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Volume CXXXII, Number 12 |
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Costs and benefits in E-Khan
ADAM BABER
COLUMNIST
If you maintain that economics is the "dismal science," you need to spend some time with Professor Zorina Khan.
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| Zorina Khan, Assistant Professor of Economics, is reknowned for her research in economic history. (Karsten Moran, Bowdoin Orient) |
Khan is an avid reader of the Harry Potter series, for example. That is, Harry Potter published in French and Spanish.
And she is a huge fan of the reggae music of her native Caribbean. So ardent a fan, in fact, that the cavernous lobby of Hubbard often echoes with her music.
But it is not all fun and games for Khan. Ever since a professor at the University of Surrey, England challenged her to attain triple honors in a demanding economics-sociology-statistics program, she has worked, often sixteen hours a day, to push the boundaries of her field.
Such dedication has paid off, as Khan now finds herself on the editorial board of the Journal of Economic History, a Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and regularly invited by prestigious universities to present study after study she has completed. In addition, she is currently the featured research scholar of the Cliometric Society, a organization dedicated to economic history. She ranks second in number of pages published in the leading economic history journals during the past decade.
She is by no means a stranger to such success. Growing up in the British colony of Guyana in South America, Khan earned a prestigious scholarship-the appropriately named "Guyana Scholarship"-to attend college in England. After graduating from Surrey, she earned a Masters in Economics from McMaster University in Toronto and, as a Fulbright Scholar, got her Ph.D. at UCLA.
Khan's area of interest centers on the economic history of law and institutions. She is especially interested in intellectual property rights, having presented a monograph for the British government on the issue. She has also looked at such diverse topics as litigation and dispute resolution in frontier economies, patents and copyrights, and antitrust policies.
A member of the Bowdoin faculty since 1996, Khan has grown to enjoy living in Maine, and her latest project seeks to provide for the state something it sorely lacks-research into its economic history. "I was looking through the library with Ginny Hopcroft," Khan remembered, "searching the shelves for information. In the end, Ginny turned to me and said 'Well, you're going to have to write it, I guess.' "
Yes, it sounds like a tremendous workload, but Khan speaks of it with a wide smile and frequent laughter. "My work is fun. It's the best job in the world," she said. "I get paid to add to my human capital."
Her enthusiasm for her research is palpable, and she speaks with a rare grace and subtle wit that are hallmarks of her classes.
She feels that, for students, economics is initially hard, because it is a total way of thinking. But because it draws on so many different skills-the economist is at once a philosopher, statistician, sociologist, and historian-Khan sees economics as "the archtypical liberal arts field." She even argues that economics should be a prerequisite for voting, because it provides preparation for all to be productive members of society.
Students respond well to Khan's challenges. "Not only is Professor Khan intelligent and witty, but her lectures are insightful and easy to follow," said Eric Batcho, '05. She has already had waiting list requests for her classes during the 2003-2004 academic year.
Khan has taught at UCLA, Northeastern, and Bowdoin and presented at such places as Yale and Harvard, but she remains especially fond of a visit to Longfellow School here in Brunswick. There, she spoke to second graders, who later wrote her thank-you notes. One such note, she remembered, simply said "I learned a lot and enjoyed learning it."
One can bet that her Bowdoin students have the same reaction.
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