Teaching

As a teacher, I am dedicated to applied interdisciplinary and community engaged scholarship, and I seek to help my students develop writing, speaking, and analytical skills that they will use across disciplines—both during and after their time in school—as they are asked to make ethical and political judgments, create compelling arguments, and advocate for significant causes. My first goal as an educator is to invite students to see the complexity and contingency of communication practices, pushing them to apply communication theory to their own everyday communication challenges. The broad spectrum of backgrounds and the variety of cultural experiences my students bring to the classroom encourage me to better decide how to present the topics covered in my courses. I have many international students, students who are returning to college late in life, and a significant number of students with differing religious backgrounds—all of which shape the thoughts and tone of my classroom community. In my classes, I design learning goals around application and analysis of communication concepts, with the ultimate goal of creating of new material that uses these concepts to investigate everyday problems of communication. I use a variety of teaching strategies that emphasize experiential learning, including fieldwork and journaling, case studies, and community service to achieve these goals. I view college as an opportunity for students to discover the value of good citizenship, and to improve oneself and one’s ability to learn. Critical thinking and political and social consciousness are ultimately what determine how people organize, challenge, and redesign systems, and creatively solve problems, so these are paramount concepts in my classroom.