Teaching
I design my teaching around three interlocking principles
Linking Knowledge to Experience
The vibrant media landscape of the 21st century opens up a number of opportunities for connecting abstract concepts to how students encounter politics in their lived experience. Drawing on a range of platforms, my syllabi integrate public debates unfolding outside of the classroom through different forms of media while connecting them to deeper questions at the heart of how we discuss conflict, refugees, and world politics.
For instance, in Nationalism & Geopolitics in the Everyday, I introduce students to methods like discourse analysis and semiology. I give students the opportunity to “test out” these methods on political speeches, before as a class we apply them to Marvel films (most recently, Captain America: The Winter Soldier). Doing so encourages a sharper, more engaged discussion of how students grapple with different ideas about world order, state-citizen relations, heroism, gender, and race that pervade the media they encounter.
In A World at War, I link different philosophical conceptions of war to empirical case studies, ethnographic accounts, through which they must analyze the classic 1966 film The Battle of Algiers. Students also grapple with the practical implications of the US drone program by composing either a policy brief or an op-ed article in which they adopt and defend a position on the use of drones in US foreign policy.
Inclusion that fosters Empowerment
For many students, higher education has a more tangible function in their lives as an investment in the future well-being of them and their families. A raft of circumstances - financial hardship, medical issues, care-giving, and others - may vie for priority, with the result that many of our teaching goals can appear too “abstract” or irrelevant once they leave the classroom.
I design my courses with such students in mind. Not only because their experiences improve the classroom environment for all (which is true), but because college campuses are rare mechanisms for social mobility. Given rising levels of economic inequality and deepening political polarization, including under-resourced students in higher education can make an enormous difference to their future by training them to critically examine the structures that shape their lives and empowering them to acquire resources to overcome them.
Whether it is showing students how US counterinsurgency tactics have “come home” to the streets of American cities or mentoring students as they sift through the many programs and classes available at a university campus, I work hard to build their concerns into my course design and interpersonal interactions with students.
Critique in Service of Compassion
The United States may be increasingly diverse, but Americans increasingly self-segregate by class, by political affiliation, and by racial background (among others) at the neighborhood and national scales. I view the university campus as a crucial opportunity for students to encounter and engage with individuals from different backgrounds. My teaching thus works to expose students to perspectives they might not otherwise encounter in a spirit of compassion, encouraging learning that goes deeper than individual benefit to contemplating one’s place in the world.
To that end I draw on readings from scholars and thinkers of color, women, and other under-resourced or under-represented groups in my classes. I also make use of popular media - in particular, film and documentaries - to introduce such perspectives to students in easy-to-grasp, narrative forms. For instance, I draw on the recent documentary Wounds of Waziristan to expose students to daily life for Afghans living under US drone strikes. In other classes, I make use of refugee testimonies. In sum, the geographer in me hopes to reveal the political entanglements that bring problems “out there” into relation with students’ lives in the Global North.
Course Design
In my time at UCLA and George Washington University I have designed and taught three courses:
Nationalism & Geopolitics in the Everyday. A small lecture course, students get the opportunity to learn theories of nationalism and world politics through conducting short qualitative research projects in which they use discourse analysis, interviews, and ethnography in the DC area.
A World at War, a liberal-arts seminar that introduces students to the relationship between globalization and war.
Political Geography. In this lecture, students engage critically with the base assumptions of state and world politics, going on to look at how they shape the world around us at borders, within cities, and across the globe.
I am also developing a course for Spring 2021, Refugees, Asylum, and Borders. In this seminar, students will learn the history of the “refugee regime” as well as grapple with the motivations refugees have for seeking safety far from home. The course will culminate in a research project with a mapping component.
For any inquiries about course design, syllabi, or course activities, feel free to contact me by email.