Teaching
As an educator, my primary goal is to engage students with issues of social importance in order to facilitate students’ intellectual growth as well as their passion for sociological knowledge. My experience teaching over a dozen courses—in multiple disciplines and for nearly two decades—has made me confident in the classroom yet humbled by the personal satisfaction I get from seeing students learn and grow.
I am passionate about teaching and committed to working with students to help foster their intellectual development. I work hard to employ a student-centered pedagogy that engages students on a common ground. I strive to make learning interesting and relevant by using real world examples and educational technologies to capture and keep students' attention. This has led me to develop a unique and effective pedagogical approach that combines digital with traditional approaches to teaching and learning. This hybrid approach to teaching with as well as about technology is one I apply to most courses I teach. While some class assignments involve blogging, social media participation, and/or digital presentations of research projects, others entail the creation of dedicated course websites (see below).
In addition to teaching traditional courses, I am also passionate about community-based learning (CBL). For my "Criminal (In)Justice" course students made several visits to a county jail to learn about criminal (in)justice, community reintegration, and to pursue praxis-oriented solutions to recidivism. The class project, North Country Resource (http://northcountryresource.org/) is an online collection of local social services built in collaboration with incarcerated individuals, the professor and academic support staff. Beyond the impact this collection of resources may have on members of at-risk populations, working directly with a sizable portion of the incarcerated population allowed us to create a mutually beneficial relationship with a direct impact in the local community. Visits to the jail entailed group discussions, a variety of interactive and reflexive exercises, as well as training for how to utilize the resources. In addition to the website, printed copies of the resource collection were also distributed for immediate use given the jail’s current restrictions on access to digital technology.
To learn more about my approach to teaching with technology, see my Hybrid Pedagogy article, "Building Castles in the Air: Critical Digital Pedagogy and the Pursuit of Praxis,"
Courses Taught
I am passionate about teaching and committed to working with students to help foster their intellectual development. I work hard to employ a student-centered pedagogy that engages students on a common ground. I strive to make learning interesting and relevant by using real world examples and educational technologies to capture and keep students' attention. This has led me to develop a unique and effective pedagogical approach that combines digital with traditional approaches to teaching and learning. This hybrid approach to teaching with as well as about technology is one I apply to most courses I teach. While some class assignments involve blogging, social media participation, and/or digital presentations of research projects, others entail the creation of dedicated course websites (see below).
In addition to teaching traditional courses, I am also passionate about community-based learning (CBL). For my "Criminal (In)Justice" course students made several visits to a county jail to learn about criminal (in)justice, community reintegration, and to pursue praxis-oriented solutions to recidivism. The class project, North Country Resource (http://northcountryresource.org/) is an online collection of local social services built in collaboration with incarcerated individuals, the professor and academic support staff. Beyond the impact this collection of resources may have on members of at-risk populations, working directly with a sizable portion of the incarcerated population allowed us to create a mutually beneficial relationship with a direct impact in the local community. Visits to the jail entailed group discussions, a variety of interactive and reflexive exercises, as well as training for how to utilize the resources. In addition to the website, printed copies of the resource collection were also distributed for immediate use given the jail’s current restrictions on access to digital technology.
To learn more about my approach to teaching with technology, see my Hybrid Pedagogy article, "Building Castles in the Air: Critical Digital Pedagogy and the Pursuit of Praxis,"
Courses Taught
Butler University (2021-present)
Social World 200: Understanding Society [topic: Media] (100-level)
Deviance and Social Control (300-level)
Social Theory Seminar (300-level)
Surveillance and Society (300-level)
Technology, Power, and the Public Sphere (300-level)
Violence, Media, and Culture (300-level)
St. Lawrence University (2014-2021)
Principles of Sociology (100-level)
Media and Society (100-level)
Fake News, Real Facts? Sociological Critiques of Mass Media (first-year seminar)
Question Everything: The Art of Information Activism (first-year program)
Culture and Identity in the Digital Age (200-level)
New Media, Conflict and Control (200-level)
Criminal (In)Justice (200-level; community-based learning in county jail)
University of Denver (2013-2014)
Introduction to Media & Culture (100-level)
New Media, Conflict and Control (advanced seminar; writing-intensive)
Quantitative Research Methods (graduate-level)
University of Missouri (2007-2013)
Social Deviance (100-level)
Introduction to Sociology (100-level; honors)
Introduction to Peace Studies (100-level; writing-intensive)
Culture & Mass Media (200-level)
Recent Theories in Sociology (300-level)
Social Psychology (300-level)
The News Media: Journalism & Advertising in a Democratic Society (100-level)
Social World 200: Understanding Society [topic: Media] (100-level)
Deviance and Social Control (300-level)
Social Theory Seminar (300-level)
Surveillance and Society (300-level)
Technology, Power, and the Public Sphere (300-level)
Violence, Media, and Culture (300-level)
St. Lawrence University (2014-2021)
Principles of Sociology (100-level)
Media and Society (100-level)
Fake News, Real Facts? Sociological Critiques of Mass Media (first-year seminar)
Question Everything: The Art of Information Activism (first-year program)
Culture and Identity in the Digital Age (200-level)
New Media, Conflict and Control (200-level)
Criminal (In)Justice (200-level; community-based learning in county jail)
- Project website: http://northcountryresource.org/
- Project website: http://digital.stlawu.edu/twitter-society/
University of Denver (2013-2014)
Introduction to Media & Culture (100-level)
New Media, Conflict and Control (advanced seminar; writing-intensive)
Quantitative Research Methods (graduate-level)
University of Missouri (2007-2013)
Social Deviance (100-level)
Introduction to Sociology (100-level; honors)
Introduction to Peace Studies (100-level; writing-intensive)
Culture & Mass Media (200-level)
Recent Theories in Sociology (300-level)
Social Psychology (300-level)
The News Media: Journalism & Advertising in a Democratic Society (100-level)
