Michael J. Douma,Assistant Research Professor, Director of the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics Michael J. Douma is a historian, trained at Hope College, Leiden University, and Florida State University (Ph.D.), 2011. He has published widely on topics in 19th century U.S. history. He believes that the best approach to studying the past is always interdisciplinary, in that it uses many different tools of analysis to provide wide historical context and potentially multiple competing interpretations of past events. His fourth book, titled Creative Historical Thinking, was released in 2018.
Vision
My institute is primarily concerned with normative issues of the marketplace, and our faculty are cooperating with SAGE to write business ethics case studies. As a trained historian, I felt left out, and I wondered if SAGE would also be interested in business and economic history case studies. I was excited to hear that they welcomed this idea. Books on business history tend to be long and dull, while published articles in the history of business, management, and economics, are often too technical and advanced for undergraduate students. Historians face a similar problem in developing content: peer-reviewed articles are currency in the field, and books make our careers, but shorter pedagogical pieces have few potential outlets for publications. Often, historians know enough about a topic to write an interesting lesson, but they have not discovered a novel enough idea to publish it as a peer-reviewed article. This is why I think business and economic history cases provide an unexplored avenue and a great tool for teaching economic and business concepts while exploring historical context. Historians are generally unfamiliar with case studies, which are of course common fare in business schools. But if they become more familiar with this genre, they will recognize its usefulness. Economic history cases isolate principles, define terms, and summarize historical episodes. They are discrete lessons that can easily lend themselves to use in the classroom. For history professors seeking to incorporate economic lessons without complex equations, these case studies are ideal.
Nimish Adhia,Economist at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY Nimish Adhia is an economist at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY, where he teaches courses in international trade, economics of developing countries, and the intellectual history of capitalism. His scholarly interests lie at the intersection of politics, culture, and economics.
His research on the portrayal of businessmen in Bollywood films generated attention in the popular press, and he is currently studying how Wall Street is portrayed in popular American films.
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