Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy may be distilled down to the Greek philosopher Plutarch’s insight that “the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” For me, this is not only about the ignition of interest, but also the self-realization of expansive possibility within all students. I believe that the unlocking of this potential in students cultivates the development of a fearlessly thoughtful citizenry that can further what Ruth Benedict asserted as the primary purpose of anthropology: “to make the world safe for human differences.”
I approach teaching and research as symbiotic, and centered around a close attention to process. Just as my research highlights the social lives of films as much as the finished products, so too does my teaching emphasize process. I center writing not only as a skill that can be learned and a muscle that should be exercised, but more significantly as an invaluable means for conveying one’s inimitable voice. I aim to ignite in students the very love of writing that I developed as an undergraduate, fostered by my varied engagements with professors, mentors, and fellow students. I illustrate the importance of engaging multiple paper drafts and in-class peer-review sessions that help students to develop as writers by receiving and providing feedback.
Drawing on a variety of active and experiential learning strategies, I aim to cultivate connections between students’ often disconnected academic and social worlds through small group discussions, class debates, media production projects, and other activities that engage diverse learning styles. For example, during the first weekend of class I often have students conduct fieldwork around campus for their first paper. This engages a topic that the students find inherently interesting while positioning them to construct original and ethnographic arguments that are relevant to their own lived experiences.
When engaging polarizing topics such as racism and Indigenous genocide, I aim to denaturalize students’ gut responses by initially framing discussions around less controversial parallel examples. When I then shift the conversation to the contentious issue, this reframing often leads students to be surprised by their own responses, stimulating open and empathetic dialogue. Examples of this approach include a lesson plan I wrote for the Cultural Anthropology website on Teaching Sovereignty, as well as a short sci-fi story I published through Fulbright's Minds and Hearts magazine titled "Planeterra Nullius," which challenges students to reimagine Australian colonization through a parable of extraterrestrial invasion set in the near future.