Adem Elveren: Where Economics and Laughter Meet at AUBG

Adem Elveren is one of the new Economics professors at AUBG. He received his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Utah in 2008. Since then, he has been teaching Economics all over the world. He has taught in the United States, Türkiye, China, and now also in Bulgaria.

“When I came here, in a sense, I came home,” Elveren said.

He came to AUBG because he wanted to be close to his family in Türkiye while teaching at an American liberal arts university. Having lived for many years in the States, he realized that he wanted to be close to home.

This semester, he is teaching the courses Principles of Microeconomics and Health Economics, but his main research field is development economics, which is concerned with improving economic conditions in developing countries.

“I am mostly interested in income inequality and the effect of military spending on the economy,” Elveren said.

He has written several books on related topics: “The Economics of Military Spending: A Marxist Perspective,” “Brain Drain and Gender Inequality in Turkey,” and others.

“Writing a book is not as prestigious as publishing a major journal article, but from the viewpoint of this personal feeling of holding your book physically, it is different,” Elveren explained.

Elveren had planned to write another book that would combine the topics of militarisation and gender inequality. He even had a deal from a major publication company back in the States to finish the book, but, at that time, he did not have the chance to work on it.

He pointed out that there are difficulties when writing a book. It requires a lot of research and by the time you are finished with it, the topic has become outdated.

“You need to share the research with the others,” Elveren stated. With journal articles, you can research and quickly publish afterward. For this reason, he is currently working on different articles, but he has not given up the idea for a new book.

“When you see your book, it makes you happy,” Elveren shared.

Next semester, he will teach Game Theory. He has previously taught it at Keene State College and Fitchburg State University. He explains that the course is about strategic thinking.

“It affects the way that you see everything, not only scholarly, but in your everyday life, as well,” said Elveren.

He explained that Game Theory is a huge field within economics. For this reason, the course will be more like an introduction to Game Theory.

Elveren’s classes come with a free bonus - jokes.

“That is a full package when you take a class from Doctor Elveren, it comes with jokes,” Elveren said.

Elveren likes telling jokes. In this way, he tries to remove the hierarchy between students and professors and keep their attention until the end of the class.

“It is definitely an intentional part of my teaching pedagogy,” he further said. “No matter how the professor engages, or if the topic is interesting, it is very difficult to pay constant attention. Somehow, you need to make sure you are catching students.”

He admitted that he has a set of jokes and because the semester is long, he needs to keep them at a minimum.

 “I know my sense of humor is bad,” joked Elveren. He concluded that if the university opens a course for faculty called “How to Make Jokes 101”, he will be the first person to enroll in it.