Please join us Friday, October 6 at 3 p.m. in the Alumni Lounge for our fourth Faculty Colloquium of this semester. Treats will be provided.
Presenter: Nathan Sivers Boyce, Associate Professor of Economics 
Title: Economics Curricular Reform at Willamette University
In August 2014 Willamette University began offering a new economics curriculum. The purpose of this paper is to describe it in more detail and explain our rationale for adopting it. Key changes include commitments to: begin with economic issues that motivate questions for analysis; incorporate the history of economic thought in a systematic way and embrace explicit pluralism. We argue that designing an explicitly pluralist curriculum requires determining how to organize economic thought, how to structure the curriculum to embed pluralism, and how to embody pluralism in the core courses. Our approach to pluralism organizes economic thought according to a “grand traditions” approach and is fully integrated into the curriculum, developing multiple perspectives side-by-side in each course. We argue that these reforms will help us better prepare students for independent, critical inquiry into economic issues.
Students are welcome. We look forward to seeing you there.
Ellen Eisenberg and Bill Kelm
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators