Economics Faculty

BA, Earlham College (economics and peace/global studies).  PhD, University of Massachusetts-Amherst (political economy). Taught economics and women’s/gender studies (1985-2010) at SUNY-Purchase, where she  received several awards for her teaching: the four-time recipient of the Students’ Union Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Letters and Sciences, the first recipient of the President’s Award for Innovative Pedagogy, and, in 1992, the recipient of the state-wide SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished College Teaching. She has also taught economics, labor history, and public policy as a guest faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College. Dr. Christensen’s research focuses on the intersection of economics with public policy issues, with a particular emphasis on issues of race, gender, class, and labor; e.g., the experiences of low-income women in the AIDS crisis, the politics of welfare “reform,” the “gendered” nature of the current recession, and the impact of our campaign finance system on public policy. SLC, 2008—

BS, MEng, Cornell University. MA, PhD (Honors), The New School for Social Research. Current interests include the study of industrial competition, the political economy of the developmental welfare state, the determinants of business taxes, and the study of Schumpeter’s analysis of the tax state. SLC, 2000–

BA, PhD, University of California-Berkeley. Special interests include economics of gender, race, and class; feminist economics; political economics of the environment; the history of economic thought; and macroeconomics. Author of articles in Feminist Studies, Review of Radical Political Economics, Industrial Relations, Feminist Economics, and others. Co-author of Living Wages, Equal Wages: Gender and Labor Market Policies in the United States (Routledge, 2002). SLC, 1990–

BA, PhD (in process), American University. Primary research interests are in the fields of environmental/ecological economics, feminist economics, and inequality studies. Current research explores the characteristics and motivations of large companies to set voluntary greenhouse gas reduction goals and the political economy of greenhouse gas regulations. Another work in progress seeks to assist international development professionals in diagnosing constraints to growth by considering gender inequalities and power relationships. Previous projects include: an analysis of the current and historical role of the state in providing education and training for workers and its changing role as a source of inequality; and an evaluation of the Inter-American Development Bank’s plan for understanding how projects impact and change gender inequalities. Recipient of the American University Department of Economics Weaver Award for Teaching Excellence by a Graduate Student for his work as an adjunct instructor. SLC, 2014–