I have had a wide range of teaching experiences, including International and Area Studies and Geography at UC Berkeley, International Relations at Brown University and the University of Sheffield, and Global Studies and Introductory Studies at Stanford University, My teaching has centered on international development, humanitarianism, militarization, feminist theory, race, and the politics of difference.
This year, I am teaching a new course on "Political Violence" for first year undergraduate students in which we interrogate definitions of violence and how they are formed through the spatial and racial politics of difference. This course includes readings on colonial and racial violence, violent ecologies, and Cold War terror. Previously, I have also taught graduate seminars on "Feminist and Decolonial Approaches to International Relations," and an undergraduate senior seminar in International Relations, "Humanitarianism in Uniform," which helped students come to an understanding of how militarization and humanitarianism are produced through one another. I also designed and instructed a Capstone Seminar on "New Directions in Development Studies" looking at emergent fields in development studies such as human security, the role of China, and environmental change.
I am part of the #TeachingCostsOfWar campaign, and have taught courses for the general public on "Twenty Years of War: The Causes and Consequences of the Post-9/11 Wars." You can read more about these efforts in my interview with the Costs of War's Educator Spotlight series. I bring these efforts to supporting PhD research on war and militarization through the White Rose Dissertation Training Program, where I am deputy director of the security, conflict and justice pathway.
My courses combine social theory with real-world empirical problems to allow students to think about the world around them through the "lens" of different theoreticians. Using theoretical frameworks from critical human geography as well as insights on race, gender, and the politics of difference from feminist studies and critical race theory, I encourage students to think about how places are produced through global interconnections. I have enjoyed working with students at various points on the higher education pipeline, from teaching college freshmen to advising undergraduate and graduate student theses on topics such as borderlands, immigration, militarization, and public humanities. Through undergraduate teaching in particular, I have had the the opportunity to develop many resources to support student writing. My courses typically devote a portion of regular class meetings to an element of the research and writing process in order to emphasize writing as an iterative process.
Many of my students have gone on to work for NGOs and other development organizations, as well as pursue professional and academic graduate degrees. I see my job as equipping students with the conceptual tools to understand the institutions in which they may work, and the global problems they may confront.