Dartblog

The Alumni Magazine has a laudatory profile of our toughest professor: Economics Professor Meir Kohn. His politics are not what you would expect from a Dartmouth prof (he’s pretty close to being a libertarian) and his Socratic teaching style (terrifying to some) would be familiar to first-year law students. But to their credit, a great many undergraduates swear by Kohn, proving that Dartmouth students still have a taste for hard work and intellectual challenge.

One student described his experience in Econ 26 a few years ago, “Kohn is the first professor at Dartmouth I have encountered who is perfectly comfortable telling me that I’m wrong, and no less of a feat, in front of the rest of the class… He demands excellence and a complete grasp of the material, not just on the exam or in a paper, but at all moments of the class experience.” The student expression for rough handling by Professor Kohn is being “served.”

I got to know Kohn by participating in one of his extracurricular discussion groups. Over the course of a term, he meets with a self-selected group of students each Monday night to discuss in detail a single book. No grades. No obligation. Just good conversation and lots of learning.

In the below interview, Kohn talks about his research in economic development and his teaching methods.