Self and Other Course Pairing
Microeconomics Principles (EC 102)
This course is an introduction of microeconomics, the study of how households and firms make decisions and interact together in the marketplace. My goal is to teach the concepts and calculations to help students understand and critically analyze real-world microeconomic problems. By the end of this course you will be able to: Understand the basic concepts of economics, e.g., scarcity, opportunity cost, marginal analysis, and comparative advantage, Demonstrate an understanding of supply and demand analysis, demonstrate an understanding of market structure and the theory of the firm, and analyze and be able to discuss current events in the domestic and global economy using the tools of microeconomics.
Faculty biography
Dr. John Dougherty is an assistant professor in the economics department, where he teaches microeconomics (principles and intermediate), environmental economics, and behavioral and experimental economics. Before pursuing a PhD, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in rural South Africa. His research focuses on empowering smallholder farmers in the developing world to overcome credit and risk constraints in environmentally sustainable ways, as well as Catholic Social Teaching and the intersection of economics and faith. In his time outside of Loyola, he helps his wife run a small organic farm.
Effective Writing (WR 100)
This course will introduce you to the discipline of writing in the university through analytical and productive work with the contemporary essay and its various genres. You will learn how to conceive and pursue a line of inquiry about a subject, how to develop an original argument, and how to support an argument with various sources of evidence, including scholarly research. You will develop and practice a full writing process, including planning, drafting, considering critical feedback, revising, reflecting, and editing. And you will hone your critical reading skills to evaluate and engage with other people's arguments. To help you achieve these goals, we will critically examine and respond to texts, in a range of genres, written by authors in the real world for real audiences. We will also do a lot of writings consciously and reflectively employing the concepts and strategies we learn about inside and outside of class. All of the work we do in this class is grounded in rhetoric: the effective use of language and symbols, always sensitive to context, especially one's audience and productive of change. The various skills you learn and practice in this course will enable you to become a more thoughtful, reflective, critical thinker who can participate in intellectual and world-shaping conversations inside and outside the academy.
Faculty biography
Dr. Dominic Micer has been reading and writing for more than half a century and has been teaching writing for nearly a third of a century. His favorite book is Primo Levi's The Periodic Table; his favorite painting is Winslow Homer's Right and Left, and his favorite musical composition is Steve Reich's The Desert Music. He has been known to tell a joke or two in class; students in the class have been known to laugh at those jokes sometimes.
Mentor biography
Kelli Walker joined the Loyola Title IX Team in 2021 as the Program Assistant for both Title IX, Compliance, and Assessment and Mission Integration. Before working at Loyola, Kelli worked in the Environmental Science field for 5 years. Kelli is passionate about helping others and fostering progress.
Virtual Advisor
This pairing is recommended for students considering a major in the Sellinger School of Business. EC 102 satisfies a core social science requirement for Sellinger business students. EC 102 is not recommended for students considering a major in Psychology, Sociology or Political Science. WR 100 satisfies the Composition core requirement for all students.
