Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy focuses on engaging students’ intellectual curiosity by (1) presenting them with illuminating primary sources and eye-witness accounts from the medieval and early modern eras, (2) utilizing compelling graphic and visual tools to assist students with their comprehension and analysis of historical issues, and (3) actively encouraging student participation during discussions, as well as welcoming questions during lectures.
In particular, I find primary sources like Galbert of Bruges’ 12th century manuscript, The Murder of Charles the Good, to be especially effective at exposing students to unmediated views of medieval European politics and society, as well as pedagogically beneficial because it captures the interests of students. Of equal value is Ibn Fadlan’s travelogue of his journey from medieval Islamic Baghdad to northern Europe, as well as Castilian King Alfonso X’s legal treatise, Las Siete Partidas, which speaks to the nature of cultural and religious relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in medieval Spain. To further enhance student attention, I often ask students to place these historical studies into dialogue with their personal life experiences and values. I find that challenging students to be reflective in this manner enables them to form more intensive and innovative lines of inquiry.
Given that today’s students are accustomed to receiving information through visual means, I find it both valuable and imperative to communicate with students using graphic and visual tools. Thus, I deliver many lectures and support small class discussions using Graphic Historical Context Maps and Analytical Graphing. During lectures, I present these graphic maps to focus on (1) key historical issues and comparative points of references; (2) the imbedded processes that support the development of political, cultural, and religious trends; and (3) the historiographical trajectories of individual topics and time periods. (For example, please see my attached context map, Historiography of Identity in Early Modern Spain and Colonial Spanish America, which I used to teach an undergraduate seminar.) Additionally, I prefer to use a digital projector so that I can access a combination of materials, such as web-based lecture outlines, an image collection (pertinent material culture artifacts, architecture, and manuscripts), web-based information resources like the Internet Medieval Sourcebook, and my previously described graphic maps. Taken together, my teaching approach provides students with auditory, written, and visual sources of data.
Most importantly, I believe that only with active participation can students be expected to absorb and critically evaluate history. In seminars, I ask students to take ownership of their education by requiring them (teams of two or three students) to lead a portion of each class discussion. To help them develop the skills and awareness required to facilitate discussion, I ask these teams to meet with me prior to the class discussion so that we can collectively plan what topics should be discussed and how we intend to support an active group dialogue. A side benefit of these smaller interactions is that they allow me to build a closer teaching and mentoring bond with students. To promote student participation in seminars and large lecture courses, I often ask students to play the role of a “class anthropologist” for the day. In seminars, I charge these anthropologists with the responsibility of listening to the content and tone of the day’s class discussion, and at the end of class I ask them to report for two or three minutes what they believed were the most thought provoking issues that were discussed. In larger survey courses (over 75 students), I randomly select two or three students to play the role of anthropologist. I subsequently meet with these students during my weekly office hours to chat about their findings as well as encourage one of the students to present their thoughts at the next class meeting. By instituting these practices during the first few weeks of an academic term, students become rapidly accustomed and expectant of regular class participation.
My teaching approach is derived from my three years of teaching experience at the University of Texas at Austin, and my prior eight years of professional employment, including work for the Institute for the Future, a Menlo Park, CA-based think-tank, and with The Grove Consultants International, a San Francisco, CA-based team of visually-oriented planners. Before returning to earn my PhD in History in 2002, I specialized in strategic planning and group facilitation consulting for city/county governments, school districts, and local community organizations. In this capacity, I developed, facilitated, and directed discussions for both small groups (5 to 15 people) and large groups (50 to 150 people). These activities share many characteristics with teaching, as they require intensive advanced modeling of group interactions and discussions. Like teaching, they (1) set out specific outcome objectives, (2) demand advanced participant preparation, and (3) focus on promoting and spurring honest dialogue among participants.
At the most fundamental level, I focus on training students to become critically thinking individuals and citizens. I explicitly emphasis to students their need to actively question the validity and assumptions of the materials they read and hear in lectures, as well as in the popular press and their conversations with others. Additionally, I unambiguously state the necessity of developing strong writing, analytical, listening, and speaking skills. Further, I express the importance of committing themselves to high standards of workmanship and personal ethics. Specifically, I argue that mastering these capabilities and adhering to these values are imperative for their future advancement in their professional careers.
