My teaching is based on a philosophy of cultivating democratic citizens, by helping students acquire skills of creativity, collaboration, and critique. I believe the task of the humanities teacher is to enable human beings to explore their own possibilities and directions for personal flourishing and social contribution, by deepening, expanding, and enriching the concepts that structure thought and behaviour.

I encourage public engagement in academic learning and research right from the undergraduate level, for two reasons. Firstly, many students have life goals that do not include further academic study, making public engagement in classroom learning a valuable practice. Secondly, I believe both the academy and wider society benefit from the exchange and integration of their perspectives and practices. I seek to keep the content of my courses in touch with the issues and problems of today’s world, and I provide mid-term and final assignment options that include public-facing authorship, including Wikipedia contributions and editing, and credited blog posts. My students and I have built a diversity initiative documenting the contributions of women to the history of ideas, called Woman is a Rational Animal. My students’ Wikipedia pages on women in science, which they wrote from scratch, have now been viewed over 50K times!

I have taught courses on a variety of topics in the history, philosophy, and social studies of science, as instructor of my own syllabi in lectures and seminars, preceptor of undergraduate theses, and teaching assistant.

 

Lecturer

(see Course Descriptions)

Scientism, Autumn 2021

American Pragmatism, Evolution, and the Sciences, Spring 2021

Feminist Perspectives on Science, Autumn 2020, Autumn 2021

Science, Culture, and Society III: History of the Social Sciences, Autumn 2020, Spring 2021, Autumn 2021

History and Philosophy of Social Science, Autumn 2018

Science and Democracy, Autumn 2017

 

Preceptor

Thesis Workshop for undergraduate seniors in History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science, 2015-2016

 

Teaching Assistant

Science, Culture, and Society in Western Civilization I: Greek & Roman Science, Autumn 2014

Science, Culture, and Society in Western Civilization II: Renaissance to Enlightenment, Winter 2015

Science, Culture, and Society in Western Civilization II: History of Medicine 1500 to 1900, Spring 2015