17 years and counting – being a guest professor at the Institute of International Management

What I enjoy about teaching here is
Interaction with students here is organic, and interesting for me. They have an intellectual curiosity which I like to nurture in my class, I want them to broaden their horizons of the world and of the subject matter.
The three words I associate with the students here are
Friendly, curious, direct.
What I would like to add is
Austrians really like having structure for their classes. This works well for me, as that’s how I personally work best. The students like that, and understand it. This has been working since the first MIG at the school. Teaching this class and using this learning method allows me to push the students to look beyond, peel the onion, and connect the dots. At the end of the class, getting students to connect the dots is the main goal.

In conversation with our intern Amelia (from the University of Victoria, one of our Canadian partner universities), Jamshid Damooei enthusiastically received her input and questions.

Amelia: This past semester, I was on exchange in France and I found that the Americans, Canadians, and Germans all naturally got along. I think this is partly due to the fact that we all prefer structure in school. It was easy to work on projects together.
Jamshid Damooei: People are drawn to and like experiences that are comfortable for them, but one of the challenges when going abroad is to get out of your comfort zone, much like you coming to Austria. But if say you had gone to Brazil, even though it would have been more difficult, you would have found something about the culture that makes you feel at home. Each cultural perspective has a positive to it.

Amelia: While I was prepping for the interview, I read on your California Lutheran University page that you have worked with the UN, and more recently published some projects on economic and social disparities. What has drawn you to this subject?
Jamshid Damooei: I usually release different works on the subject around 3-4 times a year. You could categorize my recent work (recent being in the past 15 years, I’ve lost track of how many years I’ve been working) in the economics of social issues. I head the Center for the Study of Economics of Social Issues. The reason why I like this work is because it’s very important, it has a human face. I can see how economics impacts life, and people. That’s why I focus on this subject, without a human face, seeing how it affects life, I’m not interested in it.

Recently I have done work on Early Childhood Education. The Huffington Post recently interviewed me about the subject and wrote an in depth article of my work.