Teaching & Advising
I teach economics and quantitative methods: statistics, research design, program evaluation, principles of economics, and economic development. Most of my students come from international affairs and other fields outside economics, so I focus on making technical ideas accessible and useful to people who will apply them without becoming specialists.
Rather than cover a fixed body of content, I build my courses around questions and the tools for answering them. Students learn those tools by using them, with frequent practice solving problems in groups and on their own. I work to develop reasoning and habits of thought that students can apply broadly.
Courses at American University
SIS 600 · International Affairs Statistics and Methods
Statistics and research design for students of international affairs, from describing data to regression and causal inference. The course is taught in R and assumes no prior background. Students carry out an original research project on a question of their choosing. Syllabus
SIS 601 · Essentials of Economics and Data Analytics
A course I developed bringing economics to international affairs students through a curated set of core ideas and applications chosen for their relevance to the field. Regular exercises in statistical software build the data skills employers increasingly expect.
SIS 731 · Economic Development
How do economists approach development? This course applies core economic ideas, such as selection, uninsured risk, externalities, and misallocation, to questions ranging from access to credit to poverty traps and the politics of public goods. Most readings come from current research.
SISU 306 · Statistical Program Evaluation
There is no shortage of proposed solutions to problems from climate change to poverty, but how do we know which ones work? This course teaches students to generate causal claims from data and to evaluate the claims they meet in research, the media, and everyday life. Students put these tools to work in an independent research project.
Other teaching
Program Evaluation and the Complexities of Scale
Economic Development in Latin America and Beyond
Doctoral advising
I serve on dissertation committees in economics and international relations.
| Student | Program | Years | Placement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jheelum Sarkar | Economics | 2025– | On the job market, 2026–27 |
| Ariana Schmidt | International Relations | 2024– | On the job market, 2026–27 |
| Reva Resstack | Economics | 2025– | |
| Aroob Memon | Economics | 2023– | |
| Aya Aboulhosn | Economics | 2023–2026 | Washington College |
| Ameesh Upadhyay | Economics | 2019–2022 | Knox College |
| Muhammad Malik | Economics | 2019–2022 | Deloitte |