About the Workshop

The Gus A. Stavros Centers of Florida State University and the University of South Florida invite you to participate in this day-long workshop on the teaching of introductory economics at the college level. This extraordinary workshop will feature three of the nation's most successful teachers of college economics: Ken Elzinga of the University of Virginia, Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas, and Dirk Mateer of Penn State University. If you have any questions or would like additional information, contact James Gwartney (Phone: 850-644-7645; E-mail: jgwartne@garnet.acns.fsu.edu).

Workshop Schedule

About the Session Leaders

Ken Elzinga is probably the nation’s most successful teacher of college-level economics. He has made introductory economics at the University of Virginia the most popular course sequence on campus. He is so highly respected that when the Southern Economic Association recently established a teaching award, they named it the Kenneth Elzinga Award. He is currently the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics and has previously taught at Pepperdine, Cambridge, Trinity, and Michigan State. His B.A. is from Kalamazoo College (1963) and his Ph.D. from Michigan State (1967). His scholarly work has appeared in the leading journals of economics and he is widely recognized as a leading authority on industrial organization and anti-trust policy.

Daniel Hamermesh is the Edward Everett Hale Centennial Professor of Economics at the University of Texas--Austin. The author of more than 70 scholarly articles, he is best known for his work in labor economics. His labor economics text, The Economics of Work and Pay, has been through various editions since 1984. His most recent book, Economics Is Everywhere (McGraw-Hill, 2003) highlights the ubiquity of economics in everyday life and shows how the simple tools of a microeconomics principles class can be used to illustrate this point. A Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, he has previously taught at Princeton and Michigan State and presented lectures in more than 20 countries. His A.B. is from the University of Chicago (1965) and his Ph.D. from Yale (1969). A Past President of the Society of Labor Economists and of the Midwest Economics Association, he is not only a first-rate scholar but he also has the increasingly rare ability to communicate economics in an exciting and understandable manner.

Dirk Mateer has been teaching college economics for more than 15 years and he is currently a Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the Undergraduate Studies Program in Economics at Penn State University where he regularly teaches large principles sections. His most recent project is a workbook entitled Economics in the Movies (Thomson, 2005). He uses film clips, music videos, and songs to stimulate students to think about economics outside of traditional boundaries. After completing his B.S. from Pfeiffer College (1985) he taught high school math and science for two years. Following his Ph.D. from Florida State University (1991), Dirk taught at Goucher College and Grove City College before Penn State.