Savannah Aepli | FOR THE POST
sa325106@ohiou.edu

This spring, Ohio State University professor and renowned Latin American economist Douglas Southgate will be joining OU as a visiting professor Spring Quarter.

Southgate, who has taught at OSU for 28 years, has studied and worked in Africa and more than 10 Latin American countries.

His research focuses on the economic divide between countries and their changing living conditions, he said. Many environmental problems are related to poverty, he said, adding that he is very interested in the links between poverty and environmental degradation.

He was trained in environmental economics at the University of Wisconsin, but developed an interest in environmental economics after he married his wife, who is from Ecuador.

Southgate will teach two classes while at OU: Developmental Economics (350/550) and Economic Development in Latin America (474/574).

The classes should not scare away people who are interested in the subject matter if they aren’t economics majors, Southgate said. He wants students who care about the subject and he will try to make technical content more understandable.

“I try to explain things in non-technical ways,” he said, encouraging anyone curious about the class to sign up.

Economics professor Rose Rossiter said she is “excited about having him (Southgate) come to teach” at OU.

Many students think economics is all about recession and making money, she said, but economics is a social science that deals with a lot more than that.