Teaching Statement
My primary goal as a philosophy instructor is to, well, teach you philosophy. What distinguishes me from other instructors is the way in which I teach philosophy. Here are three distinguishing characteristics of my teaching style.
Discussion as a way of teaching.
Discussion is not simply "talking in class." Discussion means: being prepared to discuss, actively listening to others, clearly stating your opinion, being capable of fruitful conversation despite disagreement, and so on. I design activities that encourage these skills and means of assessment that track the development of these skills.
Competence over coverage.
Instead of attempting to cover everything - everything in the textbook, every important philosophical view and figure, every detail of every paper - I aim for students to become fully competent in a few things. To this end, my classes have fewer readings and they move at a slower pace.
Thinking beyond the canon.
There is no doubt that the canonical works of philosophy are important. However, I do not value the canon over everything, like considerations of relevance and diversity. To this end,I sometimes assign readings that are likely to speak to the cultural contexts of students. I also highlight the work of minority and/or marginalized scholars.
Discussion as a way of teaching.
Discussion is not simply "talking in class." Discussion means: being prepared to discuss, actively listening to others, clearly stating your opinion, being capable of fruitful conversation despite disagreement, and so on. I design activities that encourage these skills and means of assessment that track the development of these skills.
Competence over coverage.
Instead of attempting to cover everything - everything in the textbook, every important philosophical view and figure, every detail of every paper - I aim for students to become fully competent in a few things. To this end, my classes have fewer readings and they move at a slower pace.
Thinking beyond the canon.
There is no doubt that the canonical works of philosophy are important. However, I do not value the canon over everything, like considerations of relevance and diversity. To this end,I sometimes assign readings that are likely to speak to the cultural contexts of students. I also highlight the work of minority and/or marginalized scholars.
Teaching Experience
At NCSU, I have taught the following courses.
I've been a teaching assistant for the following courses at MIT.
- LOG 201: Introduction to Logic
- LOG 335: Symbolic Logic (Intermediate Logic)
- LOG 430/530: Varieties of Logic (Non-Classical Logic)
- PHI 331: Philosophy of Language
- PHI 210: Reason, Representation, and Reality
I've been a teaching assistant for the following courses at MIT.