Economics Professor Receives Excellence in Teaching Award

The Economics Department is pleased to share that Dr. Sara Gundersen, Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and IEF Program Director, has been named a recipient of the 2020-2021 Valparaiso University Excellence in Teaching Award for her work in curriculum/course development by the Committee to Enhance Learning and Teaching (CELT).

In his nomination letter to CELT, Brett Calland, academic advisor and lecturer, highlighted Professor Gundersen’s work in developing two specific courses: Economics of Race and Gender and Economics and the Arts. “By incorporating larger overarching topics of Race, Gender, and the Arts, like fine art, music, and similar creative commodities, her classes have helped students think about an area of particular interest to them as an economist would think about the subject. These courses of broader appeal are an important entry point into the field of study in economics for interested students and particularly for students traditionally underrepresented in the field of economics.”

Professor Niru Devaraj, chair of the Department of Economics, says Gundersen’s courses “embrace the fact that economics is a social science involving the study of people’s choices and how they interact with one another in markets and other settings. This makes the curriculum interesting to students who are motivated to help society and understand behavior and not merely those interested in economics from a finance perspective or as a path to running a business.”