Stephen J. Schmidt, professor of economics and chair of the Economics Department, has been awarded the inaugural Byron A. Nichols Endowed Fellowship for Faculty Development.
The fellowship, which covers a two-year period beginning in September, is designed to support College faculty in developing programs and skills that enhance intellectual, social and personal interactions with students.
In his application, Schmidt proposed a new course on normative economics, which is the study or presentation of “what ought to be” rather than what actually is. With its primary focus on value judgments, normative economics complements more commonly discussed positive economics, which focuses on questions that can be answered through empirical investigation.
“The course would give students the tools to question conventional arguments about the way the economy should operate and require them to use those tools to decide whether to accept those arguments or not,” Schmidt wrote in his proposal. “They would see the connections between different moral and ethical values, and different social choices, and be required to decide for themselves which choices to support based on what values they find compelling.”
In selecting Schmidt’s proposal, a member of the selection committee predicted that “this course could become one of the most popular offerings in the Social Sciences.”
In addition to supporting the development of this new course, the fellowship will support related library acquisitions.
Schmidt joined the College in 1994. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University.
The fellowship was created in honor of Nichols, a popular political science professor at the College from 1968 to 2008. More than 100 of his friends, colleagues and former students, led by Susan Mullaney Maycock ’72 and former Union Professor Alan Maycock, have contributed to the fellowship.