David Duval enjoyed teaching in New Zealand, but in 2011 it was time for a change.

Being from Winnipeg, Duval was familiar with the University of Winnipeg (U of W), although he went to school at the University of Manitoba and York University in Toronto. He was attracted to the U of W because it was smaller than the school he’d been teaching at overseas, so he made the move back home to accept a teaching position.

Duval is now an associate professor in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the U of W and the director of the University of Manitoba Transport Institute at the Asper School of Business.

“I find the students here are pretty much the same as students in New Zealand,” Duval says. He has been teaching Introduction to Business and International Business.

Particularly in their fourth year, Duval says his students have a pretty serious intellectual game.

“It’s been really impressive,” Duval says.

In New Zealand, he was at a school that focused on research and he’s been enjoying the switch to a school that focuses on teaching. It gives him time to practice his jokes.

“I like to have a laugh in class, but my jokes don’t always go somewhere,” Duval says.

He’s clear that he takes his teaching job very seriously, but sometimes he comes up with spur-of-the-moment jokes while in front of the class.

“If you can’t laugh, what’s the point?” Duval says.

 

AGE: 44

AREA OF RESEARCH: Economic and legal regulations of air transport

NUMBER OF PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES PUBLISHED: I don’t keep track. A few.

LOWEST GRADE IN UNIVERSITY: D in Medieval Europe.

BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE: The day my daughter was born.

WHAT’S YOUR SUPERPOWER: Flight.

BATTING AVERAGE: No idea.

Published in Volume 70, Number 3 of The Uniter (September 24, 2015)