Hello, alumni and friends!

As you are aware, we are living in challenging times, both internationally (tariffs, political uncertainty) and locally (university budgets). We hope that economists can help both policymakers and the public understand the issues involved, and I am grateful to my colleagues who are willing to talk to reporters to help put current affairs into context; I’ll call out Lars Osberg, Talan İşcan, James McNeil, Dozie Okoye, and Casey Warman for volunteering their time to patiently explain the economics behind recent policies and events.

The Winter 2025 issue of EconMatters includes a profile of one of our newest faculty members, Professor Álvaro Parra. We also bring you a retrospective of our China Programs, written by Professor Barry Lesser, who will soon step down as Program Director. We have profiles of two alumni, Hieu Nguyen (BSc (Honours) 2003) and Sarah Miller (PhD 2013). Our Research Spotlight shines a light on the work of Professor Nicholas Lawson and Professor Talan İşcan.

The Department of Economics has two thrilling announcements. Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel has been awarded a Faculty of Science Killam Professorship effective July 1, 2025 and continuing until June 30, 2030; this is the first Killam Professorship ever awarded to a faculty member in the Department of Economics. James McNeil has been awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor effective July 1, 2025. Huge congratulations to Mev and James!!

We are happy to recognize our outstanding graduate students who have been granted scholarships or bursaries. Fuli Gao was awarded the Mildred and John Young Post-Graduate Scholarship. The Robert L. Comeau Scholarship went to Ernest Owusu-Ansah and Jiefeng Wang. The Zella Crowe Spencer Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Xiaoyan Chang and Alexa Mucyo Kayonga. Reshma Joseph was the recipient of the Professor George A.B. Kartsaklis Memorial Scholarship. The Christian Marfels Memorial Graduate Bursary went to Rodolfo del Aguila Andrade, and the Dr. Alasdair M. Sinclar Memorial Bursary was awarded to Temilola Adegbite and Afeez Salami.

We very much appreciate the alumni, families, and friends who have donated to our scholarship and bursary funds (through giving.dal.ca) to help us support student excellence as well as financial need. We are currently using some of the annual giving fund to renovate our basement study spaces in response to student feedback, so our students are grateful for your support!

Stay in touch! The Department of Economics now has a LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dalhousie-university-department-of-economics

All the best,

Tess Cyrus

Associate Professor and Chair