Teaching one of DePauw’s most popular and exciting disciplines is Professor Town Oh. As one of the newest members to join the school’s economics and management faculty, Professor Oh describes the past year at DePauw as an exciting new phase of his life.The Assistant Professor of Economics and Management shares that the ability to interact with students on a deeper level, the opportunity to conduct research, and the supportive relationships he has built with his fellow colleagues are the reasons why he enjoys being at DePauw University.
Professor Town Oh has a unique background, as he was born and raised in South Korea, eventually immigrating to America for schooling during his adolescence. Oh has traveled and lived in various parts of America but eventually settled in Indiana to pursue both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Economics at Purdue University. His interest in Economics was sparked during his time in the Korean army, where he worked as an interpreter and an assistant to a law professor. In these positions, he was exposed to legal work on affirmative action for translating documents, which made appeals to the economic efficiencies of state policies. Professor Town Oh would later go on to obtain his doctorate degree in applied microeconomics.
Professor Oh hopes to share his knowledge and passion of the principles of economics to the students of DePauw. He aims to demonstrate how the field of economics is a science of viewing the world with an economic lens and a study of human-to-human interactions by understanding why people make certain decisions. He currently teaches introductory economics, various intermediate level classes, as well as advanced econometrics classes at DePauw University. Based on his own experiences, Town advises the students of DePauw to expand their academic focus and pursue relationships within their communities. He says, “The strength of a liberal arts education boils down to the quality of the relationships that you can make.’’