samuel (Sociology) “Disruption, Displacement, ambivalence: The Making of Migrant Identities Among Women in the Keralite Diaspora) 2007 (Dean’s Representative, PhD Dissertation Examination)
Walter H. Presaud (Social and Political Thought). “International Education in Thailand: A Postcolonial Analysis” 2007 (Dean’s Representative, PhD Dissertation Examination)

PUBLICATIONS

2003 “Teaching Large Classes” (B. Spotton Visano and O. Petrie) CORE Newsletter 13(1) (Fall)

Online at http://www.yorku.ca/cst/ideas/core/vol13no1/visano-petrie.html

INVITED PRESENTATIONS

"Welcome to my Classroom" New Faculty Teaching at York Program, various years
“Teaching Strategies” University Teaching and Learning Course
"Welcome to Economics at York University” York University Recruitment Day (with Student Presenters: John Lee, Swetha Subbaia, and Thong (Tom) Tran)
“Advising as Teaching” York University Academic Advisors Workshop
"Strategies for encouraging students’ engagement in the large classroom setting” Symposium on Teaching and Learning: Engaging Students in Large Enrolment Courses Centre for the Support of Teaching YorkUniversity
“Large Class Teaching Strategies” New Faculty Teaching at York Program
“Learning Modalities and Styles” York University Librarian Brownbag Workshop