Good Reads: The Favorite Books of St. John’s Faculty—Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan, Ph.D.

As temperatures dip and indoor activities beckon, it’s the perfect time to curl up with a good book. In this new series, St. John’s faculty share some of the titles and authors on their “must read” lists that are sure to challenge, stimulate, and delight.

Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan, Ph.D.
November 22, 2019

Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan, Ph.D.
Henry George Chair in Economics and Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Finance, The Peter J. Tobin College of Business

My favorite book
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.

My favorite author
Hovhannes Tumanyan.

One book every St. John’s student should read
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

At the moment, I am reading
Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World by Branko Milanovic (he is a top scholar globally and spoke at St. John’s).

The one thing that everyone needs to read
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

My favorite places on campus to read are
Outside on the Tobin College terrace or by the Marillac tables when the sun is out.

I keep meaning to get around to reading
Debt—Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber.

Is there a book you require for your classes that is particularly compelling or illuminating?
Yes, I really like Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market by Walter Bagehot

I like to reread
How Did I Survive? by Artavazd M. Minasyan. It is an inspiring memoir.

Is there one book that is essential for a successful economics student to read?
Yes, I think it is The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economics Thinkers by Robert L. Heilbroner

Hard copy or eReader?
Hard copy!

If I wrote a memoir, the title would be
What is Future?


In addition to his responsibilities at St. John’s University, Dr. Gevorkyan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Vincentian Center for Church and Society. His extensive teaching and research experience covers themes in open economy macroeconomics, macroeconomic policy, economic development, international financial economics, labor migration, and postsocialist transition economics. Dr. Gevorkyan is the author of Transition Economies: Transformation, Development, and Society in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (Routledge, 2018) and is a coeditor with Otaviano Canuto, Ph.D., of Financial Deepening and Post-Crisis Development in Emerging Markets (Palgrave MacMillan in 2016).