Sex, Class, and History: An Experiment in Teaching Economics in an Interdisciplinary Setting

The author reports on various aspects of teaching economics in an interdisciplinary, team-taught course, including reflections on a unique experiment in teaching economics to nonmajors. By the incorporation of selected topics of gender economics into the interdisciplinary course about the changing economic statuses of women throughout history, the students are introduced to the fundamentals of economic thinking and encouraged to become economically literate. Faced with the constraints of no prerequisites and the presence of two instructors at all classes, the author implements pedagogical models of teaching adopted from the education field to achieve a desirable level of comprehension and integration. The author outlines the course design, the challenges, and suggestions about how to improve the course.