Teaching Experience
During my first three years as a doctoral student (2002-2005), I served as a teaching assistant for seven undergraduate courses. In this capacity, I delivered several course lectures to classes of 95+ students, held routine discussion sections with groups of 30+ students, advised students on their class work and professional goals, created content for and managed course websites, developed course teaching aids, conducted review sessions, and assisted in the preparation and grading of essay examinations.
A Selection of Teaching Experiences
Spring 2005
Teaching Assistant (TA) for the Tracking Cultures Program Seminar (Dr. Cory Reed)
The Tracking Cultures Program is an innovative cultural studies initiative that engages students in an interdisciplinary study of Texas and the American Southwest, tracing aspects of southwestern culture historically into Mexico, Spain, and North Africa. The program includes academic work conducted both on the University of Texas campus in Austin and abroad (Spain and Mexico). In 2003, I participated in the program as a student, and in 2005, I served as a teaching assistant. As the TA for this intensive seminar course, I delivered a guest lecture on early modern Spanish and Latin American identities (see my Historiography of Identity in Early Modern Spain and Colonial Spanish America chart), helped guide class discussions, and maintained the course’s interactive website.
Spring 2005
TA for “Islamic Spain and North Africa to 1492” (Dr. Denise Spellberg)
For this lecture course, one of the four component courses of the Tracking Cultures Program, I attended all lectures and review sessions, held weekly office hours and graded essay exams for 90+ students.
Fall 2004
TA for “Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: An Introduction” (Dr. Martha Newman)
For this lecture course, I attended all lectures, created test review materials (see my test review chart), participated in exam review sessions, held office hours, and graded essay exams for 90+ students. In addition, I built a course website and published weekly updates that included supplemental readings, images, and hyperlinks to online references.
Spring 2004
TA for “History of the Arab World” (Dr. Elizabeth Bishop)
For this lecture course, I presented two class lectures: (1) a discussion of medieval Islamic primary sources detailing the treatment of religious minorities (see my lecture comparison chart), and (2) a discussion of Islamic and Christian political and cultural co-existence in medieval Iberia as viewed through material culture (See my presentation and lecture notes.) Also, I jointly developed a lecture on the transmission of Greek astronomical observations to medieval Islamic scholars. Lastly, I attended all lectures, held regular office hours, and graded tests and writing assignments for 95 students.
My teaching philosophy focuses on engaging students’ intellectual curiosity by (1) presenting them with illuminating primary sources and eye-witness accounts from the medieval and early modern eras, (2) utilizing compelling graphic and visual tools to assist students with their comprehension and analysis of historical issues, and (3) actively encouraging student participation during discussions, as well as welcoming questions during lectures.
In particular, I find primary sources like Galbert of Bruges’ 12th century manuscript, The Murder of Charles the Good, to be especially effective at exposing students to unmediated views of medieval European politics and society, as well as pedagogically beneficial because it captures the interests of students. Of equal value is Ibn Fadlan’s travelogue of his journey from medieval Islamic Baghdad to northern Europe, as well as Castilian King Alfonso X’s legal treatise, Las Siete Partidas, which speaks to the nature of cultural and religious relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in medieval Spain. To further enhance student attention, I often ask students to place these historical studies into dialogue with their personal life experiences and values. I find that challenging students to be reflective in this manner enables them to form more intensive and innovative lines of inquiry.
Given that today’s students are accustomed to receiving information through visual means, I find it both valuable and imperative to communicate with students using graphic and visual tools. Thus, I deliver many lectures and support small class discussions using Graphic Historical Context Maps and Analytical Graphing. During lectures, I present these graphic maps to focus on (1) key historical issues and comparative points of references; (2) the imbedded processes that support the development of political, cultural, and religious trends; and (3) the historiographical trajectories of individual topics and time periods. (For example, please see my attached context map, Historiography of Identity in Early Modern Spain and Colonial Spanish America, which I used to teach an undergraduate seminar.) Additionally, I prefer to use a digital projector so that I can access a combination of materials, such as web-based lecture outlines, an image collection (pertinent material culture artifacts, architecture, and manuscripts), web-based information resources like the Internet Medieval Sourcebook, and my previously described graphic maps. Taken together, my teaching approach provides students with auditory, written, and visual sources of data.
