Academic Biography - Papers - Speaking Themes
Formal Background
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*Ph.D. in Economics, The University of Tennessee, 1995
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*Associate Professor of Economics, Catawba College
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*Adjunct Professor (full) University of Maryland Global Campus
*Editorial Review Board Member, Business Education Innovation Journal (since 2013)
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*Memberships: American Economic Association (since 1995), Association for Evolutionary Economics (since 1995), Academy of Economics and Finance (since 2001)
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Dr. Slate graduated with a BA in Economics from Christopher Newport University in 1989. He spent one year as a graduate assistant and student at Old Dominion University. In between the two he completed his first economics monograph "The Industrial Site Directory for James City County" in 1989, which was commissioned by the Economic Development Office of James City County.
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He left Old Dominion's graduate program in economics and enrolled at the University of Tennessee to study heterodox & orthodox economics. Dr. Slate's dissertation was written as an economic history of a quasi-public development bank uniquely located in North Carolina.
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Dr. Slate's public speaking topics focus on economics and society. A full list of topics can be found here.
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Dr. Slate has presented several papers on theory and analysis as well as techniques to deliver common economic concepts to college students.
Dr. Slate has served as a professor of economics for Catawba College in North Carolina, Concord University in West Virginia, Reinhardt University in Georgia, Troy University in Alabama (Atlanta Campus and Online Division) as well as the University of Maryland Global Campus.
The Rest of The Story
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I enrolled in graduate school in economics at Old Dominion University at the age 25. It was there I was re-introduced to the thoughts of Thorstein Veblen, who is one of the intellectual founders of institutional economics. I transferred to the University of Tennessee in 1990 to join their diverse program in economics.
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I was soon teaching at private institutions, which emphasized classroom instruction. My method of teaching is broadly scoped with a large nod to economic history as well as to the limits of understanding our world with orthodox models of the economy developed in the west including such tools as econometrics.
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The economy does, after all, depend on culture and technology and a host of other systems and it is hardly static but rather an evolving system with no particular direction ensured as suggested by orthodox theory.
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My contemporary teaching centers around the thoughts of philosophers like Daniel Khanemann, Ha-Joon Chang, Gad Saad, Christopher Mortenson and Nassim Nicolas Taleb but gives a proper nod to Thorstein Veblen, Karl Polanyi and even Edward Burnett Tylor an imporant 19th century anthropologist.
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Notable Instructors at The University of Tennessee in the 1990s:
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Paul Davidson (Post-Keynesian Economics) (b. 1930-)
Hans Enghave Jensen (Historian of Economic Thought) (1919-2008)
Anne Mayhew (Economic Historian) (b.1936-)
Walter C. Neale (Economic Historian) (1925-2004)
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It is to these philosophers I owe a debt of gratitude for their education and their patience with my slow pace of understanding.
I continue to profess my thoughts formally and informally and gladly encourage people to grow food, enjoy the arts and live well beyond the constraints of markets and their soul depleting activities. The more one can avoid the marketplace either for income or for substance the happier one will be in spirit.