Economics, Literature and Scepticism

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I am a PhD student in Economics. I am originally from South Africa and plan to return there after my PhD. I completed my M. Comm in Economics and my MA In Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of Cape Town, where I worked as a lecturer before starting my PhD.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Back in CT

Posted by Simon Halliday | Monday, December 08, 2008 | Category: |

So after some time travelling, arriving back in SA, going up to Plett for a few days and then arriving back in Cape Town I am now lecturing ECO2003P, intermediate microeconomics, for the Summer Term at UCT. Joy! Well at least it pays for flights and a bit more.

Anyway, my hiatus was as a consequence of said travels. Coming back to SA has been surprising in terms of realising the effects of inflation, but also talking to people who are remarkably positive about the future of the country, as well as (overly?) optimistic about the economic potential of South Africa. I had one of the secretaries in the department ask me if I didn't want to stay on to lecture this same course during the semester, as much as I would love to I need to complete my PhD else no employment for the white male in SA in an academic institution. Note that this is said with no sense of unjustness, but simply a statement of fact. I cannot think of how any (economics) department in South Africa could offer a white male anything resembling a permanent position without them having a worthwhile PhD and some publications. Hence, I will apply to UCT when I am approaching the end of my PhD and I have some job market papers, in the meant time ad hoc work if and when they need me!

So yes, if you are in Cape Town or the vicinity and would like to see me then give me a shout. I look forward to hearing from you. I'll try to keep up a semblance of blogging even though I am teaching. Maybe I will be inspired by my minions (read students) to deal with interesting questions. Or maybe not.

Currently have 4 comments:

  1. Hi Simon,
    I am the new librarian for Economics at UCT. Let me know if I can be of any assistance to you in your summer course, or your students. If you are planning on working on your PhD while you are down, I'm also willing and able to help you with that. Give me a shout...
    :)
    Lara Skelly

  2. Lara,
    Thanks for the info. I sincerely appreciate the offer and will pass the message on to my students.

    I will probably do my best to avoid research and take a brief, albeit necessary, break from research over Christmas. I may just contact you in early Jan though.

    Ciao,
    Simon

  3. Ahhhhh... good old ECO203 (as it was known back in my day...). Mind you, I *hated* this course. I'm more of a macro kind of guy.

    :-)

  4. Mike, you're probably more of a Micro guy, you just haven't seen the right micro yet :-)

    (I live in hope - then again you're studying cog sci, not that different to decision theory and preference theory)