Most importantly, I believe that only with active participation can students be expected to absorb and critically evaluate history. In seminars, I ask students to take ownership of their education by requiring them (teams of two or three students) to lead a portion of each class discussion. To help them develop the skills and awareness required to facilitate discussion, I ask these teams to meet with me prior to the class discussion so that we can collectively plan what topics should be discussed and how we intend to support an active group dialogue. A side benefit of these smaller interactions is that they allow me to build a closer teaching and mentoring bond with students. To promote student participation in seminars and large lecture courses, I often ask students to play the role of a “class anthropologist” for the day. In seminars, I charge these anthropologists with the responsibility of listening to the content and tone of the day’s class discussion, and at the end of class I ask them to report for two or three minutes what they believed were the most thought provoking issues that were discussed. In larger survey courses (over 75 students), I randomly select two or three students to play the role of anthropologist. I subsequently meet with these students during my weekly office hours to chat about their findings as well as encourage one of the students to present their thoughts at the next class meeting. By instituting these practices during the first few weeks of an academic term, students become rapidly accustomed and expectant of regular class participation.
My teaching approach is derived from my three years of teaching experience at the University of Texas at Austin, and my prior eight years of professional employment, including work for the Institute for the Future, a Menlo Park, CA-based think-tank, and with The Grove Consultants International, a San Francisco, CA-based team of visually-oriented planners. Before returning to earn my PhD in History in 2002, I specialized in strategic planning and group facilitation consulting for city/county governments, school districts, and local community organizations. In this capacity, I developed, facilitated, and directed discussions for both small groups (5 to 15 people) and large groups (50 to 150 people). These activities share many characteristics with teaching, as they require intensive advanced modeling of group interactions and discussions. Like teaching, they (1) set out specific outcome objectives, (2) demand advanced participant preparation, and (3) focus on promoting and spurring honest dialogue among participants.
At the most fundamental level, I focus on training students to become critically thinking individuals and citizens. I explicitly emphasis to students their need to actively question the validity and assumptions of the materials they read and hear in lectures, as well as in the popular press and their conversations with others. Additionally, I unambiguously state the necessity of developing strong writing, analytical, listening, and speaking skills. Further, I express the importance of committing themselves to high standards of workmanship and personal ethics. Specifically, I argue that mastering these capabilities and adhering to these values are imperative for their future advancement in their professional careers.
Teaching Experience
During my first three years as a doctoral student (2002-2005), I served as a teaching assistant for seven undergraduate courses. In this capacity, I delivered several course lectures to classes of 95+ students, held routine discussion sections with groups of 30+ students, advised students on their class work and professional goals, created content for and managed course websites, developed course teaching aids, conducted review sessions, and assisted in the preparation and grading of essay examinations.
A Selection of Teaching Experiences
Spring 2005
Teaching Assistant (TA) for the Tracking Cultures Program Seminar (Dr. Cory Reed)
The Tracking Cultures Program is an innovative cultural studies initiative that engages students in an interdisciplinary study of Texas and the American Southwest, tracing aspects of southwestern culture historically into Mexico, Spain, and North Africa. The program includes academic work conducted both on the University of Texas campus in Austin and abroad (Spain and Mexico). In 2003, I participated in the program as a student, and in 2005, I served as a teaching assistant. As the TA for this intensive seminar course, I delivered a guest lecture on early modern Spanish and Latin American identities (see my Historiography of Identity in Early Modern Spain and Colonial Spanish America chart), helped guide class discussions, and maintained the course’s interactive website.
Spring 2005
TA for “Islamic Spain and North Africa to 1492” (Dr. Denise Spellberg)
For this lecture course, one of the four component courses of the Tracking Cultures Program, I attended all lectures and review sessions, held weekly office hours and graded essay exams for 90+ students.
Fall 2004
TA for “Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: An Introduction” (Dr. Martha Newman)
For this lecture course, I attended all lectures, created test review materials (see my test review chart), participated in exam review sessions, held office hours, and graded essay exams for 90+ students. In addition, I built a course website and published weekly updates that included supplemental readings, images, and hyperlinks to online references.
Spring 2004
TA for “History of the Arab World” (Dr. Elizabeth Bishop)
For this lecture course, I presented two class lectures: (1) a discussion of medieval Islamic primary sources detailing the treatment of religious minorities (see my lecture comparison chart), and (2) a discussion of Islamic and Christian political and cultural co-existence in medieval Iberia as viewed through material culture (See my presentation and lecture notes.) Also, I jointly developed a lecture on the transmission of Greek astronomical observations to medieval Islamic scholars. Lastly, I attended all lectures, held regular office hours, and graded tests and writing assignments for 95 students.
