Matthew Brown, PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Connecticut, presented “Teaching Economics Majors Principles of Writing and Data Visualization” at the 2026 Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) Annual Meeting, coauthored with Oskar Harmon.
The presentation examined the integration of Tableau-based data visualization into a required undergraduate economics writing course. Using pre- and post-course survey data, the study finds improvements in student course satisfaction and writing confidence after students learned to produce their own data visualizations. The results highlight the potential for combining data literacy and writing instruction to enhance student engagement and communication skills in economics coursework.
Edlira Cocoli (PhD candidate) presented “Economic Shock and State Support for Higher Education: Evidence from the Northeastern U.S. Using Shift Share Identification” at the Annual Conference of the Southern Economic Association in November.
Huari’s research interests are in asset pricing, financial econometrics, macro finance, and machine learning. At Sewanee, she teaches the courses, Investment Finance, Derivatives and Fixed Income Securities, Financial Modeling, and Financial Engineering.
Current UConn PhD students, do reach out to Huari and Tao for advice on building a successful academic career at a liberal arts college.
Anastassiya Karaban presented her paper, “The role of gender comparisons in determining reference wage and labor supply.” She finds that when people make different wages, we choose to compare our wage to others of the same gender. Women work harder when making more than other women (but not when making more than other men). Men work less hard if they are making less than another man (but not if they are making less than a woman).
Victor Volkman presented his paper, “Race and experimental design: How respondents may read context into a neutrally framed scenario.” Traditionally, economics experiments have participants engage in “context free” simulated economic transactions. Victor examines whether such absence of context can affect individuals differently based on their racial backgrounds. He finds evidence that different racial groups interpret context-free scenarios differently, and thus their actions are not directly comparable.