Current Courses

Professional Organizations

• Academy of Management . 09/2018 - present. Position : Member.

Courses I Teach

• Foundations of Business Thought - BUS 1050 and 1051
  Foundations of Business Thought is part of the liberal education aspect of the business school experience at the University of Utah. This course will help you gain insight into how business is embedded in history and culture and into how business education connects to the broader world of ideas. This course is integrative in that we will draw from many disciplines and many traditions; it is critical in that we will carefully consider the texts we study and discuss their assumptions and implications; and it is rigorous in that we will endeavor to think clearly and argue persuasively. Our sources will include philosophy, history, and literature, as well as economics, political science, psychology and sociology; we generally read these materials in their original format (translated when needed). By examining the enduring works of authors who have thought about the intellectual and social forces that have created the world of business in which we live, we can see that contemporary issues currently facing individuals and businesses are complicated and have deep roots. This course draws upon important thoughts from across the centuries and from across the globe, and throughout it we refer to the most intimate locality (the self) and to the grandest locality (the entire world). At the conclusion of this course, you will be able to identify important ideas from the humanities and the social sciences to inform business. In addition, you will have developed your critical thinking and communication skills. This course will help you make wise business decisions, including about issues with ethical implications.
• BUS 3930 - History of American Business 20th Century
  President Calvin Coolidge once said that the “chief business of the American people is business.” His statement does not necessarily mean that the history of the America is the history of American business, of course, but it does suggest that we will be examining topics central to the American past. The modern business corporation is a dominant institution in American life, and a historical perspective on it is essential for understanding contemporary American society. This course takes a broad approach to “business history.” It examines not only the obvious triumph of the corporation as the dominant form of business organization (and the more recent finance-ization of the American economy), and some of the iconic leaders in American business history, but also underlying economic trends and ideas, technological shifts, public policies, business–government relations and competing concepts of governance, the changing desires of individual Americans, the transformation of Americans into “citizen consumers,” and the difficulty of ensuring “security” for citizens in a market society. We will examine how patterns of domestic economic activity changed over time, how different forms of activity were sponsored and/or regulated by the state, how the U.S. deindustrialized and became a service economy after World War II, how both private and public life in America became reorganized around the maintenance of mass consumption, and various critiques of consumption and the twentieth-century mixed economy. Along the way we will examine the ideas and decisions of corporate managers, union leaders, interest groups, economists and other intellectuals, and elected officials.
  BUS 3930 Spring 2016 Syllabus.doc
• HIST 3910 - History of Global Capitalism
  HIST 3910, The History of Global Capitalism, will be run as a combination seminar and lecture class. We will explore a topic of unparalleled importance: the evolution of capitalism in the past 500 years and — in merely the past half century — its nearly complete triumph around the globe as the dominant arrangement through which to organize societies. The study of capitalism attracts scholars from a wide variety of fields, so in this class you will encounter economic historians, intellectual historians, labor historians, sociologists, and political scientists — among others. We will study market dynamics; the histories of international trade, business actors from seventeenth-century Dutch traders to Henry Ford to Jack Ma, and the corporation and other forms of business operation; governance structures; social relations; and intellectual ideas about capitalism. The United States will certainly receive its fair share of attention, but the course seeks to offer a truly global history.
  Fall 2015 HIST 3910 History Capitalism Final Syllabus.doc
• HIST 1700 - American Civilization
  HIST 1700 explores the emergence and development of the United States of America. It seeks to encompass the history of American culture, foreign relations, social movements, and economic, scientific, ecological, and technological developments, but its focus will be on the political battles—and the ideas about society, economy, and governance underneath them—that have defined the nation.
  HIST 1700 Spring 2016 (Hoff) Syllabus Revised Jan 23.doc
• HIST 4390 - History of American Conservatism
  The History of Conservatism in America will be run as a seminar, not a lecture class. Thus I expect everyone to do most of the reading most of the time, to read well, and to participate actively and thoughtfully. I am happy to have as many students as allowed, but if you not normally complete class readings on time, or do not like participating in class discussion, you may want to consider another class. I do not plan to give quizzes, but I reserve the right to do so if I feel that students are not reading adequately. We will trace the evolution of American conservative thought from the eighteenth century to the present day. Some guiding questions include: what is conservatism in the American context and how has it changed over time? What are the historical “problems” surrounding American conservatism? How does American conservatism differ from its European counterparts? What do traditionalists, neoconservatives, libertarians, and theocons have in common? Where do they disagree? As we explore these broad questions, we will study conservative and libertarian involvement in important historical movements such as the creation of the American nation, abolitionism, feminism, and anticommunism. We will also explore the conservative response to liberal moments such as the Progressivism, the New Deal, and the Great Society. Finally, we will explore contemporary conservative perspectives on assorted issues, including race relations, religion, foreign policy, abortion, the welfare state, and the presidencies of Clinton and Obama.
  FALL 2015 HIST 4930 Conservatism Final Syllabus.docx
• HIST 4740 - American Economic History
  This class covers major topics in American economic history. We will review the economic history of early America, but our focus will be on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among the issues studied closely are the growth of the national economy in the Early Republic, slavery, the Civil War, the rise of big business, the growing role of the government in the economy in the Progressive Era, the Great Depression, the world wars, the long post–World War II boom and its end, class, race, and gender, and America’s shifting place in the global economy. No prior coursework in economics is required.
  HIST 4740 Fall 2014 Syllabus.doc
• HONOR 2212 - American Institutions
  HONOR 2212 explores the emergence and development of the United States of America. It seeks to encompass the history of American culture, foreign relations, social movements, and economic, scientific, ecological, and technological developments, but its focus will be on the political battles—and the ideas about society, economy, and governance underneath them—that have defined the nation.
  HONOR 2212 Spring 2016 Syllabus Version 2.0 Feb 14.doc