History, Economics and Political Science (HEPS)

BACKGROUND: Bachelor of Arts - History & East Asian Studies – Université de Montréal

Masters of Arts - History – McGill University

EXPERTISE: history of Japan and Asia

COURSES TAUGHT: History of Western Civilization, Research Methods in the Social Sciences,

Integration in the Social Sciences

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: I lived and taught English second language for 1 year in northern Japan.

André LeBlanc began his university studies in the sciences, taking a B.Sc. in biology and psychology at the University of New Brunswick in 1990. He went on to do his Master’s (1993) and PhD (2000) at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto.

After completing his PhD, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en science et technologie at the Université du Québec à Montréal (2000-2002) and in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University (2002-2003). In 2004 he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he taught for three years as a visiting assistant professor in the History of Science and Technology Programme at the University of King’s College.  In 2010, he spent a month teaching as a visiting professor in the Master en Histoire et Philosophie des Sciences at the University of Bordeaux and has been teaching a seminar on the Historical, Philosophical, and Social Aspects of Science at the Science College of Concordia University since 2011.

Professor LeBlanc joined HEPS in January 2008 and has been happily teaching history, research methods, and the history and methodology of science ever since. He has published in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, History of Science, Scientia Canadensis, and the Human Nature Review. His research interests include the nature of the placebo effect, the relationship between science and religion, the role of mind in evolution, and the problem of free will from the perspective of science.

Félix Racine began his bachelor in Political Science at the Université de Montréal but somehow graduated in History, which he pursued at the doctoral level at Yale.  Somewhat fittingly, he is now part of a department where historians and political scientists work together.  Before coming to John Abbott, Félix taught Ancient History at the universities of St. Andrews (Scotland) and McGill.  His interests include the history of geographical knowledge, pre-modern travel and the reception of Greek and Latin science during the Renaissance.  He is also on a quest to find the best historical comics.

I have been a member of John Abbott College’s Department of History, Economics and Political Science (HEPS) since 1993. Born and raised in Montreal, I attended Concordia University where I earned a B.A. and M.A., specializing in Russian and Modern European History.  For the most part, I teach Western Civilization and Modern History courses, but have also taught Research Methods and Integration in the Social Sciences (ISS). I have been privileged to take students on Historical and Archaeological tours to Europe and North Africa with Professor John Serrati for the last eleven years.  What I enjoy most about teaching at the College is the everyday interaction with students and members of the JAC community. John Abbott is both a great place to go to school and work.

Professor Fiona Tomaszewski has been a member of John Abbott College’s Department of History, Economics, Political Science and Classics since 1998. She holds a Bachelor degree in Honours History from McGill University, as well as a Masters in History and a PhD in History from McMaster University. At JAC, Professor Tomaszewski served as the Honours Social Science Coordinator from 2003 to 2012.  She also serves as a member of the Library Media Services committee of the College. For many years she was on the Social Science Program Committee. She enjoys teaching the enthusiastic and curious students at John Abbott College.

Kenneth (Kyriakos) Matziorinis holds a B.A. degree in Honours Economics & Political Science from McGill University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from McGill University. He is also a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and a macroeconomic forecaster, invited to give his forecasts on the economy and a frequent commentator in the media.

His research interests have been tax incentives for capital investment, the theory of expansion and replacement investment, capital-output specificity and the impact of changes in the composition of output on capital investment, the role of expectations in consumer and investment spending, the economies of Greece and Southeast Europe, the political economy of the international monetary system and the economic history of the ancient world from Classical Greece, through the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods.

He has taught at John Abbott since 1981 and he also teaches at McGill’s School of Continuing Studies at the graduate management program where he has taught since 1979. Ken is a two-time recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award (1993, 2006) and the Scarlet Key Award (1975) from McGill University. He has also taught at Concordia University, and the University of Toronto. He has served on the board of directors of the National Bank of Greece (Canada) between 1991 and 2006, on the board of Trafalgar School for Girls (2002-2011) and numerous community organizations. He is currently serving as President of the Canadian Order of AHEPA, the Canadian branch of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, the world’s oldest and largest Greek heritage organization.

He is the author of four textbooks some of which are used in his courses.

Professor Provencher holds an undergraduate degree from Université de Sherbrooke and a Master of Arts degree from Dalhousie University, both in Economics.

With approximately ten years of teaching experience at the university level and over two years at the cegep level, he has taught to a wide range of students.

He quickly specialised in teaching to students that were new to Economics. His methods were very well received at Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), McGill University (Canada), and Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (Peru).

At Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL), he was in charge of all their Economics courses for their USA and English programs. He taught courses in association with Broward College (USA) as well as the University of South Florida (USA). He also co-created their UK program in association with the University of London (under the supervision of the London School of Economics), where he taught several courses and was responsible for selecting the students that would be admitted.

His constant drive for innovation led him to develop an intuitive approach that helps students understand complicated Economic models instead of simply remembering formulas by heart.

Over the years, he specialised in teaching introductory economic courses in which he presents key models using a multi-ideology approach to ensure that students have the full picture. His areas of expertise are Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Economics of the Environment, International Economics, and Labour Economics.

In 2015, Professor Provencher set out to create online economics classes that would be available to students all around the world. He has completed one course, Introduction to Microeconomics, and is aiming at completing Introduction to Macroeconomics in the next few years.

Avinash S. Samboo holds a B.Sc. (Hons) and Ph.D. in Economics from University of Mauritius, Mauritius. He also studied at Georgia State University, USA and at University of Nottingham, U.K. as a Commonwealth Research scholar.

His research interests have been in Public Finance and Welfare Economics and Political Economy with specific focus on the modeling of the social security budget in a welfare state. His other interests include Growth Theories and Labor Economics. He was also involved on various projects sponsored by United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).

He has been teaching at John Abbott College since August 2006. He has also taught at University of Mauritius, University of Technology, Mauritius and Georgia State University, USA.

Bert has an Honours Economics BA from Loyola College and a MA and PhD in Economics from McGill University. He has taught Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Money and Banking for several years at John Abbott and has given courses on a part-time basis at university. In particular, Bert has taught CPA and MBA students for the Faculty of Management and undergraduate courses for the Economics Department at McGill University. At Concordia University he has taught graduate (MBA) and undergraduate courses for the Finance Department at the John Molson School of Business and undergraduate courses for the Economics Department. His research interests include the analysis of the economic effects of public pension plans in Canada and the feasibility of using monetary policy to deal with regional disparities in Canada.

Nicola holds a Bachelor of Social Science in Political Science from the University of Ottawa, and a Master of Arts in International Affairs with a specialization in National and Subnational Aspects of Development from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. She graduated from the Honours Social Science Program at John Abbott College in 2001.
While in Ottawa, Nicola held various positions on Parliament Hill, though most of her career has been spent in the international non-profit sector. For 10 years she coordinated healthcare and education programs at the World Federation of Hemophilia where she contributed to the improvement of access to care and treatment for people with inherited bleeding disorders all over the world.
Nicola is teaching Modern Political Ideas and Quantitative Methods. She joined the Political Science department in 2017.