Principles of Economics as Performance Art

After passing around the syllabus, Andrew Cassey stands beside his portable green chalkboard. Before him, people chat with their seatmates. Few take notes, but they pepper him with questions on international trade. He answers with careful thought, scribbling each solution on the chalkboard.

Thing is, Cassey is not in a classroom full of students. He's in Minneapolis's Bryant-Lake Bowl performing his buzzworthy, once-a-month lecture series about economics.

Bryant-Lake Bowl, a place where you can bowl on old wooden lanes while eating organic bison and local Star Prairie trout, is also a cabaret, with a theater tucked away behind Lane 1. The theater becomes a kind of geek haven on Tuesday nights, with entertainment like Books & Bars (eat, drink, talk books), the Bell Museum's Cafe Scientifique (eat, drink, talk science) and Cassey's "Principles of Economics" lectures (eat, drink, ...).

Cassey, a graduate student and instructor in the Department of Economics, conceived the notion of "economics as performance art" a year and a half ago during the Minnesota Fringe Festival, a Minneapolis-wide performing arts event. So he entered his idea in the lottery for the 2007 Fringe season and was chosen.

Story here.  Here's Mr. Cassey's website. 

Effective teaching, in my humble opinion, is part knowing your stuff, part being able to describe what you know, and part performance art.  Mr. Cassey takes this combination literally.

Comments

[EclectEcon]

We have long referred to our large intro lectures as "The Nightclub Act", reflecting this view.