R Szostak, PhD, BA

About

Rick Szostak joined the Department of Economics at the University of Alberta in 1985. He served as Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts from 2002 to 2005, was President of the Association of Academic Staff at the University of Alberta from 1995 to 1996, President of the Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations from 1996 to 1998, and Associate Chair (Undergraduate) in Economics 2012 to 2015. He was Chair of the Department of Economics from July 1, 2017 until June 30 2022. His B.A. is from McGill and his PhD from Northwestern University. Szostak's research interests span the fields of economic history, methodology, history of technology, ethics, study of science, information science, world history, future studies, and the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity. He served on the Board of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies for a decade, and was President 2011-4. He was President of the International Society for Knowledge Organization from 2018 to 2022, and now serves as Past-President. He was President of the Economics Society of Northern Alberta in 2017 and 2018, and still serves on its Board. He has served on the governing councils of the interdisciplinary programs in Humanities Computing, Science Technology and Society, and Religious Studies at the University of Alberta. He has spent sabbatical leaves at the University of New South Wales and European University Institute in Florence. He has taught courses in economic history, economic growth and development, microeconomics, interdisciplinarity, and science technology and society. In 2007, he taught at the University of Alberta Faculty of Arts study-abroad program in Cortona, Italy. He is the author of 20 books, 50 journal articles, 20 encyclopedia articles, and 20 book chapters. His recent research agenda is described on his webpage. 

Research

Details on my research can be found on my webpage at https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/rick-szostak/

There are four sets of webpages attached to my website worthy of note:

1) About Interdisciplinarity

This set of webpages is a project of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies led by me that provides an overview of the diverse literature on interdisciplinarity, stressing key definitions, history, and especially best practices for interdisciplinary research, teaching, administration, and policy advice. See https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/about-interdisciplinarity/

2) Basic Concepts Classification

This set of webpages describes the Basic Concepts Classification, an approach to general classification that takes a synthetic approach using basic concepts: those that lend themselves to broadly shared understandings across groups and individuals. See:

https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/rick-szostak/research/basic-concepts-classification-web-version-2013

3) An outline of my Classifying (Mapping) Scholarship Project is available at: https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/rick-szostak/research/mapping-scholarship

4) My Making Sense of World History (published in 2021), is described at:

https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/rick-szostak/research/making-sense-of-wh

There are also appendices to several papers that can be accessed from my publications page at:

https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/rick-szostak/publications

INT D 231 - Introduction to Futures Studies

A survey course on Futures Studies. Approaching contemporary issues from a perspective of planning for surprises, identifying both plausible and desirable futures, and plotting strategies for moving from plausible to desirable. Topics may include climate change, economic inequality, the future of work with automation, weakening democracy, refugees, terrorism, pandemics, and conspiracy theories.

Browse more courses taught by R Szostak

This set of webpages is a project of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies led by me that provides an overview of the diverse literature on interdisciplinarity, stressing key definitions, history, and especially best practices for interdisciplinary research, teaching, administration, and policy advice. https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/about-interdisciplinarity/

This set of webpages describes the Basic Concepts Classification, an approach to general classification that takes a synthetic approach using basic concepts: those that lend themselves to broadly shared understandings across groups and individuals. See:

https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/rick-szostak/research/basic-concepts-classification-web-version-2013

An outline of my Classifying (Mapping) Scholarship Project is available athttps://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/rick-szostak/research/mapping-scholarship